Is 3D-Printed Food Worth Eating?

Part-Time Genius

iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today Will and Mango are exploring the world of 3D printing, from the 1940s sci-fi writer who anticipated its invention to some of its strangest modern uses, like rescuing turtles, making snacks, and solving the housing crisis. Plus: can a 3D printer 3D print a 3D printer?

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Photo of a 3D-printed Grogu by Girl with red hat via Unsplash. Thanks, Girl with red hat!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:18.4	You're listening to Part-Time Genius,
0:23.5	a production of kaleidoscope and I Heart Radio.
0:28.5	Guess what, Will?
0:29.1	What's that, Mango?
0:38.5	So I was reading about 3D printing this week, and I realized I've been thinking of it as a new technology when really it's been around for nearly half a century.
0:39.5	Oh wow, I just had no idea I went back that far.
0:41.0	Yeah, so the Japanese researcher Hideo Kodoma submitted the world's first patent for
0:46.0	a 3D printer in 1981.
0:49.4	And two years later, American inventor Chuck Hall created the first working prototype.
0:54.3	And before you ask, yes, we do know what the first object he printed was.
0:58.1	It was a little plastic eye wash cup.
1:00.2	You know, I don't know what I was expecting you to say, but that definitely was not it.
1:04.6	And what even is an eye wash cup?
1:06.7	It is a tiny cup with a curved rim to fit around an eyeball.
1:10.3	So if you get a piece of dust
1:11.4	in your eye, you can fill the cup with water and flush it out.
1:14.3	Like was this a recurring problem for a hole or what?
1:17.8	Yeah, his eyes were notoriously dirty.
1:19.5	So dirty.
1:20.5	Yeah.
1:21.5	No, I'm actually not sure why he chose an eyewash cup, and I know it sounds like a random
	...

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