Tech Stories

Ferdi and Didi

🏆 Tech Stories is a 2026 Signal Awards Finalist! If you enjoy the stories I tell here, I’d love your support. Vote for Tech Stories in the Signal Awards — it takes less than a minute. Link: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/shows/craft/best-application-of-emerging-technology Thank you! Tech Stories is a technology podcast where a human and an AI explore the hidden systems shaping our world. Every second week, we uncover the untold stories behind breakthrough inventions, world-changing algorithms and overlooked inventors — with sharp insights and suspenseful storytelling.

  1. 1d ago

    The Man Beneath the Microchip — The Story of the MOSFET

    🏆 Tech Stories is a finalist in the 2026 Signal Awards! If you enjoy the show, you can help an independent podcast compete alongside some of the biggest names in podcasting by voting for Tech Stories in the Signal Listener’s Choice Awards. Click here to Vote Your vote genuinely means a lot. Thank you. You probably don’t know his name. But Mohamed Atalla helped create the technology inside almost every computer, smartphone, data center, and digital device on Earth. At Bell Labs, Atalla solved one of the biggest problems holding back silicon technology. Then, together with Dawon Kahng, he created the MOSFET — the tiny electronic switch that became the foundation of the modern microchip. Today, billions of MOSFETs can exist inside a single processor. They power the internet, artificial intelligence, smartphones, and almost everything we think of as modern technology. So why do we remember the CEOs, founders, and famous inventors... but almost never the people who built the foundations underneath them? This is the hidden story of Mohamed Atalla — an immigrant engineer whose work quietly changed the world. Tech Stories tells the hidden, surprising stories behind the world’s most influential tech companies, inventions, and creators—packed with insights, suspense, and real lessons you can apply. Tech Stories is moderated by  One human: Ferdinand Huber and one Artificial Intelligence: Didi Allesweiss. Listen to the Music of the Tech Stories by clicking here Used AI Models: ChatGPT  ⁠⁠suno.com⁠⁠ NotebookLM Auphonic.com Script, production and moderation: Ferdinand Huber Music and sound effects created with Suno.com This Podcast is brought to you by leantalk.org For Contact and Information visit: techstoriespodcast.com  or send an email to hi@techstoriespodcast.com

    The Man Beneath the Microchip — The Story of the MOSFET
  2. Sep 8

    The Untold Story of Humanoid Robots

    Why are we spending billions building robots with two arms, two legs, five fingers and a face—when the human body is far from the perfect machine? In this episode of Tech Stories, we trace the strange history of robots from Unimate, the first industrial robot working at General Motors, to Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and today’s race to put humanoids into factories, warehouses and eventually our homes. For decades, we redesigned factories around robots: fixed positions, predictable movements, safety cages and conveyor belts. Now the strategy is changing. Instead of rebuilding the world for machines, companies are trying to build machines that can enter the world we already created for ourselves. But that opens a much bigger question. If robots can eventually use our tools, climb our stairs, operate our factories and perform the physical work humans once did—what happens to the value of human labor? And if work is no longer what makes us useful, what exactly makes us valuable? Tech Stories tells the hidden, surprising stories behind the world’s most influential tech companies, inventions, and creators—packed with insights, suspense, and real lessons you can apply. Tech Stories is moderated by  One human: Ferdinand Huber and one Artificial Intelligence: Didi Allesweiss. Used AI Models: ChatGPT  ⁠⁠suno.com⁠⁠ NotebookLM Auphonic.com Script, production and moderation: Ferdinand Huber Music and sound effects created with Suno.com This Podcast is brought to you by leantalk.org For Contact and Information visit: techstoriespodcast.com or send an email to hi@techstoriespodcast.com Find the official soundtrack to the podcast here: Click here

  3. Jul 27

    The Secret History of Ratings: How Stars Took Control of Our Lives

    Hi everyone, I am on summer vacation and plan to have a few weeks off from my podcast. In 3 Weeks I will be back with more exciting tech stories. Sorry for the lower audio quality on this one... recorded on the road. Make sure to follow the show to not miss the next one. See you in a few weeks! Every day, we trust ratings without thinking twice. Five stars. Hotel reviews. Google ratings. IMDb scores. Amazon reviews. Uber driver ratings. Credit scores. But where did this obsession with ranking everything begin? In this episode of Tech Stories, we uncover the surprising history of ratings—from the first commercial credit reporting system in 1841, to the invention of PageRank that transformed internet search, to today's world where algorithms quietly influence what we buy, watch, eat, and even who gets hired. What started as a simple way to measure trust became one of the most powerful forces shaping modern society. Along the way, ratings stopped reflecting reality—and began creating it. If you enjoy this content then please follow the show. Tech Stories tells the hidden, surprising stories behind the world’s most influential tech companies, inventions, and creators—packed with insights, suspense, and real lessons you can apply. Tech Stories is moderated by  One human: Ferdinand Huber and one Artificial Intelligence: Didi Allesweiss. Used AI Models: ⁠⁠cartesia.ai ChatGPT  ⁠⁠suno.com⁠⁠ historical facts: NotebookLM Auphonic.com Script, production and moderation: Ferdinand Huber Music and sound effects created with Suno.com This Podcast is brought to you by leantalk.org For Contact and Information visit: techstoriespodcast.com or send an email to hi@techstoriespodcast.com

    The Secret History of Ratings: How Stars Took Control of Our Lives
  4. Jul 14

    The $5 Trillion Idea Nobody Believed

    Every day, millions of products travel across oceans before they end up on store shelves or at your front door. But few people ever stop to ask why this process became so fast, so cheap, and so reliable. The answer begins with one man who looked at an everyday problem and saw something everyone else had missed. His idea seemed almost laughably simple. Investors were skeptical. Industry experts dismissed it. Yet that single insight quietly transformed global trade, reshaped entire economies, accelerated globalization, and changed the lives of billions of people. In this episode of Tech Stories, we uncover the remarkable true story of Malcolm McLean and the innovation that revolutionized the world—not through flashy technology, but through elegant simplicity. Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs are hiding in plain sight. If you enjoy this content and want to support me, then please follow the show or recommend it to a friend. This really helps. Thank you. Tech Stories tells the hidden, surprising stories behind the world’s most influential tech companies, inventions, and creators—packed with insights, suspense, and real lessons you can apply. Tech Stories is moderated by  One human: Ferdinand Huber and one Artificial Intelligence: Didi Allesweiss. Used AI Models: ChatGPT  ⁠⁠suno.com⁠⁠ historical facts: NotebookLM Auphonic.com Script, production and moderation: Ferdinand Huber Music and sound effects created with Suno.com This Podcast is brought to you by leantalk.org For Contact and Information visit: techstoriespodcast.com

    The $5 Trillion Idea Nobody Believed

About

🏆 Tech Stories is a 2026 Signal Awards Finalist! If you enjoy the stories I tell here, I’d love your support. Vote for Tech Stories in the Signal Awards — it takes less than a minute. Link: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/shows/craft/best-application-of-emerging-technology Thank you! Tech Stories is a technology podcast where a human and an AI explore the hidden systems shaping our world. Every second week, we uncover the untold stories behind breakthrough inventions, world-changing algorithms and overlooked inventors — with sharp insights and suspenseful storytelling.

You Might Also Like