For much of the 20th century, neon transformed American cities, filling streets with color, movement and light. Behind those glowing signs was a highly specialized craft: glass tubes heated, shaped and bent by hand, then filled with gas to create their distinctive glow. Today, as LED technology replaces traditional neon, the number of skilled glass benders able to make and maintain these signs continues to decline.

This episode steps inside a working neon studio to see the careful process of heating, shaping and bending glass by hand. From the workshop, the journey moves into the city, tracing the history of neon through original signs still lighting the streets, archives and collections preserving its visual legacy, and the stories of those who have documented its rise, decline and revival.

The episode also explores neon as a medium for contemporary artistic expression, revealing how artists continue to use its distinctive glow to explore identity, culture and the urban landscape. From hand-bent glass to salvaged signs and new creative work, the episode asks how a craft so closely tied to the visual memory of American cities can continue to find a place in the world of tomorrow.