Explore the fascinating evolution of the vocoder, talkbox, and Auto-Tune, tracing their journey from Bell Labs through World War II to their influence on Daft Punk in this episode of Version History.

A few weeks ago, the music writer Dave Tompkins took a podium in one of NYU’s many windowless annexes to promote his upcoming book, How To Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II To Hip-Hop.

If you've listened to pop music in the past 40 years, you've probably heard more than a few songs with a robotic sound. That's thanks to the vocoder, a device invented by Bell Labs, the research ...