The Search For America's Greatest Innovation (The Takeaway)

Join us for a shameless celebration of America's brightest and best. In 2016, The Takeaway led a search for America’s greatest innovation. In this special podcast, we introduce you the nation's top ten innovations. Here's what you'll find:  Innovation 1 - The Electric Guitar. Championed by Vernon Reid, guitarist, songwriter, composer, and founder of the rock band Living Colour.    How Innovation Changes Music - Storm Gloor and Benom Plumb are both part of the department of music and entertainment industry studies at the University of Colorado, Denver. Between the two of them. they have more than 20 years of experience in the music industry. They look at pivotal music moments, how America’s ability to innovate musically compares with other countries, and how new technology has impacted the industry. Innovation 2 - Kevlar. Ray Kelly, the former commissioner of the New York City Police Department, makes the case. Innovation 3 - The Hearing Aid. Richard Einhorn, an American composer, says the hearing aid has changed his life and improved the quality of life for millions of others.  Inside the Minds of America's Greatest Black Inventors - Throughout American history, people of color have come up with tons of revolutionary ideas and inventions that transformed our lives. Keith Holmes, author of "Black Inventors, Crafting of 200 years of Success," joins Sandra Morgan, granddaughter of Garrett A. Morgan, the inventor of the three-way traffic signal. Innovation 4 - The Sewing Machine. Deborah Nadoolman Landis, a Hollywood costume designer, says the sewing machine empowered a whole new economy run and made predominantly by women.   Hillary Clinton's Innovation Visionary - Alec Ross was senior adviser on innovation for Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state. A brand new position designed to find out-of-the-box solutions to the world's problems.  Innovation 5 - The Air Conditioner. Kirk Johnson, is director of the National Museum of Natural History, explains how this invention became a key tool used in the preservation of art and artifacts. Air Conditioning & The Rise of Ronald Reagan. Steven Johnson, author of "How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World," explains how the AC transformed American geography, demographics and, eventually, electoral politics paving the way for President Ronald Reagan.   Innovation 6 - The 3-D Printer. Colin Consavage, an 11-year-old kid who made his own prosthetic hand with a 3D printer. Innovation 7 - GPS. Chris Catrambone, an American entrepreneur that is rescuing migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean Sea, makes his case for why the GPS is America's greatest innovation. The Innovative Genius You've Never Heard Of: H. Joseph Gerber was a refugee from Austria, a holocaust survivor, and the man who was eventually known as the Thomas Edison of manufacturing. His son, David Gerber, discusses his biography of his father, called "The Inventor's Dilemma: The Remarkable Life of H. Joseph Gerber." Innovation 8 - The Cell Phone. Melinda Gates, philanthropist and wife of Microsoft Founder Bill Gates. I'm Not All Right Jack. Following rumors that the iPhone 7 won't have the usual headphone mini-jack, a conversation about whether its wise to throw out the old ideas for the new with Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of the blog Cult of Mac. Innovation 9 - The Robotic Arm. Adam Ferrara, an actor, comedian, and host of Top Gear U.S. Innovation 10 - The Transistor. This one topped the listener poll and went on to win! Kevin Kelly, co-founder of WIRED Magazine, makes his pitch on your behalf. Great Ideas For A Safer Planet. With new ideas come new dangers, so it is important that safety standards modernize as quickly as technology. Tom Loughlin is executive director of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who helped us with our Search for America's Greatest Innovation.

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview. After several weeks of voting, the time has come to crown a champion in our Search for America's Innovation. We have to say, it wasn't an easy search. Along the way we encountered tons of amazing creations: The hearing aid, Kevlar, the electric guitar, the programmable robotic arm, the 3-D printer, the air conditioner, GPS, the mobile phone, the sewing machine, plus our listener-selected wildcard pick, the transistor. Coming in at third place was the mobile phone. Second place? The sewing machine. That means your wildcard pick—the tiny yet powerful transistor—is officially America's greatest innovation! In its honor, we're looking at a crucial spin-off innovation: The transistor radio. Steve Greenberg is the Grammy Award-winning founder of S-Curve Records, known for such hits as "Who Let the Dogs Out" by Baha Men and "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne. Steve is also the author of “How the Beatles Went Viral In ’64.” He says the personal, portable transistor radio was a huge deal for rock n' roll as a genre. Finally teenagers could listen to those rebellious long-haired Beatles far away from parental ears.   The Takeaway's search for 'America's Greatest Innovation' is supported by ASME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and by the Lemelson Foundation. The transistor (Anita Rundles)  

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview. It's sometimes tempting to classify the greatest innovators as rebels. After all, people like Henry Ford and George Washington Carver are famous for finding unorthodox solutions to our country's problems. But with new ideas come new dangers, and it's important that safety standards modernize as quickly as technology. Tom Loughlin is executive director of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who helped us with our Search for America's Greatest Innovation. Tom is a firm believer in the power of innovation to keep our infrastructure safe and to move America forward. America's Greatest Innovation Revealed

Click on the audio player above to hear this segment. It's the second to last day in our search for America's Greatest Innovation, and there are only three items left on our list: The mobile phone, the sewing machine, and our listener-selected wildcard pick, the transistor.  Many of you were eager to point out that several of the innovations we've discussed wouldn't even exist without the transistor. Well guess who agrees with you? Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired Magazine. In our final pitch for the series, he argues for why the transistor is America's greatest innovation. Click on the audio player above to hear Kelly.  Vote For America's Greatest Innovation Today!  

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview. If you had to come up with a list of American inventors, it would probably include people like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, and Steve Jobs. In other words, it would include a lot of very impressive thinkers who were conveniently born with the advantage of being white. But throughout our nation's history, people of color have come up with tons of revolutionary ideas and inventions that transformed our economy and the way we live. Keith Holmes, author of "Black Inventors, Crafting of 200 years of Success," has spent years cataloging the accomplishments of these men and women, including Garrett A. Morgan, inventor of the 3-way traffic signal and a special mask that helps firefighters breath oxygen in burning buildings. Morgan started at the bottom of the economic ladder—his parents were slaves. But according to his granddaughter, Sandra Morgan, that didn't stop him from persistently trying to solve big problems in his community and beyond. Here, Holmes and Morgan discuss the problem-solving prowess of America's greatest Black innovators. 

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview. As part of our ongoing search for America's greatest innovation, we're figuring out which qualities make the United States such an effective incubator for creative ideas. Alec Ross used to be senior adviser on innovation for Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state. It was a brand new position designed to find out-of-the-box solutions to the world's problems. His new book, "Industries of the Future," is all about the changing global economy and where we as a country fit into it. According to Ross, America's innovative spirit can be traced all the way back to our ancestors. Vote For America's Greatest Innovation Here  

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview. As part of our search for America's greatest innovation, we've brought to light a good number of lesser-known inventors. Take for instance George Devol, inventor of the first programmable robotic arm. Adam Ferrara, actor, comedian, and host of Top Gear U.S., argued today that Devol's invention is America's greatest innovation. Vote For America's Greatest Innovation Here But it turns out Devol isn't the only creative thinker who, despite revolutionary accomplishments, never became a household name. Another example is the botanist and geneticist George Harrison Shull, who became known as the father of hybrid corn. There's also Carleton Ellis, a chemist with more than 700 patents registered in his name. Ellis made huge improvements to things like margarine and paint remover. Then there's astrophysicist Lowell Wood. He has more than 1,000 patents—even more than Thomas Edison—and he's still alive. But today we're focusing on H. Joseph Gerber, a refugee from Austria, a holocaust survivor, and the man who was eventually known as the Thomas Edison of manufacturing. He created computer automated machines for almost every industry you can think of: Cars, planes, clothing, eyeglasses, billboards. Joseph's son David Gerber just finished a biography of his dad, called "The Inventor's Dilemma: The Remarkable Life of H. Joseph Gerber." Here, David talks about the qualities that made his father such a brilliant innovator. 

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview. For the last two weeks, we've been examining some of America's greatest innovations—the things that have improved our lives. But what about the future of innovation? Will the era of standardized testing and No Child Left Behind produce the kinds of out-of-the-box thinkers we need to keep innovating? Vote For America's Greatest Innovation Here Ted Dintersmith is a former venture capitalist and executive producer of the documentary "Most Likely to Succeed." He says today's education system, which is based largely on memorization, often discourages creative thinking. And the problem, he says, doesn't lie with the educators. Rather, it's system they're apart of. Check out a trailer for the film below. 

Click on the audio player above to hear the full interview. Innovative new ideas slowly move society forward. When a new product hits the market, an older technology becomes obsolete: The car replaced horses and buggies, CDs replaced records, and the GPS replaced paper maps. And if there's one company that's famous for forcing obsolescence on itself, it's Apple. The iPod became the iPhone. The iPhone 5 required a new charger that didn't work on older models. And now it's rumored that the iPhone 7 won't have the usual headphone mini-jack. Instead, the ear buds will plug into the lightning port (where the charger goes now). See Also: Vote for America’s Greatest Innovation Many consumers are wondering if this a big ploy by Apple to get us to buy their headphones—and their headphones only. But is it possible that the headphone jack is just a natural casualty of genuine innovative progress? “It dates back to the 1880s—it was originally in the old telephone switchboards; it was the jack that the operators used to use to switch phone calls,” says Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of the blog Cult of Mac. “Sony miniaturized it in the ‘50s with the transistor radio, so this dates back to the ‘50s and ‘60s—the three and a half millimeter jack as we know it today.” Kahney, author of "Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products," argues that Apple’s plan is actually a good thing. “I remember there was huge howls of protest with the first iMac in the late ‘90s when it didn’t have a floppy drive,” says Kahney. “People said that it was going to be doomed because people wouldn’t buy a computer that they couldn’t use their old floppies with. It happened with the first iPhone because it didn’t have a physical keyboard, like the palm pilots and the Blackberry. People said no one would buy a iPhone without a keyboard.” Kahney says that Apple has done consumers a favor by ditching the floppy drive and pioneering the touch screen. But even rumors about the proposed change has brought loud protests: Nearly 300,000 people have signed a petition asking Apple to keep the headphone jack. “[It’s] because this is one of the oldest outstanding connections, and there are millions—maybe hundreds of millions—of headphones that will be rendered obsolete overnight,” says Kahney. Though Kahney backtracks a bit, saying that Apple will likely introduce an adapter for new models that don’t have the standard headphone jack, he does concede that they will likely be expensive, just like Apple’s many other cables and adapters. “They’re famous for charging $60, $70, or $80 for what seems like a simple wire, but they actually include some very sophisticated chips and circuitry,” he says. “You’ll be able to get some cheap knockoffs, but they probably won’t be very good.” But the tech company may not stop there. “Apple may be getting rid of the lighting connector too if it moves to wireless charging,” Kahney says. “You already have wireless charging in the Apple Watch. If they bring that to the phone, it’s conceivable that it will have no wires coming out of it at all. Apple has long led the technology industry, and they see that, to move on, you’ve got to jettison some of the old stuff.” Apple likes to create trends, not follow them. And if innovation was left it up to other computer companies, Kahney says we all might be surfing the web today with large, bulky monitors. “I think it’s a tradeoff worth making—it’s inconvenient in the short term if there are things that you’re used to doing,” he says. “But in the long term, this is the way technology works, and the way that it should work.”

Click on the audio player above to hear this segment. As part of our search for America's greatest innovation, we're looking at the magnificent Global Positioning System or GPS—a marvel of technology developed during the Cold War that still helps pilots, ship captains, and even astronauts navigate.  Christopher Catrambone is an American entrepreneur and co-founder of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station. He uses GPS to rescue migrants and refugees trying to make their way to safety across the Mediterranean Sea.  Vote For America's Greatest Innovation Here Then there's the work GPS does outside Earth's atmosphere, helping to monitor the speed and trajectory of the International Space Station. Back in October, we caught up with two astronauts on the ISS: Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren. Lindgren has since returned home to Earth, but Kelly is still completing his one-year mission—a lengthy experiment designed to see how the human body and the human mind can handle being in outer space for long periods of time. It's all part of NASA's ongoing effort to one day make it to Mars. Scott and Kjell were just about to begin some routine maintenance when we talked to them. Our conversation focused on innovative problem-solving, the incredibly impressive technology they use, and of course the mere thrill of drifting in outer space looking down on the planet we call home. Check out some footage from our conversation with Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren below. // <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]> The Takeaway in SPACE! We did an interview from the International Space Station with NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and Kjell N. Lindgren! Catch our full conversation here: http://wny.cc/XNFu0 Posted by The Takeaway on Monday, February 1, 2016

American inventor George Devol patented the world’s first programmable robotic arm in 1961. It completely revolutionized the auto industry in the U.S. and Japan by improving efficiency and limiting workers’ exposure to toxic materials. Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear Adam Ferrara, an actor, comedian, and host of Top Gear U.S., make his case for why the robotic arm is America's greatest innovation. Is this America's greatest innovation? Cast your ballot here.  

In 1983, American engineer Chuck Hull developed a process he called “rapid prototyping,” where models could be designed and created in a matter of hours. Today it’s called 3D printing, and it’s used to make everything from prosthetics to Hollywood props. Listen to Colin Consavage, an 11-year-old kid who made his own prosthetic hand with a 3D printer, make his case for why the 3D printer is America's greatest innovation. Is this America's greatest innovation? Cast your ballot here.  

Invented in 1973 by Martin Cooper of Motorola, the first mobile phone weighed two pounds and cost more than $4,000. Today, more than 6 billion people use cell phones. Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear Melinda Gates, philanthropist and wife of Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, make her case for why the cell phone is America's greatest innovation. Is this America's greatest innovation? Cast your ballot here.

The Global Positioning System was first developed by the Defense Department in 1957 and became fully operational in 1993. Today, the GPS is used by pilots, adventurers, and lost travelers. Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear Chris Catrambone, an American entrepreneur that is rescuing migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean, make his case for why the GPS is America's greatest innovation. Is this America's greatest innovation? Cast your ballot here.  

In 1898, American engineer Miller Reese Hutchinson patented the world’s first battery-powered hearing aid. Today’s models are small, discreet, and extremely sophisticated, catering to millions of people across the world who suffer from hearing loss. Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear Richard Einhorn, an American composer, make his case for why the hearing aid is America's greatest innovation. Is this America's greatest innovation? Cast your ballot here.  

The sewing machine was invented in 1846 by Elias Howe in Massachusetts. Today sewing machines are used by countless artists, designers, and hobbyists. Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear to Deborah Nadoolman Landis, a Hollywood costume designer, make her case for why the sewing machine is America's greatest innovation Is this America's greatest innovation? Cast your ballot here.

Vote For America's Greatest Innovation Here We want you to help us celebrate American ingenuity with our new series, "The Search for America's Greatest Innovation." Cast your ballot for one of nine fantastic innovations, or can nominate one yourself.  In the 1960s, chemist Stephanie Kwolek set out to develop a material for tires, but she inadvertently created something five times stronger than steel. The miracle fiber known as Kevlar is now used in bullet-proof vests and is credited with saving thousands of lives. Click on the audio player above to hear Ray Kelly, the former commissioner of the New York City Police Department, make his case for why Kevlar is America's greatest innovation. Is Kevlar America's greatest innovation? Cast your ballot here.

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview. What is America's greatest innovation? The Takeaway is putting that question to our listeners. Over the course of several weeks, we're asking you to vote on the greatest American innovation.  In order to keep ink from running at a Brooklyn printing shop, Willis Carrier, a young engineer, invented the first air conditioning unit in 1902, something that became a key tool in the preservation of art and artifacts. Kirk Johnson, the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, argues that the air conditioner is America's greatest innovation, noting that this technology made his career in preservation possible. Vote For America's Greatest Innovation Here But the air conditioner has also transformed the way Americans live—and where we live.  Steven Johnson, author of "How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World," explains how the AC transformed American geography, demographics and, eventually, electoral politics. He says that, thanks to the AC, more Americans moved to the South and West, eventually paving the way for President Ronald Reagan.   

In order to keep ink from running at a Brooklyn printing shop, young engineer Willis Carrier invented the first air conditioning unit in 1902. His invention became a key tool used in the preservation of art and artifacts. Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear Kirk Johnson, director of the National Museum of Natural History, make his case for why air conditioning is America's greatest innovation. Is this America's greatest innovation? Cast your ballot here.  

Click on the audio player above to hear this segment. The United States is a nation of ideas, which is why we're asking you to help us select America's greatest innovation.  Over the next several weeks, we're asking you to cast your ballot for one of nine fantastic innovations, or nominate one yourself. Our series, "The Search for America's Greatest Innovation, is produced in partnership with ASME, the American Society for Mechanical Engineers, and the Lemelson Foundation. Here, Vernon Reid, guitarist, songwriter, composer, and founder of the rock band Living Colour, makes his case for why the electric guitar is in fact America's greatest innovation. See all of the innovations we're profiling and cast your ballot here.

Vote For America's Greatest Innovation Today The Takeaway kicked off a new series, "The Search for America's Greatest Innovation," with Vernon Reid, guitarist for the band Living Colour. Reid made his case for why the electric guitar is America's greatest innovation, highlighting the revolutionary impact of this iconic instrument. With that in mind, we've decided to explore how new innovations and technology affect musical genres and the ways we can experience them.  Storm Gloor and Benom Plumb are both part of the department of music and entertainment industry studies at the University of Colorado Denver. Between the two of them. they have more than 20 years of experience in the music industry. They were nice enough to stop by the studio during our visit to KUVO in Denver to explain how innovation changes music. What you'll learn from this segment: The pivotal moments in music technology. How America’s ability to innovate musically compares with other countries.  How new technology has impacted the industry.