The Year Bitcoin Hit a Dollar and Investors bought Pizza

Bitcoin crossed a dollar in 2011 and almost nobody blinked. Ed Conroy revisits the year that felt completely ordinary at the time and turns out to have been quietly loaded with the moments that changed everything after it. Conroy traces why 2012, not 2011, is the year most people point to as the smartphone tipping point, and why Steve Jobs died just before his own invention rewired how people talk to each other. He also recounts buying a jailbroken iPhone from a stranger in Florida before they were sold in Canada, then sitting at his kitchen counter with no idea how to turn it on. There's a bigger thread running underneath it all: why space travel felt like old news to an entire generation until someone made it exciting again, and what that says about how quickly the future gets ignored right up until it doesn't. Topics: 2011 throwback, smartphones, Bitcoin, space shuttle, Steve Jobs Originally aired on 2026-07-16