This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. The Feeling when you check your bank account and your paychecks days away. And of course, your calendar's all. Good news!
With Chase Secure Banking, your direct deposit hits your bank account up to two days faster.
So when your friends are like, and your bills go, you have the peace your deposit brings. And the best part, there's no monthly service fee for 17 to 24-year-olds. Thanks to Chase Secure Banking. For Chase Secure Checking only, eligible direct deposits may be credited up to two business days early, depending on when the payer submits the transaction. Member FDIC.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage.
Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Back to School is here, and Target has everything families need to help head into the school year feeling confident and ready to do their thing. From school supplies and stylish apparel to accessories kids actually want, Target makes it easy to.
To check every box on your list at a great value, we're talking backpacks starting in just $5 and up to 60% off-school supplies. Plus, kids can express their style with brands and collabs they love, like Love Shack Fancy, Cat and Jack, Overtime, and customizable O Walla bottles with stickers, charms, and much more. The prices parents want and the brands kids love, all in one place at Target. What if you could get more from what you already do? As a Shell Fuel Rewards member, that's just a regular Friday morning.
You get more rewards, more savings, and more special offers. Earn rewards when shopping, dining out, and fueling up. And all of that becomes fuel savings when you're at the pump. Find the Shell app on your phone and enjoy life with more. Your nearest shell station is less than five miles away.
And we return to our American stories. Up next, a story of how a miracle fiber that has saved the lives of countless police officers and service members could have been thrown in the trash. if not for the audacious woman who made it. Here to tell the story of Stephanie Kolek, the woman who invented Kevlar. Is Kayla Ryder.
Let's get into the story. Uh It was February 11th, 2013, a typical day at Newcastle County Courthouse in Delaware. It was cold and raining, and Corporal Stephen Reinhardt of the Capitol Police was on duty. Manning the Courthouse Metal Detector. Then Yeah.
Chaos erupted. A gunman opened fire, killing two women in cold blood. Reinhardt immediately gave chase and was shot in the chest at close range by a handgun. But he didn't know it. On that day, Reinhardt became the latest of many police officers who have had their lives saved by a miracle fiber known as Kevlar.
Kevlar vests and body armor have saved more than 3,000 lives, but the most remarkable feature of Kevlar may be its history. Stephanie Qualick was born in 1923 to a working-class family just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Yeah. Her parents had emigrated from Poland, and her father, John, worked in one of the area's many metal foundries. But it was actually John Quollack's hobby that made a lifelong impression on Stephanie.
I had a father who was very much interested in plants and trees. He and I spent a lot of time just roaming through the woods looking for animals and snakes and leaves and wild plants and I put all these things in a scrapbook. We grew vegetables and flowers and so forth, so it's almost like living on a farm. She was hooked. I loved learning.
and loved learning new things. I found it very exciting.
So this probably made me what I am today and what I was for many years. Stephanie's father died when she was just 10 years old, but her passion for science remained strong. She was an excellent student and earned a place in Carnegie Mellon University's Women's College. And graduated in 1946 with a degree in chemistry and a warning from her professors. In the 1940s, most women did not earn college degrees, and even fewer pursued studies in the sciences, dominated by men.
Qualak's professors told her that these women were increasingly abandoning their aspirations for careers in the sciences. and instead pursuing more traditional work. But Qualik was not deterred. She applied for work at several industrial companies, including chemical giant DuPont. And that's where she caught the attention of pioneering DuPont scientist Dr.
William Hale Charge. Charge was so impressed with Qualik that he hired her on the spot to work as a researcher at DuPont's Buffalo, New York facility. When I entered the workforce in 1946, Not many women were being hired, but the few that were, they were hired because there were so few men available. They were at war. or just coming back for war.
So women were being made offers, but that didn't mean that the problem was completely solved because women had a very difficult time after they got jobs and many women did not stay very long. While there may not have been many female researchers at DuPont at this time, Qualik was not intimidated. I was stubborn. And I decided that I was gonna stick it out and see what happened. And things improved eventually.
Qualik had originally intended to work for DuPont for a few years and then head to medical school. The only problem was that I became so enamored of the work that I totally lost interest in medical school. I stayed because the work was what I wanted to do. What I love about my work is that I have the opportunity to be creative every day. There's something about me that wants the excitement of invention and creativity.
Ironically, by staying at DuPont, Quallik probably saved more lives than she would have as a doctor. And by 1950, she was offered a research position at DuPont's Cutting Edge Pioneering Research Laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware. And it was during her time in Wilmington that Qualik made her greatest contribution to science. and humanity. But Believe it or not, the original formulation for Kevlar could have just as easily been thrown in the trash.
It was 1965 and I was assigned. to look for this super strong, super stiff, but lightweight fiber. Their goal was to discover a lightweight fiber that would be strong enough to replace the steel and radial tires. In the course of that work, I made a discovery. The results came back.
It was very strong and very stiff. Unlike anything we had made before, I hesitated about telling anyone because it was unusual and I didn't want to be foolish. During one experiment, Qualik sought to convert a solid polymer into a liquid form, but she got a very strange result. She expected to get a clear mixture with the consistency of molasses, typical for this type of polymer work. Instead, She ended up with a murky thin liquid.
The solution looked like junk. Members of Qualik's team even suggested she throw it away and start over. The fellow who does the spinning looked at it and said, This solution is too thin, it's too watery.
Furthermore, it has particles in it and it's going to plug up my equipment. She didn't listen. I sent it down a few more times.
So I think eventually, after a few days, he had a gilly conscience or something, and he came and said he would spid that thing. Yeah. What happened next was what Qowlick called a case of serendipity. the molecules aligned in a crystal-like structure. And as Qualik and her team continued experimenting with the spinning process, they realized they were creating a very lightweight and very stiff fiber.
In fact, by weight, it was stronger than steel. I knew. that I had made a discovery. I didn't shout, Eureka, but I was very excited, as was the whole laboratory excited, and management was excited because we were looking for something new, something different, and this was it. That was the beginning of Kevlar.
DuPont knew it had something big on its hands. The company patented the material that became known as Kevlar in 1966. and the whole pioneering lab was assigned to develop commercial uses for it. DuPont and its scientists still had many questions about Kevlar, and it would still be a few years before someone asked the most important question of all. Could Kevlar actually stop a bullet?
It would take about a decade, but Qualec, DuPont and the rest of the world would get that answer. Yeah. On December 23, 1975, Seattle Police Officer Raymond Johnson confronted an armed man holding up a convenience store. Johnson was shot four times, including once over the heart and once over the right lung. That could have been a death sentence for Johnson, but it wasn't.
Johnson walked away from the incident and lived another 40 years. On that day in nineteen seventy five, Johnson is believed to have been the first law enforcement officer in the United States to have his life saved by a Kevlar bulletproof vest. Kevlar was indeed effective in stopping bullets. For Qualik, it was humbling. When I look back on my career, I'm inspired most.
by the fact that I was fortunate enough to Yeah. to do something that would be of benefit to mankind. It's been an extremely satisfying discovery. I don't think there's anything like saving someone's life to bring you satisfaction and happiness. Stephanie worked another 20 years at DuPont after Kevlar was patented.
and contributed to the development of products like Lycra and Spandex. And she worked hard to encourage the next generation of scientists. especially young women. When Qualik was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994, She was only the fourth woman at that time to receive the honor. Wallach died in 2014 at the age of 90.
Ellen Coleman, CEO of DuPont at the time, remembered Qualik as a creative and determined chemist and a true pioneer for women in science. Even today, Qualik's work continues to inspire scientists. and it continues to save lives. You can take Corporal Stephen Reinhardt's word for that. Uh The story of Stephanie Kolek.
on our American stories. That feeling when you check your bank account and your paychecks days away. And of course, your calendar's all. Good news! With Chase Secure Banking, your direct deposit hits your bank account up to two days faster.
So when your friends are like, and your bills go, you have the peace your deposit brings. And the best part? There's no monthly service fee for 17 to 24-year-olds. Thanks to Chase Secure Banking. For Chase Secure checking only, eligible direct deposits may be credited up to two business days early, depending on when the payer submits the transaction.
Member FDIC. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY.
Plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay. Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values. Visit America's ChristianCU.com forward slash iHeart. Minimum balance of 1 cent required to earn advertised APY.
Early pay not guaranteed. APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. And CUA insured. Keeping a working forest growing takes a massive commitment.
That's why working forest professionals plant over 1 billion seedlings annually in the U.S., ensuring more trees are planted than harvested. But it takes more than planting to sustain these ecosystems. It means caring for everything in the forest, from clean water to thriving wildlife. Because when we take care of our forests, they'll thrive for generations. Learn more at WorkingForceInitiative.com.
