We’ve been engaged on a brand new present for the previous few months, referred to as Model Historical past, and the primary episode is now dwell! It’s referred to as “Hoverboards: so scorching proper now,” and it’s an hour-long tour of the most important rideable gadget of the 2010s. Hidden contained in the historical past of this bizarre two-wheeled scooter is a vital inflection level in Chinese language tech manufacturing, some massively influential social media stars, a referendum on self-driving automobiles, and a lot extra. This episode is hosted by David Pierce, Andy Hawkins, and Sean O’Kane. We had a blast making it, and we expect you’ll take pleasure in it too.
Now that the present is dwell, there are just a few methods you’ll find Model Historical past when episodes drop each Sunday:
We tried exhausting to make a present that works in each audio and video kinds, however actually, one of the best expertise of Model Historical past might be on video. We introduced all of the outdated devices into the studio and bought to play with them with new perspective, and there’s one thing pleasant about attending to see all of them come alive once more. Nonetheless you wish to get your Model Historical past, although, we expect it’ll work nice!
We like to consider Model Historical past as a rewatch podcast for expertise. All of us love podcasts like The All the time Sunny Podcast or Workplace Women — any time a TV present’s creators or stars return by way of the present, episode by episode, to each focus on the present’s content material and inform tales about its making, we’ll be there. We additionally love issues like What Went Fallacious and The Rewatchables, which inform tales and litigate the legacies of tradition. And, after all, we love a superb historical past present, whether or not it’s The Relaxation is Historical past or Stuff You Missed in Historical past Class or Revolutions. Someplace within the mash of all these reveals and The Verge, you’ll hopefully discover Model Historical past.
Our purpose, in each episode, is to inform one thing near a product’s full story. Cowl tech lengthy sufficient, and also you study that the factor that in the end lands on cabinets or in app shops is just one small a part of the journey. Each product is definitely the results of a bunch of executives combating for his or her priorities; loads of difficult questions concerning the state of expertise, tradition, and politics; and in the end the style of a surprisingly small variety of individuals. Nothing in tech is ever inevitable, it doesn’t matter what some advertising departments need you to assume. Our purpose is to determine why tech seems the best way it does, and what it means for all of us.
Additionally? We simply actually like speaking about tech. The good things, the dangerous stuff, the stuff that hardly missed, the stuff that by no means had an opportunity. There are such a lot of fascinating inflection factors in tech historical past, the place one thing hit or didn’t and seemingly modified the course of our lives in consequence. We’ve had a good time going again to the issues we lined years in the past, to the issues we grew up with, to the issues that predate us by a long time, and speaking about how all of them formed the tech we use now.
We’ve already recorded eight episodes of the present, and over the subsequent seven weeks we’re diving deep into the whole lot from BBM to the Zune to LimeWire. We’re already getting began on the subsequent set of reveals, too, however we’d love to listen to from you: what merchandise deserve their very own episode? What ought to we add to or exchange within the Model Historical past Questions? Can you work out what the Model Historical past Corridor of Fame standards must be (as a result of we actually can’t)? Nothing concerning the present is about in stone, and we wish to have extra of your enter in there on a regular basis.
As for this episode, there’s an terrible lot to cowl about hoverboards. However if you wish to dive in for your self, listed below are just a few hyperlinks to get you began: