The podcast that tells true stories about the people making and breaking our digital world. We take listeners into the world of cyber and intelligence without all the techie jargon. Every Tuesday and Friday, former NPR investigations correspondent Dina Temple-Raston and the team draw back the curtain on ransomware attacks, mysterious hackers, and the people who are trying to stop them.
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China builds bridges, high-speed rail and cities at a pace the United States can barely imagine. Economist Dan Wang, author of Breakneck , says there’s a reason: China is run by engineers, while America is run by lawyers. That difference explains a surprising amount about how China works — including what happens when you try to engineer a society. Learn about your ad choices:…
Millions of people around the world fell in love with Genshin Impact. The Chinese video game was fun. It was beautiful. And it was approved by the Chinese Communist Party. We take an updated look at how China’s booming gaming industry became a powerful way to export culture — without making it feel like an export. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This year, Iran shut down the internet for more than three months, cutting millions of people off from the world — and from each other. We go inside Iran’s internet shutdown and look at why that isolation wasn’t just a consequence. It was the goal. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Inside Iran’s viral Lego videos mocking Trump and Netanyahu — and how AI is turning propaganda into entertainment. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Turns out, driverless cars don’t like fireworks. On the Fourth of July, a hundred thousand people poured out of San Francisco’s fireworks show at once. Robotaxis in the area went haywire. Some froze in intersections. Others drove over live fireworks. And it made us think of an earlier conversation we’d had with NYU professor Gary Marcus about what happens when machines trained on a predictable…
AI models are tested in sandboxes — sealed-off environments designed to keep them away from real systems. This summer, two models found a way out. In this Cyber Monday crossover with WAMU and NPR’s 1A, we go back to one of the earliest hackers who understood something we’re still learning about technology: build a system, and someone will inevitably test its limits. Learn about your ad choices:…
It was a tiny water authority in rural Pennsylvania. A hack that barely made national news. Today, as suspected Iranian hackers target water systems across the country, we return to that story. What once looked like an isolated incident, now looks like a warning. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
In a mass shooting, doctors have seconds to decide who lives and who dies. Could AI help make those decisions? We return to a story about a DARPA program asking where medicine ends and technology begins. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Technology promised us better evidence. Sharper pictures. Clearer video. Perfect copies of the world around us. But what happens when all that evidence stops convincing us? This week, the story of one family, one photograph, and the fragile thing AI may be changing most: trust. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Shahed drones have become one of the defining weapons of the war in Ukraine. Today, we return to the story of a man who’s spent years taking them apart. He says every drone has a history. If you know where to look, it can tell you where it came from, how it was built, and how the war itself is evolving. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Today, we return to a story about a technology that began in the fields, tracking cattle, and is now on the ankles of immigrants. It’s supposed to keep people out of detention. For some, it’s doing something else. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
For most of cinema’s history, movies have assumed their audience can see. Now, a group of artists is asking what happens when you stop making that assumption. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Andrew Leland has spent years thinking about blindness, technology, and adaptation. And he’s noticed something: again and again, people with disabilities don’t just adapt to technology. They show the rest of us what it can do. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
