1440 Explores

Your iPhone Started With a Cold War Secret


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Silicon Valley wasn’t supposed to happen.

A stretch of California orchard land somehow became the place that built the modern world: chips, PCs, the internet, the smartphone, and now AI. But the real story isn’t the garage myth. It’s a series of contradictions hiding in plain sight. So what actually built Silicon Valley, and what does that tell us about where it’s going next?

We'll unpack:

  • The Cold War military money that quietly funded Silicon Valley's rise, before anyone called it that.
  • How a Stanford dean's real estate gamble changed the course of American technology.
  • Why the Space Race is what made the microchip cheap.
  • How a generation of anti-establishment hippies built one of the greatest engines of corporate power on earth.
  • Guest: Margaret O’Mara, historian, professor at the University of Washington, and author of "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America."

    Join the knowledge collective:
    https://www.join1440.com


    Check out 1440's video deep-dives:
    https://youtube.com/@1440explores
    https://youtube.com/@1440originals

    Credits:
    A production of Rhyme Media for 1440 Media
    Host: Sony Kassam
    Producer: Nicolo Majnoni
    Editor: Dan Bobkoff
    Sound Designer: Jay Cowit
    Executive Producers (1440): Sony Kassam and Drew Steigerwald
    Executive Producer (Rhyme): Dan Bobkoff


    About 1440: 1440 is a community for the knowledge-obsessed that helps curious people stay informed and inspired every day. We live in an age of limitless information but limited understanding. Algorithms decide what we see. Misinformation spreads faster than truth. And the tools meant to expand knowledge now distort it.


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    1440 ExploresBy 1440 Media

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