Unsung Science

How the Cellphone was Born: Three Months of Craziness


Listen Later

In the early 1970s, “mobile phones” were car phones: Permanently installed monstrosities that filled up your trunk with boxes and, in a given city, could handle only 20 calls at a time. Nobody imagined that there’d be a market for handheld, pocketable cellphones; the big phone companies thought the idea was idiotic. But Marty Cooper, now 92, saw a different future for cellular technology—and he had 90 days to make it work. A story of corporate rivalry, Presidential interference…and unquenchable optimism.

Guests: Marty Cooper, father of the cellphone. Arlene Cooper, technology entrepreneur.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Unsung ScienceBy CBS News

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

1,130 ratings


More shows like Unsung Science

View all
Science Friday by Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science Friday

6,185 Listeners

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! by NPR

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

38,489 Listeners

Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Radiolab

43,774 Listeners

This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,802 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

37,766 Listeners

The Moth by The Moth

The Moth

27,078 Listeners

Stuff You Should Know by iHeartPodcasts

Stuff You Should Know

77,665 Listeners

TED Radio Hour by NPR

TED Radio Hour

21,906 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,337 Listeners

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio by Milk Street Radio

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio

2,943 Listeners

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda by Alan Alda

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

3,734 Listeners

Mobituaries with Mo Rocca by iHeartPodcasts and CBS News

Mobituaries with Mo Rocca

22,575 Listeners

Throughline by NPR

Throughline

16,109 Listeners

Short Wave by NPR

Short Wave

6,211 Listeners

Consider This from NPR by NPR

Consider This from NPR

5,971 Listeners