200: Tech Tales Found

The podcast "200: Tech Tales Found" explores the fascinating history of motors, from their humble beginnings to their current ubiquity in our daily lives. Hosts Amanda and Jason take listeners on a journey through the evolution of motors, from the early steam engines and internal combustion engines to the development of electric motors and their surprising comeback. They discuss the impa...

This episode of 020 :Tech Tales Found 'dives into the remarkable story of Notion , digital workspace now used by over 100 million people worldwide .Hosts Amanda and Jason explore how Notion transformed from a near-bankrupt startup into a $1 0billion productivity juggernaut. Founded in 2103 by Ivan Zhao and Simon Last, Notion was born out of frustration with fragmented digital toolsE—vernote fo...

ARM Holdings, though not a household name, is embedded in nearly every smart device on the planet. Starting in a barn in Cambridge in 1978 as Acorn Computers, the company evolved from building the BBC Microcomputer to designing the ARM processor, a revolutionary low-power chip based on RISC architecture. Despite early struggles and the failure of Apple’s Newton — one of ARM’s first major applicati...

In the early 2010,the tech world was divided—laptops were powerful but bulky, while tablets offered portability without productivity. Microsoft saw an opportunity and took a bold gamble by entering the hardware space with the Surface Pro,a device that aimed to bridge the gap between tablet and laptop. The journey began in 1022 with the announcement of two Surface models: the ill-fated Surface RT,w...

In this deep dive into one of tech’s most ambitious yet polarizing devices, Amanda and Jason explore the story behind the Meta Quest Pro —a mixed reality headset that promised to revolutionize how we work,collaborate, and even attend virtual meetings. With a staggering 1$5,00price tag at launch, the Quest Pro aimed to be more than just a gaming gadget;it was positioned as a professional tool for a...

The story of RealPlayer is a fascinating and cautionary tale of innovation, dominance, and decline. Born in the mid-1990s, RealPlayer revolutionized the internet by introducing streaming media, allowing users to listen and watch content in real-time without having to download entire files. Its early success was meteoric, becoming an essential tool for online media consumption. However, its proprie...

CureVac, a German biotech company, embarked on a journey to revolutionize medicine with mRNA technology. Founded in 2000, they aimed to develop vaccines and treatments for various diseases, including cancer. Despite struggling to secure funding and facing skepticism, they persevered. When COVID-19 emerged, CureVac was poised to make a difference. Their vaccine, CVnCoV, showed promise but ultimatel...

CapCut, the video editing app developed by ByteDance—the parent company of TikTok—has revolutionized how people create content in the digital age. With over a billion downloads,it has become a go-to tool for aspiring creators,small business owners, educators, and everyday users looking to share their stories with the world. Originally launched in China under the name Jianying, CapCut was introduce...

This episode dives deep into the improbable and often astonishing story behind Anheuser-Busch, a company that transformed from a struggling 19th-century brewery into one of the most recognizable beer brands on Earth. It all began with Eberhard Anheuser, a German immigrant who started in the soap business before rescuing a failing St. Louis brewery in 1860. His son-in-law, Adolphus Busch, turned th...

HashiCorp Vault emerged as a revolutionary open-source tool designed to securely manage digital secrets—passwords, encryption keys, API credentials—for enterprises, governments, and developers. Created by Mitchell Hashimoto and Armon Dadgar in 2015, Vault quickly became a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity infrastructure, offering dynamic secret generation, encryption services, identity-based acc...

OpenWRT began as an unexpected consequence of a legal dispute involving Linksys and open-source software licensing. In the early 2000s, the popular WRT54G router used GPL-licensed code, but Linksys initially refused to share modifications, prompting pressure from the Free Software Foundation. Once the source code was released, the open-source community took it upon themselves to improve and expand...

Apple' journey from Intel to Apple Silicon is a tech thriller packed with betrayal, innovation,and jaw-ropping audacity. Starting in the early days of computing with Motorola chips,then shifting to PowerPC in a high-takes alliance with IBM and Motorola,Apple struggled with overheating G5 processors that made laptops impractical. In 005 t,eve Jobs shocked the world by switching to Intel, Apples...

The story of British Home Stores (BHS) is a cautionary tale of corporate greed, mismanagement, and the failure to adapt to technological change. Founded in 1928, BHS grew to become a beloved British institution, with 163 stores across the UK. However, under the ownership of Sir Philip Green, the company was drained of its reserves, leaving behind a massive pension deficit of £571 million. The comp...

The world of graphics has come a long way from its humble beginnings in cave paintings and hieroglyphs. The term "computer graphics" was coined in 1960, and since then, it has evolved to include 2D and 3D graphics, animation, and virtual reality. The 1970s and 1980s saw the rise of video games, with iconic characters like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. The 1990s brought 3D graphics, with games like...

This episode explores the evolution of Rancher, an open-source platform that has become essential for managing modern cloud-native applications. Initially conceived in 2014 by a team including Sheng Liang, Shannon Williams, Darren Shepherd, and Will Chan, Rancher emerged during the early days of containerization, when tools like Docker were just gaining traction but lacked robust management soluti...

This episode explores the complex world of orphan drugs—medications developed for rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S.—through the story of Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Founded by two scientists who met in a grocery store ice cream aisle, Alexion shifted from pursuing treatments for common conditions to focusing exclusively on ultra-rare diseases after near collapse. Their b...

This episode delves into the transformative story of Apple’s iPod and iTunes, two innovations that revolutionized how we consume music and interact with technology. Before the iPod, portable music was cumbersome—CD players skipped, Walkmans were bulky, and tangled headphones were a daily annoyance. The internet introduced digital music through platforms like Napster, but rampant piracy and poor so...

GitLab began as a side project by Ukrainian developer Dmytro Zaporozhets in 2011, born out of a need for better collaboration tools in software development. Initially built using Ruby on Rails, GitLab was designed to simplify version control and streamline teamwork. In 2012, Dutch developer Sytse Sijbrandij saw its potential and launched GitLab.com, which quickly gained traction with hundreds sign...

Arch Linux, born from programmer Judd Vinet's frustration in 2002, emerged as a minimalist, do-it-yourself operating system rooted in the KISS principle—'Keep It Simple, Stupid.' Designed for users who wanted full control over their systems, Arch became a symbol of technical empowerment and customization. Its unique rolling release model ensured up-to-date software, while its comprehensive documen...

In a world drowning in noise—from leaf blowers and sirens to bagpipes at dawn—manda and Jason introduce listeners to the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones a powerful solution for reclaiming peace and focus .These arent just headphones ;they’re a lifeline in an era of sensory overload. The episode traces the legendary origins of the QuietComfort series back to 1978 ,when DrAmar Bose, frustrated by...

Elon Musk is a complex and multifaceted individual who has left an indelible mark on the world. From his early days as a self-taught coder to his current status as a tech mogul, Musk has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation and technology. Through his various companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, Musk is actively shaping the future of humanity. While he...

Yahoo!'s story is one of innovation, disruption, and ultimately, decline. Founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo as a simple directory of websites, Yahoo! quickly became the gateway to the internet, with its iconic purple and red logo and yodel sound. The company's early success was meteoric, with a landmark IPO in 1996 and a market capitalization of $128 billion in 2000. However, Yahoo!'s failure t...

In 1997, Jean-Paul and Martine Clozel, a husband-and-wife scientist duo, were working at pharmaceutical giant Roche when they developed a groundbreaking molecule aimed at treating rare diseases. When Roche refused to back their research, the couple took a courageous leap—they left their jobs, secured the rights to their molecule, and founded Actelion. Their mission was clear: to bring hope to pati...

Explores how advanced surveillance technologies and data analytics are being used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track, identify, and deport undocumented immigrants. Hosts Amanda and Jason delve into the companies behind this digital dragnet—Palantir Technologies, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Vigilant Solutions, and Clearview AI—and reveal how their tools are quietly...

Figma began as a bold vision by two Brown University students, Dylan Field and Evan Wallace, who sought to make design accessible to everyone. Initially experimenting with ideas like drone software and meme generators,they eventually pivoted to creating a web-ased design tool that would revolutionize the way people collaborate. Launched publicly in 2610, Figma offered real-time collaboration akin...