This time, it’s the Emmy-award-winning writer David X Cohen. David started writing on Beavis and Butthead in the early 90s before joining The Simpsons, where he was responsible for many well-known episodes like Lisa the Vegetarian, The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show, and Homer3. Then, in 1999, with Simpsons creator Matt Groening, David co-developed Futurama, which recently dropped its 13th season on Hulu and Disney+.

But David’s history is not just in television. He worked in the robotics lab while attending Harvard, studied theoretical computer science, and has a deep history with technology all the way back to the early days of home computers. As you can expect there was a lot for us to talk about.

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First, Last, Everything is a podcast exploring people’s personal relationships with technology. In each episode, host Jonathan Reed gets to know a guest through three pieces of tech: their first inspiration, their last obsession, and the one that meant everything to them. From some software or a computer to a weird gadget or a first camera. Pretty much anything goes.

In addition, each episode features the ‘Something’ segment, a small dive into the past to talk about a piece of technology that you may not have heard of. Weird, ahead of its time, an abject failure or success, whatever it was, it was certainly… something.

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This episode’s links

David on Wikipedia

• Alan Yuille on Wikipedia
• Ken Keeler on Wikipedia
• Homer3 on YouTube
• George Meyer on Wikipedia

Futurama opening on YouTube

'Futurama - Welcome to the World of Tomorrow’ BTS on YouTube

Futurama References on The Infosphere:

• The Speed of Light
• The Prisoner of Benda and its theorem
• The Impossible Stream
• eyePhone
• Hedonismbot
• Roberto
• Enema-bot
• Acting Unit 0.8
• Head Jars

Shut Up and Take My Money on Know Your Meme

Victor Wembanyama on Wikipedia

‘How Hollywood writers triumphed over AI – and why it matters’ - The Guardian

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• David’s ‘First’ pick: Arcade Games: Playthroughs on YouTube -  Berzerk, Space Guerrilla, Battle Zone, Qix, Gorf.
• David’s ‘Last’ pick: Waymo
• David’s ‘Everything’ pick: Apple II on Wikipedia
• Apple II Reference Manual PDF
• 'Something’: TwitterPeek on Museum of Failure

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Music: Will LaPorte

First, Last, Everything is a MacStories podcast.

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