In 1957, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes tried to invent a textured three-dimensional plastic wallpaper. Nobody wanted squishy walls, but the pair recognized they had a lightweight, durable sheet that trapped air in a consistent pattern, and by 1960 they had founded Sealed Air and pivoted to packaging. Their timing was perfect: IBM's 1401 computer, packed with delicate magnetic core memory and a car-sized printer, needed something better than sawdust, horsehair, and balled-up newspaper. For many IBM customers, unpacking that machine was their first encounter with bubble wrap.

This episode digs into the material science, from the branched molecular chains of low-density polyethylene to the two-sheet heat-bonding process, permeation barrier films that keep bubbles inflated on mountain passes and in cargo holds, bubble sizes from 6 to 26 mi ...