Future Knowledge

Author Edward Wilson-Lee joins Brewster Kahle to uncover the astonishing true story behind The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books. Wilson-Lee chronicles the adventures of Hernando Colón, who sailed with his father Christopher Columbus before setting out to build a library of everything ever printed—a quest marked by shipwreck, mutiny, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge.Grab your copy of The Catalogue Of Shipwrecked Books from The Booksmith: https://www.booksmith.com/book/9781982111403 This conversation was recorded on 6/28/2022. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/book-talk-the-catalogue-of-shipwrecked-booksCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

For years, the open access movement has promised a more equitable world for scholarship. But as more of our publishing infrastructure is shaped—or captured—by commercial incentives, a harder question keeps surfacing: if knowledge is openly available but controlled by the same market forces as before, has anything truly changed?In Publishing Beyond the Market, Samuel Moore challenges us to rethink open access from the ground up. Guiding our conversation is Heather Joseph, the executive director of SPARC.Grab your copy of Publishing Beyond the Market: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/105971This conversation was recorded on 12/04/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/publishing-beyond-the-market Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

While major recording artists are sued for alleged plagiarism and most creators earn pennies for their work, media industry profits continue to soar. Libraries face mounting barriers to providing access to ebooks—often while being sued by the very publishers whose books they buy. In this episode of Future Knowledge, tech and culture writer Glyn Moody discusses his book Walled Culture: How Big Content Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Keep Creators Poor. Moody traces how copyright laws designed for a world of physical scarcity have been repurposed for the digital age—creating legal and technical “walls” that restrict access to knowledge, limit creativity, and overwhelmingly benefit large media corporations over creators and the public. Joining the conversation is Maria Bustillos, writer and editor at the Brick House Cooperative.Grab your copy of Walled Culture: https://walledculture.org This conversation was recorded on 11/10/2022. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/book-talk-walled-cultureCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

What do jazz, gene sequences, and the World Wide Web have in common? They all reveal what’s at stake when our cultural commons shrinks. In this episode, James Boyle, author of The Public Domain, joins Molly Shaffer Van Houweling to explore why the public domain is essential for creativity, innovation, and a healthy information ecosystem. From surprising case studies to the “range wars” of the digital age, Boyle explains how expanding intellectual property rights can stifle culture—and what it will take to protect the commons we all depend on.This conversation was recorded on 12/18/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-public-domain Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

For this special holiday episode, we’re celebrating the Internet Archive’s milestone of 1 trillion web pages archived with something a little different: live music created just for the occasion.Join us for conversations with composer Erika Oba, composer Sam Reider, and cellist Kathryn Bates of the Del Sol Quartet, recorded around The Vast Blue We, the concert held at the Internet Archive to honor our shared digital memory. Two new commissions premiered that night: Oba’s “Blue Lights” and Reider’s “Quartet for a Trillion,” both written to capture the wonder and scale of the open web—and brought to life by Del Sol Quartet. Oba later reconfigured “Blue Lights” for a solo performance during The Web We’ve Built celebration.In this episode, you’ll hear brief conversations with the artists about their creative process, followed by recordings from the performance itself. A short, reflective holiday release that celebrates collaboration, imagination, and what we can build together.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

What made the early web so thrilling, and how do we reclaim that spirit today? In this special episode, recorded at Georgetown University’s historic Riggs Library, leaders who helped build the internet and those fighting for its future come together to chart a path forward.Featuring Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive), Vint Cerf (Google), Cindy Cohn (EFF), and Jon Stokes (Ars Technica), and moderated by Luke Hogg of the Foundation for American Innovation, this conversation looks back at the web’s origins to imagine what a truly open, innovative, and empowering internet could still become.This conversation was recorded on 10/27/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/wayback-to-the-future-celebrating-the-open-webCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge 

The internet wasn’t ruined by accident—it was ruined on purpose. In this episode, Cory Doctorow joins us to break down enshittification, his term for the slow, deliberate process that transformed an open, vibrant web into something extractive, frustrating, and increasingly hostile to users. Doctorow explains how platform lock-in, predatory business models, and concentrated corporate power hollowed out the digital spaces we rely on—and, more importantly, how we can build an internet that serves people again.Note: This episode contains strong language.Grab your copy of Enshittification: https://craphound.com/shop/This conversation was recorded on 11/21/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/cory-doctorow-2025 Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In this conversation, Michael Menna and Anjali Vats unpack how copyright law really works for musicians outside the mainstream. While stars like Taylor Swift make headlines for reclaiming their masters, countless “fringe musicians” navigate a system that often privileges profit over creativity. Together, Menna and Vats examine the gap between copyright’s ideals and its realities—exploring how power, access, and inequity shape who benefits from the music economy and what a fairer future might look like.Read Michael Menna's paper, "The Fringe Musician, the 360 Deal, and a New Look at Copyright and Competition in Music": https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol32/iss1/3/ Read Anjali Vats' paper, "Owning Your Masters (Taylor’s Version): Postfeminist Tactical Copyright and the Erasure of Black Intellectual Labor": http://www.anjalivats.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Vats_Ch-48_Owning-Your-Masters_Scans_pp552-573.pdfThis conversation was recorded on 09/11/2025.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge 

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, and Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, chat with Lauren Goode of Wired about the rise of the web, its continuing and explosive impact on society, and the importance of preserving the web for our cultural history.This conversation was hosted at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on 10/9/2025.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge 

In 1996, the web was still young—a chaotic, creative frontier built one page at a time. That same year, the Internet Archive set out to preserve it all. Nearly three decades later, that audacious goal has reached a generational milestone: 1 trillion web pages preserved.Co-hosts Chris Freeland (Internet Archive) and Dave Hansen (Authors Alliance) talk with Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, about how this vast public archive came to be—and what 1 trillion captures mean for humanity’s collective memory.This conversation was recorded on 10/16/2025.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Author Trevor Owens joins media scholar Shannon Mattern to discuss his book, After Disruption: A Future for Cultural Memory. Together, they explore how libraries, archives, and museums can reclaim their role in shaping a just and sustainable digital present. Owens argues that cultural memory institutions—long “disrupted” by tech-sector ideologies—must chart their own course forward by centering values of maintenance, care, and repair, ensuring that the future of memory is built on belonging and connection rather than burnout and loss.Grab your copy of After Disruption: https://press.umich.edu/Books/A/After-Disruption3 This conversation was recorded on 9/25/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/after-disruptionCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

How does copyright shape the music we love—and influence how it's made, distributed, and reimagined? In this episode, Jennifer Jenkins, author of Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture, is joined by legal scholar James Boyle for a conversation about how copyright law influences everything in our modern world from sampling and streaming to remix culture, and what that means for creators. Grab your copy of Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/music-copyright-creativity-and-culture-9780190945930This conversation was recorded on 4/10/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/music-copyright-creativity-and-cultureCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Authors James A. Jacobs and James R. Jacobs join librarian Shari Laster to discuss their book, Preserving Government Information: Past, Present, and Future. From print to digital, they explore how gaps in preservation threaten accountability, research, and democracy itself—and what must be done to safeguard the public record in an age when vital materials can disappear with the click of a button.Grab your copy of Preserving Government Information: https://freegovinfo.info/pgiThis conversation was recorded on 8/28/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/preserving-government-information-book-talkCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge 

Authors Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen join historian Abby Smith Rumsey to discuss their acclaimed book The Library: A Fragile History—a sweeping exploration of how libraries have been built, destroyed, cherished, and reinvented over the centuries. From ancient archives to modern public libraries, they trace the people, politics, and passions behind the world’s great collections, and reflect on the enduring—and vulnerable—idea of the library itself. This conversation was recorded on 7/20/2022. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-library-a-fragile-historyCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Erin Malone, author of In Through the Side Door, joins designer and writer Abby Covert for a conversation about the women who helped pioneer user experience and interaction design. From the early days of desktop computing to today’s digital interfaces, Malone traces how women brought insights from design, psychology, and engineering to shape the way we interact with technology—often working behind the scenes, and against the odds. This conversation explores the legacy of these trailblazers and the ongoing push for equity in tech and design.This conversation was recorded on 6/12/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/in-through-the-side-doorCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

What rights do libraries, archives, and memory institutions need to preserve our digital heritage? In this episode, we explore the "Our Future Memory" campaign and the Statement on Four Digital Rights, a global call to action to secure the legal rights libraries and other memory institutions need in the digital age. Featuring voices from around the world, this conversation highlights the urgent need for policy change to ensure long-term access to knowledge—before it's lost.This conversation was recorded in July 2025.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Recorded live at the Internet Archive Canada in Vancouver, this discussion features historian Ian Milligan, author of Averting the Digital Dark Age, in conversation with Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. Guided by journalist Takara Small, the discussion explores Canada’s role in preserving our digital heritage—and why safeguarding born-digital history is more urgent than ever. Grab your copy of Averting the Digital Dark Age: https://www.ianmilligan.ca/publication/averting-the-digital-dark-age/ This conversation was recorded on 5/27/2025.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Author and activist Cory Doctorow joins us to discuss The Internet Con, his call to reclaim internet control from Big Tech. From locked-down platforms to the illusion of choice online, Cory lays out how interoperability can break corporate monopolies—and why reshaping the digital landscape starts with empowering users to leave, remix, and reimagine the internet on their own terms.Grab your copy of The Internet Con: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con  This conversation was recorded on 10/31/2023. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-internet-conCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Author John Brackett (Live Dead) is joined by musician and Grateful Dead scholar David Gans to discuss how live recordings—both official and fan-made—shaped the sound, story, and enduring legacy of the Grateful Dead. This episode explores what these tapes reveal about audience, authenticity, and the cultural power of the “live” experience.Grab your copy of Live Dead: https://dukeupress.edu/live-dead This conversation was recorded on 5/22/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/live-deadCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Historian Peter Baldwin joins copyright scholar Pamela Samuelson to unpack The Copyright Wars—a sweeping look at 300 years of trans-Atlantic copyright battles. From 18th-century publishing monopolies to today’s clashes between Big Tech, libraries, and the entertainment industry, this conversation reveals how history can illuminate the future of intellectual property in a digital world.Grab your copy of The Copyright Wars: https://archive.org/details/thecopyrightwars00baldThis conversation was recorded on 12/15/2022. Watch the full video recording at https://archive.org/details/author-talk-peter-baldwin-the-copyright-warsCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge