Thousands of writers in Kenya make their living ghostwriting academic papers for wealthy Western students.  It’s an industry known as “contract cheating” or “essay mills,” and is the subject of a new documentary, “The Shadow Scholars.” Directed by Eloise King, the film follows Kenyan-born Oxford Professor Patricia Kingori as she investigates this hidden industry and seeks to understand the essay writers working in the shadows of the educational system. 

Morgan talks with Patricia and Eloise about the world of academic cheating, and how these writers are adapting to a world in which AI-generated essays are just a click away.

Guests: 

Patricia Kingori, professor of global health ethics at the University of Oxford

Eloise King, director of “The Shadow Scholars”

Further reading/listening: 

The Shadow Scholars — Directed by Eloise King 

Kenya’s “Fake Essay” Writers and the Light they Shine on Assumptions of Shadows in Knowledge Production — Patricia Kingori, Journal of African Cultural Studies 

How writing essays for American students has become a lucrative profession overseas — Farah Stockman, The Independent 

Georgia Bans Commercial Cheating Services — Derek Newton, Forbes 

Companies that use AI to help you cheat at school are thriving on TikTok and Meta — Chris Stokel-Walker, Fast Company  

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

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Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Maya Cueva. Original music, including our theme song, by Chris Egusa. Additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.

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Have you heard of the “Gen Z stare”? It’s the blank look some Gen Zers seem to give instead of the usual greetings or small talk—and it’s the latest skirmish in a years-long generation war between Gen Z and Millennials. Internet culture researcher Aidan Walker joins Morgan to trace the origins of this rivalry, unpack what behavioral quirks like “the Gen Z stare” and “the Millennial pause” reveal about each generation’s relationship with technology, and explore why everyone seems to forget about Gen X.

Guests: 

Aidan Walker, independent writer, content creator, and internet culture researcher

Further reading/listening: 

Is the ‘Gen Z stare’ just a call to look inward?  — Manuela López Restrepo and Mia Venkat, NPR

Have you been a victim of the ‘gen Z stare’? It’s got nothing on the gen X look of dread — Emma Beddington, The Guardian

Gen Z is staring at you. It may be more than just a quirk. — Kalhan Rosenblatt, NBC News

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

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Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Chris Egusa. Original music, including our theme song, by Chris Egusa. Additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.

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Social media creators started using words like “unalive” and “seggs” to dodge algorithmic filters that might suppress “inappropriate” content. But these workarounds aren’t staying online. They’re leaking into real life — like last year, when the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture explained on a placard that Kurt Cobain “unalived” himself. 

In his new book Algospeak, linguist and online creator Adam Aleksic argues that algorithms are shaping language in unprecedented ways, and it’s happening quicker than ever. He joins Morgan to explain why euphemisms keep transforming, how “all words are now metadata,” and what his social media persona says about the power of the algorithm to shape the way we speak.

Guests: 

Adam Aleksic, linguist, creator and author of Algospeak

Further reading/listening: 

Algospeak — Adam Aleksic

The resurgence of the r-word — Constance Grady, Vox

How Sign Language Evolves as Our World Does — Amanda Morris, The New York Times

The Harvard-Educated Linguist Breaking Down ‘Skibidi’ and ‘Rizz’ — Callie Holtermann, The New York Times

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

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Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Chris Egusa. Original music, including our theme song, by Chris Egusa. Additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.

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In another installment of Save or Scroll, Morgan teams up with internet culture writers Daysia Tolentino and Moises Mendez II to dig into the stories they can’t stop thinking about. From people calling ICE on influencers, to Grindr’s new age verification, to the Labubu matcha Dubai chocolate craze (yes, you heard that correctly), the three of them have plenty to scroll through. 

Save or Scroll is our series where we team up with guests for a rapid-fire roundup of internet trends that are filling our feeds right now. At the end of each segment, they’ll decide: is the post just for the group chat, or should we save it for a future episode?

Guests: 

Daysia Tolentino,  Yap Year founder and writer at Entertainment Weekly

Moises Mendez II,  writer at Out Magazine

Further reading/listening: 

5 reasons 'Love Island USA' went completely off the rails this year — Daysia Tolentino, Entertainment Weekly 

The Obsessive Fans Playing God on ‘Love Island’—and Living for the Crash-Outs — Jason Parham, WIRED

Grindr introduces age verification for UK-based users — Aaron Sugg, Attitude 

Grindr accused of treating gay man’s medical data like ‘piece of meat’ | UK news — Robert Booth, The Guardian 

'Labubu' is a plush toy that is causing a frenzy. Here's its origin story — Juliana Kim, NPR

How Relooted, A Game About Reclaiming African Artifacts From Western Museums, Ended Up Being Shown By A White Guy At Summer Game Fest — Nathan Grayson, Aftermath 

Reddit Trolls Are Weaponizing Government Agencies Against Creators — Fortesa Latifi, Rolling Stone 

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

You can also follow us on Instagram

Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Maya Cueva, Chris Egusa, and Brendan Willard. Original music, including our theme song, by Chris Egusa. Additional music from APM. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.

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Who decides what is and isn’t a library? The Internet Archive now has federal depository status, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries that archive government documents and make them accessible to the public — even as ongoing legal challenges pose an existential threat to the organization. Some of the organization’s critics even argue that the Internet Archive is not a library at all. 

In this special update to our deep dive on the Internet Archive, we get into what this designation really means. Morgan talks to Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle about what federal depository libraries do, whether this affects the Internet Archive’s copyright lawsuit, and why preserving information is more important than ever. 

Guests: 

Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of The Internet Archive

Further reading/listening: 

SF-Based Internet Archive Is Now a Federal Depository Library. What Does That Mean? — Morgan Sung, KQED

What Happens if the Internet Archive Goes Dark? — Close All Tabs

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

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Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Chris Egusa. Original music, including our theme song, by Chris Egusa. Additional music from APM. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Ethan Toven-Lindsay is our Editor in Chief.

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In a field obsessed with the future, sometimes it’s worth looking back. OGs of Tech is a new occasional series from Close All Tabs that looks beyond the billionaires to spotlight the often-overlooked innovators who helped build the digital world we live in today.

One of these OGs is Felidoro Cueva, who grew up in a rural village in the Andes mountains of Peru, and immigrated to the US in 1964 — during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. He went on to become one of the first Latino engineers in Silicon Valley. 

And he’s also our producer Maya Cueva’s dad. Maya takes us through Feli’s journey — from how counterculture experimentation influenced his fascination with technology to the discrimination he faced in a startup world where Latino representation was nearly nonexistent.

Guests: 

Felidoro Cueva, a pioneering Latino engineer in Silicon Valley

Further reading: 

Only The Moon/Solamente La Luna — directed by Maya Cueva and animated by Leah Nichols 

Meshugganismo — Maya Cueva, Latino USA

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

You can also follow us on Instagram

Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Maya Cueva and Brendan Willard. Original music, including our theme song, by Chris Egusa. Additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Ethan Toven-Lindsay is our Editor in Chief.

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Young people are increasingly turning to AI “companion chatbots” to meet their emotional needs. But a new study shows that these chatbots, which are designed to mimic real social relationships, can carry serious risks. In this episode, Morgan and her sister put one chatbot's safety guardrails to the test — and get more than they bargained for. Then, KQED Silicon Valley senior editor Rachael Myrow explains why teens are especially vulnerable, what lawmakers are doing about it, and how parents can talk to their kids about AI.

Guests: 

Rachael Myrow, senior editor, Silicon Valley News Desk at KQED

Further reading: 

Kids Are Talking to AI Companion Chatbots. Stanford Researchers Say That’s a Bad Idea — Rachael Myrow, KQED

How to Talk With Your Kids About AI Companion Bots — Rachael Myrow, KQED

Social AI Companions — AI Risk Assessment Team, Commons Sense Media

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

You can also follow us on Instagram

Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Chris Egusa and Brendan Willard. Original music, including our theme song, by Chris Egusa. Additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Ethan Toven-Lindsay is our Editor in Chief.

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Furries are often known for wearing full-body animal suits at conventions — but the characters they inhabit, called “fursonas,” are much more than costumes. They’re deeply personal expressions of identity and creativity. So when someone in the furry fandom dies, how does the community say goodbye? In this episode, Morgan explores a virtual memorial created by a furry named Changa Husky, where mourners gather in VR to remember those they’ve lost — and the fursonas they leave behind.

Editor's note: In this episode, we refer to some individuals only by their “fursona” names. We’ve chosen to use these names because members of the furry community are frequently subject to harassment, bullying, and doxxing, and many participants use online handles to maintain their safety and privacy.

Guests: 

Changa Husky, furry Vtuber and video producer

Patch O’Furr, founder and writer, Dogpatch Press

Further reading: 

Who runs the internet? Furries — Dylan Reeve, The Spinoff 

Remembering Mark Merlino (1952-2024), a founder and soul of furry fandom — Patch O’Furr, Dogpatch Press 

The Fandom: A Furry Documentary — Ash Coyote, YouTube

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

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Heads up — the Close All Tabs team is taking a break to touch grass, so we won’t have an episode next week. But we’ll be back with another deep dive, and many more tabs, in two weeks.

Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Chris Egusa and Brendan Willard. Original music, including our theme song, by Chris Egusa. Additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad and Alana Walker. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Holly Kernan is our Chief Content Officer.

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The animation industry has long struggled to get Black hair right — from the infamous “Killmonger locs,” named after the Black Panther character and copied across video games, to the stiff, oversized afros of The Sims 4. As it turns out, hair animation tools were built almost exclusively with straight hair in mind. Two researchers, A.M. Darke and Theodore Kim, recently published a landmark paper about the physics of animating curly, coiled, and afro-textured hair. Morgan sits down with A.M. and Theodore as they discuss the surprising pushback they encountered in the animation industry, the findings of their paper, and the uphill battle they faced in getting this field of study recognized within academia. 

Guests: 

A.M. Darke, artist, game designer, and an associate professor of Performance, Play, & Design at UC Santa Cruz

Theodore Kim, Professor of Computer Science at Yale University 

Further reading: 

Lifted Curls: A Model for Tightly Coiled Hair Simulation - Alvin Shi, Haomiao Wu, A.M. Darke, and Theodore Kim

Curly-Cue: Geometric Methods for Highly Coiled Hair  - Alvin Shi, Haomiao Wu, A.M. Darke, and Theodore Kim

The 'Killmonger Cut' Is Everywhere In Games, Here's Why the Industry Needs to Fix This — Trone Dowd, IGN

We’re Much Closer to A Disney Princess With Type 4 Hair — Essence Gant, Allure

Open Source Afro Hair Library  - A.M. Darke 

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

You can also ⁠follow us on Instagram

Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. This episode was edited by Chris Hambrick and Chris Egusa. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts, and also helps edit the show. Sound design by Maya Cueva, Chris Egusa and Brendan Willard. Original music by Chris Egusa, with additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad and Alana Walker. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Holly Kernan is our Chief Content Officer.

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Spotify didn’t just change how we listen to music — it changed what a genre even is. In this episode, producer and rapper Quinn reflects on being thrust into the spotlight at age 15 as one of the breakout faces of Spotify’s meteoric Hyperpop playlist.. Then, music journalist Kieran Press-Reynolds breaks down how Spotify’s made-up micro-genres—like Goblincore, Anime Drill, and Bubblegrunge—are reshaping music discovery and putting pressure on artists to conform.

Guests:

Quinn, independent producer and rapper

Kieran Press-Reynolds, independent reporter covering music and internet culture

Further reading:

How to break free of Spotify's algorithm — Tiffany Ng, MIT Technology Review

The Lost Promises of Hyperpoptimism — Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork

Read the transcript here

Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [email protected]

You can also follow us on Instagram

Credits:

This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Additional editing by Jen Chien. Sound design by Chris Egusa and Brendan Willard. Theme and credits music by Chris Egusa, with additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad and Alana Walker. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Holly Kernan is our Chief Content Officer.

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