Kodak Roll Film: As Convenient as a Pencil | S23-E1
American Innovations
Audible
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2019
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, if we want to take a photo, we unlock our phone, aim, and click. It can be done on a whim, without a second thought. We document everything from new haircuts to latte art, cute cats to baby’s first smile. But prior to the 1900s, photography was the exclusive domain of professionals and dedicated hobbyists -- people willing to learn complex skills and spend hours on the craft.
Responsible for that shift was a man named George Eastman. Armed with a radical vision for what photography could be, and a cold-blooded business sense, Eastman delivered photography to the masses and altered the way most of us experience our lives over time.
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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 |
| 0:14.2 | podcasts. |
| 0:17.0 | It's May 1862, Rochester, New York. |
| 0:25.0 | In a modest living room, in a modest house, |
| 0:28.0 | a seven-year-old boy is sitting on a sofa, |
| 0:30.0 | his feet swinging against the side. |
| 0:32.0 | His mother is sitting next to him. He knows his |
| 0:35.4 | kicking a noiser, but he doesn't care. She stares at him, waiting for him to say |
| 0:40.4 | something. Instead, he just casts his eyes about, refusing to look at her. |
| 0:45.0 | Finally, she reaches out and puts her hand on his knee. Do you understand what I told you? |
| 0:51.0 | The boy is still figuring out what to say when she continues. Your father didn't |
| 0:55.8 | provide for us. Things are going to be different now that he's passed. You're going to have to change |
| 1:00.4 | schools. They're going to be new people living with us. I'm going to cook for them and you |
| 1:04.9 | need to be a good boy around them. Do you understand? The boy still doesn't say anything. How can this be? His father owned two businesses. Everyone knew him in town and |
| 1:15.9 | respected him too. The boy's hardly got in his mind around the fact that he's |
| 1:19.6 | dead and now his mother saying the money no longer exists either or somehow never did. |
| 1:25.0 | It doesn't make sense. Why would his dad do that to them? |
| 1:29.0 | All right, we'll talk about it more later. I have to make dinner now. We'll be just fine. |
| 1:35.3 | The boy continues to sit there after she leaves, trying to make sense of everything. |
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