If It Weren't For Two Iowans, Billions Would Have Died of Starvation or Been Left in a Technological Dark Age

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2018

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Norman Borlaug and Robert Noyce aren't household names. But these two Iowans influenced the 20th century more than anyone else on Planet Earth. Borlaug created drought and disease-resistant varieties of wheat that thrived in poor soils throughout the planet. Because of him, billions in the developing world avoided starvation (they probably only missed it by about a decade). Noyce invented the integrated circuit and founded Intel. He is the father of Silicon Valley, the digital revolution, and the Internet economy that connects the world.

Both men owe their success to their farm roots in Iowa.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What was it like to watch the Twin Towers collapse on 9-11?
0:03.8	How about to be sent to Auschwitz during the Holocaust?
0:06.7	Our past is a collection of stories that bring us to where we are and shape our perspectives.
0:11.2	Hi, I'm Josh Cohen, host of the Eyewitness History Podcast.
0:14.9	On my show, I interview guests who watch the events that shaped our world.
0:18.8	From heartbreaking war stories to hilarious memories from the SNL writers room,
0:23.0	no recollection is off limits.
0:25.2	To start listening now for free, go to pathnanpodcast.com
0:28.6	or search Eyewitness History on the podcast player of your choice.
0:55.2	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.
1:05.2	The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, myth busts historical lies,
1:11.2	and rediscoveres the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:15.2	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:19.2	In this episode, I'm going to be talking about two people that you've probably never heard of.
1:32.0	That's because their careers, depending on how you describe them,
1:35.0	weren't very interesting. One of them did crop cross-pollination.
1:39.2	The other one was a foreign boy, Tinkerer, who worked in the semiconductor industry
1:43.2	in the middle of the 1900s, at a time when the industry was set to explode.
1:48.0	Both of them were from Iowa, neither one of them had recognizable names.
1:52.3	But if it weren't for Norman Borlaug and Robert Neuss,
1:55.9	billions of people probably would have died in the last few decades,
1:59.5	and we very well would have never had microprocessors and the technology revolution we have today.
	...

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