Before computers were machines, they were people crunching numbers by hand and making mistakes that shaped history. This episode uncovers how a scattered set of ideas about code, logic, and machines finally clicked into something world changing. And at the center of it all is one mind that quietly built the foundation for the digital world you live in today.

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History is messier and darker than your textbooks ever told you, and this finale pulls no punches. It connects the telegraph, racism, and propaganda to the tech and algorithms shaping your world right now. If you think technology is neutral, this episode might change your mind.

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The telephone almost failed, and one stubborn manager is the reason it didn’t. Discover how Theodore Vail turned chaos into strategy, replacing lawyers with engineers and inventing a culture that lasted decades. This episode jumps from Victorian physics labs to courtroom battles, monopoly drama, and a tiny invention that changed everything.

Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:

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The legendary rivalry between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla makes for great internet drama, but almost none of it is true. In this bonus episode, Jamie Dobson digs into the historical record to separate fact from meme mythology, uncovering a story far more human and far more interesting than the fan-fiction version that dominates the web. From Paris workshops to New York dynamos, from mutual admiration to misremembered autobiography, this is the real relationship between two of history’s most celebrated inventors; and how a comic strip, a museum campaign, and the internet turned them into enemies they never were.

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A young inventor arrives in New York with almost nothing and decides to outshine the brightest mind of his era. What follows is a clash of egos, experiments, and shocking twists that shaped the future of electricity. This episode dives into the origins of the rivalry that would spark one of the greatest battles in tech history.

Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:

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A scruffy kid with a knack for telegraphs becomes the most famous inventor in America. A simple question about light turns into a race to rewrite the future. Hear how Thomas Edison went from hustling newspapers on trains to lighting up the world.

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A scrunched-up letter pulled from a wastebasket. A race to the patent office with only hours to spare. In this episode, Jamie Dobson unpacks the explosive courtroom drama that decided who really invented the telephone. Was Alexander Graham Bell a visionary genius or a brilliant opportunist who stole Elisha Gray’s ideas? Tune in for a story of ambition, betrayal, and the shocking twist that rewrote technology history.

Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:

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Discover how a sickly young Scot, sent to Canada to die, ended up inventing the telephone and changing the world. Was Alexander Graham Bell a genius inventor or just a lucky teacher in love with the right student? This episode dives into the love, rivalry, and surprising twists behind one of history’s most famous inventions.

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Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:

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A young artist loses everything and stumbles onto an idea that could make messages outrun horses and ships. Rival inventors, shaky demos, and a code of dots and dashes turn doubt into worldwide buzz. Hear how one line between cities rewired ambition, politics, and the way news travels.

Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:

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What if the real story behind Frankenstein began not in fiction, but in a London prison with a corpse and a few jolts of electricity? In this episode, Jamie Dobson uncovers how a strange 18th-century experiment led to one of the biggest scientific rivalries of all time. Discover how a twitching frog’s leg helped spark the invention of the battery we use in our world today.

Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:

• BUY THE BOOK HERE
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Learn more about our people:

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If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

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