O, Brave New World!

If you’re wondering why we’ve started a series on technology, the web, inventors and entrepreneurs in our weekly arts podcast, this episode of Backstage with Mark Metcalf should clear up a few things for you.

Mark interviews M.I.T. dropout Pehr Anderson, who grew up with scientist parents in a small North Dakota farm town. Pehr skipped out of college in 1996 to start a tech business that linked desk telephones to existing area networks. Later, he worked on the project that became Electronic Ink, which you may have experienced if you’ve ever played around with a Kindle.

Mark and Pehr talk about creativity in the technology marketplace; why Wisconsin is a great place to conduct research and develop a genius new technology product; how inventing a tool for people to use also invents a desire; why even though we live in fast times, we have yet to outpace the demand for empowering solutions; and how thrilling it is to work in an industry that can literally change the world.

“A human being can ratchet the world forward,” Anderson says. “Then it clicks, and it doesn’t go backward.”

And Mark gives us a luminous coda about The Tempest.

It’s all here. Listen now, or download to your audio device and take it with you: Backstage with Pehr Anderson