The 404 Media Podcast
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.
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- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 45 minutes
- Episodes
- 119
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
AI Slop Is Drowning Out Human YouTubers
This week, we talk about how 'Boring History' AI slop is taking over YouTube and making it harder to discover content that humans spend months researching, filming, and editing. Then we talk about ho…
00:58:34 |
Wed 10 Sep 2025
404 Media Live: LA! [TEASER]
This is a recording of our live show in Los Angeles in July! In this show we spoke all about ICE's technology and our reporting on it. Facial recognition, Palantir, Flock, and more. And we take quest…
00:08:46 |
Thu 04 Sep 2025
Trump Take LEGO
We start this week with our articles about Trump’s tariffs, and how they’re impacting everything from LEGO to cameras to sex toys. After the break, Emanuel explains how misfired DMCA complaints desig…
00:45:46 |
Wed 03 Sep 2025
404 Media Live: NYC!
Here's the podcast recorded at our recent second anniversary party in New York! We answered a bunch of reader and listener questions. Thank you to everyone that came and thank you for listening to th…
00:47:18 |
Thu 28 Aug 2025
The Underground Trade of Car Hacking Tech
We start this week with Joseph’s investigation into people selling custom patches for the Flipper Zero, a piece of hacking tech that car thieves can now use to break into a wide range of vehicles. Af…
00:47:43 |
Wed 27 Aug 2025
The Inside Story of Tea
We start this week with Emanuel’s big investigation into the Tea app, and especially how it aggressively grew by raiding women safety groups. After the break, we talk about TikTok Shop selling GPS tr…
00:47:30 |
Wed 20 Aug 2025
Why Are DHS Agents Wearing Meta Ray-Bans?
We start this week with Jason’s article about a CBP official wearing Meta Ray-Bans smart glasses to an immigration raid. A lot of stuff happened after we published that article too. After the break, …
00:55:38 |
Wed 13 Aug 2025
Google Is Exposing Peoples’ ChatGPT Secrets
We start this week with Joseph’s story about nearly 100,000 ChatGPT conversations being indexed by Google. There’s some sensitive stuff in there. After the break, Emanuel tells us about Wikipedia’s n…
00:46:21 |
Wed 06 Aug 2025
The Tea Breach Just Keeps Getting Worse
We start this week with Emanuel’s and Joseph’s coverage of Tea, a women’s dating safety app that was breached multiple times. After the break, Sam and Emanuel talk about how a new UK law about age ve…
00:55:47 |
Wed 30 Jul 2025
Spotify Is Publishing AI Tracks of Dead Artists
We start this week with Emanuel's wild story about Spotify publishing AI generated tracks that look like they come from artists' official accounts. One problem: those artists died a long time ago. Af…
00:44:43 |
Wed 23 Jul 2025
The AI Exodus Begins
We start this week with a series of articles from Emanuel about a crackdown in the AI industry. After the break, Sam tells us about the ‘Save Our Signs’ campaign which hopes to preserve the history o…
00:46:47 |
Wed 16 Jul 2025
How to Fight Back Against AI Bot Scrapers
We’re back! We start this week with Emanuel’s article about Anubis, an open source piece of software that is saving the internet from AI bot scrapers. After the break, Joseph tells us about the new f…
00:39:45 |
Wed 09 Jul 2025
The Life Changing Power of Lifting (feat. Casey Johnston)
For this week’s podcast, I’m talking to our friend Casey Johnston, a tech journalist turned fitness journalist turned independent journalist. Casey studied physics, which led her to tech journalism; …
01:04:20 |
Wed 02 Jul 2025
This Site Unmasks Cops With Facial Recognition
We start this week with Emanuel and Joseph’s coverage of ‘FuckLAPD.com’, a website that uses facial recognition to instantly reveal a LAPD officer’s name and salary. The creator has relaunched their …
00:51:27 |
Wed 25 Jun 2025
Airlines Sold Your Flight Data to DHS—And Covered It Up
This week we start with Joseph’s article about the U.S’s major airlines selling customers’ flight information to Customs and Border Protection and then telling the agency to not reveal where the data…
00:46:59 |
Wed 18 Jun 2025
Feds Flew Predator Drones Over The LA Protests
Much of this episode is about the ongoing anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. We start with Joseph explaining how he monitored surveillance aircraft flying over the protests, including what turned out …
00:51:40 |
Wed 11 Jun 2025
Anti-Porn Laws' Real Target Is Free Speech
We start this week with Sam's dive into a looming piece of anti-porn legislation, prudish algorithms, and eggs. After the break, Matthew tells us about the open source software that powered Ukraine's…
00:45:14 |
Wed 04 Jun 2025
ICE's Backdoor Into a Nationwide AI Surveillance Network
This week is a bumper episode all about Flock, the automatic license plate reading (ALPR) cameras across the U.S. First, Jason explains how we found that ICE essentially has backdoor access to the ne…
00:47:12 |
Wed 28 May 2025
AI Slop Summer
We start this week with Jason's couple of stories about how the Chicago Sun-Times printed a summer guide that was basically all AI-generated. Jason spoke to the person behind it. After the break, a b…
00:46:07 |
Wed 21 May 2025
AI Avatar of Killed Man Testifies in Court
We start this week with Jason and Matthew's story about an AI avatar that testified in court. It might be a sign of things to come. After the break, well, well, well, Meta is developing facial recogn…
00:51:59 |
Wed 14 May 2025
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