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Our next storyteller is Tim Harford, an economist and best-selling author of 50 Things That Shape the Modern Economy. Here he is to tell the story about a few of those. The iPhone has a very interesting lesson for us, I think. I mean, I don't need to tell you how it changed the economy, but I think where they came from is a very interesting lesson.
So this argument is made by an economist called Mariana Matsukato and she says, look, what is in an iPhone? You've got a touch screen, you've got the solid state hard drive, you've got the computer chips, you've got algorithms, particularly algorithms that convert digital to analog and analog to digital, you've got GPS, you've got access to the internet, you've got the cell phone structure, you've got all of that going on.
Okay. These are the building blocks that Steve Jobs put together to make this amazing invention.
So who invented the building blocks? And when you look at the history of it, very often They came from governments, very often the American military, although not always. For example, the touchscreen is a British government invention. It was invented at the Royal Radar Establishment.
So you look at all these different inventions and they all have these government or military origins which is very striking because A lot of people, myself included, like to sing the praises of private sector. innovation, the power of the entrepreneur, the creativity of the free market. I'm all for that. I believe in that. But we also have to look at the facts and in this particular fact A lot of these Building blocks.
came from governments. They were put together by brilliant entrepreneur Steve Jobs. But he would not have had the raw material to work with. He would just have been making a clever toy. If he hadn't had these different inventions, even Siri was designed originally for fighter pilots and eventually became repurposed for smartphones.
So it's a lesson about how sometimes the origins of these amazing inventions that shape the world around us are not always the origins we expect. They weren't always produced by the people who get most of the credit. Radar originally the idea was A couple of British scientists during the Second World War were going to create a death ray. We're going to use electromagnetic radiation to create this beam that will heat. Eight pints of Liquid, i.e.
blood. Above whatever 105 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to make a pilot of a plane pass out, and we're going to knock planes out of the sky using our death rate. And the two scientists discussing this idea very quickly realized there's no way we don't have the power, we don't have the range, it can't be done. But we could use electromagnetic waves to bounce off. planes.
and we could interrogate the signals that come back. And we could use that to track incoming planes. And this is a hugely important development in the Second World War because it meant for Britain, as these German bombers came over, high and fast attacking British cities. We could see them coming. And we could scramble a response and we could actually intercept them.
Changed the course of the Second World War. And then various developments that made radars more powerful, more compact. You could put them in submarines, you could put them in aeroplanes, you could use them all over the battlefield. But on top of that, once you've got that military technology, you've got a technology that makes civilian airspace a lot safer. And initially, Those early civilian flights It was just a case of well, you plot your course on the map and you fly from one airport to another and keep away from clouds, and hopefully, you won't crash into another plane.
And there was a tragic crash over the Grand Canyon. Two planes both trying to give their passengers a view over the Grand Canyon. They hit each other. terrible loss of life and at that point people started saying you know what we've got this technology we could use it to track where all the planes are to run a kind of air traffic control system and to keep everyone safe and ever since then air travel has been getting safer and safer and safer famously safe no matter how dangerous it may seem when you when you're up there in one of those thin tubes and it is partly because of radar Lots of people said You have to do the washing machine because the washing machine liberated housewives. Women who could be going out.
to work for money, getting economic independence, getting experience of the workplace, fully contributing to society. And there they are, they're stuck at home doing the laundry. I wanted to write that story, I thought it was a great story, but when I looked at the actual data, I found washing machines did not save women any time. What happened was, instead of doing one wash a month. You'd do one wash a day.
And we all looked a lot cleaner and smelt a lot cleaner, but it didn't actually save. the housewives, the ones having to take responsibility for this, didn't save them any time. The TV dinner, on the other hand... did. And by TV dinner, I mean not just the thing in a tray that you would warm up and sit there with it in your lap, but all of the other technologies.
by which food was industrialized.
So the idea that rather than plucking your own chicken, the chicken's pre-plucked and indeed maybe it's pre-seasoned and pre-stuffed and actually if you go to a deli maybe it's also pre-cooked the whole thing's ready to eat you think about potato chips to prepare fresh potato chips to finely slice all the potatoes and to heat up the hot oil and all the mess and the risk that that involves to fry them huge amount of time and effort but you can buy potato chips in a bag takes seconds you can eat them anywhere pre-chopped salads you don't need to chop your own salad you don't need to wash your own lettuce the salads there in a bag all of these different technologies frozen meals takeaway pizza the whole lot All of this saved women an enormous amount of time.
So, with all of these inventions, what we should be asking ourselves. What can we do to enjoy the benefits? without the costs. Technologies never just solve problems. They always create some problems as well.
And so there's always an opportunity for us to do better. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Tim Hofford. He's the author of 50 Things That Shaped the Modern Economy. And the stories today were on the iPhone, radar, and T V dinners.
And reminded, of course, of that 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision, which I'd seen pictures of as a kid and just did not know that this was the beginning. Catalyst that prompted modern radar, the story of the iPhone, radar, and TV dinners. Tim Harford, here. on our American stories. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories.
And all of our history stories are brought to us by our generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn all the things that are beautiful in life. and all the things that matter in life. If you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to hillsdale.edu. That's hillsdale.edu.
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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. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer.
Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. US and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at Let's Get RealaboutskinCancer.com.
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