Alvin Toffler and Margaret Mead, an author and an anthropologist who endeavored to understand the impact of scientific invention. In this episode of our series, The Experimenters, we hear from two visionaries who believed that while we’ve started a technological revolution, we don’t quite know where it’s going to take us. But maybe most interesting of all – we get to hearing these archival interviews from the very future these thinkers were trying to imagine. Mead and Toffler guide us into a view of what the present might have been — or perhaps in some ways actually came to pass.

Watch the recent animated episodes of The Experimenters:

Oliver Sacks

George Washington Carver

Jacques Cousteau

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Oliver Sacks, Jacques Cousteau, and George Washington Carver. Our podcast returns with lost interviews featuring this trio on self, sight, and deep-sea diving. The three icons had the imaginations and daring to go where none had gone before. They overcame indifference and bigotry, exploring the darkest depths of the ocean, and even challenging their own deepest assumptions. These men lived the very definition of scientific inquiry. We’ve brought the three together for the return of our special series, The Experimenters, featuring icons of science and innovation. Take a listen:

Watch the animated versions of these rare interviews below:

Oliver Sacks

George Washington Carver

Jacques Cousteau

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“The evolutionary record is clear that extraterrestrials would be very different from us” – Carl Sagan in 1985, as told to Studs Terkel.  

The incomprehensible vastness of the universe, the wonder of our own place in it all… Carl Sagan was able to explain the science of space in a way everyone could understand. As part of our special series, The Experimenters — we’re uncovering interviews with the icons of science, technology, and innovation — we found this conversation between Studs Terkel and Carl Sagan in the WFMT Studs Terkel Radio Archive. For this episode, we’ve zeroed in on Sagan’s thoughts on intelligent life in space, our place in the universe, and the Bible when it comes to explaining the natural world.

Watch the animated version of this episode from our series with PBS Digital Studios: blankonblank.org/carl-sagan

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“I have to make my life worth saving, and each day you spend as if it would be your last” – Dame Steve Shirley in 2010

Dame Stephanie Shirley might be the most successful tech entrepreneur you have never heard of. In the early 1960s, Shirley started a barrier-breaking, all-woman software company that would eventually be valued at $3 billion. From a rarely heard oral history at The British Library, Shirley takes us on the journey from fleeing Nazi Germany as a little girl to breaking through in the new world of computers despite not being taken seriously as a woman working from home.

Watch the animated version of this episode from our series with PBS Digital Studios: http://blankonblank.org/dame-stephanie-shirley

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“Everything in my mind works like a search engine set for the image function.” – Temple Grandin in 2008

This rarely heard oral history with the autism activist, author, and professor of animal science, was uncovered at Colorado State University. In this conversation, Temple Grandin is at her best, explaining for the rest of us what it’s really like to have an autistic brain and how Einstein’s not the only genius who could have been dismissed for being different.

Watch the animated version of this episode from our series with PBS Digital Studios: blankonblank.org/temple-grandin

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“Any man who really has faith in himself will be dubbed arrogant by his fellows” – Frank Lloyd Wright in 1957, as told to Mike Wallace

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright did something new when he made buildings that somehow became one with the landscape. Long, low lines, and interiors that brought the light and space of the outside in.

Wright’s designs and style seem very nice, very clean now, but at the time, he was a controversial personality. And like most famous architects, his work was as much hated as respected. And that’s what Mike Wallace wanted to talk about.

Watch the animated Frank Lloyd Wright episode: blankonblank.org/frank-lloyd-wright

This episode continues our special series, The Experimenters. We’re uncovering lost interviews with the icons of science, technology, and innovation – people who helped make the world we live in today.

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“I wish that there had been another woman on my flight. I think it would have been a lot easier.” – Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, shortly after her historic launch in 1983.

Interviewed by Gloria Steinem.

At the time of this interview, as far as the public – and it turns out the press – were concerned, space was for clean-cut alpha males with names like Buzz. Then Sally Ride came along.

Watch the animated Sally Ride episode: blankonblank.org/sally-ride

This episode marks the return of our special series, The Experimenters. We’re uncovering lost interviews with the icons of science, technology, and innovation – people who helped make the world we live in today.

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“My family was shocked when I came home with a volume of Hemingway … There was a price to be paid for being interested in fiction.” – Garrison Keillor in 1994

In this new episode we have a conversation with a true storyteller, the humorist, Garrison Keillor. This interview was recorded in front a live audience back in November of 1994 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

On stage that night was Keillor, the host of A Praire Home Companion, and George Plimpton, the famed editor of the Paris Review. The thread of their conversation that night was: the qualities of humor. What we loved about this conversation was something we hadn’t really thought about before: What is the obligation of humor? Enjoy.

Watch the animated Nina Simone episode: blankonblank.org/garrison-keillor

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“It’s a good time for black people to be alive. It’s a lot of hell. A lot of violence, but I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I have a chance to live, as I’ve dreamed.”  – Nina Simone in 1968, from a rare interview that’s never been heard before.

Lilian Terry had a national radio show in Italy–everyone from Ray Charles to Duke Ellington appeared on her show–and there was one person she always wanted to interview: Nina Simone.

But Lilian had heard Nina didn’t enjoy speaking with white people. Thankfully Lillian had a confidant in Max Roach who introduced Lilian to Nina at the Newport Festival in 1968.

“Lilian Terry comes from Egypt, ” Roach said. With that simple introduction, Nina waved Lillian over. Soon they were talking about nefertitti and the pharoahs. Nina even told Lilian she thought she’d been in Egypt in a previous life.

Watch the animated Nina Simone episode: blankonblank.org/nina-simone

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“Nothing means anything — except the artist makes his living by pretending, by putting it in a meaningful hole, though no such holes exist.” – Kurt Vonnegut in 1970

Kurt Vonnegut walked into a class room at NYU in November 1970. He was a guest speaker that day. He’d prepared some handwritten notes on what he wanted to say: there were his thoughts on the art of writing, his childhood, the death of his parents. He jumped from topic to topic as he shuffled through his papers. Sometimes his voice trailed off. He delivered punchlines with perfect timing. The class roared. Listening to this tape, we get to be flies on the wall that day.  So take a seat, but your book bag down and enjoy.

Watch the animated version of this episode from our series with PBS Digital Studios: http://blankonblank.org/kurt-vonnegut

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“I‘m just an obnoxious guy who can make it appear charming, that’s what they pay me to do.” – Bill Murray in 1988 as told to T.J. English

This previously unheard interview was recorded at Bill Murray’s house in New Jersey. T.J. was writing a profile for Irish America magazine. Bill’s dog was there and had an interest in his pants. Vintage Bill Murray on fame, Cadillacs, taking care of his mom and talking to women while famous.

Watch the animated version of this episode from our series with PBS Digital Studios: http://blankonblank.org/bill-murray

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