Planète innovation

Google's Sergey Brin wants to bring back zeppelins, the majestic airships whose golden age passed a century ago with the Hindenburg disaster. We travel from California to Ohio and the Hindenburg's birthplace in Germany to see if this new old style of aviation can really make a comeback.

The tiny, landlocked former Soviet nation of Kyrgyzstan is hoping to join the global tech economy by empowering its engineers and content creators. We hang out with the blockbuster YouTube success D-Billions, and learn about a darker side of Kyrgyz society from feminist singer-songwriter Zere.

Our journey through Kyrgyzstan continues as we get to know the ambitious young women behind a coding army that might one day lead a local tech revolution. Then we meet a wealthy Kyrgyz businessman who's using his fortune to try to transform the lives of the country's rural villagers.

In Part 2, we dive deep into LA's burgeoning space industry, one that's been supercharged by talented veterans of SpaceX. We check out a rocket-building company, an asteroid-mining outfit and a startup that's trying to build the first space station dedicated to zero-G manufacturing. We also visit a supermarket for stellar gizmos, where space companies shop for parts for their rockets and satellites.

Denver, Colorado: come for the sunshine, stay for the community of tech mavericks. From rocket engines to sci-fi weapons, the next great US tech firm may already be taking shape in the Mountain West.

Switzerland is full of advanced tech startups, thanks to business-friendly laws and an appetite for new ideas. We visit an inventor who makes drones do miraculous things and a company that’s growing human skin in a lab.