404 Media's reporters talk through the stories they published.
Joseph hosts fellow 404 Media co-founders Emanuel and Jason as they go through stories the outlet has published, sometimes back to the reader's tip that started one. Surveillance, immigration enforcement and AI-made junk content come up across the episodes, and interview episodes bring in guests such as EFF's Cindy Cohn.
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The 404 Media Podcast gives the reporters of 404 Media, a journalist-founded outlet, a place to explain their work in their own words. Joseph hosts. In one episode he introduces Emanuel and Jason as two of his fellow co-founders, and the three spend almost no time on preamble. Asked whether there is any housekeeping, Jason says no, and they go straight to the stories. That quick, informal register sits alongside material that is often heavy. The core of the show is the view from inside the reporting. Emanuel's story about a company secretly turning Zoom meetings into AI podcasts is traced back to where it began: a tip from a reader, a former teacher closely involved in education, at a time when ICE activity around schools had teachers worried. The discussion of wildlife cops searching AI cameras for ICE follows the story past publication. Individual states learned that camera data could reach immigration enforcement indirectly, and some officers had no idea they were providing that access. The reporters say plainly that their coverage was loud and that others followed it. Surveillance recurs across the episode titles, whether through cameras, phones or government monitoring. Interviews form a second strand. Whitney Phillips is the guest on 'How the Internet Became Hell (with Whitney Phillips)'. EFF's Cindy Cohn appears on 'The Lawyer Fighting Government Surveillance for 30 Years (With EFF's Cindy Cohn)', which starts with a question people put to her: which worries you more, companies spying on you or the government? That conversation also gets practical, covering legal briefs that help a judge focus on the main issues rather than getting lost in side eddies. Another interview features a journalist who arrived in a newsroom without knowing how to report a story, survived at Gizmodo by pitching until something stuck, and moved on to Wired. That episode asks how someone strong on the technical side learns to recognize a story, which is close to this show's own subject. AI-generated material is another recurring subject, from AI slop propaganda to AI podcasts made out of Zoom calls. The AI slop episode's cold open delivers the verdict that the propaganda war has been won, and that what we want to watch is 'Lego Sloth'. Episodes carry sponsor reads, and the sign-off points to subscriptions at 404media.co for an ad-free version and a subscribers-only bonus story section. The podcast is made in partnership with Kaleidoscope. A good place to start is the episodes built around the outlet's own stories, then the interviews.
Made for: Suits a listener who follows surveillance, privacy and AI stories and wants to hear the reporters behind them explain how a piece came together and what happened after it ran.
What sets it apart: The people talking are the people who did the reporting, so an episode can cover the reader's tip that started a story and the consequences once it was published. A show that only comments on other outlets' headlines has no access to that.
Welcome to the podcast from 404 Media where Joseph, Sam, Emanuel, and Jason catch you up on the stories we published this week. 404 Media is a journalist-owned digital media company exploring the way technology is shaping–and is shaped by–our world. We bring you unparalleled access to hidden worlds both online and IRL through investigative reporting, smart blogging, and breaking news. At 404 Media you’ll read, and hear, stories you can’t find anywhere else written by journalists who are leading experts on their beats. Subscribe to 404 Media at 404media.co to gain access to an ad-free version of this podcast...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It turns technology reporting into a map of who controls data, how systems spread, and where accountability becomes difficult.
The 404 Media Podcast tracks technology through the institutions, data trails, and online behavior that give it power. Joseph, Sam Cole, and Jason Kebler move between newsroom discussion and one-on-one interviews, grounding questions about AI, privacy, and digital culture in…
A wildlife agency's camera searches can reach ICE; your privacy settings suddenly feel quaint.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Whitney Phillips argues that Trump and MAGA are misread when older frameworks are forced onto them, and the episode settles on ecological thinking.
The 4FOR Media podcast uses its conversation with Whitney Phillips to question the habit of forcing Trump and MAGA into older frameworks. Her point about Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump, and MAGA feels sharp because it treats easy labels as a kind of misreading, not a shortcut to…
Camera access can reach farther than the city that approved it.
The episode lays out a privacy problem that can hide in plain sight: Flock access can reach beyond the agency or city that signed off on it. Its strongest points are the concrete ones, especially the concern that transparency reports may matter less if Flock keeps trimming the…
A memoir-driven look at privacy, surveillance, and the practical case for clarity.
404 Media's interview with Cindy Cohen, the EFF's executive director, looks back on her long tenure and on Privacy's Defender. It is strongest when it stays practical, with Cohen arguing that briefs should help a judge follow the main point rather than drift into side eddies.
A loose 404 Media newsroom conversation turns a propaganda-war claim into a sharp question about attention.
The 404 Media Podcast starts from a stark idea: in the propaganda war, the people making the loudest, strangest online spectacles may already understand the audience better than traditional media does.
A grounded look at how technical reporting becomes a real story.
This episode follows Dhruv Maracha, a data journalist and investigator, as he talks through the mix of technical skill and newsroom judgment that shapes his work.
A sharp privacy conversation that keeps the pressure immediate without flattening the tradeoffs.
Privacy is treated here as an active problem, not a slogan. Harlow Holmes of the Freedom of the Press Foundation walks through what it takes to protect journalists while surveillance, platform hegemony, and political pressure keep tightening.
Rukmini Callimachi's ISIS investigation that became a case study in its own failure.
["The 404 Media podcast with Whitney Phillips argues that the internet's hostility makes more sense when Twitter/X, generative AI, and political panic are treated as one ecology.", "Whitney Phillips is the guest, and the episode cites her books This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, The Ambivalent Internet, Share Better and Stress Less, and The Shadow Gospel, plus her ties to the University of Michigan and the University of Oregon.", "The interview asks what it means to think ecologically about social media and why \"whatever is happening right now is not all that's happening.\"", "Phillips links the recent acceleration of hostility to COVID, critical race theory panic, groomer rhetoric, QAnon, Epstein, the election aftermath, and January 6, then argues that trolling and combat sensationalism keep making the enemy bigger."]
The 404 Media Podcast episode 'Wildlife Cops Are Searching AI Cameras for ICE' centers on Jason Kebler's report that Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission police used Flock camera searches for ICE under the 287(g) program.
The 404 Media Podcast talks with EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn about Privacy's Defender, her memoir built around 30 years of anti-surveillance litigation.
The hosts discuss Iran's use of AI-generated slop videos, like a Lego Trump gambling clip, as part of a propaganda war.
A cell phone network engineer accidentally became one of journalism's most innovative data reporters after tracking surveillance planes at Standing Rock protests.
The hosts discuss a story about a company secretly turning Zoom meetings into AI podcasts, starting from a reader tip.
Interview with Alex Hanna and Emily Bender about their book 'The AI Con' critiquing AI hype and advocating for a better future.
The hosts discuss a story about AI psychosis and its effects on personal relationships.
An interview with security researcher Cooper Quintin about IMSI catchers (cell site simulators) and the Ray Hunter tool for detecting them.
Security expert Harlo Holmes explains how journalists and citizens can protect themselves from digital surveillance as press freedom comes under increasing pressure in the US.
Patrick Klepek argues screen time studies miss that "what happens on the screen" matters more than hours logged.
A discussion with a political scientist about the epistemic crisis where people believe false information, and why simply providing more facts may not solve it.
The hosts discuss their recently printed zine about ICE's surveillance apparatus and plans to distribute it.
Amazon's Dash button was a tiny battery-powered device designed to be e-waste from the start, whose only use was to help you buy more.