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The podcast that tells true stories about the people making and breaking our digital world. We take listeners into the world of cyber and intelligence without all the techie jargon. Every Tuesday and Friday, former NPR investigations correspondent Dina Temple-Raston and the team draw back the curtain on ransomware attacks, mysterious hackers, and the people who are trying to stop them.

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Friday · 16 min
The hidden costs of wildlife surveillance
We used to venture into the wild to observe nature. Now we’re installing cameras, launching drones, and attaching sensors to animals themselves. All to protect wildlife. But the problem is: the more closely we watch nature, the more we may be changing what it means to be wild. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Tuesday · 28 min
What animals know about climate change that humans don’t
For a birdwatcher, spotting a rare bird is like winning the lottery. But what if that bird isn’t supposed to be there? What if its arrival is a warning? From seabirds appearing hundreds of miles from home to elephant seals collecting data beneath Antarctic ice, scientists are using technology to discover what animals can tell us about climate change — sometimes long before we see the signs ourselves. The trick is learning how to listen. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
November 6 · 45 min
Facial recognition can find missing people. It can find you, too.
A missing daughter. An unidentified body. A single photograph. Facial recognition technology is helping police solve cases that once seemed impossible. But the same technology can identify just about anyone. In this CyberMonday crossover with WAMU and NPR’s 1A, we revisit a story about the surprising power of facial recognition, then talk with Clare Garvie of the NYU Policing Project about what happens when your face no longer belongs just to you. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
November 3 · 21 min
Open-source voting machine aims to restore trust in U.S. elections
Voting machines have long been at the center of conspiracy theories about U.S. elections. Now, Ben Adida and his nonprofit VotingWorks have built an open-source voting machine anyone can inspect, right down to its computer code. The idea is simple: make vote counting transparent. But making elections more transparent and making voters trust the results may be two very different things. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 30 · 23 min
AI chatbots can make election fakes. Can they spot them?
You used to need a government-backed operation to spread election disinformation. Now a chatbot might do. Larry Norden of the Brennan Center put the major AI chatbots to the test: Could they create election fakes? Debunk them? Even recognize their own handiwork? The answers were not all reassuring. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 27 · 20 min
Russia’s election trick: hijacking what you already believe
What if Russia didn’t have to convince you of anything new? What if it could simply exploit what you already believe? That’s the idea behind a Russian-linked disinformation network that hijacks real social media conversations to spread propaganda and influence U.S. elections. We follow the trail from celebrity rumors to Congress, and ask whether AI can spot the manipulation before it spreads. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 23 · 21 min
The Social Security whistleblower who stopped DOGE from deleting 2.7 million lives
In Social Security’s database, a few keystrokes can turn a living person into a dead one. As part of a deportation scheme, DOGE pushed to do just that to 2.7 million people — without checking whether they were actually dead. Social Security whistleblower Jeremiah Schofield decided to stop them. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 20 · 24 min
If deepfakes are getting better, can we trust our lying eyes?
Deepfakes are getting harder to spot. But digital forensics expert Hany Farid says the bigger problem isn’t just that AI can fool us. It’s that even when something is real, people may refuse to believe it. What happens when seeing is no longer believing—and the truth has a hard time catching up? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 16 · 13 min
Government lawyers face a whistleblower’s dilemma
In 30 years of representing whistleblowers, national security attorney Mark Zaid has never had so many government lawyers come to him for advice. They’ve seen things inside the Trump administration that trouble them. And they want to blow the whistle. But as lawyers, they know the law. Which, as it turns out, may be part of the problem. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 13 · 23 min
Frances Haugen’s social reckoning
Frances Haugen walked out of Facebook with more than 20,000 pages of internal documents. And somehow, nobody caught her. Now her story is getting the Hollywood treatment in Aaron Sorkin’s new movie, The Social Reckoning. But how did she actually pull it off? Haugen takes us behind the scenes of her surprisingly low-tech operation—and explains why the next Facebook whistleblower might not be so lucky. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 9 · 11 min
Space is getting crowded. And nobody’s in charge
There’s a new space race underway. And this time, it’s not just about astronauts and moon landings. Companies are launching satellites by the thousands. Militaries are eyeing space as the next battlefield. And now people want to put AI data centers up there, too. So why is everyone suddenly so interested in space? Former astronaut Ed Lu says it has a lot to do with a 60-year-old prediction about computer chips. And there’s just one problem: the rules haven’t kept up. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 6 · 22 min
Russia is building the internet Putin always wanted
Across Russia, the internet keeps going dark. The Kremlin says the blackouts are necessary to stop Ukrainian drones. But critics say it is really helping Vladimir Putin accomplish something he’s been working toward for years: an internet the Kremlin can control — and, when it wants to, cut off from the rest of the world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
October 2 · 19 min
How AI can debunk a conspiracy theory in 8 minutes
Once someone believes a conspiracy theory, can anything change their mind? Researchers tried something unexpected: an AI chatbot. After just eight minutes of conversation, some conspiracy theorists were significantly less convinced. What did the bot know about changing minds that we don’t? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
September 29 · 20 min
How Bellingcat finds the truth in the age of AI
Eliot Higgins built Bellingcat on a simple idea: give enough people the right tools, and they can figure out what really happened. It’s called open-source intelligence, or OSINT. But AI can now generate convincing fakes in seconds. Higgins tells us what happens when finding the truth becomes a race against the internet itself. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
September 25 · 16 min
Who gets to decide what teens can do online?
States are passing age-verification laws designed to keep kids safer on social media. But figuring out who’s a kid means finding a way to check everyone’s age. Three decades after the first fights over kids’ rights online, we look at a new question: Could protecting minors end up changing the internet for all of us? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
September 22 · 29 min
Taser drones in schools: Axon’s plan to stop school shootings
A Texas company is testing drones designed to stop school shooters using sirens, strobe lights and pepper spray. The idea isn’t new. In 2022, Taser-maker Axon proposed putting drones in schools — a plan that led most of its AI Ethics Board to resign. We revisit our story about the fight over whether drones belong in schools — and what happens when a company’s own ethics advisers say it has gone too far. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
September 18 · 30 min
When AI scrapes your art
Generative AI can write, compose music and make art. But it learned by training on work made by humans — often without their permission. In this CyberMonday crossover with WAMU and NPR’s 1A, we ask: should we allow AI to train on human work? And if it does… what can we do about it? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
September 15 · 29 min
How do we keep kids safe on social media? Ask them.
We’ve tried laws. Parental controls. Age restrictions. And demands that tech companies make social media safer for kids. But there’s one group adults don’t always think to consult: the kids themselves. This week on Click Here, what online safety looks like when teenagers get a say. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
September 11 · 25 min
Arturo Bejar's warning to Meta
Arturo Bejar was a Meta employee who tried to warn the company that its platforms were harming kids. Eventually, he told a California jury, and a week later, Meta announced its landmark $17 billion settlement. We sat down with the whistleblower who tried to get Meta to listen. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
September 8 · 23 min
How China’s Volt Typhoon hacked a small-town utility
U.S. officials say Iran-linked hackers are targeting water utilities across the country. So we’re revisiting the story of Nick Lawler, who got a call from the FBI one day in 2023. Chinese state hackers, they told him, had somehow found their way inside the small-town utility he ran in Littleton, Massachusetts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Showing 1–20 of 49 episodes