HILF 30 - Nikola Tesla with Renee Percy

HILF: History I'd Like to F**k

Dawn welcome's Canadian-born, LA-based comedian - Renee Percy. Together, they have an electrifying conversation about the scientist, Nikola Tesla, who is to thank for so much of our technological advances today... no matter what you drive.

00:06:37 - Renee tells Dawn about why she doesn't "know history" and how the subject of Nikola Tesla occurred to her and he-hem sparked her curiosity.

00:11:40 - Dawn lays out some of the sources of her research and lays out her plan for HILF-ing Tesla. She's going to layout the story behind some of Tesla's biggest and most influential inventions - and then fill us in on all the bat-shit speculation and conspiracy theories that surrounded him after his death.

SOURCES:

• MY IINVENTIONS - The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla
• PRODIGAL GENIUS - The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla by John J O'Neill
• The Genius That Lit the World (Documentary)
• The Forgotten Inventor (Documentary)
• The History Channel (The Tesla Files)
• The Secret Life of Nikola Tesla (1980 Movie, Starring Orson Wells as JP Morgan!)

00:13:48 - Dawn jumps into the story of how Tesla first conceived of the idea of AC Power and how it led first to a humiliating moment in front of his college classmates - to an epiphany while watching a sunset.

00:18:42 - Nikola Tesla leaves Europe for New York City and after a harrowing journey (he is pick-pocketed and finds himself in the middle of a violent mutiny...) he arrives in the middle of The Gilded Age. It's a booming era when the pillars of wealth and industry really come into their own: JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Canegie - and they're all looking for the next big thing.

00:25:30 - After a disappointing six months with Thomas Edison (spit) Tesla quits after feeling unappreciated and insulted. He first digs ditches and then goes into business with some enterprising guys who help him show his genius to money men who would actually support him. Westinghouse buys into AC Power and Tesla starts to come into his own.

00:30:50 - The introduction of AC Power was a huge threat to Edison who had invested not only in DC Power, but in all of the supportive infrastructure around it. If AC were to replace his systems, he'd be ruined - and as soon as people saw how much demonstrably better it was, they would choose it every time. A war ensues. THE CURRENT WAR. Edision first tries to scare people away from AC power by hosting public electricutions of animals. When that doesn't work - he joins with another competitor to form General Electric.

00:34:36 - For a time, it appears that AC Power had won the war - which it had! Westinghouse and Tesla win the contracts to both light the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago - and they design the hydro-electric plant at Niagara Falls. Tesla is rich, famous, and on top of the world... for now.

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00:37:53 - Dawn and Renee come back from the break having just come out of a conversation about the fuckary in showbusiness; and Dawn explains how such fuckary is the same kinda thing that one endures in the world of science. In fact, the artists process and the scientific process are not now - nor have they ever been - that different.

00:41:32 - Because Tesla was barking up the same money-trees as many of the leading artists of the time, he made the acquaintance of both Mark Twain and Sarah Berhardt - he captured both of their attention but it was only Twain with whom he made and held a date...

00:48:24 - Tragedy strikes in 1894 when Tesla's lab in New York City burns to the ground. It is impossible to calculate what was lost, but Tesla is heartbroken and after getting financial backing from J.J Astor - he builds a new lab in Colorado Springs and does some of his largest-scale experiments ever. He loses his funding after not delivering the promised inventions and it is all torn down by 1906.

00:56:28 - His second failed attempt with a millionaire-backer and a big idea is in Wardenclyff when he is secretly trying to build world-wide wireless communication. While he's working on it, Marconi successfully sends the letter 'S' across the Atlantic - stealing the headlines and infuriating Tesla's backer, JP Morgan, who severs his ties. Wydenlcyff is also dismantled and Tesla now finds himself adrift with no lab, and no rich friends left.

01:01:33 - In his old age and now in poverty, Tesla spends his last remaining years feeding pigeons and telling anyone who still finds him relevant, what he is working on... however theoretically. It is during this time of his life that some of the wildest theories and conspiracies emerge. Among them, that he invented a Death Ray and was part of the Philadelphia Experiment.

01:11:33 - We end with Renee making the great observation that we should all be grateful that Tesla never became a super villain. Indeed, despite a series of unfortunate events and mistreatment by the hands of those in power - it is impressive that he never used his powers to hurt anyone - or to unduly enrich himself.

Maybe he can teach us more than just how to build a better robot.

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NEXT EPISODE - FEB. 15th - Jack the Ripper with comedian and improvisor - Peter Vogt.

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