The Scientists Ep. 6: The Life of Hedy Lamarr

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 This episode, hosted by Brian Keating—Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego—delves into one of the most fascinating and underappreciated stories at the intersection of beauty, brilliance, and invention. Today, we step away from pure physics and astronomy to explore the remarkable life of Hedy Lamarr, an iconic Hollywood actress whose real genius lay not just on the silver screen, but at the heart of technological innovation. Listen in as Brian Keating brings to life the legacy of a woman who changed the world—not for fame, but for the sheer joy of invention and enduring curiosity. - Key Takeaways: 00:00 Hedy Lamarr: Star and Inventor 03:30 Dual Facade: Performance and Analysis 09:04 Espionage and Escape Plan 10:35 Hedy Lamarr's Hollywood Transformation 13:59 Frequency Hopping Communication Technique 16:35 Hedy Lamarr's Overlooked Invention 22:43 Genius: Curiosity Over Credentials 24:01 "Hedy Lamarr: Beyond Hollywood" - The Scientists is a documentary-style podcast series hosted by astrophysicist Brian Keating. Each episode explores the untold stories behind history’s greatest minds—from Nobel laureates to visionary misfits—revealing the personal struggles, intellectual triumphs, and paradigm-shifting ideas that changed the world. Each week, I dive into the life and legacy of a legendary scientist—experimentalists, theorists, and observers alike—and uncover insights you can apply to your own work and worldview. Science didn’t appear fully formed; it was built by real people solving real problems under pressure. Their ideas still shape our future. We’ll examine not just what they discovered, but who they were—from their obsessions and honors to their most spectacular ideas, brilliant blunders, and beautifully human flaws. New episodes weekly. Learn more at BrianKeating.com. 🎙️ Subscribe for compelling science storytelling. 📚 Listen to our companion series Into the Impossible for interviews with living legends. #science #sciencepodcast #historyofscience #nobelprizewinners #famousscientists #scientificdiscoveries #physics #chemistry #thescientistsbriankeating #intotheimpossible #sciencecommunication Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I made you think
0:01.2	My name is Cadence Sinclair
0:03.8	Some people call us American royalty
0:06.4	We were liars
0:07.5	A new series on Prime Video
0:09.4	We were happy
0:10.5	We wanted for nothing
0:11.8	Based on the best-selling novel
0:14.3	Something terrible happened last summer
0:17.3	And I have no memory of what
0:19.0	Or who hurt me
0:20.0	No one in my family will tell me.
0:22.7	When you're left for dead, you want answers.
0:25.2	We Will Liars. New series, watch now.
0:28.1	Only on Prime Video. Welcome to the scientist, a Hollywood edition.
0:46.6	On this podcast, we explore the minds and methods of history's most famous and impactful scientists.
1:02.0	These could be people that are technologists as well as actresses, as today's guest, well, not really a guest, but as today's subject is. I'm your host, Brian Keating, the Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego, host to the End to the Impossible podcast.
1:08.0	And we're going into an impossibly fascinating story, Hollywood story,
1:12.1	a story fit for Hollywood. One of the most extraordinary stories that I've told in the history
1:17.2	of invention, a little bit of a departure from the straight physics and astronomy that we've been
1:21.7	doing today. But it's a story I want you to know, because in the sense it's sort of paradigmatic
1:26.3	of this sort of blend between the founders podcast by David Sennara and this unique exploration of scientific biographies and history that I love to do on this sub podcast. It's part of the Into the Impossible Brand Network. We're going back again to history. 1942. the Battle of the Atlantic is raging.
	...

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