The Lightbulb Moment

1 season available

The surprising impact of less-celebrated inventions and the moments of inspiration that made them possible.
The Hollywood Actress That Laid the Groundwork for WiFi
S1 E1

During WWII, Actress Hedy Lamarr, deemed the world's most beautiful woman, invented a technology that laid the groundwork for the wireless internet of today.

Cubicle: How the Cubicle Became Universally Hated
S1 E2

The Cubicle was originally designed to set workers free; a futuristic designer named Robert Propst dreamed up the cubicle as a groovy 1960s workplace utopia that would unleash the modern knowledge worker's vast untapped potential.

Barcode: How the Barcode Shaped Our Modern Economy
S1 E3

Barcodes have radically changed global commerce, helping fuel the rise of everything from massive companies like Walmart to world powers like China, and it all started with a man daydreaming on a beach in 1949.

Florida: How Real Estate Rogues Invented Florida as We Know It
S1 E4

Florida wasn't always the Sunshine State; in the 1920s, an army of real estate boosters set out to redefine Florida from an economic backwater to a ritzy vacation destination, sparking a land boom the likes of which America had never seen before.

Mauve: The Fake Color That Made Our Modern World
S1 E5

In 1856, a chemistry student accidentally created a strange substance with a rich purple hue; Mauve takes over the fashion industry, make food look more appetizing, and enable stunning advances in medicine.

Vanilla: The Bean That Shaped the Future of Food
S1 E6

In 1841 on the small island of Réunion, a 12-year-old slave did something no one had done before; the vanilla bean takes the world by storm, sparking the artificial flavor revolution and forever changing how we eat.

Streaming: The Invention That Revolutionized Streaming Video
S1 E8

The early days of online video were plagued by low resolution, stamp-sized video, and unbearable buffering times but that changed when a breakthrough technology revolutionized streaming video and set the foundation for the era of Netflix.

Interstate: How the Interstate Connected and Divided America
S1 E9

Dwight Eisenhower's interstate highway system was the biggest infrastructure project of its time, a bold plan to connect all corners of America and boost the post-war economy, but it also ended up deepening the divide between rich and poor.

Edison: How Edison Reinvented Invention
S1 E10

Edison pioneered the world's first research and development center in Menlo Park and worked with a group of experimenters to methodically zero in on the holy grail of electric light.

Like Button: The Unintended Consenquences of the Facebook Like Button
S1 E11

When first presented with the like button Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg worried that a quick thumbs up or down would discourage more meaningful online interaction but eventually his team changed his mind and transformed the world.