The Secret Genius of Modern Life

Season 32022

Hannah Fry uncovers the secrets behind the miraculous technologies of the modern world, revealing the mind-blowing stories behind their invention.

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6 Episodes

E01 Bank Card

Hannah Fry takes a look at the bank card, the digital key to accessing cash, and finds out how its extraordinary innovations have some surprising and sinister origins.

November 10, 2022

E02 Food Delivery App

Hannah Fry tucks into the tech behind food delivery apps, which are now used by 24 million people in the UK. Hannah finds out how pizza made us fall in love with the internet.

November 17, 2022

E03 Virtual Assistant

Hannah Fry delves into the inner workings of virtual assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, which are now found in almost half of all UK homes.

November 24, 2022

E04 Electric Car

Hannah Fry discovers why innovations in meat packing almost derailed the electric car revolution and how a breakthrough in camcorder batteries led to Elon Musk’s electric empire, as well as demonstrating how not to drive a multimillion dollar prototype car of the future.

December 1, 2022

E05 Fitness Tracker

Hannah Fry finds out how 1970s car crashes helped us to count our steps, why WWII dog-fights led to a crucial health monitor and how fitness trackers are even being used to catch killers.

December 8, 2022

E06 Trainer

Hannah Fry visits Ebay’s authentication centre, where they are waging war against fake high-value trainers.

December 15, 2022

The Secret Genius of Modern Life

E01 Bank Card

E02 Food Delivery App

E03 Virtual Assistant

E04 Electric Car

E05 Fitness Tracker

E06 Trainer

Race Across the World

Breaking Bad

Game of Thrones

The Boys

Squid Game

House of the Dragon

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

Money Heist

The Walking Dead

Chernobyl

13 Reasons Why

Stranger Things

SpongeBob SquarePants

Fear the Walking Dead

The Watcher

Mr. Bean

Dark

Vikings

Reacher

Sex Education

E01 Bank Card

E02 Food Delivery App

E03 Virtual Assistant

E04 Electric Car

E05 Fitness Tracker

E06 Trainer