S01 · E01Albert Einstein
The Untold Story Before His Genius Changed the World
Before relativity became shorthand for genius, Einstein was a restless student, an outsider, and a young thinker still searching for his place.
The archive
Every mind leaves a trail.
Follow Atlas into the lives, ideas, and choices of the people who built the modern world. Start anywhere; every conversation stands alone.
Season one
The builders of the modern world
New episodes arrive weekly on YouTube and Spotify.
S01 · E01
S01 · E02Isaac Newton
The Man Who United Earth and Heaven
A private, relentless mind searches for one set of laws powerful enough to explain both a falling object and the movement of the heavens.
S01 · E03Thomas Edison
Admits He Didn’t Invent the Light Bulb
Atlas challenges the lone-inventor myth and asks Edison what innovation really means when discovery, business, and a team of collaborators collide.
S01 · E04Marie Skłodowska Curie
Marie Curie and the Number the Ore Couldn’t Explain
Pitchblende was more active than its uranium could explain. Marie Skłodowska Curie had a number—and no known element that could account for it.
S01 · E05Galileo Galilei
How a Telescope Put Him on Trial
Galileo did not invent the telescope. He made it powerful enough to turn the sky into evidence—and followed that evidence into a formal Inquisition trial.
S01 · E06Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla: Why Couldn't He Keep the Future he had built?
Tesla could test a complete motor inside his mind before building it—and the same certainty that made alternating current possible left him unable to keep what he made.