This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

Here at 99PI, we are huge fans of the last archive.

It's a show about the history of truth, how we know what we know, how we used to know things,

and why it seems lately as if we don't know anything at all.

The first three seasons were hosted by historian and author Jill Lepore, who's a friend of the show and frequent guest, for their just-launched fourth season,

producer Ben Nautif-Haffray has taken over hosting.

There are stories about freelance wiretappers, time travel, and invasive species panics with beautiful sound design

that makes you feel like you're inside of history itself.

Today we're presenting the season premiere, which asks the question, can machines automate creativity?

And no, we're not talking about AI, we're talking about the player piano.

I also love this episode so much because it features a personal favorite composer of mine,

Raymond Scott, a guy whose music you have heard without even knowing it. So let's step inside. The last archive.

The last Archive. About 30 years ago, a man named Erwin Choused,

encountered one of the strangest machines

almost nobody had ever heard of. I was 40, I was broke, it was kind of a professional

failure. one of the most famous musicians of the early 20th century

who had somehow been completely lost to history.

These were records that were 25 cents of pop

and used record stores back then.

And you didn't even have them in a bin. They had them under the bins.

Chousett loved Scott's music and he began to get drawn into the mystery of it all.

Who was this guy? He was obsessed, but his research kept dead ending.

...