Cellphones Rock

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

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4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cellphones put the power of the world at our fingertips. With the touch of a finger, you can instantly connect with your doctor, have food delivered to your office or simply obliterate your niece at Words with Friends. And it's all made possible by rocks formed millions of years ago, deep underground. Join us as we bust open our devices to figure out how these stones power our phones.

Guests:
Joshua A. Bell, curator of globalization at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History
Michael Wise, geologist in the department of mineral sciences at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
Josh Lepawsky, professor of geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:13.4	I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:14.6	I'm looking at my phone.
0:25.2	It's a little dirty, let me just put this screen off a little.
0:28.2	This is embarrassing.
0:29.2	Okay.
0:30.2	I'm looking at my phone.
0:31.2	All right.
0:32.2	Is your cell phone handy?
0:33.2	If you're listening to my voice on your phone right now, take it out for a second.
0:38.2	I'll wait.
0:41.5	Take a look at it.
0:43.8	Feel the weight of it in your hand.
0:46.5	Now touch the screen.
0:48.5	See how the phone responds to your finger on the glass.
0:52.7	The thing that makes that possible is this incredible element known as Indian.
0:59.0	I'd never heard of it before.
1:01.6	But Joshua Bell is all about it.
1:04.3	He's a cultural anthropologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
1:09.5	What is Indium?
1:10.5	Well, it's number 49 on the atomic weight.
1:14.1	That means nothing to me, Josh.
	...

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