What Season 2 Taught Me About Artifacts

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Hey there, Danny here, and welcome to a little bonus episode of Artifacts.

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Season 2 has just come to an end, and before I disappear back into the archive

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to start recording and editing Season 3, I just want to take a little time to

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look back at this season.

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When I started this season, I wanted to do something different.

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Season 1 was very much about the things we remember.

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Burned CDs, the Dreamcast, old internet forums, AIM away messages,

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the family computer, and all those other pieces of technology and internet culture

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that carried far more meaning than we may have realised at the time.

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For season two, I want to turn that around a little. Instead of starting with

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an object and following the emotional story underneath it, I want to start with

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the experiences technology had changed.

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Waiting, discovery, ownership, sharing, trust.

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Those little things that technology changed without us necessarily noticing

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it was happening. And I'm glad I did.

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Not necessarily because I think it was the better approach, but because I think

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you have to experiment with something before you really understand what it is.

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Looking back across the season, there are episodes I'm really happy with.

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And there are some that have made me realise the original artifacts formula

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was stronger than I gave it credit for.

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There's something about starting with a physical object, a piece of technology,

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a piece of software, or some forgotten artifact, and then fall on a story underneath

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it that gives the show its identity.

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The object gets us through the door. The history gives us the context.

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But what happened around that object, the memories, the people,

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the experiences and the feelings, that's really what I'm interested in.

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So that's something I'm taking into season three.

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Not because I want Artifacts to become a straightforward nostalgia podcast.

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I'm not really interested in spending 40 minutes telling you that everything

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was better in 1997, because it wasn't.

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But I am interested in the things we used to have around us.

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A memory card isn't just a memory card when you've got 20 hours of a game saved on it.

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A software box isn't just cardboard when it's the thing you carried home after

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saving up for months to buy it.

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An old internet service isn't just a piece of technology when it's where you met people,

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discovered music, built something, or spent half your teenage years.

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That's the part I want to keep exploring. Find the artifact first,

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then find the feeling inside it.

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And there's another thing this season reminded me of, which is perhaps a little less comfortable.

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The importance of being willing to listen when somebody tells you you've missed something.

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A couple of weeks ago, the Shareware episode received a one-star review on Apple Podcasts.

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The review pointed out that it hadn't made one important part of the Shareware story clear enough.

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Shareware wasn't one single model, and some versions could restrict features,

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limit usage, or lock parts of the experience until you registered.

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Now, the episode does touch on these limitations, but the criticism was fair.

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I hadn't given that part of the history enough attention.

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Now, I'll admit, one star felt a little harsh for one omission in a nine-minute

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episode. But that's also the point.

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It's very easy to see a negative review, disagree with the rating and move on.

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But it's much more useful to ask whether there's actually something underneath

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the criticism that you can learn from. And in this case, there was.

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So I went back to the research, dug further into the different shareware models,

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checked the history again and made a correction to the episode.

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And that's something I want to carry forward.

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Artifacts isn't going to get everything right every time: I'm one person that

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remembers living in that time but I also need to research, write,

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record and produce this thing and there will always be something that I could

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have explained better or dug into further,

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and I do want to make sure I'm doing the work.

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If something's missing, I'd rather somebody point it out and give me the opportunity

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to fix it than convince myself that it doesn't matter,

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That's really important with Artifacts because the whole point of the show is

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preserving these little pieces of history before they disappear.

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If I'm going to tell these stories, I owe it to the people like me who remember

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them, and to the people who didn't live through them, to get the history right.

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Now that doesn't mean the show needs to become a dry history lesson. Quite the opposite.

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The research is there to give the story a foundation.

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The reason I'm telling the story in the first place is because somewhere underneath

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all these details is something that still means something to somebody.

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And that's what I keep coming back to. Because the more I make Artifacts,

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the more I realise that I'm not really interested in whether a piece of technology was good or bad.

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I'm interested in what it meant.

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Why did we keep it? Why did we care about it? What did it represent?

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And who did we share it with?

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And why can something we haven't touched in 20 years still take us straight

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back to a particular person, place or version of ourselves?

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Those are the stories I want to keep telling. And there's already plenty of

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things sitting in the archive waiting for us.

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Old hardware, forgotten software, game accessories, internet services that disappeared

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years ago, music platforms that once seemed completely ordinary but now feel

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like little time capsules.

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So Season 3 is going to start there. Back with the things, back with the artifacts,

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and then we'll see where they take us.

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Before I go, I do want to say thank

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you though. Whether you've listened to every episode of Season 2 or 1,

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discovered the show halfway through, sent me an email, left a review,

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corrected something, suggested an artifact or just listened every week,

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it genuinely means a lot.

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This show exists because people still care about these things, and every time

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somebody tells me about the old computer they still have in the attic,

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the game they can't throw away, the website they remember or the piece of technology

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that reminds them of somebody they loved, it reminds me why I started making

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Artifacts in the first place.

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If you'd like to support the show, the easiest thing you can do is listen,

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share an episode with somebody who might enjoy it, or leave a rating or review wherever you listen.

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If you want to help a little more, there's the Archivist Membership,

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which helps cover the research, writing, production, sound, hosting,

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and all the other things that go into each season.

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There's also a one-off tip option if subscriptions aren't your thing.

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Both are available at the Artifacts website, and I'll leave a link in the show

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notes so you can check these out.

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But you don't have to do any of that. Being here is enough.

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Season 2 was a little experiment. It took Artifacts somewhere slightly different

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and I'm glad I let it do that, because it did help me understand the show better

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now than I did when I started.

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And that's probably the best thing a season of a podcast can give you.

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A clearer idea of where you're going next.

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So, Season 2 is done, but the archive is still open. And I've got a few things

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waiting to be pulled out.

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Season 3 drops on October 9. I'll see you there.