Breaking History: The Invention That Changed Everything

Honestly with Bari Weiss

The Free Press

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever travel to Europe in the summer and suddenly feel very “ra ra ra” about America? It’s not because of American culture, or food, or architecture. The thing people miss first and foremost is AC. Yes, air-conditioning. It’s an American treasure and of course, fodder for many dad jokes. But beyond the jokes, this invention has been politically and culturally transformational. AC allowed factories to operate through the summer—creating more productivity, prosperity, wealth, and American dynamism. It’s allowed Americans to live in the most uninviting places in the country—ever been to Arizona or Texas in the summer? And this very flexibility to live in places like Phoenix and Austin has shifted migration, demographics, and even our political map. So today we want to bring you podcasts from another show in The Free Press podcast network—Breaking History. Eli Lake and his producer Poppy Damon speak with Salvatore Basile, the author of Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything, about how air-conditioning—once called “comfort cooling” and “refrigeration systems”—evolved from a bespoke invention to a household status symbol and a political force. The episode is so interesting because it highlights inflection points that propelled this technology. If you’re listening with your AC on high, you won’t want to miss it. If you want to hear more from Eli Lake on Breaking History, follow here. Header 6: The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, honestly, listeners. I have an amazing announcement. We're trying something different this week at the free press. We're calling it free press, free week. For one week only, everything we publish, every story, column, investigative report, live stream, podcast, you name it. It's going to be free to all from October 6 to October 12th. It's free access to our
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1:32.4	From the free press, this is honestly and I'm Barry Weiss.
1:39.7	Ever travel to Europe in the summer and suddenly feel very patriotic, very rah, rah about America?
1:43.5	It's not because of culture or food or art or architecture. The thing we miss, first and foremost, is AC.
1:48.5	Yes, air conditioning.
1:50.4	I cannot live another day without air conditioning.
1:52.7	Says tomorrow's going to be hotter.
1:54.1	Hotter?
1:54.6	Like yesterday.
1:55.5	Yesterday?
1:56.8	Yesterday you said you'd call Sears.
	...

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