1 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker: I was born in nineteen eighty-nine, which means I was 2 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,480 maybe seven or eight when I first started noticing the 3 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:05,120 discs. 4 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:10,400 At the grocery store, there was always a little stack of them 5 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:11,680 near the gum. 6 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:16,000 We found them inside cereal boxes. 7 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,400 At some point we had so many we stuck them on our bedroom 8 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:21,200 walls. 9 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:25,840 You would balance them on your index finger and look at your 10 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:26,719 reflection. 11 00:01:26,719 --> 00:01:31,120 A tiny funhouse mirror full of rainbows. 12 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:35,519 They were just part of the texture of being alive in 13 00:01:35,519 --> 00:01:37,359 America in the 90s. 14 00:01:37,359 --> 00:01:40,079 Like 'Got Milk?' commercials. 15 00:01:40,079 --> 00:01:43,359 Or the smell of scented markers. 16 00:01:43,359 --> 00:01:45,840 I didn't know what they were for. 17 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:48,159 I just knew they were everywhere. 18 00:01:48,159 --> 00:01:52,000 Someone put them there. 19 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:56,480 I'm Daina Bouquin. 20 00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:59,200 This is Found in the Machine. 21 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:07,200 Her name was Jan Brandt. 22 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:11,439 On Friday nights, she went to Blockbuster. 23 00:02:11,439 --> 00:02:15,280 She'd pick up eight movies at a time because she didn't know 24 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:17,840 what mood she'd be in by Sunday. 25 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:22,159 One night she noticed a box by the register. 26 00:02:22,159 --> 00:02:24,800 Inside were product samples. 27 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:28,479 You'd get a box free if you rented three movies. 28 00:02:28,479 --> 00:02:35,280 So she took two boxes, walked into her office at AOL on Monday 29 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:39,360 morning, and said, we need to put a disc in here. 30 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:45,039 Jan Brandt had come up as a copywriter, moved into sales, 31 00:02:45,039 --> 00:02:47,680 and eventually shifted to direct mail marketing. 32 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:52,560 That work taught her something most marketers don't learn. 33 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:57,919 The physical object you pull from the mailbox is doing work 34 00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:00,000 before it ever gets opened. 35 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,639 The weight of it in your hand. 36 00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:07,360 It can shape the decision, in a fraction of a second, about 37 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,000 whether to open it or throw it away. 38 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,759 She had developed an absolute belief. 39 00:03:13,759 --> 00:03:18,479 A belief that you could not send someone a real package in 40 00:03:18,479 --> 00:03:21,360 the mail and have them not open it. 41 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:23,199 A package. 42 00:03:23,199 --> 00:03:25,599 Not an envelope. 43 00:03:25,599 --> 00:03:28,080 Something you could really feel. 44 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:35,680 In 1993, AOL CEO Steve Case brought her in with a mandate: 45 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:37,439 grow the subscriber base. 46 00:03:37,439 --> 00:03:42,240 She was given control of AOL's entire marketing strategy. 47 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:48,319 So she set out to make the internet feel inevitable. 48 00:03:48,319 --> 00:03:54,400 To understand what that meant, you need to remember what 49 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:58,080 getting online actually looked like in the early 90s. 50 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:02,159 Before AOL simplified everything, connecting to the 51 00:04:02,159 --> 00:04:05,280 internet was a genuinely technical act. 52 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:10,159 You had to find a local access number for your area. 53 00:04:10,159 --> 00:04:13,599 You had to understand protocols. 54 00:04:13,599 --> 00:04:17,519 And if you didn't, you had to read a manual. 55 00:04:17,519 --> 00:04:22,240 Brandt had sat in focus groups watching people try to figure 56 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:24,240 out computers for the first time. 57 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:29,600 One person held the mouse in the air, pointing at the TV 58 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:31,759 screen like a TV remote. 59 00:04:31,759 --> 00:04:36,560 She remembered seeing another put it on the floor and try to 60 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:38,800 work it like a sewing machine pedal. 61 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:41,439 They were not going to read a manual. 62 00:04:41,439 --> 00:04:44,639 They were not going to configure anything. 63 00:04:44,639 --> 00:04:46,879 And they were everyone. 64 00:04:46,879 --> 00:04:52,000 The internet was not a place most Americans had been, and it 65 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,600 was a place that required you to already know your way in. 66 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:59,600 AOL was trying to change that. 67 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:04,480 But at the time it was a distant third, or fourth, in the 68 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:06,079 online services market. 69 00:05:06,079 --> 00:05:10,720 And almost nobody could explain what the internet actually was 70 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:12,959 in a way that made someone want it. 71 00:05:12,959 --> 00:05:16,720 It made advertising nearly impossible. 72 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,480 You couldn't put it on a billboard. 73 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,639 You couldn't capture it in a TV commercial. 74 00:05:24,639 --> 00:05:29,839 But what you could do was put it in someone's hand. 75 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:37,680 Each of those discs had a clear polycarbonate core, a thin 76 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:42,639 aluminum layer to hold the data, and a coating of lacquer on 77 00:05:42,639 --> 00:05:43,279 top. 78 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:46,720 Light and cheap to make. 79 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:49,199 Not biodegradable. 80 00:05:49,199 --> 00:05:53,920 Brandt's team could produce them by the millions and ship 81 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:55,120 them everywhere. 82 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:57,120 And she intended to. 83 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:02,399 She launched what she herself called a carpet bombing 84 00:06:02,399 --> 00:06:03,040 strategy. 85 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:08,879 It started with floppy disks in 1993 and shifted quickly to 86 00:06:08,879 --> 00:06:10,160 CD-ROMs. 87 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:15,920 The strategy wasn't just to mail them, it was to make them 88 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:17,120 inescapable. 89 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:21,199 The discs turned up in magazines next to the perfume 90 00:06:21,199 --> 00:06:22,160 samples. 91 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,600 They were at the bank by the deposit slips. 92 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:29,920 In your fast food order with your napkins. 93 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:34,560 On the airline meal tray between the pretzels and the 94 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:35,199 ginger ale. 95 00:06:35,199 --> 00:06:41,519 If your eyes landed somewhere, the odds were decent that a disc 96 00:06:41,519 --> 00:06:42,639 was nearby. 97 00:06:42,639 --> 00:06:47,360 And then there were the Omaha steaks. 98 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:52,639 Omaha Steaks shipped frozen orders all over the country. 99 00:06:52,639 --> 00:06:55,839 Brandt wanted a disc in every package. 100 00:06:55,839 --> 00:06:58,720 The problem was obvious. 101 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:03,680 It would have to survive being frozen solid, thawed, then stuck 102 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:05,040 in someone's computer. 103 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:11,360 Before her team could commit, they flash froze a floppy disk, 104 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:15,439 let it thaw, and found out whether it still worked. 105 00:07:15,439 --> 00:07:17,279 It did. 106 00:07:17,279 --> 00:07:20,160 The disk went out with the steaks. 107 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:26,959 As the software grew more complex, the pressure to go to 108 00:07:26,959 --> 00:07:28,720 two discs grew with it. 109 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:31,680 She absolutely refused. 110 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:37,759 She was, in her own words, "crazed about it." Getting the 111 00:07:37,759 --> 00:07:41,040 disc into someone's hand was worthless if it came with 112 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:41,680 friction. 113 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:46,639 The whole point was that you picked it up, you put it in, and 114 00:07:46,639 --> 00:07:48,079 the door opened. 115 00:07:48,079 --> 00:07:52,160 One disc, one step, one door. 116 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:57,199 She understood that the internet wasn't something you 117 00:07:57,199 --> 00:07:57,839 could sell. 118 00:07:57,839 --> 00:08:00,720 You could only give it away. 119 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:04,319 And you had to give it away until people forgot there was a 120 00:08:04,319 --> 00:08:05,600 time before it. 121 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:10,399 The scale of what followed is almost impossible to comprehend. 122 00:08:10,399 --> 00:08:14,240 At the peak of the campaign, AOL had distributed over a 123 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:16,240 billion free trial discs. 124 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:22,160 50% of all CD-ROMs manufactured in the entire world bore the 125 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:23,519 AOL logo. 126 00:08:23,519 --> 00:08:26,959 Not 50% of promotional discs. 127 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:35,919 50% of all discs, including music albums and software. The campaign cost at least $300 128 00:08:35,919 --> 00:08:36,559 million. 129 00:08:36,559 --> 00:08:44,159 But AOL grew from 200,000 members to over 22 million. 130 00:08:44,159 --> 00:08:48,559 At its peak, they were signing up new subscribers every six 131 00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:49,519 seconds. 132 00:08:49,519 --> 00:08:54,720 And then the system broke. 133 00:08:54,720 --> 00:09:01,279 In December 1996, AOL switched to flat rate pricing. 134 00:09:01,279 --> 00:09:04,559 Unlimited access for a monthly fee. 135 00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:07,200 It was the right call competitively. 136 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:10,240 And it was also a disaster. 137 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:14,320 The number of people trying to connect at once overwhelmed the 138 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:15,759 infrastructure completely. 139 00:09:15,759 --> 00:09:21,360 On some evenings, roughly 15% of subscribers got a busy signal 140 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:22,879 just trying to log on. 141 00:09:22,879 --> 00:09:27,279 Attorneys General around the country threatened lawsuits. 142 00:09:27,279 --> 00:09:30,159 AOL promised refunds. 143 00:09:30,159 --> 00:09:34,000 Steve Case made a commercial telling people the company was 144 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:36,159 working day and night to fix it. 145 00:09:36,159 --> 00:09:43,039 The public dubbed the company "America on Hold." The campaign 146 00:09:43,039 --> 00:09:43,600 had worked. 147 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:46,720 Brandt had gotten so many people through the door that the 148 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:48,000 door was jammed. 149 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:52,080 As the infrastructure caught up and the congestion eased, the 150 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:53,759 discs kept coming. 151 00:09:53,759 --> 00:09:57,919 But they had become a type of cultural noise. 152 00:09:57,919 --> 00:10:01,440 Everyone had stacks of them. 153 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:04,000 Nobody needed more. 154 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:07,039 They were mocked in the press. 155 00:10:07,039 --> 00:10:11,519 PC World's readers voted them the most annoying tech product 156 00:10:11,519 --> 00:10:12,480 of all time. 157 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:18,240 And because the discs were everywhere, the physical objects 158 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:19,919 began a second life. 159 00:10:19,919 --> 00:10:25,360 The blue and white disc that had been millions of Americans' 160 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:29,519 first contact with the internet became raw material. 161 00:10:29,519 --> 00:10:33,279 People used them as coasters. 162 00:10:33,279 --> 00:10:38,960 They hung them in gardens as suncatchers, shattered them to 163 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:41,120 make lampshades and bowls. 164 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:48,240 One collector eventually built a glowing 150-pound throne out 165 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:50,080 of 4,000 of them. 166 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:54,080 And one of the early floppy discs was mailed to a man named 167 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:54,879 Bernard S. 168 00:10:54,879 --> 00:10:58,879 Finn, promising 15 hours of free access. 169 00:10:58,879 --> 00:11:02,480 He never opened it. 170 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:04,399 He just kept it. 171 00:11:04,399 --> 00:11:09,200 That disc is now in the collection of the Smithsonian 172 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:11,679 National Museum of American History. 173 00:11:11,679 --> 00:11:15,600 Among the things the country has decided are worth 174 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:16,559 remembering. 175 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:19,200 Over a billion discs. 176 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:25,679 The ones that didn't become folk art or end up in a museum 177 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:27,679 mostly went in the trash. 178 00:11:27,679 --> 00:11:31,039 The ones that went in the trash are still there. 179 00:11:31,039 --> 00:11:42,960 Then, if you lived in the right place, broadband arrived. 180 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:48,080 Getting online was no longer an event you prepared for. 181 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,399 The connection was just there. 182 00:11:50,399 --> 00:11:53,759 The way water is there when you open a tap. 183 00:11:53,759 --> 00:11:59,279 By 2007, AOL had retired the campaign. 184 00:11:59,279 --> 00:12:04,240 They had mailed mountains of plastic across the earth so we 185 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:06,559 could leave the physical world behind. 186 00:12:06,559 --> 00:12:10,879 And for most of us, it worked. 187 00:12:10,879 --> 00:12:15,919 But broadband did not arrive everywhere. 188 00:12:15,919 --> 00:12:21,519 A rancher in Montana still prints USDA forms and pays for 189 00:12:21,519 --> 00:12:22,159 postage. 190 00:12:22,159 --> 00:12:28,000 A student in Alabama does her homework in a McDonald's parking 191 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:29,759 lot to access Wi-Fi. 192 00:12:29,759 --> 00:12:36,480 Laying fiber optic cable can cost anywhere from tens of 193 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,720 thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars per mile, 194 00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:45,360 depending on terrain, soil, and how many households a mile 195 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:46,639 actually passes. 196 00:12:46,639 --> 00:12:51,039 Nobody agrees on the exact numbers. 197 00:12:51,039 --> 00:12:55,200 What everyone does agree on is that the math doesn't work. 198 00:12:55,200 --> 00:13:00,799 In a city, a mile might pass thousands of households. 199 00:13:00,799 --> 00:13:04,799 In rural Wyoming, it might pass three. 200 00:13:04,799 --> 00:13:11,039 No private company has ever fixed that equation. 201 00:13:11,039 --> 00:13:14,480 And no public policy has either. 202 00:13:14,480 --> 00:14:08,879 As of the 2024, 7.9 million American households were completely offline. AOL suspended all remaining dialup service in 2025. Millions of people still can't access broadband. On tribal lands, that number is nearly one out of every four people. For them, the only option is likely their cell phone when they can get a signal. It's that or satellite, and satellite isn't available everywhere. If you are one of these people, you remain isolated. The internet never became invisible. It's something you still need to work for. Jan Brandt handed millions of people the physical edge of something enormous. She gave us that moment when 203 00:14:08,879 --> 00:14:11,759 connection was something you could hold in your hand. 204 00:14:11,759 --> 00:14:13,919 It was round. 205 00:14:13,919 --> 00:14:17,679 And your fingerprints got all over the back. 206 00:14:17,679 --> 00:14:24,720 Now all that plastic waits in landfills. 207 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:33,840 And in a farmhouse, somewhere without broadband, the people 208 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:34,480 wait. 209 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:39,279 I'm Daina Bouquin. 210 00:14:39,279 --> 00:14:42,559 This is Found in the Machine. 211 00:14:42,559 --> 00:14:48,480 Before you go, if you want to go deeper on any of these 212 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:54,879 stories, I started a companion newsletter. Scripts, cut scenes, 213 00:14:54,879 --> 00:14:59,600 sources, and notes for me arriving with every episode. 214 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:05,200 You can find it at notes.foundinthemachine.com. 215 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,440 Thanks for listening.