35 Inventions That Changed Our World: The Making of Modern Life
Hidden Histories
- Date
- Tuesday, 20 Oct 2026
- Time
- 7pm
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- Crowdcast
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About this event
For over 10,000 years, we humans have been busy altering our environment and embracing 'progress', evolving seamlessly from hunter gatherers to the modern urban sophisticates we see ourselves as today. But what are the ideas and inventions that enabled humanity to become, by the early 21st century, a majority urban species for the first time? How did the essential infrastructure of modern life - the innovations that we barely even notice, but without which our world would fall apart - actually come to be?
In this session, Jonn Elledge will discuss some of the hidden histories behind the unnoticed infrastructure of modern urban life. He will talk about how improvements in transport have radically changed our relationship with the physical world around us - and consider what new transport technologies might mean for the future.
Boundless members stay tuned to win a copy of John's book on the night.
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About the Author
John Elledge
John is a journalist, columnist and author of three books, including the #1 international bestseller A History of the World in 47 Borders and the upcoming 35 Inventions That Changed Your World. He was previously an assistant editor at the New Statesman, where he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, and spent six happy years writing about cities, maps and borders and hosting the Skylines podcast. He’s also a columnist for The New World, a frequent contributor to the Guardian and i Paper, a regular guest on the Oh God, What Now politics podcast, and has written more than a hundred editions of the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything.
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