The 404 Media Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Google Is Exposing Peoples’ ChatGPT Secrets Aug 06, 2025

Show notes

We start this week with Joseph’s story about nearly 100,000 ChatGPT conversations being indexed by Google. There’s some sensitive stuff in there. After the break, Emanuel tells us about Wikipedia’s new way of dealing with AI slop. In the subscribers-only section, Sam explains how we got to where we are with Steam and Itch.io; that history goes way back.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/mQJvOTHu61I

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The Tea Breach Just Keeps Getting Worse Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

We start this week with Emanuel’s and Joseph’s coverage of Tea, a women’s dating safety app that was breached multiple times. After the break, Sam and Emanuel talk about how a new UK law about age verification is impacting peoples’ ability to see footage about current events. In the subscribers-only section, Jason explains that LeBron James is not in fact pregnant.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/q17GRPq7K3o

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Spotify Is Publishing AI Tracks of Dead Artists Jul 23, 2025

Show notes

We start this week with Emanuel's wild story about Spotify publishing AI generated tracks that look like they come from artists' official accounts. One problem: those artists died a long time ago. After the break, Joseph tells us about a company that is selling data hacked from computers to debt collectors. In the subscribers-only section, we talk all about the Astronomer CEO and its privacy implications.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/lFYyNOWVJV0

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The AI Exodus Begins Jul 16, 2025

Show notes

We start this week with a series of articles from Emanuel about a crackdown in the AI industry. After the break, Sam tells us about the ‘Save Our Signs’ campaign which hopes to preserve the history of national parks. In the subscribers-only section, Jason rants about how AI will not save the media industry.

YouTube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-fo7O8B_mk

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How to Fight Back Against AI Bot Scrapers Jul 09, 2025

Show notes

We’re back! We start this week with Emanuel’s article about Anubis, an open source piece of software that is saving the internet from AI bot scrapers. After the break, Joseph tells us about the new facial recognition app ICE is using and which he revealed. In the subscribers-only section, we do a lightning round runthrough of a bunch of our recent stories about LLMs and how to trick them, or what they don’t understand.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/lqJL1u8UhmE

Thumbnail credit: Mascot by CELPHASE.

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The Life Changing Power of Lifting (feat. Casey Johnston) Jul 02, 2025

Show notes

For this week’s podcast, I’m talking to our friend Casey Johnston, a tech journalist turned fitness journalist turned independent journalist. Casey studied physics, which led her to tech journalism; she did some of my favorite coverage of Internet culture as well as Apple’s horrendous butterfly laptop keyboards. We worked together at VICE, where Casey was an editor and where she wrote Ask a Swole Woman, an advice column about weightlifting. After she left VICE, Casey founded She’s a Beast, an independent site about weightlifting, but also about the science of diet culture, fitness influencers on the internet, the intersections of all those things, etc.

She just wrote A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting, a really great reported memoir about how our culture and the media often discourages people from lifting, and how this type of exercise can be really beneficial to your brain and your body. I found the book really inspiring and actually started lifting right after I read it. In this interview we talk about her book, about journalism, about independent media, and how doing things like lifting weights and touching grass helps us navigate the world.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/vV0esl4LLIU

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This Site Unmasks Cops With Facial Recognition Jun 25, 2025

Show notes

We start this week with Emanuel and Joseph’s coverage of ‘FuckLAPD.com’, a website that uses facial recognition to instantly reveal a LAPD officer’s name and salary. The creator has relaunched their similar tool for identifying ICE employees too. After the break, Jason tells us about a massive AI ruling that opens the way for AI companies to scrape everyone’s art. In the subscribers-only section, our regular contributor Matthew describes all the AI slop in the Iran and Israel conflict, and why it matters.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/1eieXQIaALA

Thumbnail credit: Photo by Sean Lee/Unsplash

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Airlines Sold Your Flight Data to DHS—And Covered It Up Jun 18, 2025

Show notes

This week we start with Joseph’s article about the U.S’s major airlines selling customers’ flight information to Customs and Border Protection and then telling the agency to not reveal where the data came from. After the break, Emanuel tells us how AI scraping bots are breaking open libraries, archives, and museums. In the subscribers-only section, Jason explains the casual surveillance relationship between ICE and local cops, according to emails he got.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/Auc7NPD2ig4

Our New FOIA Forum! 6/18, 1PM ET

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Feds Flew Predator Drones Over The LA Protests Jun 11, 2025

Show notes

Much of this episode is about the ongoing anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. We start with Joseph explaining how he monitored surveillance aircraft flying over the protests, including what turned out to be a Predator drone. After the break, Jason tells us about the burning Waymos. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about the owner of Girls Do Porn, a sex trafficking ring on Pornhub, pleading guilty (a content warning for that one).

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/o8Pb9l9FPaA

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Anti-Porn Laws' Real Target Is Free Speech Jun 04, 2025

Show notes

We start this week with Sam's dive into a looming piece of anti-porn legislation, prudish algorithms, and eggs. After the break, Matthew tells us about the open source software that powered Ukraine's drone attack against Russia. In the subscribers-only section, Emanuel explains how even pro-AI subreddits are dealing with people having AI delusions.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/daEt3CptlRU

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