Brewster Kahle on the History of the Internet Archive

Photo of Kahle via Wikipedia

Folsom, Jake.

Swisher, K. (2017, March 8). Full transcript: Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle on Recode Decode [podcast transcript]. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2017/3/8/14843408/transcript-internet-archive-founder-    brewster-kahle-wayback-machine-recode-decode

This reading was an episode of the podcast Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, in which Swisher interviews Brewster Kahle founder of the Internet Archive (IA), covering his career, the archive, as well as industry trends and outlook. 

Kahle and Swisher had known each other professionally for some time at the time of recording, and they seem to be sympathetic with one anothers' positions on several issues surrounding tech and information science, leading to a congenial and freewheeling conversation. I came to the episode as a listener of Swisher's podcasts, and found her conversational style to be a natural fit with this interview. As it happens, I actually found the interview through an information search for interviews with Kahle after working on a project about the Internet Archive during r my metadata course.

I found Kahle's work so interesting within the context of this course, because the IA is a great example of a resource available to any library with computers as an addition to its collection. Librarians who recommend its services are also contributing to the connection development within their institutions.

Kahle is an interesting and idiosyncratic thinker, describing 501(c)(3) organizations as great American innovations and a kind of "secular church." Kahle is also an interesting and relevant figure for his prescient recognition of trends in society and economy (he is talking about OpenAI in this podcast from all the way back in 2017!) 

Over Thanksgiving weekend, a family member recommended Ian McEwan's "What We Can Know" to me, and what she told me about the book had unmistakable thematic parallels to Kahle's work, and in particular his oft-cited analogy between the Library of Alexandria, and the risk of disappearing digital items, and the importance of an archive to preserve them. As McEwan's book tops year-end lists for 2025, we can see Kahle's ideas remain relevant and captivating to readers and thinkers.