Meet the Man Who Invented the Internet!

In a Minute with Evan Lovett

Audacy

Places & Travel, Society & Culture

5.0 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1969, UCLA Computer Science Professor Leonard Kleinrock led a team of scientists in a project to get two computers to 'talk' to each other. Lo and behold, the experiment worked. . .and ARPAnet was created, laying the groundwork for the internet. Nearly 60 years later, Kleinrock is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at UCLA, still teaching - and still creating groundbreaking work, including forays into AI. A wildly endearing, vivacious, witty intellect, meet the man I call "the Vin Scully of Computer Science" - a person that truly belongs on the Los Angeles Mount Rushmore.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Overall, is the internet good or bad?
0:02.4	By all means, it's definitely good.
0:04.8	It allows people across the world to get an education,
0:08.0	to get information where they never could have reached that otherwise.
0:12.2	We can interact.
0:13.8	Social networking is a whole other story.
0:29.2	Yo, welcome to another episode of In A Minute with Evan Lovett, coming to you live from the IM studios in the heart of Los Angeles. And let me tell you something.
0:31.7	This podcast would not exist.
0:34.2	LA in a minute would not exist.
0:36.4	And the entire internet would not exist if it were not for my guest today.
0:42.5	Leonard Kleinrock distinguished Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at UCLA for more than 60
0:50.8	years, by the way.
0:52.2	But this was the man who directed the transmission of the first
0:56.5	message between two networked computers, which marked the beginning of the internet. This is
1:03.5	significant for Los Angeles, but it's significant for the world. And man, we have a lot to get
1:10.0	into. Professor Kleinrock, thank you so much for being here.
1:13.1	I appreciate you beyond belief. Thank you very much. My pleasure, Evan. Wonderful to be here.
1:18.5	This is truly an honor. And we have spoken before. We've spent some time in your office. You are very
1:24.9	gracious and generous. We talked a little bit about the story
1:29.2	of how the internet started, what you've essentially created and where it went, but I feel that
1:35.9	this deserves a bigger platform and maybe a more intimate platform to get into some of these stories.
1:41.1	So I want to jump in. This is, I'm sure, I know you've told this story dozens, hundreds, thousands of times,
	...

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