CYBER

A lot of stuff happened on the internet this week. Strange orbs fell from the sky and landed in Mexico. Thousands watched online as Nancy Pelosi’s plane slowly made its way to Taiwan. And the International Atomic Energy Agency called out Russia for making Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant a front in its war in Ukraine.

It’s a grab bag episode of Cyber and we’re gonna get into it all with Motherboard editor-in-chief Jason Koebler.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Fighting Around Europe’s Largest Power Plant Is ‘Out of Control,’ UN’s Nuke Chief Warns

How Online Flight Trackers Have Helped People Follow Nancy Pelosi, Taylor Swift, and Russian Oligarchs’ Private Flights

Space Junk Crashing All Over the World, Upsetting Everyone

Mysterious Metallic Orb Falls on Mexico, May Contain ‘Valuable Information,’ Meteorologist Says

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alex Jones, the slowly bloating Texan broadcaster, is currently on trial in Austin for peddling conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook massacre. Jones has already lost—the trial will eventually set damages. 

Amid this, Jones’ companies are filing for bankruptcy and a new documentary about him is playing the festival circuit. He says this is all about the First Amendment. In a way, he’s right. Defamation cases are about the First Amendment. 

On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard Senior Staff Writer Anna Merlan comes on to discuss all things Alex Jones. Merlan has written extensively about Jones and is following the trial for Motherboard.

Stories discussed in this episode:

As Damages Trial Begins, Alex Jones’ Lawyers Fight for His Financial Life

InfoWars Cannot Stop Covering Its Own Damages Trial

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you haven’t heard, there’s a hot new condiment on the market that’s gone viral on TikTok. It’s called Pink Sauce and it’s been at the center of several controversies over the past few weeks.

The sauce has been accused of making people sick, being a rip off of other condiments, and lying about its nutritional information. On this episode of Cyber we’re going to try to answer the question: why does everyone ok TikTok seem to care about this pepto-bismol colored goop?

With us today to talk all things Pink Sauce is Motherboard Intern and TikTok master Jules Roscoe.

Stories discussed in this episode:

‘They Accused Me of Poisoning the Nation:’ Chef Pii's Viral Pink Sauce Has Turned Into a TikTok Nightmare

Viral Pink Sauce Comes With Lengthy Terms and Conditions

Let Me Eat the TikTok 'Pink Sauce'

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We don’t get a lot of feel good stories on Cyber. It’s often a podcast about hacking and tribulation. So we thought we’d do something a little different and tell the story of someone who fought back against abuse and won. Nicole Gililland is a former nursing student who began to experience discrimination when people at the nursing college she was attended began to dig into her past.

Gililland was just trying to get a nursing degree, but the faculty at Southwestern Oregon Community College decided she wasn’t fit because she’d formerly performed in porn. She sued. She won. A jury awarded her $1.7 million in damages and the precedent set could have far reaching consequences.

On this episode of Cyber, Gililland sits down with Motherboard senior editor Samantha Cole to talk about her case and her future.

Stories discussed in this episode:

How a Former Porn Performer Sued Her School for Discrimination—and Won

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do an iPad, the Department of Homeland Security, and heated seats in a BMW all have in common? Motherboard staff writer Joseph Cox has written about all of them.

In this episode of Cyber, it’s a JC potpourri. First, how exactly does the Department of Homeland Security track phones across the country? Then we’ll get to the bottom of that viral story about BMW selling subscriptions to heated seats and what hackers might have to say about it. Finally, we’ll get to the bottom of JC’s new iPad situation and finally answer the question: why doesn’t he have a smartphone?

Stories discussed in this episode:

Documents Show DHS Tracks Smartphones Across the Country

Apple Killed My Precious iPod. Can an iPad Mini Be My New Everyday Messaging Device?

BMW Wants to Charge for Heated Seats. These Grey Market Hackers Will Fix That.

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The war in Ukraine isn’t just happening on the ground, it’s also happening in cyberspace. It’s under reported and little understood, but just as the resilience of Urkainian’s kinetic defense is grinding against Russia, so too is the war online.

Which is funny, because Russia is supposed to be good at this. At least … that’s what we all used to think. Hell, maybe it even used to be true. But now a team of volunteer hackers called the Ukraine IT Army is defending Kyiv and striking back against Moscow.

This week on Cyber, Motherboard staff writer Lorenzo Franchesci-Biccherai takes us into the Ukraine IT Army.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Inside Ukraine’s Decentralized Cyber Army

Russia Released a Ukrainian App for Hacking Russia That Was Actually Malware

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let’s talk about that hot new topic screaming from the lips of Tech’s hottest billionaires: birth rates.

For some time, Elon Musk’s pinned tweet was about the declining birth rates in the United States. A man of conviction, Musk has sired at least ten children. Now Marc Andreesen of Andreessen Horowitz is in on the act. He recently went on Joe Rogan and had a wide ranging conversation that covered birth rates and eugenics.

So why are some of the richest people alive obsessed with the U.S. having more kids? On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard staff writer Edward Ongweso Jr. comes on to talk about longtermism and America’s history of being weird about who gets to have kids.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Why Are Elon Musk and Marc Andreesen Obsessed With Birth Rates?

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For years criminal organizations around the world were buying a special phone called Anom. The pitch was that it was completely anonymous and secure, a way for criminals to do business without authorities watching over their shoulder. 

It turned out that the whole thing was an elaborate honeypot and that the FBI and law enforcement agencies around the world were listening in. They’d help develop the phones themselves.

The fallout from that revelation is ongoing and, here at Motherboard, we’ve just learned how the phones work. On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard Senior Staff Writer Joseph Cox comes on to discuss the code that powered the Anom phone.

Stories discussed in this episode:

This is the Code the FBI Used to Wiretap the World

We Got the Phone the FBI Secretly Sold to Criminals

FBI's Backdoored Anom Phones Secretly Harvested GPS Data Around the World

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can’t scroll 1 inch on the internet these days without someone trying to sell you something. Facebook and Google rake in millions of dollars on advertising alone. When we talk about Ad Tech, those are the names that move through our mind. Not many people think about Disney. But they should.

On today’s Cyber, Motherboard staff writer Joseph Cox comes on to talk about how Disney became a big player in the digital world of advertising. We begin with a set of surreal videos that use the Muppets and Star Wars to talk directly to advertisers. 

Want to hear Muppets extol the virtues of targeted advertising? Stick around.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Leaked Videos Show Disney Is the Biggest Ad Tech Giant You've Never Heard Of

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that will have far reaching consequences about the power of the federal government to fight climate change. How did the landmark ruling even end up in front of the Justices, why did they decide to rule on it, and what will the consequences be for the environment and the country?

On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard Staff Writer Aaron Gordon sits down to answer all these questions and do more than a little ranting.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Supreme Court Kneecaps Federal Government’s Ability to Fight Climate Change

Democrats Are Not Going to 'Vote Harder,' Primaries Show

Here's What America Looked Like Before the EPA

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.