A hundred years ago this spring, a magazine called Amazing Stories hit the newsstands and — almost by accident — gave a name and a shape to the genre we now call science fiction. Its publisher, Hugo Gernsback, was an immigrant electrical engineer, visionary and relentless self-promoter. He wanted his magazine to delight and enthrall – but also to educate.

In this opening episode of The Tech Imaginarium, John and Ezri go back to 1926 to ask why this peculiar pulp magazine matters — and why its mix of techno-optimism, prophetic vision and dystopic warnings still echoes through the way we talk about technology today.

In this episode:

• Hugo Gernsback: Luxembourg-born inventor, publisher of Amazing Stories, and author of stories under at least seven anagrams of his own name
• The strange scientific weather of 1926 — electrification, mustard gas, Einstein, Schrödinger and Hubble — and why it primed the public for "scientifiction"
• The first issue's contributors: Wells, Verne and Poe in one corner; George Allan England, G. Peyton Wertenbaker and Austin Hall in the other
• Robert Goddard, H.G. Wells and the through-line from pulp magazines to the Apollo Moon launches
• Why Gernsback's reputation was contraversial — paying writers poorly, exaggerating circulation, etc.
• The tropes Amazing Stories planted that we're still living with

Links and resources:

• Website: learninghackpodcast.com
• Instagram: @tech.imaginarium
• Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JohnHelmerConsulting

Music by Nick Dwyer and Flintet. The Tech Imaginarium is a Learning Hack podcast, produced and hosted by John Helmer and written by John Helmer and Ezri Carlebach.