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Part-Time Genius

How Close Are We to Teleporting?

Part-Time Genius

iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

Society & Culture

4.52K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Teleportation is a major mode of travel in science fiction, but when will it become a reality? To find out, Mango and Gabe are grappling with the history and theoretical science behind one of humanity’s most anticipated technologies. Along the way, they explore the surprising connection between teleportation and ancient stage magic, and introduce you to the most romantic song about quantum entanglement that you’ve ever heard. (Probably.)

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is an IHeart podcast.

0:02.6

Guaranteed Human.

0:18.7

You're listening to Part-Time Genius,

0:20.8

the production of Collidoscope and IHeart Radio.

0:27.9

Guess what, Gabe? What's that, Mango?

0:30.6

Did you know that the word teleport was actually in use as far back as the late 19th century?

0:36.4

But it was not a verb back then.

0:38.5

It was a noun.

0:39.9

A teleport was a hypothetical device

0:42.4

that could carry a person's atoms

0:44.0

from one place to another in the blink of an eye.

0:47.3

So this was in an old sci-fi novel or something?

0:50.2

Surprisingly not.

0:51.2

So the word popped up in an Australian newspaper blurb published in 1878, just a couple

0:56.9

decades after the invention of the telephone. So at the time, the wonder of wire transmissions was

1:02.6

still fresh in people's minds, and to capitalize on that, someone wrote this tongue-in-cheek article

1:07.9

heralding the next technological breakthrough. The anonymous writer

1:12.2

claimed to have read in a Bombay newspaper that scientists in India had successfully transported

1:17.7

both a dog and a human boy, atom for atom, through a wire, and then reassemble them on the other

1:25.5

end. Wow. Well, I feel like the question everyone's asking is,

1:29.9

did they go through together or separately? I love where your head's at, and the answer is both.

1:37.9

Kind of. According to the article, quote, a dog was placed on the metal disc and a powerful

...

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