Computer Freaks
By Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan
This is the untold history of how the internet almost didn’t happen. It’s an ode to fathers and daughters. And it’s a tale about the origins of the man-computer symbiosis that’s still profoundly relevant to our society today.
Host Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan is a James Beard Award-winning journalist who has worked for NBC News as well as three of the nation’s largest newspapers, and who created the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Rotten. Dare-Bryan’s connection to the story is deeply personal—her father, Joseph Haughney, was one of the internet’s founding fathers.
S2 E6: Briefly Famous
This episode looks back at where all of our main characters landed in their lives after the tech boom and bust and what they have learned.
S2 E5: Crazy Bill
Goto.com rises to the highest levels of success and even tries to buy Google. But this episode looks at what went wrong.
S2 E4: Permissionless Innovation
In this episode, we pivot to Pasadena where the world of ecommerce is taking off to broader audiences. Through our ecommerce characters, we meet Bill Gross who is digging into the radically changing world of paid search.
S2 E2: Marc the Shark
This is the origin story of when Marc Andreessen first arrives in Silicon Valley. This episode paints a picture of the world he arrives in, who he befriends and who he alienates.
S2: Trailer
Season Two of Computer Freaks shifts the narrative from the academic origins of the Arpanet to the aggressive commercialization of the internet in the 1990s. While Season One focused on the "founding fathers" and their scientific vision, Season Two explores the era of Internet entrepreneurship, where pioneers began turning the network into a source of massive personal wealth.