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
Fraudsters: 'We Know Where You Live'
We've got a really varied one today. First, Sam talks about the new wave of sextortion emails which send a target their home address to scare them into paying. After the break, Jason talks about the …
00:40:46 |
Wed 11 Sep 2024
Is Criticizing AI Ableist?
The organization that runs National Novel Writing Month, a November challenge to write 50,000 words, said "the categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence has classist and ableist undertones.…
00:38:59 |
Wed 04 Sep 2024
The Arrest of Telegram Founder Pavel Durov
Emanuel and Jason break down the arrest of Telegram cofounder Pavel Durov, a slide deck showing "active listening" advertising based on microphone data, and a concerning new study that shows AI-gener…
00:46:18 |
Wed 28 Aug 2024
A Whirlwind Tour of DEF CON
This month Joseph went to the annual DEF CON hacking conference and spoke to a bunch of interesting hackers, researchers, and technologists. We wanted to provide our paying subscribers with a snapsho…
00:01:40 |
Sun 25 Aug 2024
How Taylor Swift Could Sue Trump for AI Images
This week Sam starts with how Taylor Swift could sue Donald Trump for posting a series of fake, AI-generated images that claimed she wanted fans to vote for the presidential candidate. After the brea…
00:36:15 |
Wed 21 Aug 2024
The OSINT Hunt for a Sex Trafficking Ringleader
We're dedicating a whole episode to Sam's new narrative piece on how a ragtag group of friends hunted down a wanted sex trafficking ringleader. First we give you all the context for why this person, …
00:43:07 |
Wed 14 Aug 2024
The Massive Nvidia Leak
This is a big one. Sam got hold of a massive leak of internal Nvidia emails, Slack messages, and documents which show how the tech giant is scraping YouTube and Netflix for its own purposes. In the s…
00:48:41 |
Wed 07 Aug 2024
Signal's Meredith Whittaker on Backdoors and AI
This is a special interview episode with Meredith Whittaker, the president of the Signal Foundation. I'm sure you all know, and maybe even use, the Signal messaging app. Here we sat down with Whittak…
00:50:00 |
Fri 02 Aug 2024
Google, Reddit, and the Robots.txt Rebellion
We've got a bumper episode today. First off, a whole series of stories about robots.txt and its increased use against AI, as well as Reddit only being available in Google results now (and not other s…
00:46:05 |
Wed 31 Jul 2024
The CrowdStrike Outage
Some weeks are just crazy. On Friday, Windows machines around the world went down due to a faulty update to CrowdStrike's security software. We discuss what happened, and why, and the impact. After t…
00:40:14 |
Wed 24 Jul 2024
The Worst Telecom Breach Ever
Sometimes a hack just completely blows you away. Late last week we learned that hackers had taken the call and text records of "nearly all" AT&T customers. That's absolutely staggering! We break down…
00:42:24 |
Wed 17 Jul 2024
The Ticketmaster Hack
So, the Ticketmaster hack got a lot, lot worse. Jason breaks down why in the first half of the show. After the break, we talk more Ticketmaster, and how scalpers have teamed up with hackers to libera…
00:42:29 |
Wed 10 Jul 2024
Your Identity Hacked, Yet Verified
We start this episode talking about some exciting updates for the podcast! For the first story, Joseph explains how an ID verification service for TikTok, Uber, and X exposed driver licenses, in a si…
00:43:20 |
Wed 03 Jul 2024
Replacing 404 Media with AI
Here's a fun one: Emanuel made his own ChatGPT-powered news site that ripped off our work and that of WIRED, The Verge, and others to show just how easy spinning up one of these AI click farms really…
00:46:37 |
Wed 26 Jun 2024
AI Celebs Take Over Google Image Search
Joseph is out this week, so the leftover crew considers what it means for Google image search to be taken over by AI images, talks about #finance, and discusses how an already sensationalist NY Times…
00:46:56 |
Wed 19 Jun 2024
Hacking the Adderall Shortage
It feels way longer than a week since our last episode, weird. Anyway this week we start with a wild story with Emanuel, about how people in the US are paying a company, which in turn hires people in…
00:47:04 |
Wed 12 Jun 2024
DARK WIRE on Whale Hunting
A something extra for our listeners this week. Joseph went on an episode of Whale Hunting to talk about his new book DARK WIRE, in which the FBI secretly ran its own encrypted messaging app to wireta…
00:31:00 |
Thu 06 Jun 2024
A Massive Google Leak
We start this week with a massive leak from inside Google. We obtained a copy of an internal Google database the company uses to track potential privacy and security issues. It's incredibly rare to g…
00:40:58 |
Wed 05 Jun 2024
Google Somehow Got Even More Shit
We revisit our Why Google Is Shit Now episode with something of an update: Google got worse! Of course we're talking about the embarrassing rollout of Google's AI-powered answers. Jason explains the …
00:45:14 |
Wed 29 May 2024
Your Phone's Location is Exposed
Really excited about this one. We spend the entire episode talking about SS7, the fundamental network and protocol which is both at the heart of the world's telecommunications infrastructure, and cru…
00:37:07 |
Wed 22 May 2024
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