404 Media

2025-11-12 14:32:37

Podcast: Inside a Small Town's Fight Against a $1.2 Billion AI Datacenter

We start with Matthew Gault’s dive into a battle between a small town and the construction of a massive datacenter for America’s nuclear weapon scientists. After the break, Joseph explains why people are 3D-printing whistles in Chicago. In the subscribers-only section, Jason zooms out and tells us what librarians are seeing with AI and tech, and how that is impacting their work and knowledge more broadly.
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Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
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6:03 - ⁠Our New FOIA Forum! 11/19, 1PM ET⁠

7:50 - ⁠A Small Town Is Fighting a $1.2 Billion AI Datacenter for America's Nuclear Weapon Scientists⁠

12:27 - ⁠'A Black Hole of Energy Use': Meta's Massive AI Data Center Is Stressing Out a Louisiana Community⁠

21:09 - ⁠'House of Dynamite' Is About the Zoom Call that Ends the World⁠

30:35 - ⁠The Latest Defense Against ICE: 3D-Printed Whistles⁠

SUBSCRIBER'S STORY: ⁠AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge⁠

The 404 Media Podcast

Tech News Podcast · Updated Weekly · 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 …

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404 Media

2025-11-10 14:00:07

Podcast: A Massive Archiving Effort at National Parks (with Jenny McBurney and Lynda Kellam)

If you’ve been to a national park in the U.S. recently, you might have noticed some odd new signs about “beauty” and “grandeur.” Or, some signs you were used to seeing might now be missing completely. An executive order issued earlier this year put the history and educational aspects of the parks system under threat–but a group of librarians stepped in to save it.

This week we have a conversation between Sam and two of the leaders of the independent volunteer archiving project Save Our Signs, an effort to archive national park signs and monument placards. It’s a community collaboration project co-founded by a group of librarians, public historians, and data experts in partnership with the Data Rescue Project and Safeguarding Research & Culture.
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Lynda Kellam leads the Research Data and Digital Scholarship team at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and is a founding organizer of the Data Rescue Project. Jenny McBurney is the Government Publications Librarian and Regional Depository Coordinator at the University of Minnesota Libraries. In this episode, they discuss turning “frustration, dismay and disbelief” at parks history under threat into action: compiling more than 10,000 images from over 300 national parks into a database to be preserved for the people.

Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Become a paid subscriber for early access to these interview episodes and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
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• ‘Save Our Signs’ Archive and Submission Site
• 'Save Our Signs' Wants to Save the Real History of National Parks Before Trump Erases It
• ‘Save Our Signs’ Preservation Project Launches Archive of 10,000 National Park Signs
• Archivists Work to Identify and Save the Thousands of Datasets Disappearing From Data.gov

Archivists Work to Identify and Save the Thousands of Datasets Disappearing From Data.gov

More than 2,000 datasets have disappeared from data.gov since Trump was inaugurated. But analyzing exactly what happened and where it went is going to take some time.

^{Jason Koebler (404 Media)}

404 Media

2025-10-01 13:00:43

Podcast: Landlords Demand Your Workplace Logins to Scrape Paystubs

We start this week with Joseph’s article about landlords and income verification companies demanding login details from potential renters so the companies can log in and scrape their paystubs. That has some potential legal issues for everyone involved! After the break, 18 lawyers tell us why they used AI. In the subscribers-only section, Emanuel breaks down the massive drama around Ruby.
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Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
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• Landlords Demand Tenants’ Workplace Logins to Scrape Their Paystubs
• 18 Lawyers Caught Using AI Explain Why They Did It
• How Ruby Went Off the Rails

The 404 Media Podcast

Tech News Podcast · Updated Weekly · 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 …

^{Apple Podcasts}

404 Media

2025-09-24 13:00:44

Podcast: We're Suing ICE. Here's Why

We start this week with some news: we are suing ICE for access to its $2 million contract with a company that sells powerful spyware. Paragon sells tech for remotely breaking into phones and reading messages from encrypted chat apps without a target even clicking a link. After the break, we talk about a couple of stories about AI ‘workslop’ and the engineers who fix peoples’ vibe coding. In the subscribers-only section, we start with a malicious game on Steam stealing cryptocurrency from a cancer patient, then we talk about Silk Song.
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Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
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• We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract
• AI ‘Workslop’ Is Killing Productivity and Making Workers Miserable
• The Software Engineers Paid to Fix Vibe Coded Messes
• Steam Hosted Malware Game that Stole $32,000 from a Cancer Patient Live on Stream
• Does Silksong Seem Unreasonably Hard? You Probably Took a Wrong Turn

The 404 Media Podcast

Tech News Podcast · Updated Weekly · 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 …

^{Apple Podcasts}

404 Media

2025-08-27 13:00:44

Podcast: 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. After the break, Jason tells us about the new meta in AI slop: making 80s nostalgia videos. In the subscribers-only section, we all talk about Citizen, and how the app is pushing AI-written crime alerts without human intervention.
playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TBIEA8…
Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.

• Inside the Underground Trade of ‘Flipper Zero’ Tech to Break into Cars
• 80s Nostalgia AI Slop Is Boomerfying the Masses for a Past That Never Existed
• Citizen Is Using AI to Generate Crime Alerts With No Human Review. It’s Making a Lot of Mistakes
• VICE News Presents: Vigilante, Inc.

The 404 Media Podcast

Tech News Podcast · Updated Weekly · 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 …

^{Apple Podcasts}

404 Media

2025-06-18 13:00:15

Podcast: 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 came from. After the break, Emanuel tells us how AI scraping bots are breaking open libraries, archives, and museums. In the subscribers-only section, Jason explains the casual surveillance relationship between ICE and local cops, according to emails he got.
playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TBIEA4…
Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
youtube.com/embed/Auc7NPD2ig4?…

• Airlines Don't Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS
• AI Scraping Bots Are Breaking Open Libraries, Archives, and Museums
• Emails Reveal the Casual Surveillance Alliance Between ICE and Local Police

Emails Reveal the Casual Surveillance Alliance Between ICE and Local Police

Police departments in Oregon created an "analyst group" where they casually offer each other assistance with surveillance tools.

^{Jason Koebler (404 Media)}