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The Devil Within

What We Built... And What We Buried: Episode Nine - The Man Who Fixed Everything

The Devil Within

EVIO Creative

True Crime

3.3176 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

🎧 The Devil Within What We Built… And What We Buried Episode 9: The Man Who Fixed Everything Some problems don’t break systems. They limit them. And in the early days of the automobile, one of those problems had a name: Engine knock. 🧪 The Solution Enter Thomas Midgley Jr.. A problem-solver who didn’t redesign the engine… He changed the fuel. 👉 Tetraethyl lead A chemical additive that: • Eliminated engine knock • Increased performance • Allowed the modern automobile to scale It worked. Perfectly. 🌍 The Spread The solution didn’t stay in the lab. It moved: • Into fuel systems • Into infrastructure • Into the global environment Because once something works… It doesn’t stay contained. ⚠️ The Cost What improved engines didn’t stay in engines. Lead entered: • The air • The soil • The human body And over time: 👉 The cost accumulated • Neurological damage • Developmental harm • A global environmental footprint 😈 The Devil Within This isn’t a story about failure. It’s about success without full understanding. Because the solution didn’t just fix the problem… It changed everything around it. 🔜 Next Episode The same mind.
A different problem. And a solution that didn’t affect the ground… 👉 It affected the sky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

W.A. Police Confidential is true crime in real time. Every week we take you inside real active police investigations. You'll find out how we solve murders, catch crooks and take down bikies and want to be gangsters. Real police, real detectives, real stories, you won't hear anywhere else. How do you solve a murder without a body? How do you catch a professional hitman? All the latest on cold case mysteries and a whole lot more.

0:22.1

W.A. Police Confidential, the official W.A. Police Podcast every week, wherever you get your podcasts.

0:29.6

Hey, everyone. It's Olivia Colpo, and I can't wait to tell you all about Abercrombie's new

0:33.8

summer collection. All their new dresses and colorful swim feel perfect for a Euro summer and Abercrombie has a new 100% linen collection.

0:42.6

It's the perfect mix of looking put together in elevated with the lightness and comfort of linen.

0:48.0

Shop Abercrombie this summer in the app, online, and in stores.

0:59.2

Thank you. online and in stores. Attention all passengers.

1:01.8

The Uber ride for Mark and Jamal's romantic weekend

1:04.8

will depart in four minutes from Platform 6.

1:08.1

Your ride comes with a rolling countryside sunset view and a table seat,

1:12.8

ideal for playing footsie beneath.

1:15.4

Thank you for booking your tickets on Uber.

1:19.3

Trains on Uber.

1:23.0

EVO.

1:27.2

There are problems that announce themselves loudly, mechanical failures that rattle and resist

1:35.1

systems that falter in ways that demand immediate attention. But then there are problems

1:40.8

that exist beneath the surface, embedded in the function of things that otherwise appear to work.

1:47.0

In the early years of the automobile, as engines moved from novelty very quickly to necessity,

1:53.0

one such problem began to define the limits of progress.

1:57.0

It wasn't catastrophic, it didn't halt the engine entirely, but it disrupted the rhythm,

2:02.6

introducing a stutter into the process that translated over time into inefficiency, into damage, and ultimately constraint.

2:11.6

They called it knock. The term is simple, it's almost casual, but the phenomenon it describes really carried weight.

...

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