Obsessed
1 season, 39 episodesWhether it’s re-creating detailed Star Trek sets to create a fan-produced web series or piecing together D.I.Y. lasers from recycled gadgets, some people’s passions are more than just a hobby. Obsessed highlights what happens when people live out their obsessions to the fullest.
Season 1
Transportation
Over the last decade, designer Luca Iaconi-Stewart has been building an incredibly detailed model of a Boeing 777, right down to the tiny seats and moving landing gear, using only paper folders and glue.
Science
See how Dr. Cameron M. Smith build a spacesuit from parts purchased at the hardware store.
Transportation
The future of train transportation might be pneumatic tubes and magnets. Meet the 89-year old entrepreneur who wants to disrupt the railroad with a modern twist on a very old train idea.
Transportation
Ultra-endurance bicycle racer Lael Wilcox puts more miles on her bike every year than most people do on their cars. Here's how she trains for and rides some of the toughest races on earth.
Science
John Collins, better known as "The Paper Airplane Guy," has devoted himself to designing, folding, and flying the world's finest paper airplanes.
Culture
19-year-old Lily Hevesh is obsessed with dominos. She spends hours upon hours building insanely intricate designs and chain reactions before knocking them down. Sound like a strange way to spend your time? Tell that to the nearly 2 million people who've subscribed to her YouTube Channel, where she posts new domino videos every Saturday.
Culture
For the past six years Greg Dietrich, Jake Polatty, and a group of fellow Star Wars fans have been building a blinking, bleeping, insanely detailed full size version of the Millennium Falcon's cockpit.
Culture
Melody Yang and her family hold numerous world records for their bubbles. She shows us how she makes some of the fun creations from their stage performance, the Gazillion Bubble Show.
Culture
Joseph Herscher builds wildly fun Rube Goldberg-style machines to make his life easier. Sort of. Here's how he built a new contraption to feed him his lunch.
Gadgets
Richard Browning built the world's fastest personal jet suit. WIRED spoke with him to find out about the design process and engineering of a radical new form of transportation.
Culture
Chuck Hoberman's eponymous sphere is one of the best-loved toys of the last quarter century. But it's only one example of his incredible work in transformable design. From adaptive nanotech to flexible building materials, Hoberman has created surprising and inventive designs at every scale.
Transportation
Some people have backyard swimming pools. Some have basketball courts out back. Will Pemble built a roller coaster just steps from his back door.
Culture
In this episode of Obsessed, Gentry Stein shows off the wild tricks that helped him become a world yo-yo champion.
Sports
Logan Broadbent is one of the world's top boomerang throwers. To throw and catch with his level of precision requires a solid understanding of aeronautics, weather, physics, athletic endurance and the ability to build world class boomerangs from scratch.
Culture
Artist Jeremy Mayer has dedicated himself to transforming mechanical typewriter parts, and only typewriter parts, into detailed sculptures of birds, insects and human figures.
How-To
World boomerang champion Logan Broadbent demonstrates how to make an indoor boomerang, aka "roomerang," using just a few pieces of paper, glue and scissors.
Culture
In this episode of Obsessed we meet Michael Schiess, a pinball enthusiast who collects and repairs old machines in an effort to preserve them for future generations.
Science
Marine biologist Shanee Stopnitzky is on a mission to spend as much time under the ocean's surface as possible. To achieve her goal, she bought two used and broken submarines, and is fixing them up, making them functional again, learning as she goes.
Culture
Daniel Rozin, Artist and Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYU, makes mechanical "mirrors" out of uncommon objects that mimic the viewer's movements and form.
Science
PuckerButt Pepper Company founder Ed Currie is on a mission to create the world's hottest peppers. Ed is the evil genius who brought the world the Carolina Reaper, one of the hottest hot peppers in existence; but he's not stopping there.
Culture
International Grand Champion Sean Lomax loves whistling more than most. Watch him break down how he achieves his show-stopping performances. Sean Lomax Professional Whistler https://www.whistlinfool.com https://www.patreon.com/The_Virtuoso_Whistler BUSINESS CONTACT: whistleonrecords@gmail.com 702.541.4177
Culture
Jeremy Telford built the world's largest balloon sculpture. But that's only one of the impressive things he has done with balloons.
Culture
Sleight of Hand Pizza owner and chef Justin Wadstein is a 13-time world pizza champion. Here's how he takes the simple act of tossing dough to the next level with flips, spins, shoulder rolls, and other moves.
Technology
Artist Refik Anadol doesn't work with paintbrushes or clay. Instead, he uses large collections of data and machine learning algorithms to create mesmerizing and dynamic installations.
Culture
Artist Alexa Meade paints on people to make them look like paintings of people. She's developed a style that flattens 3 dimensional objects into what at first appears to be a 2D image. See more at https://alexameade.com
Culture
Len Solomon has been making instruments out of random objects for over 30 years. He's performed as a one-man-band all over the world, and The Majestic Bellowphone is perhaps his DIY novelty masterpiece. Check out Len Solomon's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/bellowphone.
Culture
A self-taught artist with a background in physics, David C. Roy has been creating mesmerizing wooden kinetic sculptures for nearly 40 years. Powered solely through mechanical wind-up mechanisms, pieces can run up to 48 hours on a single wind.
How-To
Michael Grab's mind-bending rock formations aren't held together by glue or steel rods. Shockingly, his rock piles are stacked using only the laws of gravity. His rock formations have taken the internet by storm, and brought an even greater attention to rock balancing.
Culture
Have you ever played a card game then decided to see how high you could stack the cards? Bryan Berg has made card stacking an art form. He holds numerous Guinness World Records (so many he's lost count), and keeps upping the ante on the difficulty. Stacking a house of cards on a running dryer? Why not!
Culture
Ferrofluid is a liquid with nano-sized iron particles that was developed by NASA in the 1960s. Artist Eric Mesplé has been experimenting with this magnetic liquid in his art for the past dozen years, and the results are mesmerizing.
Sports
Lots of people like kayaking, and some even enjoy white water, but Rafael Ortiz takes it to another level. Rafael is obsessed with kayaking over massively steep waterfalls.
Science
Artist Andres Amador takes "playing with sand" to a whole new level. His free-flowing and fractal-inspired works of art exist for only a short amount of time, eventually getting swallowed up by the ocean's tides. But, in that timeframe, Andres is able to create unique pieces that are indelible and impactful.
Culture
Sydney Kennett is one of the world's best indoor skydivers. The 14-year-old champion moves with the grace of a ballerina inside wind tunnels that propel air in excess of 100 miles per hour. Sydney holds numerous top prizes at competitions around the world, and she's even a Guinness World Record holder.
Design
Interactive Light Artist Jen Lewin creates interactive sound and LED art that can be the scale of an entire landscape. Humans across the planet understand light, so Jen can create pieces that everyone across the world can comprehend and interact with.
Design
Charlie Baker is an artist and builder who weaves materials found in nature to make astonishing and beautiful wooden structures. Charlie's creations are made so they look like they could've grown that way, and this ethos permeates the majority of his work. We follow Charlie as he scavenges for wood and looks to start work on another piece. Find out more about Charlie Baker and Baker Structures at: http://www.bakerstructures.com/ and on Instagram at @bakerstructures
Science
John Hatleberg creates replicas of famous diamonds. Watch as the conceptual gem artist takes us all the way through his process, from making molds of original famous diamonds to cutting his own versions.
Culture
Cardboard artist James Lake describes his work as "a cardboard sculpture in its purest sense." James takes recycled materials and turns them into significant pieces of art.
Design
PJ Catalano is a Master Model Builder at Legoland California Resort. He's been working at Legoland for 8 years and has built some truly incredible things. PJ talks about everything that goes into building Lego, from all the math he has to do to the various techniques he's learned that keep his models standing strong.
Design
Emily Garland loves building gingerbread houses. As a gingerbread house builder, she's made stunning replicas of some of the most famous buildings in the world. Emily takes WIRED through her entire process, and shows us how one of her houses goes from a plan to reality.