Dialing Up 150 Years on the Phone

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

150 years ago this month, Alexander Graham Bell placed history’s first telephone call. And even though phones have changed — from a black metal cone mounted on a wooden base to today’s all-encompassing smartphones — they’ve remained a steady presence in our lives. What’s the first type of phone you used: a rotary, cordless or the iPhone? How does your relationship with the phone differ from that of your parents or grandparents? We’ll discuss what looking back on how we used the phone can teach us about restoring connection and meaning in our lives. Guests: Izzie Ramirez, freelance writer and editor Heather Kelly, technology reporter Emily Dreyfuss, culture editor, The San Francisco Standard; co-host, "Pacific Standard Time" podcast; co-author, "Meme Wars: the Untold Stories of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:02.5	From KQED.
1:05.7	Welcome to Forum.
1:06.7	I'm Mina Kim.
1:17.7	The telephone turning 150 years old this month is a reminder that there was a time when our phones were not our everything, our newspaper, our map, video game player, banking device, photo editor.
1:24.1	A time when we didn't feel like we needed to have it attached to our person at all times to be checked every three minutes.
1:29.5	A time when getting an unexpected call made us more excited than annoyed or anxious.
1:36.9	So what can we learn from looking back on the phone as a communication tool rather than a mini-supercomputer?
1:43.5	Well, let's find out. Listeners, what's your earliest memory of using the phone? And what role did it play for you growing up? You can tell us by calling
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