Pretty Face, Ugly War, Brilliant Hack

In this episode we explore Hedy Lamarr's journey from Hollywood stardom to wartime inventor. Faced with radio-controlled weapons vulnerable to jamming, Lamarr and George Antheil patented a synchronized frequency-hopping system in 1941 designed to make signals harder to detect and disrupt. The episode separates myth from fact: their patent was a real early contribution to spread-spectrum ideas that later influenced secure wireless technologies, but it did not directly invent modern Wi-Fi. It highlights how unexpected figures can make meaningful technical contributions during wartime.