On this episode of Spark: QWERTY, Objectified, and Last Year's Model

• Nora delves into the deep, dark history of the QWERTY keyboard layout. Guests include:
  • Antique typewriter collector Martin Howard
  • Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton
  • Economics professor Stan Liebowitz, co-author of The Fable of the Keys
  • Philip Steadman, author of The Evolution of Designs (full interview)
  • User-interface designer Jared Spool (full interview)
• Gary Hustwit interviews industrial design heavyweights for his documentary Objectified (full interview)
• Anil Dash and Gina Trapani want you to buy great gadgets, then keep them with LastYearsModel.org (full interview)

• "Wadidyusay?" by Zap Mama
• "Beef Chow Mein (The Noodle House)" by Windom Earle
• Clip from Basic Typing, Part I: Methods (Part I) (1944)
• "Steppin' In" and "Blur & Coalesce" by Podington Bear
• "Rubber Molecules," "Rythn," and "Filaments" by Chad Crouch
• "E Flat Stride" by the Mills Blue Rhythm Band
• "A Peek Inside" by General Fuzz
• "ditto, ditto!" by DoKashiteru

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