Audio Recommendation: Long Distance (from Reply All)

In this recommendation, a telephone scammer makes a terrible mistake. He calls Alex Goldman.

This recommendation is actually a two-parter, two episodes from the podcast Reply All, produced by Gimlet Media. This is another recommendation from the Bello Collective e-newsletter. 

Episode 102, "Long Distance", and it's 'sequel', episode 103, "Long Distance, Part II", delves into the world of tech support phone scams, and is a wild ride from beginning to end. 

I found it fascinating as a journalist, and found it somewhat hilarious as someone who's done first level IT phone support. Alex Goldman has a tenacity about him that is admirable, and he is determined to get to the bottom of a scam call he gets. Where it ends up is a tale best heard.

Audio Recommendation: Breaking News

"Today, two new technological tricks that together could invade our past selves and rewrite the rules of credibility. Also, we release something terrible into the world."


... So you think the world of fake news isn't terrifying enough? For this audio recommendation (another from the Bello Collective newsletter),Radiolab's episode from July 27, 2017, delves into Adobe’s announcement of VoCo, where you can manipulate audio just as easily as you can images. 

 

What’s terrifying to me isn’t necessarily that it’s possible, but the cavalier attitude of those who created this software. It reminds me of those films that have a super smart genius with no social skills who ends up creating a weapon without realizing he did it. 

Definitely worth a listen.