Mad Like Tesla #134

October 14, 2011

This episode was recorded when Science for the People was called Skeptically Speaking.

This week, we’re talking about the unorthodox thinkers who might help us innovate our way to new energy solutions. We’re joined by journalist Tyler Hamilton, to discuss his book Mad Like Tesla: Underdog Inventors and Their Bold Pursuit of Clean Energy. And law professor and blogger Jason Rantanen joins us to explain the role of patents in developing technology.

Guests:

  • Tyler Hamilton
  • Jason Rantanen
Listen Now

Featured Book

Mad Like Tesla: Underdog Inventors and Their Relentless Pursuit of Clean Energy

Written by Tyler Hamilton

Book Blurb Find On Amazon

Other Episodes About Environment

The Devil’s Element

With fertilizers that supply phosphorus–what Asimov called “life’s bottleneck”– people broke the circle of life. Dan Egan’s new book The Devil’s Element traces the history of this essential element from curiosity to... Read More

April 24, 2023

Brave the Wild River

In 1938, two botanists, Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, made an ambitious voyage down the Colorado River driven by the desire to chronicle the plant life of the American Southwest. In her... Read More

June 19, 2023

Tenacious Beasts

In his book Tenacious Beasts, philosopher and writer Christopher Preston explores creature comebacks. Some of these stories highlight the evolutionary advantages that animals have racked up over millennia, while others are marked... Read More

August 14, 2023

Other Episodes About Technology

Because Internet

This week we dig into the grammar, idiosyncracies, and patterns of mondern writing the internet has made not just possible, but necessary: the writing you and I do all the time via... Read More

July 20, 2020

The Alchemy of Us

We live in a material world. Each piece of that stuff has a story behind it – from the inconspicuous glass and steel that fashions our built environments to the transistors in... Read More

September 07, 2020

Cities Lost and Found

What do ancient cities have to tell us about ourselves and our future? Annalee Newitz talks about their latest book, "Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age", and what... Read More

March 01, 2021