Artifacts: Stories from the Emotional History of the Internet

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Season 2 of Artifacts was an experiment.

After a first season built around the objects and technology we remember, I wanted to try something different, starting with the experiences technology changed rather than the artifacts themselves.

Looking back, I'm glad I did. Not because I think every experiment worked perfectly, but because it helped me understand what makes Artifacts feel like Artifacts.

I...

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There was a time when saving a game meant writing down a password, carefully copying a code from the screen, or trusting a little piece of plastic not to lose your progress.

In this episode of Artifacts, I look at how memory cards changed the way we played and what happened when our game saves became something we could carry with us, from the early days of dedicated memory cards to the wonderfully ...

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Before the Web became the Internet as we know it, there were other ways of finding your way around. Gopher was one of them - a menu-driven system that made it easier to explore information across the early Internet.

For a while, Gopher was a genuine competitor to the World Wide Web. Then the Web became free, Mosaic arrived, and the Internet took a very different path.

In this episode of Artifacts, I...

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Before app stores, digital storefronts and endless in-game purchases, there was shareware. You could get a game for free, play it, and decide whether it was worth sending money to the person who made it.

In this episode of Artifacts, I look back at shareware games, registration cards, and the surprisingly personal relationship between creators and players, and how that compares with today's world o...

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There was a time when recording video felt like an event. Then cameras got smaller, digital storage made recording easier, and suddenly we were capturing the ordinary moments too - family dinners, holidays, kids playing, conversations and afternoons that didn't seem important at the time.

In this episode of Artifacts, Danny Brown looks at how home video changed what we chose to remember, and why th...

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Do you remember when software came in boxes?

Before downloads, cloud accounts, and subscriptions, buying software meant bringing something home.

A box. A disc. A manual. Maybe a registration card. And somewhere inside was that tiny product key you absolutely couldn't afford to lose.

You installed the software, put the box on a shelf, and knew that you owned it.

In this episode of Artifacts, Danny Brow...

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What did it feel like to discover an entire world inside a CD-ROM? A time before Google, Wikipedia, and instant answers, when there was a different way to explore knowledge.

CD-ROM encyclopedias like Microsoft Encarta turned the family computer into a doorway to somewhere much bigger. You could look up the Roman Empire, discover dinosaurs, explore a map, watch a video, and somehow end up learning a...

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What did technology teach us about waiting? Long before instant streaming, cloud storage, and one-click downloads, there was another familiar sight: the progress bar.

Whether you were connecting to the internet over dial-up, downloading your favourite song, installing a new game, or burning the perfect mix CD, technology constantly asked us to wait. And somehow, those quiet moments became part of t...

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What if the best discoveries were the ones you never planned to make?

Before recommendation engines, personalized playlists, and "Because you watched..." suggestions, discovery looked very different.

You wandered through record shops, browsed library shelves, explored video rental stores, and followed one link after another across the early internet, never quite knowing where you'd end up.

In this ep...

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Season One explored the objects we remember.

Season Two explores the experiences they changed.

From waiting for a dial-up connection to discovering music, finding your way with a paper map, choosing what was worth keeping, and remembering what it felt like to truly be offline, Artifacts returns with eight new stories about the everyday moments technology quietly transformed.

This isn't a season about...

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Season 1 may have come to an end, but the archive is still open.

In this special bonus episode, Danny reflects on the journey that began with a Dreamcast and grew into something much bigger than a podcast about old technology.

Looking back at the stories behind internet forums, burned CDs, away messages, midnight launches, the family computer, game manuals, and the early web, hear what surprised him...

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The early internet wasn't polished.

It was messy. Colourful. Sometimes impossible to navigate. And it was filled with websites, profiles, and pages created by people who simply wanted to make something that felt like their own.

In the Season 1 finale of Artifacts, Danny Brown explores a time when the internet invited us to create instead of consume. From GeoCities and Angelfire to MySpace profiles, ...

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Before games taught us how to play, there were instruction manuals.

Folded inside the box, they were more than just guides to the controls. They introduced us to new worlds, told stories, shared artwork, and built excitement long before we ever pressed the Start button.

In Episode 7 of Artifacts, Danny Brown explores why video game manuals became such an important part of growing up for a generation...

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Before we carried the internet in our pockets, it lived in one place.

The family computer.

Whether it sat in the corner of the living room, the spare bedroom, or the family office, it was a shared space where homework, games, emails, music, and late-night internet adventures all happened on the same machine.

In Episode 6 of Artifacts, Danny Brown explores what it meant to grow up with a family PC, fr...

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Standing outside a store at midnight shouldn't be memorable.

And yet, for millions of people, it was.

Before digital downloads, launch day was an event. Whether it was a new console, a highly anticipated game, a blockbuster movie, or a must-have album, midnight launches transformed ordinary purchases into shared experiences.

In Episode 5 of Artifacts, Danny Brown explores why people still look back f...

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Before status updates, before social media profiles, and before we carried the internet in our pockets, there were away messages.

A few lines of text attached to a screen name.

And somehow, they mattered.

In Episode 4 of Artifacts, Danny Brown explores how AIM away messages became one of the earliest forms of online self-expression. From song lyrics and inside jokes to cryptic messages aimed at one s...

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Before streaming playlists, there were burned CDs.

Carefully curated collections of songs, handwritten track lists, homemade cover art, and hours spent deciding exactly what came next.

In Episode 3 of Artifacts, Danny Brown explores why burned CDs became so much more than a way to listen to music. They were expressions of identity, creativity, friendship, and sometimes even love.

From Napster downloa...

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Before social media feeds, algorithms, and endless scrolling, the internet felt different.

Smaller.

Messier.

More personal.

In Episode 2 of Artifacts, Danny Brown explores the strange emotional connection people still have to old internet forums - from recognizable usernames and chaotic communities to forum signatures, inside jokes, and the feeling of belonging to tiny digital neighbourhoods.

Why did t...

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The Dreamcast failed. At least, that’s the official version of the story.

Released on 9/9/99, Sega’s final console lasted only a few short years before disappearing from store shelves forever. But decades later, people still talk about the Dreamcast with a kind of emotional reverence usually reserved for much bigger success stories.

So why does it still matter so much?

In the first episod...