You've heard about Steve Jobs, the Wizard of Cupertino. They say he invented the iPhone. Some people called him the iGod. But the iPhone was not created by a single genius, not Jobs and not anyone else. The real story is more surprising, and more interesting, than a myth about a single man. In this episode, Dr. Keith Sawyer reveals the true history behind Apple's groundbreaking invention. It was years of secret teams, failed prototypes, competing visions, and the collective creativity of hundreds of people.

Before the iPhone, cutting-edge techies carried all sorts of devices--phones, PDAs, and music players. If your device had a screen, it was tiny. If you could touch that screen, you had to use a plastic pointer. Touching on glass with your finger seemed impossible. Top executives in the business thought that a phone without a keyboard was a ridiculous idea.

In 2007, Apple introduced a device that changed everything. It was more than a technological innovation; it changed entertainment, travel, and social life. Steve Jobs stood on stage at MacWorld, and said "We are calling it iPhone," but he wasn't the inventor. You'll hear that clip in this episode--he didn't say the iPhone, he said simply "iPhone."

This is the creation story of the iPhone. Not the myth, but what really happened. It's a wonderful example of group genius.

Five Key Takeaways

• The iPhone wasn't invented by one person—its creation emerged from years of ideas, prototypes, failures, and contributions from thousands of people.
• The breakthrough wasn't the hardware—it was the ecosystem: multitouch, iTunes, the App Store, cloud services, and developers all working together.
• Apple's first attempt at a phone, the Motorola ROKR, was a failure—and that failure was essential fuel for the true iPhone project.
• Cultural impact matters as much as technological innovation—smartphones fundamentally changed how humans navigate, create, communicate, and even remember.
• The iPhone is one of the most powerful examples of social innovation: a collective, emergent creation shaped by engineers, designers, users, markets, and culture.

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

This is a special Christmas episode of The Science of Creativity. The creation of Christmas is an example of social innovation, a kind of collective creativity where everyone plays a role. Five hundred years ago, Christmas was a wild party, where young men got drunk and roamed in packs around town. Children didn't start getting gifts until about 200 years ago. The Santa Claus myth was invented, along with the elves and the workshop at the North Pole, in the late 1800s. This episode gives you the history of the secular, non-religious traditions that we celebrate at Christmas. It started two thousand years ago, in Ancient Rome, it picked up steam in the 1800s, and we're still creating new Christmas traditions today. The creation of Christmas is a story of social innovation and group genius.

This is a special encore of one of my favorite episodes, originally published as season 1, episode 15, on December 1, 2024

Chapters

Intro

Traditions and Change

Wassailing and Twelfth Night

Toys and Gift-Giving

Santa Claus and the Elves

The War on Christmas

The Holiday for Everyone

Outro

Music by license from Soundstripe

Blues for Oliver - Cast of Characters

Christmas Tree Jazz Trio

Silent Night – Cast of Characters

Just Walkin' – Ryan Saranich

Uptown Lovers - What's the Big Deal

References

The Pagan Origins of Christmas: Saturnalia, Yule, and Other Pre-Christian Traditions | History Cooperative

Wikipedia on "The war on Christmas" and "Wassailing" and "Syncretism" - ChatGPT

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Keith Sawyer talks with Dr. Hansika Kapoor about the psychology of dark creativity — how the same cognitive processes that generate brilliant ideas can also lead to deception, manipulation, or harm. Kapoor explains that creativity itself is amoral: it can be directed toward good or bad outcomes depending on intent and context. Their conversation spans the neuroscience of lying, the overlap between moral and creative cognition, and the role of cultural factors in shaping creative expression. They also discuss recent findings on the "art bias," on using creativity tests in college admissions, and about the cultural practice of jugard in Indian culture.

Dr. Kapoor has been a Research Author at the Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala, Mumbai since July 2011. Monk Prayogshala is an independent not-for-profit academic research institute, striving to improve the academic research environment in India, starting with the social sciences. She is also an Affiliate at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.

Her work has been published in several international peer-reviewed academic journals, such as Creativity Research Journal, Thinking Skills and Creativity, and Personality and Individual Differences (here's her CV). She also regularly contribute to popular media publications, including Psychology Today, Mint, and The Wire (complete list).

Key topics include:

• The concept of dark creativity and its ethical implications
• Creativity, deception, and moral reasoning in the brain
• Cultural perspectives on creativity in India and the idea of jugard
• Creativity as a predictor of educational success
• The "art bias" and everyday creativity

For additional information:

Dr. Kapoor's web site

Dr. Kapoor's Psychology Today blog

Music by license from SoundStripe:

• "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ
• "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ
• "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer