The Humble Ballpoint Pen

Stuff You Missed in History Class

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 23.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before the ballpoint pen, people used their hands, reeds, bamboo, brushes, quills, and eventually nibs to write or draw. But how did things evolve from there to get to things like the fountain pen, and eventually, a ballpoint?

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:04.5	My Uncle Chris was a real character, a garbage truck driver from South Carolina, who is now
0:09.4	buried in Panama City alongside the founding families of Panama.
0:13.6	He also happens to be responsible for the craziest night of my life.
0:17.3	Wild stories about adventure, romance, crime, history, and war intertwine as I share the
0:23.3	tall tales and hard truths that have helped me understand Uncle Chris. Listen now to Uncle Chris
0:29.2	on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
0:34.5	you listen to podcasts. Are there any pictures of you online?
0:38.7	Then you could already be in a massive police database without even knowing it.
0:42.8	Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts.
0:48.4	I'm Dexter Thomas, host a Kill Switch, a podcast about how living in the future is affecting us right now.
0:54.0	Police, they are trusting the software with this magical ability to leave. Switch, a podcast about how living in the future is affecting us right now.
0:59.1	Police, they are trusting the software with this magical ability to lead them to the right suspect.
0:59.8	In this episode, we dive into how cops are using AI and facial recognition and sometimes
1:04.7	getting it wrong and putting innocent people behind bars.
1:07.7	So if your accuser is this algorithm, but you're not even being told that it was used, let
1:13.8	alone given any of the details about how it works.
1:16.3	Listen to Kill Switch on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
1:21.3	podcast.
1:22.3	A body, a suspect, and a hundred years of silence.
1:26.5	Buried Bones is a podcast about the forgotten crimes history tried to leave behind.
1:32.4	A common misperception about serial predators is that every single time they commit a crime, they commit it the same way.
	...

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