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Ongoing History of New Music

Driven By Her: Unsung Heroines

Ongoing History of New Music

Curiouscast

Music History, History, Music, Music Interviews, Music Commentary

4.8604 Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you ever heard of a woman named Rosalind Franklin?...probably not, but you can draw a line from today’s covid vaccines all the way back to her in the 1950s...she conducted some serious research into the makeup of rna molecules... Rosalind also did some groundbreaking research into the structure of DNA molecules...without her, Jim Watson and Francis Crick may not have discovered how DNA was constructed...they’d go on to win the Nobel prize in 1962...was Rosalind ever given the credit she deserved?...no... What about grace hopper?...ring any bells?...back in the 1940s, lieutenant Grace Hopper invented some computer programming techniques used by the army during World War II…this was the basis of Cobol, the compute language still used by business, finance, and administrative software today... Let’s try Susan Kare...no?...she’s the one who came up with the trash can icon and the command key on mac computers...she was integral to making the mac operating system as user-friendly as possible... Okay, here’s a name you may know: Hedy Lamar...famous actress from old Hollywood in the 30s and 40s and one-time date of Howard Hughes, right?...but she also worked with a guy named George Antheil to come up with a radio “frequency hopping” technology that made today’s Wi-Fi, cellular phones, Bluetooth, and gps communications possible...in fact, some call Hedy Lamar “the mother of Wi-Fi”...but does she get the appropriate credit for that?...nope... Those are just a few unsung heroines of technology...their work changed the world...and there are so many more in other fields, too...back in the late 1800s, Nellie Bly became the first investigative female journalist...effa Manley was the first woman to own a sports team...that was back in the 1930s...Beulah Henry was nicknamed “Lady Edison” because she was such a prolific inventor... And while we all know about Joan of Arc, what about Matilda of Tuscany?...she had a 40-year military career who successfully led troops against the Holy Roman Emperor again and again almost a thousand years ago...these are just a few unsung heroines from history... There are similar stories from the world of music: women who changed so much but have been given so little credit...let’s see if we can’t do a little bit to fix that... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

0:04.3

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon music, included with Prime.

0:09.3

Hey, have you ever heard of a woman named Rosalind Franklin? Probably not, but you can draw a line

0:14.5

from today's COVID vaccines all the way back to her in the 1950s. She conducted some serious

0:20.7

research into the makeup of RNA molecules.

0:24.3

Rosalind also did some groundbreaking research into the structure of DNA molecules. And without her,

0:30.1

Jim Watson and Francis Crick may not have discovered how DNA was constructed. They would go on to

0:36.4

win the Nobel Prize in 1962, but was Rosalind ever given

0:40.0

the credit she deserved? No. What about Grace Hopper? Does that ring any bells? Back in the

0:47.0

1940s, Lieutenant Grace Hopper invented some computer programming techniques used by the Army during

0:52.8

World War II. This was the basis of Cobol, the computer language, still used by the Army during World War II.

0:59.4

This was the basis of Cobol, the computer language, still used by business, finance, and administrative software today.

1:02.0

Okay, it doesn't help.

1:04.1

Okay, let's try Susan Kerr.

1:06.8

You know, well, she's the one who came up with the trash can icon and the command key on Mac computers.

1:12.4

She was integral to making the Mac operating system as user-friendly as possible.

1:18.2

Okay, here's a name I think you'll know.

1:20.4

Hedy Lamar, famous actress from old Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s and the one-time date of Howard Hughes, right?

1:27.4

But she also worked with a guy named George Antheil to come up with a radio frequency hopping technology

1:33.5

that made today's Wi-Fi, cellular phones, Bluetooth, and GPS communication possible.

1:40.8

In fact, some people call Hedy Lamar the mother of Wi-Fi.

1:46.1

But does she get appropriate credit for that?

...

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