a16z Podcast

Technologies & Threads Through the Fabric of Our Lives

Feb 21, 2022

Virginia Postrel, author of "The Fabric of Civilization", explores how textiles shape human history and technology. She delves into the unseen connections between fabric innovation and technological advancements throughout history. The conversation highlights how textiles influence commerce, mathematics, and even early computing. Postrel also examines modern knitting techniques and the environmental implications of dyeing practices. Ultimately, she portrays textiles as a vital part of cultural identity and storytelling across civilizations.

01:12:46

Creator website

Episode guests

Virginia Postrel

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

4min

Threads of Technology: Weaving History and Innovation

26min

The Practicality of Mathematics in Historical Context

2min

Knitting: The Tech-Textile Revolution

13min

Weaving the Fabric of Early Computing Memory

3min

The Intersection of Technology and Dyeing Practices

3min

Threads of Innovation: Weaving History and Culture

21min

original episode notes and transcript here:

https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/textiles-technology-science-math-cultures-civilization/

Longtime podcast showrunner (2014-2022), primary host, and editor Sonal Chokshi shares three best-of episodes as she shifts gears and the show goes on hiatus until relaunched with a new host.

The third of these three special rerun episodes is a conversation that originally took place in October 2020, in the midst of the pandemic – and perfectly captures the signature identity of this show until now, and Chokshi's work, which is at the intersection of technology and humanity. In it, she and Virginia Postrel, author of the book The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World cover everything from science and math across several fields, to commerce to management & measurement, to the always-meta narrative of HOW innovation happens…

As a reminder: the a16z marketing & Future team will be putting this feed on hiatus while they relaunch it with a new host; in the meantime, you can continue to follow Sonal's work both here at a16z and other projects on Twitter @smc90. Thank you as well to our brilliant audio editors, expert guests, and several others here -- but most of all, thank you to YOU: for listening, sharing, engaging, and coming along with us on this journey the past decade! Stay tuned for more.