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Dirty water has killed more humans than all the wars of history combined, but in the last 150 years, a series of radical ideas, extraordinary innovations and unsung heroes have changed our world. Steven Johnson plunges into a sewer to understand what made a maverick engineer decide to lift the city of Chicago with jackscrews in order to build America’s first sewer system. He talks about John Leal, who deliberately “poisoned” the water supply of 200,000 people when, without authorization, he added chlorine, considered lethal in 1908, into Jersey City’s water and made it safe to drink. This isn’t only about the world becoming a cleaner place — the iPhone, the subway, flat screen TVs and even the two piece swimsuit are the result of the valiant efforts of the unsung heroes of clean.
S1E1 • How We Got to Now • 2014 • Technology
Miami is beloved for its beaches and waterfront homes and businesses. See how engineers and planners are trying to protect Miami from rising seas and ever-more-frequent and violent storm surges that could destroy the city’s tourist and business economy.
S1E4 • Sinking Cities • 2018 • Technology
Two air catastrophes within five months of each other, both involving the same plane: the Boeing 737 MAX. How could these brand-new passenger jets, built by one of aviation's most trusted companies, just fall out of the sky? Now, through newly uncovered records, plus interviews with experts who investigated the crashes, we reveal why this seemingly reliable aircraft was headed toward disaster from the very beginning, and list the series of miscalculations, mistakes, and fraudulent maneuvers that sent 346 people to their deaths in 2018 and 2019.
S1E3 • Ten Steps to Disaster • 2021 • Technology
We take apart the GPO Amethyst, an ocean transporter capable of carrying some of the largest structures by deliberately sinking into the ocean.
S1E2 • Superstructures Engineering Marvels • 2019 • Technology
For most of human history, our neighboring planets were little more than dots of light in the sky with comets and asteroids being a complete mystery. Today the smaller rocky planets and asteroids are seen as the key to understanding the formation of our planetary system.
S1E7 • Zenith: Advances in Space Exploration • 2021 • Technology
Explore how a data company named Cambridge Analytica came to symbolize the dark side of social media in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
2019 • Technology