Jason Scott Talks His Way Out of It

Hosted by Jason Scott

Technology History

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Episodes

371

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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About the show

Historian and loudmouth Jason Scott shares stories of technology, retrocomputing, documentary filmmaking, and general schennanigans from his decades of travels and research. From experiences on the road while shooting documentaries to often-obscure points of order, Jason keeps a fast-moving pace and even he doesn't know where we're ending up at the end.

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60 recent

August 14, 2026Episode 37213 min

The Exquisite Book Episode

The Exquisite Book Episode: Getting a Package in the Mail, A Unique Subject, The Art and the Catalog of Memories, Why Do a Documentary, The Short and Long of a Subject, Companies Doing Listings and Images, The Expense and the Obscurity, Architecture and Life, Accuracy and Fact-Checking, The Waiting Moments of a Future Reading.I was moving books around and realized I've really gravitated to books that are beautiful and about subject I lived through in my younger years. Companies like Microzeit Publishing, Boss Fight Books, and Bitmap Books are just a few (and I'm not doing affiliate links) and I just want to encourage people to see what's out there - it's rather surprising what has come out in the last decade.

August 10, 2026Episode 37111 min

The 15 Year Anniversary Episode

The 15 Year Anniversary Episode: 15 Years at the Archive, Loving a Job, The Duties, The Remaining Seven, The Many Different Feelings, Mission, Future, Joy, Sadness, An Unhelpful Letter.A rumination on my decade and a half at the Internet Archive. What a great time it has been, and continues to be.

August 7, 2026Episode 37010 min

The Archivebossing Too Close To The Sun Episode

The Archivebossing Too Close To The Sun Episode: Winning an Auction, Bidding, It's Just $50, OK Maybe It Is Not $50, Passing the Hat, Having Support, What's On The Tin, Re-Learning a Lesson.I won an auction! But at what cost? Sadly, I know exactly what cost.

August 3, 2026Episode 36913 min

The Interface Construction Set Episode

The Interface Construction Set Episode: Pinball Construction Set, Bill Budge's Talents, The Experience of a Construction Set, Interfaces at the Archive, The Variety of Interfaces, An Interface Construction Set, Finding The Gaps, Showing Variety, Nothing Autonomous, Bad Actors, A Parade of Interfaces, Wishing You Well.In which I indicate a fun idea of an Interface Construction Set, a program to let people make and share interfaces and help them get tested out and improved.

August 1, 2026Episode 3689 min

The Ode to 25 Boxes Episode

The Ode to 25 Boxes Episode.A rather odd and unusual poem, dedicated to a particularly large shipment of digitized items leaving the office this week.

July 31, 2026Episode 36712 min

The Elvis Restoration Episode

The Elvis Restoration Episode: Paying a Little Extra for IMAX, The Full IMAX, EPIC: Elvis Presley In Concert, Restoration, Elvis As A Performer, Total Control, 50 Years of Cartoon, Finding a New Experience, The Handler of Stories Not Yet Told.A rumination on the new Elvis movie EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert, which contains many well-restored filmed performances and minutes with Elvis that have mostly never been seen anymore. An inspiration to film and general archivists everywhere. Was glad to see it in IMAX, but also glad to see how good the tools are to bring 60 year old footage back to life.

July 30, 2026Episode 36610 min

The Temperature Episode

The Temperature Episode: A Somewhat Cold Office, The Loss of Environment, The Context Factor, An Overheated Box, an Underheated Room, Keeping Warm, The Compression of Experience, Tracking the Temperatures, A Beam of Sunlight.A meditation on the often forgotten experience of how things we use that are digital live in a context and condition, such as temperature, that we'll never know was the case.

July 29, 2026Episode 36511 min

The Feed Scanners Episode

The Feed Scanners Episode: A Launch of Scans, 2500 Pages, The Process of Feed Scanning, Digital to Analog to Digital, Pages to Go, The Ease, Paper Clips and Tape, Thanks to Supporters.I hauled out one of the feed scanners and I've done 2,500 pages in one day, and I have thoughts. Considering the frustrations of other mediums, this one is pretty simple: A lot of pages I scan seem to be skewed! Not the paper read, but the print on them. Somehow, however, I'll survive.

July 28, 2026Episode 36412 min

The Fidonet Consideration Episode

The Fidonet Consideration Episode: Fidonet, A Network, A Dream, Growth, Meaning, Alternate Networks, Burnout, Forever.A meditation on the power of Fidonet and how, even to the best of my abilities, the full story still needs proper telling.

July 27, 2026Episode 36311 min

The DNA New Year Episode

The DNA New Year Episode: A Tape Playing, VHS Tapes, Dance Not Art, Spencer Coppins, The Events, Recording for Posterity, The VHS Medium, A Bridge to the Past and to Today, Seize the Tape.I was handed a pile of VHS tapes from the 1980s of DNA Lounge, and got to see a lot of people from that time play on my screen while I did my other work in the present day. The collection is from Spencer Coppins, who my research has verified was a Real One.