logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2025
46m 8s

TechStuff Classic: The Story of the Sony...

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

This week, we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes — all about the Sony Walkman. Jonathan Strickland dives into why Time named the portable device number 47 on a list of the 50 most influential gadgets of all time. How did the Walkman become a thing, and what influence has it had on how we experience music?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Apr 29
Why Building AI At DeepMind Feels Like ‘Surfing’
Live from The Royal Institution of Great Britain, it's TechStuff! Oz sat down with two visionaries at an event hosted by Quilt.AI. First, he spoke with Ali Eslami, a Distinguished Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, who built the prototype for what is now AI Search. Ali talked ... Show More
41m 5s
Apr 27
Two Percent with Michael Easter: Is Social Media Addiction Real?
TechStuff presents Two Percent with Michael Easter, a twice-weekly deep dive into the science of living better by doing things the hard way. In this episode of the podcast, Taylor Lorenz of the Substack User Mag and host of podcast Power User joins Michael to discuss whether soci ... Show More
26m 31s
Apr 24
The Future Is Inherently Uncertain, But What Could Go Right?
Many contemporary talking heads take a pessimistic view of the future, but our guest today hopes to change this. Oz interviews Zachary Karabell, host of the podcast What Could Go Right? and founder of the Progress Network, about being an ‘edgy optimist’ and what that means for th ... Show More
57m 46s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2025
Version History: Sony Watchman
1982's coolest gadget was the Sony Watchman portable TV. Decades before everyone was glued to YouTube on their smartphones, the Watchman popularized the concept of video on the go. In the early days of the personal-tech revolution, you’d find the Watchman antennas up everywhere f ... Show More
1h 5m
Mar 2022
SONY
Born in the unlikeliest of places — the terrible, wasteland-like aftermath of post WWII Japan — Sony rose to capture the imaginations (and wallets) of consumers and engineers around the world. The company produced hit after hit after hit: portable transistor radios, CDs, the Walk ... Show More
3h 4m
Aug 2024
Quibi's epic fall and the future of books
Today on the flagship podcast of what the future of Kindle turns out to be: We’re once again trying out a couple of our favorite new show formats. In Version History, we talk through the whole story of Quibi, from its early days as NewTV to its extremely ill-timed launch to its u ... Show More
1h 14m
Mar 2025
Phones Are Finally Fun Again!
This week, Marques, Andrew, and David first dig into all of the weird products that are coming out of Mobile World Congress 2025! Topics range from solar smartphones to briefcase displays and extra long laptops. There are a ton of weird gadgets and it's great. Then, they go over ... Show More
1h 24m
Mar 2025
Switch 2, Steam Deck, and the next-gen console wars
Handheld gaming looks like the future — so why isn't it more popular? The Verge's Sean Hollister joins the show to talk about some new data about the handheld console market, what it says about the Steam Deck's dominance, whether the Switch 2 might change everything all over agai ... Show More
1h 24m
May 2024
The rise of the audio-only video game
In episode two of our Five Senses of Gaming miniseries, David Pierce dives into the world of hearing with audio-only video games with Paul Bennun, who has been in this space longer than most. Years ago, Bennun and his team at Somethin’ Else made a series of games called Papa Sang ... Show More
27m 9s
Aug 2024
What's the best phone to do crimes on?
For years, the must-have phone for the discerning drug trafficker or hitman was a brand you may not have heard of: AN0M. Reporter Joseph Cox tells us the story of the AN0M phone, its sudden rise and shocking fall, and the shadowy group behind its invention. Joseph's new book: Dar ... Show More
1h 1m
Jul 2025
Samsung’s Tri-Fold Phone is Coming!
This week, there is a bunch of news to talk about. Marques, Andrew, and David jump right into the news that ChromeOS is merging with Android before then talking about the new Sony point-and-shoot camera that's going viral for all the wrong reasons. After that, they talk about the ... Show More
1h 24m
May 2025
Beaty Rubens, "Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home" (Bodleian Library, 2025)
Radio, today, can feel like a faithful old companion, but its early history was sensational. Between 1922 and 1939, British life was transformed by what was known as the Radio Craze. Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home (Bodleian Library, 2025) expresses what the radio's arrival ... Show More
50m 57s