Among the things we take for granted in today’s America is knowing the time, which makes transportation, business and national events possible. This, however, was not always the case.
On today’s show, from building sewers to standardizing time, we’ll talk about the invisible innovations that got us where we are today. Then, we’ll take a look back to a controversial figure at the center of Portsmouth’s historic preservation movement, Miss Dorothy Vaughan.
Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.
How We Got to Now
- Steven Johnson is author of several best-selling books on innovation, most recently, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made The Modern World, he’s host of PBS series of the same name that is now available in its entirety online.
Saving Portsmouth
- The Strawberry Banke museum in Portsmouth is celebrating its upcoming 50th anniversary with a new play about Dorothy Vaughan, produced in conjunction with Kent Stephens’ Stage Force. Saving Portsmouth: The Preservation Crusades of Miss Dorothy Vaughan, takes a deeper look at the woman who came to symbolize historic preservation in the port city, justifiably or not. Kent Stephens and the actress who portrays Dorothy, Leslie Pasternak, joined us in studio to discuss the play.
- You can see the play in Portsmouth this weekend at the Tyco Visitor Center at Strawberry Banke. Show times, tickets and more details can be found at this link.
The Firefly Dress
- Harry Umen, artist, professor and chair of SNHU’s communications, media arts and technology department, Deborah Caldwell dressmaker and owner of Isabelle & Me studio at the Waumbec Mill in Manchester, and developer & inventor, Angela Chang are the team behind the “Luminous Firefly Dress”.
- You can live stream the sold out TEDx Amoskeag event via this link at 9:00am on Saturday.
- You can see photos and videos of the project and find out more at this link.