David X Cohen, Co-Creator of Futurama

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.

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.

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

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