Dynamite: Audrey Kurth Cronin on New Technology and Terrorism | 4

American Innovations

Wondery

Steven Johnson, History, Kids & Family, Education For Kids, Science

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2020

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alfred Nobel worked on dynamite in distinctly unglamorous labs, but his ambitions were as grand as his labs were small. He envisioned dynamite transforming cityscapes and connecting rail lines across Europe. When Alfred finally got dynamite right, it did exactly that – but it also led to new and terrifying forms of political violence.

On the last episode of our dynamite series, Steven Johnson talks to security expert Audrey Kurth Cronin, author of “Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists.” Cronin argues that Nobel’s story is also the story of our times: once again, backyard inventors are spearheading new technology but not always thinking through the technology’s consequences.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American Innovations,
0:03.6	Add Free on Amazon Music, download the app today.
0:07.0	From Wondry, I'm Stephen Johnson, and this is American Innovations.
0:30.0	Today, we conclude our series on Dynamite.
0:45.0	Alfred Nobel worked on Dynamite in distinctly unglamorous labs, his apartment kitchen,
0:50.8	his converted carriage house, and finally on an abandoned barge.
0:55.3	It is ambitions where his large and grand as his labs were small and humble.
1:00.4	Nobel envisioned Dynamite transforming cityscapes and blasting railways, buildings, and tunnels
1:05.9	into existence.
1:07.6	And when he finally got Dynamite right, it did just that.
1:10.7	It powered the industrial age and made the modern-day metropolis possible.
1:15.0	But it also led to new forms of terrorism.
1:17.8	Anarchists used Dynamite to assassinate political leaders, including the Russians are Alexander
1:23.1	the Second.
1:24.3	That fateful blast in 1881 was in fact the very first suicide bombing.
1:30.2	On this episode, I talk to security expert Audrey Curth-Kronin, who argues that Nobel's
1:35.2	story is also the story of our current times.
1:38.7	Once again, backyard inventors are spearheading new technology, but that technology is being
1:43.4	used in lethal ways that we've never seen before.
1:46.8	Kronin is the director of the Center for Security, Innovation, and New Technology at American
1:52.1	University in Washington, DC.
1:54.6	She also wrote the book Power to the People, How Open Technological Innovation is Arming
	...

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