The Best Idea Yet đź“· Polaroid: Invented (sort of) by a 3-year-old
The Best One Yet
Nick & Jack Studios
4.7 • 9.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2024
⏱️ 9 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
To hear the rest of this episode, follow The Best Idea Yet here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/
It’s the OG of instant photography — It paved the way for the iPhone, inspired Instagram, and fills every photo album on your parents’ bookshelf. Polaroid became a fave of world-class artists like Ansel Adams and Andy Warhol, but did you know its inventor, Edwin Land, actually got the original idea from his 3-year-old daughter? Find out how Polaroid and rival, Kodak, went from friends to frenemies… why Steve Jobs was obsessed with this company… and why Polaroid is the best idea yet. FYI: If you’re listening, OutKast, you’re actually *not* supposed to shake the picture (we’ll explain why on the pod).
Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet for the untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with, and the bold risk takers who brought them to life.
Episodes drop every Tuesday, subscribe here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Nick. This is Jack. And it's Saturday, so we're serving up a little sample of the best idea yet. |
| 0:07.0 | This is our second show, which does deep dives on the most viral products of all time. |
| 0:11.3 | And today, what do we got, Jack? Polaroid. |
| 0:13.3 | Yeah, it's Polaroid. The camera that brought photography to the world. |
| 0:16.8 | Polaroid is the reason that we call photos pictures. |
| 0:20.1 | Polaroid democratized photography. Honestly, no Polaroid, no reason that we call photos Pictures. Polaroid democratized photography. |
| 0:22.1 | Honestly, no Polaroid, no Instagram. |
| 0:24.2 | So sit back, relax, and enjoy this sample |
| 0:26.3 | of the best idea yet. |
| 0:27.9 | And then you got to make sure to subscribe to the show |
| 0:30.2 | so you can listen to the rest of the episode |
| 0:31.9 | because the rest of the episode, it is wild. |
| 0:34.0 | We got a link in the show notes so you can do that. |
| 0:35.9 | So here it is the best idea yet. |
| 0:42.5 | Jack, set the scene for us, man. |
| 0:44.7 | Land holds a prototype in his hands, a Deerdorf camera. |
| 0:48.0 | The kind of that accordion looking thing around the lens, but its back has been modified |
| 0:52.2 | to hold a roll of film negative, a roll of photo paper, |
| 0:55.6 | and a set of motorized rollers inside. |
| 0:58.1 | It looks like Land is about to take the audience's picture, but instead, he turns the lens |
| 1:03.1 | on himself and clicks. |
| 1:05.8 | This is like the OG selfie, and Land? |
... |
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