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Hello and welcome to part two of podcasts and audiobooks.

Let's get on on the show.

Music It's the year 1877, Thomas Edison is wiring away, completing the first phonograph.

And when he invents it, he's not just thinking of music. I traditionally

think of that being invented purely for music, but that's not what Tom Mercedeson had in mind.

One of his first ideas was to create what he called a talking book. And he had an idea of how it would work. He actually recorded himself

reciting Mary had a little lamb. And that was the first time a human voice had ever been

played back by a machine. I have a strong feeling about talking books, most, well,

particularly the ones that kids have, which have like five buttons throughout

them, and they'll play like the sound of a wolf or what it happens to be.

Oh, yeah.

And then the polar bear walked across the ice with its heavy footprints, and he pressed

and he makes some noises, yeah, because they run out of batteries after about a month.

And then you just have the most frustrating book your child has ever seen.

And there's a weird period for about a fortnight

where the batteries are basically going

and the polar bear sounds like it's in pain.

...