Innovation Fails: DeLorean | Driven to Succeed | S17-E1
American Innovations
Audible
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2019
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Normally on American Innovations, we look at the history of the science and technology that transformed the world we live in. These stories teach us about the vision, grit, competition, and teamwork required to conquer new frontiers and forge new pathways to the future. But equally valuable, perhaps, are the stories of those visionary innovators who seemed poised for greatness, who aimed for the stars, and then fell, crashing spectacularly back to earth.
In this series, we’ll examine one of the greatest failures in automotive history: the life and work of John DeLorean, the maverick engineer whose technical achievements seemed destined for the history books, among the likes of Henry Ford and Elon Musk. But instead, he became known for his dramatic demise.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to an episode of a Wondery Plus exclusive series. |
| 0:03.6 | To continue listening, join Wondery Plus and enjoy Ad Free Listening to over 40,000 episodes, |
| 0:08.9 | early access to your favorite podcasts and more. |
| 0:11.6 | Find Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:15.0 | This episode of American Innovations |
| 0:17.1 | contains depictions of drugs and is not suitable for everyone. |
| 0:21.0 | Please be advised. |
| 0:23.0 | It's October 19, 1982 in Los Angeles, California. |
| 0:37.0 | There's a massive sign in front of the Sheridan Hotel. |
| 0:40.0 | It reads, Have a great day. But for at least one of the guests inside, today will be anything |
| 0:47.1 | but great. |
| 0:48.1 | In fact, it will be the worst day of his life. John DeLorian is in room 501. |
| 0:56.0 | He's a Maverick automotive engineer |
| 0:58.0 | with an exceptional track record |
| 1:00.0 | and an unflinching belief that he is going to redefine the sports car. But right now, he's just desperate. |
| 1:08.0 | He's made some mistakes with his fledgling company, and now they're on the verge of bankruptcy. |
| 1:14.1 | He needs millions of dollars to save his company and he's already tapped every investor in his |
| 1:19.4 | Rolodex. To get the cash he's about to do something illegal. He's going to make a drug deal |
| 1:28.6 | Come in gentlemen? What he doesn't know is that the gentleman he's meeting with are federal agents, and the room is bugged. |
| 1:39.0 | An agent posing as the connection, hefs a suitcase onto the coffee table and swings it open. |
| 1:45.0 | Both sides are stuffed with cocaine. |
| 1:48.0 | The agent invites Delorion to take a closer look. |
... |
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