Innovation Time Machine

In this episode, Blake has us waving our Nokia 3310’s in the air to reminisce about the late 90’s technological miracle: Shazam! Meanwhile Rupe takes us on a ride to IKEA for a triple helping of flat-pack fun, meatballs, and marital arguments.

Taylor Glenn joins us once again, and tells the tale of a serial Dragons Den denizen who was sick of the end of his cucumber drying out - and did something about it. Rupert shares the biggest innovation to hit the world of pet witness protection, and Blake revisits the simple days when a plague terrorised the globe (no, not January... hundreds of years ago, silly!)

Our third episode of four with special guest Taylor Glenn! This week, Taylor represents womanhood's struggle with the medical tragedy of resting bicycle face. Rupert rips a patch out of the history books with the origin story of waxing. And Blake shares a male inventor's biggest practical joke on women: the female condom.

This week... Taylor explores a 1990s innovation designed to fix the affront to God that is brown cola, Blake discovers that looking through a feather is not a good way for a teenage boy to see boobs, and Rupe shares confucian wisdom about the apocryphal origins of confectionery oracle that is the fortune cookie.

The first of four episodes with guest comedian Taylor Glenn. In this episode, Taylor explores the ultimate in cyber security: a strange muppet attempting to have a threesome with you and your phone. Rupert sympathises with people who'd rather look at their Apple Watch than carry on a conversation with him, and Blake puts his life at risk by insulting recumbent bicycles (though at less risk than if he were actually riding one).

In Episode 4, Rupert recounts the chilly tale of refrigeration, and why its early technology was only slightly less scary than eating rotten food.  Blake explains why a microwave oven is like a policeman's whistle (Hint: It's not because it's unwise to stick a fork into either one).

In Episode 3, Rupert tells the story of CCTV and why it always feels like you're being watched,  Blake gets his grubby mitts on the history of dactyloscopy. (Which, despite its name, has nothing to do with a camera being stuck up a dinosaur.)

In Episode 2, Blake explains how a Thai-inspired sauce invented in San Francisco by a Chinese immigrant from Vietnam transformed the hot sauce landscape. And if THAT sounds confusing, Rupert shares the history of Worcestershire sauce:  a delicious condiment that has even more pronunciations than it has umami!

In Episode 1, Rupert tells us how the gentle Victorians cured nearly any mental illness with an ice pick in the eye, while Blake shares how a little molecule called ether made such a procedure a bit more enjoyable.