50 Things That Made the Modern Economy
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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy
Tim Harford tells the fascinating stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world.
Recent Episodes
110 episodes
Introducing: Season 2 of 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter
How animals make us smarter – we thought you might like to hear our brand new episode. It’s about a robotic arm inspired by an elephant’s trunk.
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Introducing 13 Minutes to the Moon Season 2
Jump on-board a doomed mission to the Moon. Apollo 13: the extraordinary story, told by the people who flew it and saved it.
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Gutenberg press
Johannes Gutenberg's printing press changed the course of human history. It created a new way of doing business, drastically reduced the cost and spee...
Slot machines
First developed by a toy company in the 1890s, slot machines have become one of the most profitable tools of the gambling trade - but many who play th...
Chess algorithms
In 1997, Garry Kasparov, widely regarded as the world's greatest chess player, was defeated by Deep Blue, a computer. But how much did that reveal abo...
Auctions
Are things only worth what people are willing to pay for them? Tim Harford explains why a method of buying and selling that originated in ancient time...
Dams
From reliable water supplies to large-scale electricity generation, the benefits brought by dams can be huge. But so can the problems. Tim Harford exp...
Tulips
In the 1630s, the Netherlands experienced 'tulip mania' - a surge in demand for tulips from wealthy buyers, with some individual bulbs costing twenty...
Sanitary towel
In the early 20th Century, makers of sanitary towels had to find a way to sell an item that some people found too embarrassing to mention. In some par...
Wardian case
Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward's miniature greenhouses made it far easier to successfully transport plants, spreading them far beyond their native lands. But...
Fast food franchise
There are more than 36,000 McDonald's restaurants around the world - but if the McDonald brothers had had their way, that might never have happened. T...
CCTV
Surveillance cameras were invented so Nazi scientists could observe rocket launches from a safe distance. They've come a long way since then, and are...
Retirement
As populations age, pension systems around the world are coming under strain. Governments, employers and economists are searching for ways to alleviat...
Santa
Why does Father Christmas wear red and white? It's not for the reason you may think. In an updated version of an episode from 2018, Tim Harford tells...
Sewing machine
Women's lives were transformed by sewing machines, which made a "never-ending, ever-beginning task" far less arduous and time-consuming. But Isaac Sin...
Hollerith punch card
Data is a hugely profitable commodity - if you know how to process it. Tim Harford tells the story of Herman Hollerith, and how his 19th-century machi...
Stock option
In theory, stock options should motivate executives to perform better by tying their pay to their company's performance. So why do some argue the prac...
Fundraising appeal
Tim Harford goes back to the 1900s to tell the story of how charity fundraising became big business. But in the social media age, what's the most effe...
SWIFT
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication - SWIFT - solved some big problems with international financial transfers, making them...
Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood is arguably the best-known name in the history of pottery - but it's not just his pots that made their mark on history. Tim Harford ex...
Glasses
Spectacles have been around for centuries, and have a huge impact on many people's quality of life. So why is it estimated that more than two billion...
Vickrey turnstile
In 1952, economist William Vickrey devised an innovative system of turnstiles to help solve a major problem on New York’s subway network. It never bec...
GPS
How dependent is the world on GPS - and what would happen if it stopped working? Tim Harford explains why it's not just our ability to navigate that w...
Bonsack machine
In 1881, James Bonsack developed a machine that made it far easier to mass-produce cigarettes. But at the time, other tobacco products were much more...
Prohibition
When the US outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, it inadvertently created one of the most successful black markets in the world....
Interface Message Processor
Arpanet was a computer network developed in the 1960s that paved the way for today's internet. At its heart was the Interface Message Processor: a mas...
Canned food
Developed for the military, dodging bureaucracy and fuelled by venture capital: canned food blazed a trail many of today's biggest tech innovations ha...
Interchangeable parts
Tim Harford tells the story of how Honoré Blanc, a gun-maker in 18th-century France, transformed the way the world manufactures things - but couldn't...
Oil
The price of oil is arguably the most important in the world economy. How did we become so dependent - and are we ever likely to wean ourselves off it...
Chatbot
It's claimed that some computers can now pass the Turing test: convincing people that they are human. Tim Harford asks how important that distinction...
Solar PV
Solar power has been harnessed by civilisations since the days of the ancient Greeks, but it's now on the verge of being more important than ever. Tim...
Cassava
Despite being highly toxic, the roots of the cassava plant are a vital source of nutrition in many countries. They also shed light on the hidden socia...
Fire
Humanity's taming of fire may be where the story of economics really begins, some argue. Tim Harford explores how fire has shaped our world and our mi...
RFID: The tech you’ve never heard of – but use every day
Radio frequency identification - RFID - is the foundation on which many contactless technologies are built. But is it getting left behind amid the "in...
Postage stamp
In the mid-19th Century, a man named Rowland Hill got fed up with how Britain's postal service worked, and decided to come up with a new system of his...
Rubber
Rubber is an everyday substance with a controversial past. Tim Harford tells the story of the innovations that made it a hot property, and the surge i...
CubeSat
CubeSat started life as a student engineering challenge: build a satellite that can fit in a little toy box. But now, as Tim Harford explains, these t...
Factory
Tim Harford charts the history of the factory, from "dark, Satanic mills" to the sprawling industrial parks where today's consumer goods are assembled...
Blockchain
Billions are being poured into startups working on blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin. Supporters say it could become as disruptive as the inte...
Pencil
Is the pencil underrated? Tim Harford examines the role pencils have played in developing our world, and finds out why some writers have called them a...