Podcast Episodes

A Lost Media Mystery

Episode 36

We start this week's episode with a mystery: where did a 17-second music snippet that has puzzled online sleuths for years really come from? Sam breaks it down. After the break, Joseph explains how a…

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

The Humane Ai Pin Is a Disaster

Episode 35

This is a long one! First Joseph previews his upcoming book, DARK WIRE. Go to the link below and enter "DW20" for 20% off! Also make sure to redeem your preorder behind-the-scenes bonus content. As f…

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

The 'Com World War'

Episode 34

We start this episode with Joseph's latest fly-on-the-wall investigation into the Com, the nebulous online entity and culture that is linked to some of the most high profile and brazen data breaches …

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

The Wild World of Fake AI Influencers

Episode 33

We start the episode with an announcement: we've brought on our first 404 Media fellow Jules Roscoe! They did amazing work at Motherboard, and we're stoked to have them on board to cover labor for us…

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

The Xz Backdoor and the AI Peer-Review Crisis

Episode 32

This is a super fun episode with a lot of labor themes throughout. Jason starts off by describing the totally wild Xz backdoor which, in a way, was an open source labor issue. Then Emanuel takes us t…

Published on 1 year, 3 months ago

The Shaky Science of License Plate Readers

Episode 31

A jam packed episode this week. First, Jason explains how a 'study' that says surveillance company Flock is “instrumental in solving 10 percent of reported crime in the US” is heavily flawed. He got …

Published on 1 year, 3 months ago

Shrimp Jesus

Episode 30

Shrimp Jesus. Shrimp Jesus. Shrimp Jesus. That is what the first story is about! We now have robust academic research into the mass of AI-generated garbage flooding Facebook. Jason takes us through w…

Published on 1 year, 3 months ago

How Hackers Steal Mountains of Oxy and Adderall

Episode 29

Somehow we filled a whole hour and it felt like five minutes! First Joseph explains his deep story on how hackers and fraudsters are injecting themselves into the electronic prescription system to or…

Published on 1 year, 3 months ago

The AI-Powered TikTok Hustlers

Episode 28

We go long (and play some bonus audio) for Jason's story inside the wild world of TikTok and Instagram hustlers who are using AI to swarm platforms with automatically generated garbage content. Some …

Published on 1 year, 3 months ago

Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools

Tumblr and WordPress are set to sell posts to OpenAI and Midjourney. And cops are wearing body cameras in libraries. In this episode, Jason, Sam, and Emanuel try to explain what it means for OpenAI a…

Published on 1 year, 4 months ago