The Breakfast Club - IDKMYDE: The Man Who Made the Light Stay On

Episode Date: February 14, 2026

The story of innovation that illuminated the world—yet the inventor's name remains inshadow.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. At a Morehouse college, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King's Senior.

It's the true story of protests and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Manilic Lamouba. Listen to the A building on the I-Hearton. Cart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by black people because of what happened in Alabama?

This Black History Month, the podcast, Selective Ignorance with Mandy B, unpacked black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo. The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Bowen-Yang.

And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, and the lead-up to the Milan Cortina-26 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bob, how now. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt, hey, Bowen. Hi, Kirkie.

Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway, and we are in. in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys Five Rings on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What if mind control is real? If you can control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, aka neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The man who made the lights they own.

Welcome back, No-It-Oz. to another episode of the most anticipated podcast, where on the Black Effect Podcast Network, entitled, I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. Who is you? I'm your host, BDOT, and I hope you're sharing this content because myself, along with the team, put a lot of work in making sure we came up with fresh ideas this February. I wanted to talk about people they don't normally talk about during Black History Month. You know, they give us the same old Civil Rights stories every year. Well, Rosa Parks wouldn't sit on the back of the bus.

And Martin Luther King, he had a dream. And if you like peanut butter, you should thank George Washington Culver, because he helped with the peanuts. Man, this season is to introduce new black history heroes. And some of the names, even if you've heard them, we've dug even deeper into folks to give you even more things that I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either about them. Like episode one.

I knew Carter G. Woodson invented Black History Week February of 1926, but I didn't know he was a coal miner before that. I didn't know he started high school at 20 years old. This season is for you to share episodes and be a light to someone else. And speaking of lights, when you walk in your house and flip that switch and them house lights come on, who you think made that possible? Now, usually most people just say one name. Wait for it. They all say,

And that's the problem. But before we jump into that, it is customary that we give you three of the most useless facts you'll never need ever, not a day in life. Up first, early electric bulbs existed. But they burned out hell or fast, and they cost way too much to replace them. Your second useless fact, it was a black engineer to fix that problem. Not only did he make electric light practical, but he made it affordable. And your third useless fact,

Las Vegas at night, Nashville, Tennessee, at night, your city at night, does not work without the contribution of Lewis Latimer. Let's meet them. All right, so let me tell you where history gets lazy.

Yes, Thomas Edison helped bring electric lighting to market. That part is true. But Thomas Edison's early light bulbs was flawed as ever. I mean, they work, but they ain't last. You know that little wiggly thing inside the light bulb.

That's called a filament. And his filaments were super fragile. They burned out hella quick. And it was way too expensive to be used in every day. So electric light stayed a novelty, not an infrastructure. It was like having a Maybach. You can only drive on Mondays. And that's when that brother Louis Latimer changed the game.

See, he improved that carbon filament inside the bulb. That little squiggly thing. He made it stronger. It lasted longer. It was cheaper to produce it. Like Lewis Latimer didn't tweak the light bulb. He invented the process that they could mass produce the carbon filaments. The patent numbers 252-386 got filed in January of 1882.

Look, without that patent, every light bulb would have been handmade. Ain't nobody afford that. Hand-made light bulbs? It sounds technical, but the impact was massive. Can now street lights stay on. Hospitals could operate at night. factories could run longer shifts. New York could be the city that never sleeps.

Lewis Laderman didn't just improve a bulb. Louis Latimer made nightlife possible. Here's something else that I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. He also wrote the first technical manual on electric lighting. He was training engineers who spread the system across the country. The book was called Incondescent Electric Lighting, a practical description of the Edison system.

It was published in 1890. It literally taught America how electricity worked. And here's the quiet irony. Lewis Latimer was one of the only black members of the Edison pioneers. And the Edison Pioneers was an elite group that was shaping America's electrical future. One of the only. But you know history. History love a solo genius story.

So Thomas Edison, he became the headline. And Lewis Latimer, he became the footnote. even though his work is still lighting our streets today. Ain't it always interesting how inventions get remembered but the infrastructure gets erased? A century ago, Carter G. Woodson, who graduated high school in just two years after starting at the age of 20. He warned us that black contributions were power the world, while our names would disappear from the record.

Lewis Latimer proves his point perfectly. The light stayed on. The credit didn't. hidden in plain sight and I didn't know maybe you didn't either I didn't know 1969

Malcolm and Martin are gone America is in crisis at a Morehouse college the students make their move These students including a young Samuel L. Jackson locked up the members of the board of trustees including Martin Luther King's

senior It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles Our Menelick Lamumba. Listen to the A building on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by black people because of what happened in Alabama? This Black History Month, the podcast, Selective Ignorance with Mandy B, unpacked black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo.

The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on heritage. styles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Bowen-Yin. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of

the Two Guys' Five Rings podcast in the lead-up to the Milan Quartina-26 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bob, hello. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt, hey Bowen. Hi, Cookie.

Hi. Now, the winner Olympic Games are underway, and we are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys Five Rings on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, aka neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed human.