kill switch

Ethan Zuckerman helped design the amateur web as we know it. In the 90s, he worked at Tripod, providing free web space for anyone to build their own site. His invention, pop-up ads, helped make that possible. The industry ran with it, and the Internet was never the same.

Since then, Ethan’s been on a mission to fix the Internet and bring it back to what he hoped it would be – he even sued Facebook over it. Dexter talks to Ethan about how to make advertising less surveillant, a “free-trade coffee” model of the web, and why ad blockers might hint at a way to make Facebook a better place.

Hit us up: [email protected], or @killswitchpod and @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Links: 

• Ethan Zuckerman and Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci’s proposal on Forgetful Adveritising: https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/center/isp/documents/zuckerman.pdf
• Ethan’s op-ed in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/05/opinion/facebook-court-internet-meta.html
• Ethan and Isaac Brickman’s proposal for middleware: https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/JMYZ3GJKPE7UTCN8ZR3K/full
• kill switch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@killswitch_pod

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India’s tech industry was supposed to be a ticket to the middle class, a way out of poverty. Instead, for many workers, it’s become something else: long hours, intense competition, and a growing mental health crisis. Dexter talks to journalist Parth MN about the mounting pressure inside India’s tech workforce, the rise in suicides among engineers, and how a system built for relentless growth leaves little room for failure. 

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Read + Watch: 

• Parth’s article, “Death of an Indian tech worker” - https://restofworld.org/2026/india-tech-workers-crisis-suicide/ 
• VICE’s video, “ The Women Behind the Indian Farmers Protest” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knMUaiBiw4U 
• kill switch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@killswitch_pod

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Do you know what Palantir does? Don’t feel bad: neither do a lot of their employees. In fact, WIRED senior writer Makena Kelly recently uncovered company chat logs showing how angry and confused Palantir workers are about the company’s involvement with ICE. Dexter talks to Makena about this new reporting, what exactly the company is providing ICE, and how the company creates mystery behind everything from Partiful rumors to skyrocketing stock price.

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Read + Watch: 

• Makena’s reporting about Palantir employees: https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-ice-dhs-alex-pretti-killing-workers-slack-minneapolis/
• 404 Media’s zine on ICE: https://www.404media.co/icezine/
• kill switch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@killswitch_pod

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kill switch went live on March 4th to cover one of the newsier topics of the week: the fight between the US government and Anthropic, the company behind Claude. Dexter talked to WIRED senior writer, Will Knight, to discuss what exactly is happening, why, and the stakes for all of us.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to catch our next live episode: https://www.youtube.com/@killswitch_pod

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Read + Watch: 

• Will’s articles on WIRED:
• https://www.wired.com/story/trump-moves-to-ban-anthropic-from-the-us-government/
• https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-supply-chain-risk-shockwaves-silicon-valley/
• Will’s AI Lab newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/exclusive/ai-lab

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The 1997 science fiction film Gattaca depicts a dystopian future where genetic technology creates a two-tier society: people who were born with the “best” genes selected vs. people who were conceived naturally. This was a cautionary tale, showing us a future we don’t want. But now, Silicon Valley is heavily investing in making this technology real. Dexter talks to Amanda Gerut, West Coast editor at Fortune, about the rise of polygenic screening companies, the investment in gene editing of embryos, and how close we are to creating designer babies.

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Read + Watch: 

• Amanda’s article, “Silicon Valley sets its sights on building the perfect baby” - https://fortune.com/2025/11/29/ivf-silicon-valley-billionaire-baby/
• WSJ's reporting, “Genetically Engineered Babies Are Banned. Tech Titans Are Trying to Make One Anyway.” - https://www.wsj.com/tech/biotech/genetically-engineered-babies-tech-billionaires-6779efc8
• kill switch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@killswitch_pod

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we have a special collab episode with our friends at Panic World: From research to vibe coding to therapy to girlfriends and boyfriends, how are we using AI these days? Dexter joins Ryan Broderick on Panic World to talk about the interesting relationships people are forming with AI — for better and (mostly) worse.

Check out Panic World wherever you get your podcasts, or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@panicworldpod

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Read + Watch: 

• Our episode on AI therapy: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kill-switch/id1449757372?i=1000725849687
• Our episode on Only Fans chatters: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-onlyfans-girlfriend-might-be-a-guy-or-a-robot/id1449757372?i=1000731948555
• Our episode on VTubers: https://youtu.be/8bCU8MkO420?si=RXwh0aP8_BVcYXAT
• kill switch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@killswitch_pod

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tech companies are constantly putting out new products to chase the hype – but they’re not all winners. Each year, nonprofit consumer advocates put on an award ceremony recognizing the lousiest of the bunch, called the Worst in Show. Dexter talks with Liz Chamberlain, who runs Worst in Show, about this year’s awards, the products that earned them (spoiler: a product featured during the Super Bowl is on the list), and what we risk when we chase the hype (read: add AI to everything).

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Read + Watch: 

• This year’s Worst In Show: https://www.ifixit.com/News/115344/worst-in-show-returns-at-ces-2026-calling-out-gadgets-that-make-things-worse
• Worst In Show website: https://www.worstinshowces.com/ 
• kill switch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@killswitch_pod

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For a while, the internet felt like it might actually work. Dexter talks with legal scholar and author Tim Wu about his new book The Age of Extraction and how that early optimism faded as companies learned how to extract value from just about everything. 

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Read + Watch:

• The Age of Extraction, by Tim Wu: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691177/the-age-of-extraction-by-tim-wu/
• kill switch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@killswitch_pod

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When an editor at a local magazine in Toronto received a pitch from a promising new freelancer, he didn’t expect it to spiral into an obsessive investigation. What followed was a deep dive into a web of fake interviews, impossible bylines, and fake reporting. Dexter talks with Nicholas Hune-Brown to trace how he uncovered an AI journalist and what it reveals about journalism today. 

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Read: 

• “Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era”  https://thelocal.to/investigating-scam-journalism-ai/ 
• “The Fallout From Our AI Freelancer Investigation” https://thelocal.to/fallout-from-ai-freelancer-investigation/
• The Local’s recent issue, “The Cost of Care” https://thelocal.to/winter-2026/ 

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In 2005, Myspace pages were flooded with the saying “Samy is my hero” and then suddenly, the platform went dark. Dexter talks with Jack Rhysider, host of the podcast Darknet Diaries, about Samy Kamkar, how he accidentally took down the biggest social media platform at the time, and how it changed the modern Internet. 

Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up [email protected], or @killswitchpod, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

Listen: 

• Jack’s Darknet Diaries episode with Samy: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/61/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.