Found in the Machine
Every line of code has a story. Most of us just never hear it.
Found in the Machine is a narrative podcast about the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.
If you've ever wondered who actually made the technology you use every day, and why you've never heard their name before, you'll feel at home here. This show is for the curious, not the credentialed. You don't need a technical background to follow along. You just need to be the kind of person who pulls on threads.
New episodes unearth human stories from computing history every other week.
Episodes
17 episodes
Tidal Forces: Calculating D-Day
In 1944 the Allies needed to know exactly what the water would do on a coast called "Position Z." So a deaf mathematician and six young women in a basement near Liverpool calculated the future. In this episodeArt...
Entropy Hunters: Random Numbers and Chaos Machines
This is the story of how we learned to fake the most natural thing in the world. What it cost us. And the strange places we still go, even now, to steal a little of the real thing back. In this EpisodeBernice Brow...
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. Strange things about Room 641A.This is...
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 apart.In this episode
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 this episodeJa...
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 Brandt, and she decided to mail it to them.<...
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 short of physical destruction. They needed to ...
Found
The show has a new name. Starting with this episode, Lore in the Machine is now Found in the Machine. Same stories, same voice. The name just finally says what the show actually does. If you're subscribed, your feed will...
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 think about it anymore. A ...
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 road. One bullet each. I...
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 fly to a secure facility ...
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 trusting a directory. A va...
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 angular icon there that...
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 scroll past. Most of th...
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 took the stage in San ...
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 name here" of software ...