porn: pretty much all of us watch it or consume it in one form or another, and it takes up a measurable % of the entire internet, but what do we really know about how it's distributed and produced? here to help is pick apart the internet's largely Montreal-based pron oligarchy is film critic and occasional porn scripter Justine Smith. also maral is around for a bit. please don't play this one in front of the young'uns.

song at the end: the move, "feel too good"

we're working on a new shcedule of alternating full- and mini-sodes for the foreseeable future, so we hope you can adjust on this decidedly more frivolous outing, simon and rob have decided to offer a taxonomy and investigation into the current darkest corner of the entire god-forsaken internet: brand twitter.

song at the end: ty segall, "the faker"

maral, rob, and simon get in way over their heads in a special, nearly double-length discussion of a recent financial calamity and the conspiratorial murmurs that surround it. the HACKS initiative would very much like to apologize in advance for the fact that said discussion required us to explain bitcoin and the cryptocurrency space in detail, something we were hoping to avoid forever. we hope you'll find it was for a worthwhile cause.

song at the end: john williams, theme from "the long goodbye"

the HACKS initiative blodly goes where no podcast has before: deep into the dark heart of The Algorithm. specifically, we're conducting a sadistic game/experiment to find out just how youtube ticks, following a rash of recent complaints about the service spitting out some rather strange (and notably conservative and conspiratorial) material seemingly unprompted. what we discovered........shook us to our core.

song at the end: enh, we stole this from a qanon podcast who gives a shit? come get us motherfuckers, we'll be waiting on the other side of the rainbow

it's the all-bro edition of HACKS, as maral and rosemary were both out of reach this week. so rob and simon decided to rewind to the hallowed days of several weeks ago to discuss the relative merits and import of Netflix's foray into interactive storytelling, BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH, aka "wot if your life was a game, mate?".

song at the end: foxing, "gameshark"

we decided that a regular prediction episode was too normal and boring and played out so we tried a different thing and we promise not to do it again next year, also we're back, also we're very sorry for this

song at the end: suuns, "2020"

in our last proper show of 2018, the gang (sadly maral-less) ponders just what the music and film/TV streaming economy has done to both creatives and consumers. in contention: algorthmic storytelling, the merist of Netflix's Hill House, whether the tracks at the end of a 25-track Drake album are markedly worse than those at the beginning.

song at the end: gruff rhys, "slashed wrists this christmas"

after a new raft of high-profile site closures, the HACKS Institute gang, properly reassembled at last, ponders the current state of journalism On The Internet, including a recent, apparently failed attempt to bring journalism to the (shudder) blockchain, the fate of the "pivot to video" movement, and what the story of Gawker tells us about our current moment. also peter thiel is a literal bloodsucker who can fall in a rank ditch tbh. also also please enjoy the hilda cameo

song at the end: her space holiday, "death of a writer"

a big news week demands a supersized episode, so the hacks reassemble (once again missing Rosemary, present only in digital spirit form) to properly tackle the bidding process for Amazon's HQ2, which this past week set its final "winning" locations as long island, virginia, as well as an extra facility in nashville. what does this expensive campaigning process mean for public-private relations in our highly neoliberalized present? which city debased themselves the most, to noo particular end? is it even possible to imagine a repurposed "nationalized"Amazon doing us any good? all this and less on our longest episode to date.

song at the end: the replacements, "customer"

we are sadly rosemaryless this week, but we're still excited to finally tackle one of the most annoying and pervasive subjects of the modern era: that's right, it's race science baby!! well, specifically, we're taking a look at 23andme and other ancestry websites and services designed to tell you who you REALLY are. what are these companies really selling, and what are they doing with all this danged data? all this and more!

song at the end: tindersticks, "blood"