Lessin Boy Podcast — Animated Films
The surprising true stories of everyday inventions, animated. Free to watch — no login, no payment. Audio episodes live at lessinboypodcast.ai.
S is for Superintelligence
An illustrated ABC of artificial intelligence, read aloud and fully animated — from Alignment to Zero-shot, with a very opinionated letter T. By Sam Lessin.
The History of Chicago
From a wild-onion river portage used by the Council of Three Fires, to Jean Baptiste Point du Sable's founding trading post, the hog butcher for the world, the Great Fire, and the Great Migration's jazz and blues -- the story of how Chicago rebuilt itself into one of the great cities of the world.
The History of San Francisco
From a foggy Ohlone fishing village to a Gold Rush boomtown that burned twice and rebuilt bigger both times, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Summer of Love, and the birth of Silicon Valley -- the story of San Francisco.
The History of New York City
From the Lenape people and Henry Hudson's ship, to New Amsterdam, the Erie Canal, twelve million immigrants through Ellis Island, and the skyscrapers that followed -- the story of how one small island became New York City.
Why No Rulebook Can Know Everything (And Stay Honest)
A mathematician named Kurt Godel proved that any rulebook powerful enough for real math has to choose between being totally honest or knowing everything -- it can never be both. An animated explainer of Godel's incompleteness theorem.
The History of Minecraft
The best-selling video game in the history of the world was made by ONE person at his kitchen table — and its most famous monster was born from a typo. The amazing true story of Minecraft: the ten-dollar 'unfinished' game that sold 300 million copies and became a $2.5 billion classroom.
The History of LEGO
The most popular toy on Earth started with a broke carpenter in a tiny Danish village — and it almost vanished forever. Two fires, one crazy plastic machine, a magic click patented at exactly 1:58pm, and the greatest comeback in toy history. Plus: why six little bricks can make 915 MILLION different combinations.
The Founding of Apple
On April Fools' Day 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in a Los Altos garage, funded by selling a VW bus and a calculator -- and a third founder who sold his stake for $800 twelve days later, missing out on what would be worth over $100 billion today.
The Invention of Basketball
In December 1891, a gym teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts got a two-week homework assignment: invent an indoor game that wouldn't hurt anyone. James Naismith grabbed a soccer ball, nailed up two peach baskets, and basketball was born.
How Tennis Was Invented
Bored monks smacking a ball with their bare hands, a king or two, an army major who sold a game in a box, and a five-hundred-year-old joke about eggs. The nearly thousand-year story of tennis.
The History of Hot Wheels
A garage, a couple who paid attention to what kids actually wanted, a secret weapon the size of a wire, and the rarest little car in the world. How Hot Wheels got so fast — and made six billion friends.
The Invention of the Lightbulb
For thousands of years, when the sun went down the world went dark. This is the story of the thread that glowed for thirteen hours, the ten thousand tries that were not failures, and why the real trick was building the wires too.
The Invention of the Umbrella
The umbrella is not a rain invention — it's a sun invention. Four thousand years from pharaohs' feather parasols to ancient China's oiled-paper breakthrough, to Jonas Hanway, the Londoner who endured thirty years of mockery for carrying one in the rain… and won.
The Invention of the Flushing Toilet
From a 4,000-year-old flush at the palace of Knossos, to Sir John Harington's 1596 invention for Queen Elizabeth I that was two centuries ahead of its time, to the S-trap and the plumber whose real name gave bathroom slang its favorite word — the surprising history of the toilet.