159. Mic Drop: The NSA’s Cryptologic Museum - a spycatcher’s dream

Billionaire Frank McCourt wants to buy TikTok. Not to go viral—but to rewire the web. He says 170 million users could help him turn the Internet into something less addictive… and more democratic. Is that idealism, delusion… or both? As President Trump extends the deadline on the sale of the app, we return to our discussion with Frank McCourt. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

An episode from "Understood: Who Broke the Internet" from CBC podcasts:We were promised a digital utopia. What we got was a pay-to-play hellscape of pop-ups, bots, and algorithmic sludge. Writer and internet contrarian Cory Doctorow charts the internet’s slow descent—from open commons to corporate enclosure—and lays out a path to take it back.Listen to the full series:https://link.mgln.ai/ClickHere Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In Russia, military families are cashing in on a wartime housing surge. Defense budgets are ballooning, property values are rising… and beneath it all, a troubling question: what happens when the war economy becomes just… the economy? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Before the war, Serhii Zenin played Metallica and joked with listeners on Ukraine’s Radio ROKS. Now he wears fatigues. And the station? It's still playing heavy metal—but now it’s also broadcasting news, coordinating aid, and holding the line in its own way. We return to a story where the frontlines and the airwaves meet. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

While most of us were staring at the auroras lighting up our Instagram feeds last year, a small group of analysts at the Space ISAC were focused on something a little less… pretty. Think solar flares. Think sabotage. Think space debris with a grudge. This week, we revisit our story about the watchers who don’t get much attention. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In this week’s CyberMonday crossover with WAMU’s 1A, we revisit a Click Here episode and take your calls—this time, about the cluttered chaos orbiting above us. Space debris isn’t just a cleanup problem. It’s a threat vector. What happens when an old satellite, long forgotten, becomes the perfect cover for a cyberattack? Or worse… a weapon? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Drones promised progress — as lifesavers in floods, storytellers in newsrooms, even assistants to archaeologists. But somewhere along the way, they took a darker turn. Now they hover over protests, shadow 911 calls and surveil our neighborhoods from above. Researcher Faine Greenwood discusses how we normalized the hum of surveillance — and why all this is starting to resemble something much more authoritarian. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Today: A story about a technology that began in the fields — tracking cattle — and is now on the ankles of immigrants. It’s part of a program called “alternatives to detention.” And these ankle monitors, smartphone apps, GPS check-ins have changed. They’re not just tools to monitor. Increasingly, they’re being used to entrap. And for some immigrants, complying with the system means walking straight into ICE detention. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A Chinese hacking group walked right into a trap. Not a firewall. Not a filter. A honeypot. This week, Amazon CSO Steve Schmidt explains how a digital decoy called MadPot helped expose Volt Typhoon—and why, in the age of AI, the real vulnerability isn’t software. It’s people. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

TRON was supposed to be just another Ethereum knockoff — faster, cheaper, maybe a little flashier. But over time, it's become something else entirely: the go-to blockchain for illicit finance. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices