Bre Pettis: Living the DIY Dream

From time to time, we plan on bringing you news of Ignite speakers and other players in the Ignite community in NYC and around the world. Today, I have the honor of telling you that Bre Pettis, co-founder of Ignite and friend, has a new project under way and it's a TV show pilot on the History Channel! It's called History Hacker and will premiere Friday, September 26th at 8pm and at Midnight.

Over the course of the show Bre learns about the inventors and inventions of the past and then hack the inventions together out of stuff found in his closet. Plus, he has a way to make the most complicated technical things so simple!

Bre writes, "The first pilot episode is all about Nikola Tesla who is an amazing character. He’s the man responsible for the current that comes out of your wall sockets. He battled Thomas Edison in the war of currents and won. He had over 300 patents and besides figuring out AC power, he came up with radio control and mucked about with electricity more than anybody.

In the show, I blow a glass tube from molten silica with Kevin at Scanlan Glass and then fill it neon gas with Dave of Tecnolux. I made an AC generator with my pal Raphael of NYCResistor. It got enough pedal power going to power a neon tube!"

Bre used to be a preschool teacher, and I believe he has a way to teach children and adults technology and science in a simple and fun manner. People might learn something watching the show that might not have otherwise because Bre is so fun and explains concepts in such a way that anyone could understand them!

If enough people watch this pilot, it’s likely that the show will go to season and we'll get to see more of him! So please watch it and support Bre! Tell your mom and your friends!