Hello and welcome to Life of the Week from History Extra, where leading historians delve into the lives of history's most intriguing and significant figures.

Nikola Tesla is remembered as an enigmatic, eccentric genius who harness the power of electricity.

But if we strip away some of this myth, what can we really say about

the inventor's life and legacy? Ewan Morris joined Ellie Cawthorne for this Life of the Week episode

to reveal how Tesla believed he could invent a death ray, whether he was really a recluse,

and how he would feel about Elon Musk's company

using his name today. Thanks for joining me, Ewan, to talk about the life of Nicola Tesla.

Before we go back into his biography and some of his work, what makes Tesla so fascinating?

Why has he earned his place in the history books and why are we still talking about him today?

I think that in lots of ways, the most fascinating thing about Tesla is the fact that we're still talking about him

and that we're still talking about him in a very, very particular kind of way.

Despite the fact that periodically we see

biographies appearing or new stories or what have you appearing about Tesla, all describing him

as, oh, the forgotten genius, the man who invented the modern electrical world and so on and so on and so on,

he is remarkably well remembered for a forgotten genius.

He's featured on the US TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

He's been on at least one Doctor Who episode that I can think of.

There have been at least two recent movies.

He's completely embedded in the kind of stories that Silicon Valley Tech Bros tell about themselves.

And in lots of ways, as a historian, it's that kind of longevity that I find

most fascinating. Tesla, largely in the 1890s, invented a particular kind of story that he wanted

other people to tell about himself, that he kept on telling about himself,

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