When Your Devices Fritz And Your Digital Life Is Lost. What Next?

When Your Devices Fritz And Your Digital Life Is Lost. What Next?

From KQED's Forum by KQED

April 29, 2026 · 55 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the emotional and practical implications of losing digital data and features insights from experts in data recovery.

What happens when your hard drive gets fried and every photo documenting your kid’s life, or that novel you didn’t back up, or that cache of old emails documenting your first love affair is lost? After the scream of agony, who do you call? That’s what New Yorker staff writer Julian Lucas wanted to know. The answer, it turns out, is right in our backyard. We talk to Lucas and the folks from Drive Savers, a company in Novato that works to resurrect your digital life from the dead. What digital history have you lost? Guests: Julian Lucas, staff writer, The New Yorker; his latest article is "Resurrection Hardware" Sarah Farrell, director of business development, DriveSavers Data Recovery Kelly Chessen, hypnotherapist; former data crisis counselor, DriveSavers Data Recovery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Guests: Julian Lucas, Sarah Farrell, Kelly Chessen

Topics covered

  • data recovery
  • digital life
  • technology
  • personal stories
  • loss of data

Keywords

  • data recovery
  • digital loss
  • Drive Savers
  • Julian Lucas
  • technology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The New Yorker, Drive Savers

Places: Novato

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