Invent Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/invent Invent is about how to make things that don't exist yet. A man in a chicken suit at a Padres game. A pathologist in Perth who saw something in a stomach that couldn't be there. Two scientists who went looking in the sludge outside a recycling plant. Every week, somebody who saw a thing everyone agreed was impossible and found the way through. I'm Tara Lemméy. I invent things that don't exist — my biggest inventions were never patentable, like architecting the intelligence sharing system still used across the US intelligence community. Inventors see the world sideways, and sideways is where the answer is. Featured on Apple Podcasts. © Tara Lemméy 86cd5e54-03ee-5429-bd99-c834fd20d49a yes Tara Lemméy Trailer en Mon, 28 Sep 2026 09:40:34 -0700 Mon, 28 Sep 2026 09:44:10 -0700 http://www.taralemmey.com https://img.transistorcdn.com/jtpZHGEy5PlYcuLoyf4E5IaHuuNWon5QQuwoVovlGOg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS85ZDdk/ZDk5ZWE5NjdmYTBi/YzMxNWFmZGE5ZWQy/NDkyMy5qcGVn.jpg Invent http://www.taralemmey.com episodic Tara Lemméy Invent is about how to make things that don't exist yet. A man in a chicken suit at a Padres game. A pathologist in Perth who saw something in a stomach that couldn't be there. Two scientists who went looking in the sludge outside a recycling plant. Every week, somebody who saw a thing everyone agreed was impossible and found the way through. I'm Tara Lemméy. I invent things that don't exist — my biggest inventions were never patentable, like architecting the intelligence sharing system still used across the US intelligence community. Inventors see the world sideways, and sideways is where the answer is. Featured on Apple Podcasts. Invent is about how to make things that don't exist yet. invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next LENS Studios No No How to Stop Fire 3 3 3 3 How to Stop Fire full 2426e2b8-d776-4c0e-881e-18acb8afc21f https://share.transistor.fm/s/b838aa59 A flood destroys a valley. Engineers build a levee. A drought empties a river. Engineers build a reservoir. A wildfire burns faster than anything can stop it.

Three problems. Three agencies. Three budgets. They’re the same problem.

An inventor is already solving all three — wherever we let it.

Beavers in Washington’s Methow Valley and Devon, England — and the people bringing them back.


]]> A flood destroys a valley. Engineers build a levee. A drought empties a river. Engineers build a reservoir. A wildfire burns faster than anything can stop it.

Three problems. Three agencies. Three budgets. They’re the same problem.

An inventor is already solving all three — wherever we let it.

Beavers in Washington’s Methow Valley and Devon, England — and the people bringing them back.


]]> Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:37:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 686 A flood destroys a valley. Engineers build a levee. A drought empties a river. Engineers build a reservoir. A wildfire burns faster than anything can stop it.

Three problems. Three agencies. Three budgets. They’re the same problem.

An inventor is already solving all three — wherever we let it.

Beavers in Washington’s Methow Valley and Devon, England — and the people bringing them back.


]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Tara Lemméy How to Invent 4 Million Jobs 3 3 2 2 How to Invent 4 Million Jobs full 59e8263e-f902-401c-a202-b1cf22bee6bb https://share.transistor.fm/s/18ca6730 A man sits down at a desk in Washington with no staff, no system, and no plan. 
He has a phone, and until spring to put four million people to work.

He starts making calls.

Harry Hopkins, the Civil Works Administration, and how four million jobs got built inside government with a telephone and a list of governors.


]]> A man sits down at a desk in Washington with no staff, no system, and no plan. 
He has a phone, and until spring to put four million people to work.

He starts making calls.

Harry Hopkins, the Civil Works Administration, and how four million jobs got built inside government with a telephone and a list of governors.


]]> Mon, 14 Sep 2026 14:18:35 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 430 A man sits down at a desk in Washington with no staff, no system, and no plan. 
He has a phone, and until spring to put four million people to work.

He starts making calls.

Harry Hopkins, the Civil Works Administration, and how four million jobs got built inside government with a telephone and a list of governors.


]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Tara Lemméy How to Eat Plastic 3 3 1 1 How to Eat Plastic full 4c5543ab-5a35-4791-85c2-62197680c2b1 https://share.transistor.fm/s/d1240796 We made a material so good at lasting that nothing alive could eat it. That was the design. We wanted it. We got it.
Then, in a puddle outside a recycling plant in Japan, something ate it anyway.

I've watched plastic wash up on three shorelines — Lima, San Francisco, the Great Barrier Reef — and every time I thought the same thing everybody thinks. That's permanent now. That's just the world we made.

I was wrong, and not about the plastic.


In 2016 two scientists in Japan didn't ask how to build something that could eat PET. They asked whether anything was eating it already —and if so, where it would be.


Then they went and looked.


]]> We made a material so good at lasting that nothing alive could eat it. That was the design. We wanted it. We got it.
Then, in a puddle outside a recycling plant in Japan, something ate it anyway.

I've watched plastic wash up on three shorelines — Lima, San Francisco, the Great Barrier Reef — and every time I thought the same thing everybody thinks. That's permanent now. That's just the world we made.

I was wrong, and not about the plastic.


In 2016 two scientists in Japan didn't ask how to build something that could eat PET. They asked whether anything was eating it already —and if so, where it would be.


Then they went and looked.


]]> Mon, 07 Sep 2026 10:37:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 372 We made a material so good at lasting that nothing alive could eat it. That was the design. We wanted it. We got it.
Then, in a puddle outside a recycling plant in Japan, something ate it anyway.

I've watched plastic wash up on three shorelines — Lima, San Francisco, the Great Barrier Reef — and every time I thought the same thing everybody thinks. That's permanent now. That's just the world we made.

I was wrong, and not about the plastic.


In 2016 two scientists in Japan didn't ask how to build something that could eat PET. They asked whether anything was eating it already —and if so, where it would be.


Then they went and looked.


]]> plastic eating bacteria, plastic pollution, microplastics, ocean plastic, recycling, climate solutions, invention, Japan, climate, environment No Tara Lemméy Enter Laughing 2 2 19 19 Enter Laughing full 096f54bd-2082-4b40-9cef-6707bc0dc346 https://share.transistor.fm/s/f5fc3406 Two pirates sail to an island looking for treasure. They find none. So one of them bans the letter O — first from speech, then from objects, then from existence. And slowly, the island forgets how to rebel. You can outlaw a word, a book, a name — but it's hard to outlaw the thing that makes people laugh. The joke carries the idea past the guard. The laugh is how it survives long enough to matter. This is an episode about the people who kept freedom alive by keeping us laughing — and who understood that you can't invent in a place that's afraid to speak. The first act of invention is language. A Fourth of July episode about laughter, words, and the freedom to imagine what doesn't exist yet.

]]> Two pirates sail to an island looking for treasure. They find none. So one of them bans the letter O — first from speech, then from objects, then from existence. And slowly, the island forgets how to rebel. You can outlaw a word, a book, a name — but it's hard to outlaw the thing that makes people laugh. The joke carries the idea past the guard. The laugh is how it survives long enough to matter. This is an episode about the people who kept freedom alive by keeping us laughing — and who understood that you can't invent in a place that's afraid to speak. The first act of invention is language. A Fourth of July episode about laughter, words, and the freedom to imagine what doesn't exist yet.

]]> Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 393 Two pirates sail to an island looking for treasure. They find none. So one of them bans the letter O — first from speech, then from objects, then from existence. And slowly, the island forgets how to rebel. You can outlaw a word, a book, a name — but it's hard to outlaw the thing that makes people laugh. The joke carries the idea past the guard. The laugh is how it survives long enough to matter. This is an episode about the people who kept freedom alive by keeping us laughing — and who understood that you can't invent in a place that's afraid to speak. The first act of invention is language. A Fourth of July episode about laughter, words, and the freedom to imagine what doesn't exist yet.

]]> technology, culture, society, entrepreneur, comedy, invention No What's an Enemy, Really? 2 2 18 18 What's an Enemy, Really? full fc042449-a280-4df7-b0be-26b286165b7f https://share.transistor.fm/s/8e5a0bd6 In CPR training they give you a song. Not a number — a song. Dr. Alson Inaba figured out that the beat that saves a life is the same beat across disco, country, and funk. Sheldon Kaplan understood the same principle. He just came at it from a different direction. In 1973 the Pentagon needed a solution for soldiers. Fast. No training. Works through clothing. A soldier alone, seconds to act, no help coming. Kaplan built it. Then he looked at what he’d made and asked a different question. A peanut. A bee sting. A latex glove. Same mechanism. Different enemy. Same solution. He called it the EpiPen. He never collected a penny in royalties. The drug inside costs about a dollar. This is Invent. How to make things that don’t exist yet.

]]> In CPR training they give you a song. Not a number — a song. Dr. Alson Inaba figured out that the beat that saves a life is the same beat across disco, country, and funk. Sheldon Kaplan understood the same principle. He just came at it from a different direction. In 1973 the Pentagon needed a solution for soldiers. Fast. No training. Works through clothing. A soldier alone, seconds to act, no help coming. Kaplan built it. Then he looked at what he’d made and asked a different question. A peanut. A bee sting. A latex glove. Same mechanism. Different enemy. Same solution. He called it the EpiPen. He never collected a penny in royalties. The drug inside costs about a dollar. This is Invent. How to make things that don’t exist yet.

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 322 In CPR training they give you a song. Not a number — a song. Dr. Alson Inaba figured out that the beat that saves a life is the same beat across disco, country, and funk. Sheldon Kaplan understood the same principle. He just came at it from a different direction. In 1973 the Pentagon needed a solution for soldiers. Fast. No training. Works through clothing. A soldier alone, seconds to act, no help coming. Kaplan built it. Then he looked at what he’d made and asked a different question. A peanut. A bee sting. A latex glove. Same mechanism. Different enemy. Same solution. He called it the EpiPen. He never collected a penny in royalties. The drug inside costs about a dollar. This is Invent. How to make things that don’t exist yet.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Map Is Not the Territory 2 2 17 17 The Map Is Not the Territory full ab01fd08-1dcf-427e-a102-916463581dd7 https://share.transistor.fm/s/9e4fe5c8 When I moved to San Francisco I had to find the water all over again. So I bought a Thomas Guide. Street by street, grid by grid, I built the city out. After about a year I didn’t need the book. San Francisco was inside me. George Coupland Thomas made the Thomas Guide in Oakland in 1915. The map transferred. It got inside you. The best tools build the person

]]> When I moved to San Francisco I had to find the water all over again. So I bought a Thomas Guide. Street by street, grid by grid, I built the city out. After about a year I didn’t need the book. San Francisco was inside me. George Coupland Thomas made the Thomas Guide in Oakland in 1915. The map transferred. It got inside you. The best tools build the person

]]> Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 510 When I moved to San Francisco I had to find the water all over again. So I bought a Thomas Guide. Street by street, grid by grid, I built the city out. After about a year I didn’t need the book. San Francisco was inside me. George Coupland Thomas made the Thomas Guide in Oakland in 1915. The map transferred. It got inside you. The best tools build the person

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Jane Jacobs — Witnessing Is Inventing 2 2 16 16 Jane Jacobs — Witnessing Is Inventing full f97e1c85-e47d-4636-91c1-5bf461abfb7f https://share.transistor.fm/s/1660e19d I sit at restaurant window tables for a reason. I watch what's happening out there. I make up stories. Kids do this too. Jane Jacobs was a journalist with three kids on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village. One night she's up with a baby, sitting in the dark, listening to the street. She noticed it was never empty. Nobody told those people to be there. Nobody coordinated it. She called it the sidewalk ballet. She spent years working out what she'd seen. Then she wrote it down. The planning profession hated it. She had no degree. The book is still in print. She just watched. 

]]> I sit at restaurant window tables for a reason. I watch what's happening out there. I make up stories. Kids do this too. Jane Jacobs was a journalist with three kids on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village. One night she's up with a baby, sitting in the dark, listening to the street. She noticed it was never empty. Nobody told those people to be there. Nobody coordinated it. She called it the sidewalk ballet. She spent years working out what she'd seen. Then she wrote it down. The planning profession hated it. She had no degree. The book is still in print. She just watched. 

]]> Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 339 I sit at restaurant window tables for a reason. I watch what's happening out there. I make up stories. Kids do this too. Jane Jacobs was a journalist with three kids on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village. One night she's up with a baby, sitting in the dark, listening to the street. She noticed it was never empty. Nobody told those people to be there. Nobody coordinated it. She called it the sidewalk ballet. She spent years working out what she'd seen. Then she wrote it down. The planning profession hated it. She had no degree. The book is still in print. She just watched. 

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Cable That Was Already Listening 2 2 15 15 The Cable That Was Already Listening full 8172612f-208e-46e9-93cf-08d41dc014aa https://share.transistor.fm/s/3f478d32 My phone screamed at me at 3am. Earthquake alert. I’m NERT-trained. I know what to do. This time it was a 4.6. This time. Nokia Bell Labs was trying to find where undersea cables break. What they found instead: the cable carrying your internet across the Pacific Ocean had been sensing earthquakes, tsunamis, and whales for decades. Nobody had read it yet. This is the story of Mikael Mazur, an excavator, and the invention that just gave the Cascadia Subduction Zone a lot more warning time. The cable was already there. We just learned how to read it.

]]> My phone screamed at me at 3am. Earthquake alert. I’m NERT-trained. I know what to do. This time it was a 4.6. This time. Nokia Bell Labs was trying to find where undersea cables break. What they found instead: the cable carrying your internet across the Pacific Ocean had been sensing earthquakes, tsunamis, and whales for decades. Nobody had read it yet. This is the story of Mikael Mazur, an excavator, and the invention that just gave the Cascadia Subduction Zone a lot more warning time. The cable was already there. We just learned how to read it.

]]> Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 439 My phone screamed at me at 3am. Earthquake alert. I’m NERT-trained. I know what to do. This time it was a 4.6. This time. Nokia Bell Labs was trying to find where undersea cables break. What they found instead: the cable carrying your internet across the Pacific Ocean had been sensing earthquakes, tsunamis, and whales for decades. Nobody had read it yet. This is the story of Mikael Mazur, an excavator, and the invention that just gave the Cascadia Subduction Zone a lot more warning time. The cable was already there. We just learned how to read it.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Jaws 2 2 14 14 Jaws full 5924a97b-ec87-42a6-b68d-0002a2ef0736 https://share.transistor.fm/s/e4d49dc1 For a hundred years of surfing, twenty feet was the limit. Not a rule. Physics. Human arms can’t generate enough speed to catch a wave that fast. In 1992, Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, and Darrick Doerner had a Zodiac and a rope. One afternoon on the North Shore changed what surfing could ever be. This is a story about what happens when you change the method instead of the effort. How to make things that don’t exist yet. 10 minutes.

]]> For a hundred years of surfing, twenty feet was the limit. Not a rule. Physics. Human arms can’t generate enough speed to catch a wave that fast. In 1992, Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, and Darrick Doerner had a Zodiac and a rope. One afternoon on the North Shore changed what surfing could ever be. This is a story about what happens when you change the method instead of the effort. How to make things that don’t exist yet. 10 minutes.

]]> Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 442 For a hundred years of surfing, twenty feet was the limit. Not a rule. Physics. Human arms can’t generate enough speed to catch a wave that fast. In 1992, Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, and Darrick Doerner had a Zodiac and a rope. One afternoon on the North Shore changed what surfing could ever be. This is a story about what happens when you change the method instead of the effort. How to make things that don’t exist yet. 10 minutes.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Salt Window 2 2 13 13 The Salt Window full 34ec52c8-995c-4427-a744-09644e4db033 https://share.transistor.fm/s/41fc8460 There’s a salt shaker on your breakfast table. The raw material that could free the energy transition from a single supply chain is in it. China makes 80% of the world’s battery cells. The chemistry to change that is solved. The materials are in Wyoming, Kenya, Turkey — and dozens of places besides. The window to build something different is open. It won’t wait. 8 minutes.

]]> There’s a salt shaker on your breakfast table. The raw material that could free the energy transition from a single supply chain is in it. China makes 80% of the world’s battery cells. The chemistry to change that is solved. The materials are in Wyoming, Kenya, Turkey — and dozens of places besides. The window to build something different is open. It won’t wait. 8 minutes.

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 478 There’s a salt shaker on your breakfast table. The raw material that could free the energy transition from a single supply chain is in it. China makes 80% of the world’s battery cells. The chemistry to change that is solved. The materials are in Wyoming, Kenya, Turkey — and dozens of places besides. The window to build something different is open. It won’t wait. 8 minutes.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Swamp Cooler — What Your Environment Already Wants to Do 2 2 12 12 The Swamp Cooler — What Your Environment Already Wants to Do full d06077cf-52d5-4c9d-9337-7fe6bf56a09f https://share.transistor.fm/s/db388190 The Swamp Cooler — What Your Environment Already Wants to Do There’s a box on almost every roof in Tucson. No compressor. No refrigerant. Eighty percent less energy than air conditioning. Oscar Palmer built it in 1908. It’s still running in 200,000 buildings. He didn’t invent a new principle. He just stopped fighting his environment long enough to ask what it already wanted to do. That question is available to you right now. Wherever you are.

]]> The Swamp Cooler — What Your Environment Already Wants to Do There’s a box on almost every roof in Tucson. No compressor. No refrigerant. Eighty percent less energy than air conditioning. Oscar Palmer built it in 1908. It’s still running in 200,000 buildings. He didn’t invent a new principle. He just stopped fighting his environment long enough to ask what it already wanted to do. That question is available to you right now. Wherever you are.

]]> Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 365 The Swamp Cooler — What Your Environment Already Wants to Do There’s a box on almost every roof in Tucson. No compressor. No refrigerant. Eighty percent less energy than air conditioning. Oscar Palmer built it in 1908. It’s still running in 200,000 buildings. He didn’t invent a new principle. He just stopped fighting his environment long enough to ask what it already wanted to do. That question is available to you right now. Wherever you are.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Ulcer — The Answer Was There the Whole Time 2 2 11 11 The Ulcer — The Answer Was There the Whole Time full 2e6cd507-238f-4ece-b19b-e5fb7481046a https://share.transistor.fm/s/413a9a1f In 1979, a pathologist in Perth saw something in a gastric biopsy that couldn't be there. The stomach is sterile. Everyone knew this. It had been established in 1954. One study. Case closed. Robin Warren wrote it down anyway. Then Barry Marshall drank it. The cure for ulcers was sitting on the stomach lining since 1892. Seen three times. Dismissed three times. It wasn't ignorance that kept it from patients for a century. It was a load-bearing wall nobody wanted to touch. 8 minutes.

]]> In 1979, a pathologist in Perth saw something in a gastric biopsy that couldn't be there. The stomach is sterile. Everyone knew this. It had been established in 1954. One study. Case closed. Robin Warren wrote it down anyway. Then Barry Marshall drank it. The cure for ulcers was sitting on the stomach lining since 1892. Seen three times. Dismissed three times. It wasn't ignorance that kept it from patients for a century. It was a load-bearing wall nobody wanted to touch. 8 minutes.

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 509 In 1979, a pathologist in Perth saw something in a gastric biopsy that couldn't be there. The stomach is sterile. Everyone knew this. It had been established in 1954. One study. Case closed. Robin Warren wrote it down anyway. Then Barry Marshall drank it. The cure for ulcers was sitting on the stomach lining since 1892. Seen three times. Dismissed three times. It wasn't ignorance that kept it from patients for a century. It was a load-bearing wall nobody wanted to touch. 8 minutes.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Silent Stadium: Required 2 2 10 10 The Silent Stadium: Required full a7cc6912-2853-4335-b157-ee2b8f250863 https://share.transistor.fm/s/cdf8da4e Before the game starts, the referee speaks. Not to the athletes. To you. Keep quiet when the ball is in play. The game breaks without you. I was in my living room in San Francisco watching the Paris Paralympics when I first heard that. I'd never had a referee explain my job before the first whistle. The players are blind. They navigate by sound. A noise from the stands is interference. The crowd isn't just watching — they're part of the machine. Designed in. Required. Someone figured out how to build that. In 1946. From nothing. 7 minutes.

]]> Before the game starts, the referee speaks. Not to the athletes. To you. Keep quiet when the ball is in play. The game breaks without you. I was in my living room in San Francisco watching the Paris Paralympics when I first heard that. I'd never had a referee explain my job before the first whistle. The players are blind. They navigate by sound. A noise from the stands is interference. The crowd isn't just watching — they're part of the machine. Designed in. Required. Someone figured out how to build that. In 1946. From nothing. 7 minutes.

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 466 Before the game starts, the referee speaks. Not to the athletes. To you. Keep quiet when the ball is in play. The game breaks without you. I was in my living room in San Francisco watching the Paris Paralympics when I first heard that. I'd never had a referee explain my job before the first whistle. The players are blind. They navigate by sound. A noise from the stands is interference. The crowd isn't just watching — they're part of the machine. Designed in. Required. Someone figured out how to build that. In 1946. From nothing. 7 minutes.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Fish Skin That Healed Everything 2 2 8 8 The Fish Skin That Healed Everything full c8a84bf2-13e0-4159-bd23-c92f16e54383 https://share.transistor.fm/s/4f835b5c Dr. Edmar Maciel was watching his burn patients scream through dressing changes every 48 hours. Remove the bandage, clean the wound, apply the cream, wrap it again. Every two days. A million burns a year in Brazil. Running out of supplies. He stopped asking how to make the treatment better. He asked whether the bandage needed to be changed at all. Tilapia skin — fish waste the hospital was throwing away — has collagen almost identical to human skin. Stays on a wound 10 to 12 days. 75% cheaper than standard treatment. The solution was in the discard pile.

]]> Dr. Edmar Maciel was watching his burn patients scream through dressing changes every 48 hours. Remove the bandage, clean the wound, apply the cream, wrap it again. Every two days. A million burns a year in Brazil. Running out of supplies. He stopped asking how to make the treatment better. He asked whether the bandage needed to be changed at all. Tilapia skin — fish waste the hospital was throwing away — has collagen almost identical to human skin. Stays on a wound 10 to 12 days. 75% cheaper than standard treatment. The solution was in the discard pile.

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 341 Dr. Edmar Maciel was watching his burn patients scream through dressing changes every 48 hours. Remove the bandage, clean the wound, apply the cream, wrap it again. Every two days. A million burns a year in Brazil. Running out of supplies. He stopped asking how to make the treatment better. He asked whether the bandage needed to be changed at all. Tilapia skin — fish waste the hospital was throwing away — has collagen almost identical to human skin. Stays on a wound 10 to 12 days. 75% cheaper than standard treatment. The solution was in the discard pile.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Woman Who Proved Newton Wrong 2 2 9 9 The Woman Who Proved Newton Wrong full 6b00e089-6bf6-4ee8-9ce9-45ad515a3d8f https://share.transistor.fm/s/abb3bcf7 In 1749, the best scientists in Europe couldn’t answer the most basic question in physics: what is energy? Newton said velocity. Leibniz said velocity squared. Different answer. Different universe. The argument had gone on for decades. Émilie du Châtelet was 42 and pregnant. She knew what that meant in the 18th century. She worked 18 hours a day anyway. Dropped brass balls into clay. Measured the depths. Did the math. Velocity squared. She was right. Newton was wrong. She finished her manuscript on September 10, 1749. Wrote the date on the last page. Died that day. Her proof is inside E=mc² two hundred years later. Conditions were never going to be right. She finished anyway.

]]> In 1749, the best scientists in Europe couldn’t answer the most basic question in physics: what is energy? Newton said velocity. Leibniz said velocity squared. Different answer. Different universe. The argument had gone on for decades. Émilie du Châtelet was 42 and pregnant. She knew what that meant in the 18th century. She worked 18 hours a day anyway. Dropped brass balls into clay. Measured the depths. Did the math. Velocity squared. She was right. Newton was wrong. She finished her manuscript on September 10, 1749. Wrote the date on the last page. Died that day. Her proof is inside E=mc² two hundred years later. Conditions were never going to be right. She finished anyway.

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 604 In 1749, the best scientists in Europe couldn’t answer the most basic question in physics: what is energy? Newton said velocity. Leibniz said velocity squared. Different answer. Different universe. The argument had gone on for decades. Émilie du Châtelet was 42 and pregnant. She knew what that meant in the 18th century. She worked 18 hours a day anyway. Dropped brass balls into clay. Measured the depths. Did the math. Velocity squared. She was right. Newton was wrong. She finished her manuscript on September 10, 1749. Wrote the date on the last page. Died that day. Her proof is inside E=mc² two hundred years later. Conditions were never going to be right. She finished anyway.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Chicken Suit 2 2 7 7 The Chicken Suit full 4ccff7ab-fd8a-4b79-bee0-eb9d06e2db3a https://share.transistor.fm/s/3b87b6fd March 1974. Guy in a chicken suit at a Padres game figures out what to do during timeouts. Makes 47,000 people forget their team is terrible. 11% of fans start coming just to see him. Not the game. Him. That’s when everyone else notices. 50 years later: Every mascot you’ve ever seen is doing what Ted Giannoulas invented. The breakthrough: Downtime is opportunity.

]]> March 1974. Guy in a chicken suit at a Padres game figures out what to do during timeouts. Makes 47,000 people forget their team is terrible. 11% of fans start coming just to see him. Not the game. Him. That’s when everyone else notices. 50 years later: Every mascot you’ve ever seen is doing what Ted Giannoulas invented. The breakthrough: Downtime is opportunity.

]]> Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 616 March 1974. Guy in a chicken suit at a Padres game figures out what to do during timeouts. Makes 47,000 people forget their team is terrible. 11% of fans start coming just to see him. Not the game. Him. That’s when everyone else notices. 50 years later: Every mascot you’ve ever seen is doing what Ted Giannoulas invented. The breakthrough: Downtime is opportunity.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Playing Bridge with Warren Buffett 2 2 6 6 Playing Bridge with Warren Buffett full d564a7bf-e304-4f5d-a2c9-84174394c4e4 https://share.transistor.fm/s/ffa5c6a9 I won breakfast with Warren Buffett at a bridge tournament. Hadn’t played in years. He told me: “Your expression changes so much you have no tell. All noise, no signal.” He was right. I was figuring it out hand by hand. Before Buffett, annual reports were legal documents. Dense. Nobody read them. He wrote like he was talking to his sister. Plain English. Admitted mistakes. Taught how to think, not just what happened. Every CEO copied it. Buffett stepped down January 1, 2026. The 60-year run of annual letters ends. Truth as the standard? That stays.

]]> I won breakfast with Warren Buffett at a bridge tournament. Hadn’t played in years. He told me: “Your expression changes so much you have no tell. All noise, no signal.” He was right. I was figuring it out hand by hand. Before Buffett, annual reports were legal documents. Dense. Nobody read them. He wrote like he was talking to his sister. Plain English. Admitted mistakes. Taught how to think, not just what happened. Every CEO copied it. Buffett stepped down January 1, 2026. The 60-year run of annual letters ends. Truth as the standard? That stays.

]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 569 I won breakfast with Warren Buffett at a bridge tournament. Hadn’t played in years. He told me: “Your expression changes so much you have no tell. All noise, no signal.” He was right. I was figuring it out hand by hand. Before Buffett, annual reports were legal documents. Dense. Nobody read them. He wrote like he was talking to his sister. Plain English. Admitted mistakes. Taught how to think, not just what happened. Every CEO copied it. Buffett stepped down January 1, 2026. The 60-year run of annual letters ends. Truth as the standard? That stays.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Japan’s Hometown Tax: Weird Wins 2 2 5 5 Japan’s Hometown Tax: Weird Wins full 990015dc-e8ce-44da-8958-cbf8d3045c10 https://share.transistor.fm/s/2ed9a660 Give you 30 seconds: How would you solve rural decline? Japan’s answer: Mystery boxes of premium beef and sake. Sounds insane. But 7.4 million people are doing it, moving $6.3 billion annually. You browse towns online like shopping. Pick one. They send you stuff. Your tax money goes there instead of to your city. Tokyo’s losing billions. Rural towns reviving. Country more connected. All because someone in 2008 made tax allocation delightful instead of dutiful. Tara Lemméy breaks down the weirdest policy invention that actually works—and why weird always wins. The town I called “Kami” in this episode is actually Kamishihoro — a town of about 5,000 people in Hokkaido. Apparently I Americanized a perfectly good Japanese name into something more manageable. Kamishihoro received more in furusato nozei donations in a single year than its entire annual tax revenue, and used the money to make childcare free for a decade. The wagyu beef is real. The town is real. The name just got shorter somewhere between Japan and my mouth.

]]> Give you 30 seconds: How would you solve rural decline? Japan’s answer: Mystery boxes of premium beef and sake. Sounds insane. But 7.4 million people are doing it, moving $6.3 billion annually. You browse towns online like shopping. Pick one. They send you stuff. Your tax money goes there instead of to your city. Tokyo’s losing billions. Rural towns reviving. Country more connected. All because someone in 2008 made tax allocation delightful instead of dutiful. Tara Lemméy breaks down the weirdest policy invention that actually works—and why weird always wins. The town I called “Kami” in this episode is actually Kamishihoro — a town of about 5,000 people in Hokkaido. Apparently I Americanized a perfectly good Japanese name into something more manageable. Kamishihoro received more in furusato nozei donations in a single year than its entire annual tax revenue, and used the money to make childcare free for a decade. The wagyu beef is real. The town is real. The name just got shorter somewhere between Japan and my mouth.

]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 526 Give you 30 seconds: How would you solve rural decline? Japan’s answer: Mystery boxes of premium beef and sake. Sounds insane. But 7.4 million people are doing it, moving $6.3 billion annually. You browse towns online like shopping. Pick one. They send you stuff. Your tax money goes there instead of to your city. Tokyo’s losing billions. Rural towns reviving. Country more connected. All because someone in 2008 made tax allocation delightful instead of dutiful. Tara Lemméy breaks down the weirdest policy invention that actually works—and why weird always wins. The town I called “Kami” in this episode is actually Kamishihoro — a town of about 5,000 people in Hokkaido. Apparently I Americanized a perfectly good Japanese name into something more manageable. Kamishihoro received more in furusato nozei donations in a single year than its entire annual tax revenue, and used the money to make childcare free for a decade. The wagyu beef is real. The town is real. The name just got shorter somewhere between Japan and my mouth.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Whale or Cheetah? 2 2 4 4 Whale or Cheetah? full 6bac547d-55e5-4cf7-9fe7-f78e3dfc6814 https://share.transistor.fm/s/5c12399d Every company needs an “AI strategy.” That’s like saying you need a “mammal strategy” without knowing if you need a whale or a cheetah. LLMs generate content. Machine learning classifies patterns. Optimization algorithms manage grids. Each solves different problems with different physics. Blur them together and you can’t see which tool you need — or what comes next that doesn’t fit any current category. The first act of invention is naming. Right now, “AI” is killing the naming. Investors can’t fund breakthroughs that don’t fit the hype category. Regulators write one policy for completely different risks. Companies check a box instead of building something real. 15 minutes on why precision matters — and what to do about it.

]]> Every company needs an “AI strategy.” That’s like saying you need a “mammal strategy” without knowing if you need a whale or a cheetah. LLMs generate content. Machine learning classifies patterns. Optimization algorithms manage grids. Each solves different problems with different physics. Blur them together and you can’t see which tool you need — or what comes next that doesn’t fit any current category. The first act of invention is naming. Right now, “AI” is killing the naming. Investors can’t fund breakthroughs that don’t fit the hype category. Regulators write one policy for completely different risks. Companies check a box instead of building something real. 15 minutes on why precision matters — and what to do about it.

]]> Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 707 Every company needs an “AI strategy.” That’s like saying you need a “mammal strategy” without knowing if you need a whale or a cheetah. LLMs generate content. Machine learning classifies patterns. Optimization algorithms manage grids. Each solves different problems with different physics. Blur them together and you can’t see which tool you need — or what comes next that doesn’t fit any current category. The first act of invention is naming. Right now, “AI” is killing the naming. Investors can’t fund breakthroughs that don’t fit the hype category. Regulators write one policy for completely different risks. Companies check a box instead of building something real. 15 minutes on why precision matters — and what to do about it.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Despair is the Enemy of Invention 2 2 3 3 Despair is the Enemy of Invention full ee0ee705-ae9b-4e1f-8250-f2b0608bc85e https://share.transistor.fm/s/c84ca811 Everyone’s in despair about climate. I looked at the data. We bent the curve. Solar’s 41% cheaper than fossil fuels. Wind’s 53% cheaper. 91% of new renewable projects beat fossil alternatives on cost. Clean energy got $2 trillion in investment—$800 billion more than fossil fuels. In China, fossil electricity use dropped 2%. Fossil fuel growth stopped in industry, buildings, and transport. Not solved. But measurably different. So why the despair? Because we set an impossible target, didn’t hit it, and declared failure. Here’s what I’ve learned inventing impossible things: despair blinds you to progress. When you can’t see what’s working, you can’t see what to invent next. We need to invent the last 25% of energy. Storage for weeks, not hours. Economic transitions for fossil fuel communities. Grid infrastructure. The economics work. But only if we keep inventing. Despair is the enemy of invention. Sources: IRENA, UN, Ember

]]> Everyone’s in despair about climate. I looked at the data. We bent the curve. Solar’s 41% cheaper than fossil fuels. Wind’s 53% cheaper. 91% of new renewable projects beat fossil alternatives on cost. Clean energy got $2 trillion in investment—$800 billion more than fossil fuels. In China, fossil electricity use dropped 2%. Fossil fuel growth stopped in industry, buildings, and transport. Not solved. But measurably different. So why the despair? Because we set an impossible target, didn’t hit it, and declared failure. Here’s what I’ve learned inventing impossible things: despair blinds you to progress. When you can’t see what’s working, you can’t see what to invent next. We need to invent the last 25% of energy. Storage for weeks, not hours. Economic transitions for fossil fuel communities. Grid infrastructure. The economics work. But only if we keep inventing. Despair is the enemy of invention. Sources: IRENA, UN, Ember

]]> Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 964 Everyone’s in despair about climate. I looked at the data. We bent the curve. Solar’s 41% cheaper than fossil fuels. Wind’s 53% cheaper. 91% of new renewable projects beat fossil alternatives on cost. Clean energy got $2 trillion in investment—$800 billion more than fossil fuels. In China, fossil electricity use dropped 2%. Fossil fuel growth stopped in industry, buildings, and transport. Not solved. But measurably different. So why the despair? Because we set an impossible target, didn’t hit it, and declared failure. Here’s what I’ve learned inventing impossible things: despair blinds you to progress. When you can’t see what’s working, you can’t see what to invent next. We need to invent the last 25% of energy. Storage for weeks, not hours. Economic transitions for fossil fuel communities. Grid infrastructure. The economics work. But only if we keep inventing. Despair is the enemy of invention. Sources: IRENA, UN, Ember

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No The Meter Problem 2 2 2 2 The Meter Problem full 216a3a0f-4a80-4a32-9533-2481a37c6f03 https://share.transistor.fm/s/07ece7c7 Pearl Street Station opened September 4, 1882. The lights worked. Edison lost money for two years. Why? No way to charge customers. He invented an electric meter, but it didn't work reliably. So he gave electricity away for free for 16 months. J.P. Morgan ran 106 light bulbs from 3pm to 6am every single night. Why turn them off? He was paying a flat rate. The technology worked on day one. The business took two years to fix. System problems are harder than technology problems. That's what Edison learned. That's what everyone building complex systems learns. 13 minutes.

]]> Pearl Street Station opened September 4, 1882. The lights worked. Edison lost money for two years. Why? No way to charge customers. He invented an electric meter, but it didn't work reliably. So he gave electricity away for free for 16 months. J.P. Morgan ran 106 light bulbs from 3pm to 6am every single night. Why turn them off? He was paying a flat rate. The technology worked on day one. The business took two years to fix. System problems are harder than technology problems. That's what Edison learned. That's what everyone building complex systems learns. 13 minutes.

]]> Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 775 Pearl Street Station opened September 4, 1882. The lights worked. Edison lost money for two years. Why? No way to charge customers. He invented an electric meter, but it didn't work reliably. So he gave electricity away for free for 16 months. J.P. Morgan ran 106 light bulbs from 3pm to 6am every single night. Why turn them off? He was paying a flat rate. The technology worked on day one. The business took two years to fix. System problems are harder than technology problems. That's what Edison learned. That's what everyone building complex systems learns. 13 minutes.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Invent. Why Bamboo Beat Platinum 2 2 1 1 Invent. Why Bamboo Beat Platinum full 2dc191c1-23b8-4463-bc0c-68b9d0ea3153 https://share.transistor.fm/s/6fab9c18 Edison tested 6,000 materials for his lightbulb filament. He picked carbonized bamboo. Not because it was perfect. Because it lasted 1,200 hours AND he could source it at scale. Early experiments with platinum failed—burned out in hours. Cotton thread worked better but wasn't consistent. Bamboo solved both problems: performance and production. That's the pattern. The lab question and the scale question are different questions. This matters now. Everyone asks "what's the best material?" Better question: "What can we actually build with?" 10 minutes.

]]> Edison tested 6,000 materials for his lightbulb filament. He picked carbonized bamboo. Not because it was perfect. Because it lasted 1,200 hours AND he could source it at scale. Early experiments with platinum failed—burned out in hours. Cotton thread worked better but wasn't consistent. Bamboo solved both problems: performance and production. That's the pattern. The lab question and the scale question are different questions. This matters now. Everyone asks "what's the best material?" Better question: "What can we actually build with?" 10 minutes.

]]> Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 596 Edison tested 6,000 materials for his lightbulb filament. He picked carbonized bamboo. Not because it was perfect. Because it lasted 1,200 hours AND he could source it at scale. Early experiments with platinum failed—burned out in hours. Cotton thread worked better but wasn't consistent. Bamboo solved both problems: performance and production. That's the pattern. The lab question and the scale question are different questions. This matters now. Everyone asks "what's the best material?" Better question: "What can we actually build with?" 10 minutes.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No Trailer 2 2 Trailer trailer 788c5243-a3a6-4b25-9d8b-a06bbbea9064 https://share.transistor.fm/s/38441398 I’m Tara Lemméy. I invent things that don’t exist. Edison tested six thousand materials for the lightbulb filament. That’s not persistence—that’s method. I talk about the actual work of invention. How you know what to test. When structure is the problem. Why despair kills invention before it starts. Fifteen minutes. Real stuff. Subscribe to hear when episodes drop.

]]> I’m Tara Lemméy. I invent things that don’t exist. Edison tested six thousand materials for the lightbulb filament. That’s not persistence—that’s method. I talk about the actual work of invention. How you know what to test. When structure is the problem. Why despair kills invention before it starts. Fifteen minutes. Real stuff. Subscribe to hear when episodes drop.

]]> Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0800 Tara Lemméy Tara Lemméy 58 I’m Tara Lemméy. I invent things that don’t exist. Edison tested six thousand materials for the lightbulb filament. That’s not persistence—that’s method. I talk about the actual work of invention. How you know what to test. When structure is the problem. Why despair kills invention before it starts. Fifteen minutes. Real stuff. Subscribe to hear when episodes drop.

]]> invention, how inventors think, anyone can invent, innovation, creative thinking, problem solving, technology, self taught, curiosity, what's next No