Extraordinary Ordinary Objects*

“To live is to count and to count is to calculate.” But before we plugged in the computer to express this ethos, we pulled out the pocket calculator. It became a monarch of mathematics that sparked a computing revolution. But it’s not the only deceptively modest innovation that changed how we work and live. Find out how sewing a scrap of fabric into clothing helped define private life and how adding lines to paper helped build an Empire. Plus, does every invention entail irrevocable cultural loss?

Guests:

Keith Houston – author of “Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator.”

Hannah Carlson – teaches dress history and material culture at the Rhode Island School of Design, author of “Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close.”

Dominic Riley – bookbinder in the U.K.

Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake

*Originally aired October 30, 2023

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