Half-Light: Mark Klein and Room 641A
A brutalist fortress in San Francisco serves as a vital artery for the American internet. In 2003, AT&T technician Mark Klein started noticing strange things on the sixth floor of that building. Stran…
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Episodes
Stories about the surprising origins and hidden histories woven into computing history.
Silent Agreement: MIDI and What We Hear in the Wires
Sheet music has always been an invisible treaty. A shared language that belongs to everyone and no one. But fifty years ago, as musicians began shaping sound out of raw electricity, that treaty fell a…
Working in the Dark: Secrets, Silicon, and Light
In 1916, a tired chemist in a Berlin laboratory accidentally dipped his fountain pen into a pool of molten tin and pulled out the foundation of the digital world. He had no idea what he had done. In t…
America on Hold: How the Internet Arrived
She was a copywriter turned marketer who watched focus groups attempt to use computers. She knew the internet wasn't a product you could sell. You needed to give people a way in. Her name was Jan Bran…
The Weavers: Memory and the Moon
In 1965, engineers were building a computer to fly men to the moon. It had to survive a rocket launch and the vacuum of space. It could not be erased by a power failure, a hard landing, or anything sh…
I’m Not a Robot: The Internet's Human Test
Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. You’ve done this so many times you don’t thi…
The Silent Duel: David Blackwell and the Math Inside AI
Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. Two people walk toward each other on a dirt r…
Strangers with Keys: A Ritual to Secure the Internet
Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. Four times a year, a small group of people fl…
Poison in the Cache: Dan Kaminsky Saves the Internet
Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. Every time you type a web address, you're tru…
Lipstick and Runes: Hedy Lamarr and the History of Bluetooth
Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. Look at your phone settings. There's a small…
Drink Me, Eat Me, README: What Programmers Learned from Alice in Wonderland
Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. Every software project has one. It's easy to…
The Bug, The Cat, and The Wooden Mouse: The Unexpected History of the Computer Mouse
Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. In 1968, a researcher named Douglas Engelbart…
UFOs, Model Trains, and Code's 'Sacred Syllable': The Origins of Foo
Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. Every programmer knows 'foo' as the "insert n…
Trailer: Human Stories from Computing History
Every line of code has a story. Most of us just never hear it. Found in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Each episode…