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.
S1 E4: The French Connection
Louis Pouzin is a French academic who some experts say really invented the Arpanet. But is that true, and should any one person be given all the credit?
S1 E3: Let’s Have a Ball
It’s the 1970s and both the government and academia are doing everything they can to spread the word of the Arpanet. But as the Arpanet gains popularity everywhere after its 1972 coming-out ball in Washington, D.C., through its new phone book, it also faces detractors who don’t want it to be available to all.
S1 E2: In the Air
Many historians say the Arpanet (and ultimately the internet) was born on October 29, 1969. But is that really when the Arpanet began, and who should be given credit for this key moment in internet history?
S1 E1: The Dollhouse
After World War II, the U.S. had to change the way it communicated if it was going to keep up with the Soviets in the Cold War, especially once Sputnik was launched. It was the vision of a Missouri boy called Lick that would solve those communication issues and spark the creation of the internet.
S1: Trailer
Season one of Computer Freaks is a "love letter" from host Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan to her father, Major Joseph Haughney, who managed the Arpanet for the Department of Defense from 1979 to 1981.
Driven by her father’s diagnosis of dementia, the season uses over 100 hours of audio interviews to chronicle the early, "untold" history of how the internet almost didn't happen.