The 404 Media Podcast
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Welcome to the podcast from 404 Media where Joseph, Sam, Emanuel, and Jason catch you up on the stories we published this week. 404 Media is a journalist-owned digital media company exploring the way technology is shaping–and is shaped by–our world. We bring you unparalleled access to hidden worlds both online and IRL through investigative reporting, smart blogging, and breaking news. At 404 Media you’ll read, and hear, stories you can’t find anywhere else written by journalists who are leading experts on their beats. Subscribe to 404 Media at 404media.co to gain access to an ad-free version of this podcast, as well as a bonus podcast episodes. Subscribers are the bedrock of building a sustainable business for our journalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
AI Companies Scraped the Web and Are Destroying the Human Internet
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5 Oct 2026
Jason Kint, the CEO of Digital Content Next, has kept a close eye on some of the biggest tech antitrust and copyright court cases. Kint has a knack for finding particularly incriminating court
The FBI Was Hacked. We’ve Seen the Data
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30 Sep 2026
Don’t sleep on [@ultrapouches]. New customers get 15% Off with code 404MEDIA at takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad We start this week with Joseph’s stories on the massive FBI hack. 404 Media
The End of Privacy Is Here (with Kashmir Hill)
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28 Sep 2026
Facial recognition is everywhere now. It’s in surveillance cameras; it’s soon going to be in Meta’s RayBan pervert glasses, and some students already did that. You now have massively viral
OpenAI Admits AI is Killing the Internet
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23 Sep 2026
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Is AI Making Us Less Human?
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21 Sep 2026
When chatbots become our closest “friends,” what happens to our capacity to care? This week I'm joined by Professor Sherry Turkle. Sherry is a licensed clinical psychologist, the founding
404 Media x The Intercept LIVE: How AI Is Used to Surveil and Kill
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18 Sep 2026
In this bonus collaboration with our friends at The Intercept, 404 Media's Jason Koebler and the Intercept's Sam Biddle and Akela Lacy discuss the ways AI is already used to empower private
Humans Are Reading Your ChatGPT Conversations
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16 Sep 2026
We start this week with Joseph’s story about the people who are reading real ChatGPT users’ prompts and conversations. He got a bunch of documents all about these contractors and saw real prompts
Fighting for the Future of Libraries (With Jennie Rose Halperin)
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14 Sep 2026
This week we’re joined by Jennie Rose Halprein. Jennie is the executive director of Library Futures, a non-profit that advocates for a fair digital future for libraries and the communities they
DHS’ Secretive ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit Pulling People Over
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9 Sep 2026
Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to https://incogni.com/404Media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA at
This Innocent Woman Spent 13 Days in Jail Because of a False Flock Hit
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7 Sep 2026
This week Jason talks to Lindsey Isaacs and her lawyer, Patrick McGeehan. Last year, Lindsey was falsely arrested and imprisoned after authorities used Flock’s license plate reader system to pull
We Spoke to an Amazon Worker Destroying Books for AI
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2 Sep 2026
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How Cyber Sleuths Tracked Down a Nigerian Scammer
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31 Aug 2026
This week Joseph talks to Paul Raffile, a cybercrime researcher, and Erin West, founder of Operation Shamrock. The pair recently traveled to Nigeria to track down a scammer and meet a bunch more.
Cops Are Making Fake Flock Cameras and Amazon Packages
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26 Aug 2026
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Your AI Companion Doesn’t Love You with Bridget Todd
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24 Aug 2026
Go to https://surfshark.com/404Media or use code 404Media at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark! Tech companies want you to believe that the chatbots they profit from are the always ready,
Amazon is Destroying Rare Books to Train AI
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19 Aug 2026
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The Future of Deepfakes and the Decline of Reality with Hany Farid
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17 Aug 2026
The past, present, and future of deepfakes, as seen by the world’s leading expert on synthetic media. I think we’re pretty good at telling the difference between an AI generated image and a real
Mark Zuckerberg’s 'Superintelligent' AI Future That No One Wants
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12 Aug 2026
Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to https://incogni.com/404Media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA at
How to Surveil the Police (with William Gude)
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10 Aug 2026
Go to https://surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, with the reassurance of a 30-day money-back guarantee, or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout. That's
This Man Might Go to Prison for Wiping His Phone
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5 Aug 2026
Get 15% off OneSkin with the code 404 at https://oneskin.co/404 We start this week with Joseph’s article about Samuel Tunick, the man charged with allegedly wiping his phone before DHS officials
Former Flock Employee Speaks Out: Says He Was ‘Lied To’
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3 Aug 2026
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Flock Came to My Town. Here’s What I Did
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29 Jul 2026
We start this week with Matthew’s experience of what happened when Flock came to his small town. It’s a microcosm of what is happening all across the United States. After the break, Sam tells us
This Man Bought Phone Location Data from Around the World
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27 Jul 2026
Go to https://surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, with the reassurance of a 30-day money-back guarantee, or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout. That's
Flock is Tracking People, Not Just Cars
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22 Jul 2026
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404 Media Live: How AI Is Destroying the Internet
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20 Jul 2026
404 Media teamed up with the Los Angeles Public Library's LA Made to do a live show at the LA Central Library at the end of May. Jason, Sam, and our friends Dexter Thomas and Gita Jackson talked
We Are Living in a ‘ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic’
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15 Jul 2026
Go to https://surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, with the reassurance of a 30-day money-back guarantee, or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout. That's
Liberation, Eroticism, and Sex in Public (with Angela Jones)
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13 Jul 2026
Is your sex life as private and personal as you think it is? Or is it shaped by – and constantly shaping, in turn – the society and systems you exist in? This week we’re joined by Dr. Angela
How Influencers Fake Being Rich
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8 Jul 2026
Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to incogni.com/404Media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA at
Is the Best Game of the Year a Failure?
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6 Jul 2026
Remap Radio’s Rob Zacny and Emanuel dive deep into their current favorite game, Marathon, and what its middling success says about the future of games. If you listen to the 404 Media podcast by
The Tokenpocalypse Is Here
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1 Jul 2026
Go to surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, with the reassurance of a 30-day money-back guarantee, or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout. That's surfshark.com/404Media.
How Brands Use Reddit to Poison AI Search
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29 Jun 2026
This week, we're doing a deep dive into how marketing companies are poisoning AI search results by manipulating Reddit. You may remember when Google’s AI search results first launched, it
If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II
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24 Jun 2026
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Stopping Tech Company Censorship (with Jake Hanrahan)
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22 Jun 2026
Go to surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, with the reassurance of a 30-day money-back guarantee, or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout. That's surfshark.com/404Media. Our
The Government Wants to End Anonymity on Phones
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17 Jun 2026
Go to surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, plus there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee—or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout! We start this week with Joseph’s story
Meet Me at the Opsec Rave (with Imani Thompson)
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15 Jun 2026
This week, I’m thrilled to be joined by Imani Thompson. Imani is a digital security trainer and host of a series of events called Cache Me Outside, where she and partner orgs help people understand
Google Employees Meme About How Bad Their AI Is
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10 Jun 2026
We start this week with Emanuel’s story about the internal memes Google employees are making all about AI. Definitely check out some of the examples in the article or on YouTube. After the break,
It’s So Not Over for Hollywood (with Devindra Hardawar)
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8 Jun 2026
Emanuel talks to Devindra Hardawar about AI in Hollywood and the state of the movie industry. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code 404MEDIA at the link below and get 60% off an annual
Hackers Asked Meta AI To Let Them In. It Worked
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3 Jun 2026
Go to surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, plus there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee—or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout! We start this week with Jason’s story
A Repairable, No-Tech Tractor
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1 Jun 2026
Go to https://surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, plus there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee—or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout! Ursa Ag is an Alberta, Canada-based
How Deepfakes Destroyed a High School
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27 May 2026
Sponsor: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code 404MEDIA at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/404media We start this week with Sam’s deeply reported
Millions of People Are Installing Malware on Their Partners’ Phones
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25 May 2026
This week Joseph speaks to Zack Whittaker, an editor at TechCrunch. Zack has been leading coverage into the spouseware or stalkerware industry. This is malware sold to ordinary people, which they
Boo-sters
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20 May 2026
We start this week with Sam telling us all about the commencement speeches where speakers have been praising AI, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. That did not go down well! After the break,
The Physical Politics of the Internet with Britt Paris
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18 May 2026
This week, I’m delighted to be joined by Britt Paris. Britt is a critical informatics scholar and Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University’s School of
The Chinese Deepfake Software Powering Scams
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13 May 2026
We start this week with Joseph’s story about how we obtained Haotian AI, a sought-after piece of realtime video deepfake software that lets you turn into anyone else during Microsoft Teams,
How the World Became a Casino (With Natasha Schüll)
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11 May 2026
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 where it’s legal for anyone to bet on
Flock Used Cameras at a Children’s Gymnastics Center for a Sales Pitch
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6 May 2026
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 tells us why Nature retracted a paper about the
The New Luddites: Why People Are Destroying Surveillance and AI Infrastructure
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4 May 2026
This week, we talk to Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, about a rash of people physically destroying AI and surveillance infrastructure. Brian puts this wave of attacks in the
How This Trippy Image Started A Massive Conspiracy Theory
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29 Apr 2026
This week, Jason explains the conspiracy theory circulating behind a trippy stock image that went viral after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—was it sent here by a time traveler? (Spoiler:
Government Hacking Tools Are Now in Criminals' Hands (with Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai)
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27 Apr 2026
This week Joseph talks to Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, a journalist at TechCrunch. Lorenzo has possibly the deepest understanding of one of the wildest cybersecurity stories in years: how an