Answered from The Story Behind Creating DNS | Paul Mockapetris · Ryan Peterman · 2026-10-19
Paul Mockapetris describes the namespace as a tree with a single root. A resolver asks the root where a name like stanford.edu lives; the root points to the .edu servers, which point to Stanford's. Every answer carries a time-to-live, so stable records can be kept for a day and the network cost is paid once across many lookups. He compares it to expiry dates on milk versus canned beans.
Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Ryan Peterman (2026-10-19). Read the whole episode summary →