PBS Idea Channel

Are There TWO Nikola Teslas? (2x21)

Air date: Sep 11, 2013

Unless you're new to the internet, you probably know that Tesla was an incredibly popular scientist and inventor who was WAY ahead of his time. But was he really the valiant underdog against the Goliath of Edison that we've come to know and understand? Despite what you may think, there are actually TWO Teslas - the meat and bones Tesla, who was born in 1856 and died in 1943, and then there's the culturally created Tesla. Neither is wrong, but all this starts making us question: what even IS "history"?