History of the Telephone: 150th anniversary special

March 27, 2026·55 min·5 clips

Greg Jenner marks the 150th episode by dialing back 150 years to explore the invention of the telephone with a historian and comedian.

The anniversary premise is pleasingly literal. For the show's 150th episode, Greg Jenner goes back exactly 150 years to the invention of the telephone. Professor Ewan Morris brings the Victorian science history, while the comedian guest keeps throwing in the wrong guess at the right time. Bell and Gray become rivals. The guest imagines Bell using the first call to needle Gray, and Ewan resets the scene without flattening the joke. Then comes Watson, waiting nearby. The famous message suddenly feels less like thunder from the future and more like someone calling an assistant from the next room. That is the comic snag. If Bell could have shouted, what did the first demonstration really prove? Voice transmission, yes. Long-distance usefulness, not quite yet. Ewan lands the contradiction neatly: people were bedazzled and unimpressed at the same time. The panel keeps circling the practical question. What could the telephone do better than dots and dashes? The answer is messier than the legend, which is why the bit works.

As heard by us

A 150th-episode history special that turns Bell's first call into a sharp joke about distance, need, and invention.

Greg Jenner anchors a 150th-episode special that uses the invention of the telephone as a tidy way into both history and comedy. With Ewan Morris in History Corner and Catherine Bohart in Comedy Corner, the episode stays centered on Alexander Graham Bell making the first…

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Why you'd press play

A funny, clear look at Bell's first official telephone call, made to his assistant in the next room, and why it felt both magical and a bit pointless.

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