Not Impossible is a new podcast that asks the question, “What if nothing in life is impossible?” It explores stories about people solving the hardest, most mind-boggling problems in some of the most creative and unimaginable ways.
Mick Ebeling, the founder of Not Impossible Labs, is our guide through uplifting stories of people who've created technology for the sake of humanity.
Episode 10: The Cyborg and the Singularity
What happens when an engineer loses his legs in a mountain-climbing accident?
In the case of Hugh Herr, he uses his brilliant mind to overcome his physical disability – and the result is a set of prosthetic legs like none ever seen before. Now Herr climbs at a more advanced level than he had before the accident – both literally and figuratively: His achievements have led him to the brink of discoveries on the future of human-computer interaction. Will we all be cyborgs one day? Hugh Herr says he has the answer.
Executive Producer -- Philip Lerman, Mick Ebeling
Producer -- David Goodman
Associate Producers -- Vicki Schairer, Caden Ulanet
Development Director -- Erin Sullivan
Director of Partnerships -- Joe Babarsky
Special Thanks -- Lindsay Reynolds, Gus Contreras, Charlie Rosina, Karyn Czarnecki
"Creation of the Humanoids" courtesy of AMC Network Entertainment LLC
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Not Impossible Challenge
Want to do something more than listen to the podcast? You’re in the right place! We challenge YOU to innovate and create your own technology for the sake of humanity. Check back each week for a new challenge.
Remember that some things that seem impossible are just impossible right now. Commit and figure it out. Geronimo!
Episode 9: Oh Print Me A Home
Steve Keating and his team at MIT have taken 3D printing to a place it’s never been before – and hope to take it places NO one has ever been before. They have invented a 3D printer that can print an entire building, using no other “ink” than what it finds around it in nature – and they say it’s capable of printing buildings out of ice... on Mars. Host Mick Ebeling talks with The Amazing Mister Keating, and finds out why this machine is only the SECOND-coolest 3D project he’s ever done.
Special thanks from Steve Keating to Dr. Neri Oxman, Dr. David Wallace, the other graduate students who worked on the Digital Construction Platform including Julian Leland and Levi Cai, and to the project sponsors including Google, BASF and Altech.
Want to know more about Steve Keating? Visit his website to see all his crazy inventions http://www.stevenkeating.info/
Visit http://e-nable.org/ to join the e-NABLE community of volunteers using 3D printers to make radically inexpensive prosthetics for underserved populations around the world.
Episode 8: Vet Tech
A special episode for the Fourth of July: After reporting on tragedy after tragedy, a TV journalist struggling with anxiety discovers a cure in technology prescribed by her doctor – and quits her job to devote herself to using that technology to help America’s war veterans. She and the doctor team up to enhance that technology – doing some of the nation’s first hard-science experiments on blending virtual reality and biofeedback – and soon this simple solution begins to have far-reaching implications in the treatment of psychological disorders for veterans, first responders, and those suffering from PTSD in all walks of life.
Episode 7: Feel the Music
A deaf woman who becomes a world-famous solo percussionist, and a singer with perfect pitch who loses her hearing but still performs live, send the Not Impossible team on a quest to answer the question: How do deaf people experience music? And can we invent a technology to enhance that experience? The answer – a vibrotactile suit that sends music impulses all over their bodies – will change your perception forever of what it means to “hear.”
Episode 6: Project C.O.D.I
Cody is a fearless and sensitive 7-year-old boy diagnosed with a rare disease that is slowly robbing him of hearing and sight. The Not Impossible Labs team committed itself to finding a way for Cody to navigate the world. What they created – and built into a superhero costume -- allows Cody to feel what his eyes will soon no longer be able to perceive.
Episode 5: Kissyface
Day to day, we rarely think about facial control software unless it's to play silly games on our iPhones or Snapchat. But a crazy inventor and a rehab specialist put have developed a way to let people who are paralyzed with spinal injuries use it to surf the web, paint – do anything you can do on a computer. Just with a head tilt, a raised eyebrow, and... the kissyface.
Curious about eyebrow pinball? Watch Elliott take the app for a spin!
Watch Expressions with Sergio to see the kissyface interface in action.
Need the "Expressions Mouse" or know someone who does? CLICK HERE
Episode 4: The Arm Race
When Johnny Matheny lost his arm to cancer he decided it was his chance to help others – so he volunteered to be the guinea pig in any project that came along. Little did he know what the government’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program had in store for him – and now he has become the first man to ever use their latest robotic arm, which he can control... with his mind.
Johnny Matheny started a non-profit organization called The Starfish Prosthetics Foundation to help make high quality prosthetics more affordable. Visit www.starfishprosthetics.org/ to learn more.
Check out DARPA's latest breakthroughs in technology at https://www.darpa.mil/
Episode 3: The Eyewriter
When producer Mick Ebeling met a paralyzed graffiti artist named Tempt, he made a promise that Tempt would one day paint again – and then wondered how he’d keep the promise. The results of the challenge reside in museums on both coasts – and the philosophy behind them launched Not Impossible Labs.
Episode 2: Blood from the Sky.
Two inventors -- one who created a cute little robot, the other who created an app to help kids learn to read -- take on the greatest challenge of their lives: Women are dying in Rwanda at an alarming rate – and they think they have an idea that could save them.
Episode 1: Do You See What I See?
Erik Weihenmayer is an athlete, adventurer, author – and the only blind person to scale Mount Everest. Now he’s the first to test out a new device that raises a question at the very heart of how sight works: Do we see with our eyes, or with our brains?
