Close All Tabs

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

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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]

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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. 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.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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Elon Musk and President Trump breaking up? LA protesters clashing with law enforcement? Waymos on fire (again)? Things have been moving fast the last few days — and like you, our feeds are on overload. Today, we’re bringing you a quick reaction episode to catch you up on a couple stories we’ve covered before that are suddenly back in the news. Close All Tabs producer Maya Cueva joins Morgan to break it all down.

We’ve talked about a few of these stories before — if you want to go deeper, here are some past episodes to check out:

The Broligarchy Pt 1: Chronicles of the PayPal Mafia | KQED

The Surveillance Machine, Pt. 1: How We Got Here | KQED

Waymo Robotaxis - Uneasiness and Vandalism | KQED

Further reading:

A timeline of the twists and turns in the Trump-Musk relationship — Nnamdi Egwuonwu, NBC News 

Immigration Protests Threaten to Boil Over in Los Angeles — E. Tammy Kim, The New Yorker

ICE raids tried to split LA apart, but might have made it stronger — Michael Lozano, LA Public Press 

How Waymo got caught in the crossfire of Los Angeles ICE protests — 

Joe Berkowitz, Fast Company 

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 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.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spotify has morphed from a straightforward music library and search engine into a data-driven system built to feed you songs to match your mood and optimize your time on the platform. 

In this episode, Morgan is joined by music journalist and author Liz Pelly to break down how Spotify built its playlist empire, the rise of so-called “ghost artists” on the platform, and how its algorithmic approach is changing our relationship to music, artists, and the culture around them. Plus, Morgan tries to solve a personal mystery:  “Am I being haunted by Sabrina Carpenter?”

Guests:

Liz Pelly, independent music journalist and author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist

Further reading:

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist — Liz Pelly

The Spotify conspiracy theories about “Espresso,” explained — Rebecca Jennings, Vox 

‘Algorithm fatigue:’ Spotify Fans Say It’s Going Downhill. Company Insiders Agree. — John Paul Titlow, Business Insider  

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. 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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Are you old enough to remember the “Magic Eye” optical illusion mania that gripped the nation in the 90’s—random patterns that you had to squint at just right for the 3D image to pop out?  It turns out it's not just our eyes that can be fooled. Our ears can play tricks on us too. There's a whole world of auditory illusions that seem to say one thing when they're really saying something else, and that matters, especially in our age of digital misinformation.

In today’s episode, Morgan talks to KQED Digital Community Producer Francesca Fenzi about why we hear  what we think we hear, and how understanding the limits of our perception might actually make us better at spotting dis- and misinformation online.

Guest:

Francesa Fenzi, KQED Digital Community Producer 

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 Maya Cueva. Original music by Chris Egusa, with additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Katherine Monahan and 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.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hentai, sexually explicit Japanese animation (anime) and comics (manga), is a genre that’s been criticized for depicting violent or ethically questionable scenarios. But some fans also see it as a space for expanding the boundaries of art, culture, and sexuality in a way that reverberates beyond its status as a niche subculture.

In this episode, Morgan talks with anime marketer Drea Ramirez about how discovering hentai helped her explore her own sexual identity — and how today’s streaming platforms are stifling weirder, more experimental forms of animation. We’ll also hear from Jacob Grady, CEO of the hentai manga site Fakku, about the challenges of running a licensed and legal business in the face of content piracy, and how anti-trafficking laws like SESTA and FOSTA can make it harder forhentai artists to make a living.

This episode is part of a collaboration with our friends at the podcast Never Post. While we’re digging into the culture and industry behind hentai, they’re coming at it from a completely different angle. Give it a listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Guests:

Drea Ramirez, social media marketing manager at Azuki

Jacob Grady, founder and CEO of FAKKU

Mike Rugnetta, host of Never Post

Further reading:

The Hentai Platform Streaming Wars — Aurélie Petit, Porn Studies 

Why "The Crunchyroll of Hentai" Failed to Take Off — Jay Allen, Unseen Japan

Hentai Sites Go To War, Leaving Animated Porn's Future In Doubt — Cecilia D’Anastasio, Kotaku 

FOSTA-SESTA was supposed to thwart sex trafficking. Instead, it’s sparked a movement — Liz Tung, WHYY

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. Original music and sound design 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.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think you can opt out of surveillance? Think again. Our locations, behaviors, and images are being tracked at unprecedented levels — and private tech companies are at the center, selling that information directly to the government. In this episode, Morgan talks with Nicol Turner Lee, Director of the Center for Technology Innovation at The Brookings Institution, about why avoiding identification in public spaces is almost impossible, and how civilians are now helping do the government’s work by surveilling each other.

Guests:

Jalsa Drinkard, Columbia University student and an organizer for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, CUAD

Don Bell, policy counsel at The Constitution Project at The Project On Government Oversight, POGO

Nicol Turner Lee, Director of the Center for Technology Innovation at The Brookings Institution

Further reading:

This pro-Israel group keeps a blacklist. Now it’s taking credit for deportations. — Zack Beauchamp, Vox 

Privacy on the Map: How States Are Fighting Location Surveillance — Rindala Alajaji, Electronic Freedom Foundation 

Police surveillance and facial recognition: Why data privacy is imperative for communities of color — Nicol Turner Lee and Caitlin Chin-Rothmann, Brookings Institute

It’s Possible to Track Someone’s Personal Phone to an Abortion Clinic. And It’s Legal Too. — Byron Tau, NOTUS 

Planning to attend a protest? Check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Attending a Protest guide for practical digital security tips to help protect your privacy and data.

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 Maya Cueva 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.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The tools of high tech surveillance are increasingly all around us: security cameras in public and embedded in doorbells, location data on your phone, online ad tracking. A lot of this has become normalized, utterly mundane. But in the year since nationwide student protests for Palestine, heightened scrutiny of and retaliation against activists in the U.S. have raised new concerns. Government surveillance, particularly on social media, has grown exponentially since the massive Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, but the precedent in this country stretches much further back. In this episode, Columbia University student organizer Jalsa Drinkard shares her experience protecting other students from invasive surveillance and targeting, and Don Bell, policy counsel for The Constitution Project at the Project On Government Oversight, walks us through the long history of government surveillance in American protest movements, and why today’s moment feels different.

Guests:

Jalsa Drinkard, Columbia University student and an organizer for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, CUAD

Don Bell, policy counsel at The Constitution Project at The Project On Government Oversight, POGO

Further reading:

Protest Under a Surveillance State Microscope - Don Bell, Project On Government Oversight  

Surveillance & Policing Bodily Autonomy - Don Bell, Project On Government Oversight

‘Discredit, disrupt, and destroy’: FBI records acquired by the Library reveal violent surveillance of Black leaders, civil rights organizations - Virgie Hoban, Berkeley Library 

How Watergate Changed America’s Intelligence Laws - Barbara Maranzani, History  

‘Panic made us vulnerable’: how 9/11 made the US surveillance state – and the Americans who fought back - Ed Pilkington, The Guardian  

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. This episode was edited by Alan Montecillo. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Additional editing by Jen Chien. Sound design by Maya Cueva. Original music by Chris Egusa, with additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard and Katherine Monahan. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad and Alana Walker. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Holly Kernan is our Chief Content Officer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recession indicator memes are everywhere, pointing to everything from office wear at the club to Lady Gaga’s return to pop music as signs of looming economic doom. But with the stock market sinking and tariffs piling up, the jokes are starting to hit closer to home. In this episode, KQED community reporter Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí joins Morgan to unpack how the memes might be fueling the very recession they joke about. We also hear from USC public policy professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett on the links between culture, consumption, and the economy.

Guests:

Candice Lim, co-host of ICYMI from SlateCarlos Cabrera-Lomelí, community reporter at KQED

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, professor of public policy at the University of Southern California

Further reading:

‘Recession Indicator’: What Memes Tell Us About How We Experience the Economy - Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, KQED

The 'recession indicator' meme, explained - Christianna Silva, Mashable 

Can Strippers Really Forecast a Financial Crisis?  - Jenny Singer, Glamour

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. Original music by Chris Egusa, with additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard and Katherine Monahan. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad and Alana Walker. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Holly Kernan is our Chief Content Officer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices