About this season
Behind many million-dollar inventions are priceless stories of inspiration, controversy, triumph, and tragedy. Explore inventions large and small, lifesaving and life-taking, scary and playful, and meet the men and women who dedicated, and often risked, their lives to follow their vision and ultimately change the world.
Episodes (8)
1. Shock and Awe
Aired 14 June 2015
How the electric chair, the Ouija board, and other chilling ideas became million-dollar inventions.
2. The Vision Thing
Aired 21 June 2015
See how the TV, speed camera, photocopier, and space telescope went from sketch drawings to life-altering inventions.
3. Criminal Riches
Aired 28 June 2015
See how crime made lucrative inventions out of the house alarm, the cash register, the Tommy Gun, and even the toothbrush.
4. Danger Magnets
Aired 5 July 2015
Would you inhale toxins, leap off a cliff, or shoot yourself to prove you're right? Meet four inventors who did just that.
5. Need for Speed
Aired 12 July 2015
How did a waffle iron change the world of running shoes forever? Find out this and other invention secrets.
6. Life and Death
Aired 19 July 2015
The story of the gun meant to end violence, the box that keeps hearts beating, and the printer that can build anything.
7. Guns and Goldmines
Aired 26 July 2015
They walked through fires, faced poverty, ran for their lives, and found their fortune in gold, guns and games.
8. The Little Guy
Aired 2 August 2015
Intermittent wipers, Lego bricks, and the smiley face came from the minds of ordinary people with extraordinary stories.