Podcast Episodes

How the World Became a Casino (With Natasha Schüll)

The logic behind Polymarket, Kalshi and sports betting apps can be traced back to the inner workings of the slot machine. 

How did we get to a point…

1 day, 12 hours ago

Flock Used Cameras at a Children’s Gymnastics Center for a Sales Pitch

This week we start with Jason's story about Flock accessing cameras in a children's gymnastics room as a sale pitch demo. After the break, Emanuel te…

6 days, 12 hours ago

The New Luddites: Why People Are Destroying Surveillance and AI Infrastructure

This week, we talk to Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, about a rash of people physically destroying AI and surveillance infrastructure…

1 week, 1 day ago

How This Trippy Image Started A Massive Conspiracy Theory

This week, Jason explains the conspiracy theory circulating behind a trippy stock image that went viral after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—…

1 week, 6 days ago

Government Hacking Tools Are Now in Criminals' Hands (with Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai)

This week Joseph talks to Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, a journalist at TechCrunch. Lorenzo has possibly the deepest understanding of one of the wil…

2 weeks, 1 day ago

How Algorithms Make Us Feel Bad and Weird

This week Sam unpacks how social media algorithms manipulate our emotions around everything from engagement rings to wedding dresses to babies, and w…

2 weeks, 6 days ago

Why Journalists Are Leaving Big Media (with Maddy Myers)

This week, Sam is joined by Maddy Myers, editor-in-chief of Mothership. She’s also a co-host of the video games podcast Triple Click. 

Maddy launche…

3 weeks, 1 day ago

How the FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages

We start this week with Joseph’s story on the inherent friction between secure chat apps like Signal and the phone they’re running on. Incoming messa…

3 weeks, 5 days ago

How the Internet Became Hell (with Whitney Phillips)

‘The Ambivalent Intent’ and ‘The Shadow Gospel’ author Whitney Phillips on how online got so bad

Why does the internet feel like it’s getting worse…

4 weeks, 1 day ago

Wildlife Cops Are Searching AI Cameras for ICE

This week we start with Jason’s story about how wildlife cops are doing Flock lookups for ICE. It shows that ICE is gaining access to this sort of in…

1 month ago