September 11, 2004: The Hydristor - Tom Kasmer | Open Lines
September 11, 2004: The Hydristor - Tom Kasmer | Open Lines  
Podcast: The Art Bell Archive
Published On: Tue Sep 16 2025
Description: Art Bell opens with an interview featuring Hank Cohen, president of MGM Television Entertainment, and Ellen Muth, star of Showtime's Dead Like Me. They discuss the dark comedy's unique blend of humor, mortality, and family dysfunction, with Muth describing her character George as a reluctantly rebellious reaper who continues to grow despite being dead. Cohen reveals the show's Emmy-nominated visual effects and Stewart Copeland's acclaimed score, while Muth reflects on the deeply personal fan mail she receives from viewers processing grief.The second hour shifts to inventor Tom Kasmer, creator of the Hydristor, a device combining hydraulic and transistor principles to create a variable connection between rotating shafts. Art introduces Kasmer's resume, which includes designing IBM circuit board drill machines and a rocket ignition circuit that flew on the lunar module. John DeLorean has expressed interest in incorporating Hydristor technology into a new automobile. However, a poor hotel phone connection forces the interview to be rescheduled after only a few minutes of technical discussion.Open lines fill the remainder of the broadcast on the anniversary of September 11th. Callers share emotional reflections on the trauma of that day, debate the SETI signal detection, report chemtrail sightings over Phoenix, and discuss the massive North Korean explosion that produced a two-mile-wide mushroom cloud. Art also shares a story about the Coral Castle from a caller whose uncle transported its massive stones one at a time on a flatbed truck.