The Machine That Made Us

The printing press was the world's first piece of mass-production technology. Its invention changed the world as dramatically as splitting the atom or sending men into space. It ignited a cultural revolution that shaped the modern age. It changed the way our brains work, replacing a spoken culture with a written one. It is the machine that made us who we are today. Viewers will travel with Stephen Fry on a journey to explore the story of the machine and of the man who created it: Johann Gutenberg. The journey will be shaped by the search for answers to two central questions: how did Gutenberg do it, and why?