Podcasts by Benjamen Walkers Theory of Everything
Further podcasts by Benjamen Walker & Radiotopia
Podcast on the topic Tagebücher
All episodes
The Hank Show (when computers are right) from 2023-11-07T14:15:20
Today we live inside data systems that contain, surveil, and judge us. In his new book, the ...
ListenToo good to be true remix from 2023-08-15T12:01:58
Two very different tales about making stuff up about the CIA. Your host shares the story of Sylvia Press, who in the 1950s, wrote a revenge novel after she was fired during the McCarthy purges. ...
ListenSecond time as forced (500daysplus) from 2023-07-11T18:29:45
Citizens armed only with Molotov cocktails battle with Russian tanks on the streets of… Budapest. In November of 1956 Russian troops invaded Hungary. The revol...
ListenOutsider Studies: Connie Converse from 2023-06-20T16:17:42
The life of musician Connie Converse easily reduces down to one of those Hemingway length sad stories: Before Dylan there was Connie Converse and then she disappeared.
In his ne...
ListenHow to look at America from 2023-05-31T18:34:50
We hear from two photographers who are masters at showing us what is hard to see, and always has been hard to see, in America.
ListenVenice (Ukraine redux) from 2023-05-16T12:54:15
The war/invasion/fighting is still going. We revisit our program on NFTs, art and war. Your host visits the 59th International Art Biennale in Venice, the world’s most important art fai...
ListenReality is that which, when you stop laughing at it, doesn't go away (false alarm Elon Musk 4202023 remix) from 2023-04-21T18:54:34
One of the episodes in my False Alarm! Series from 2018 imagined a future where Elon Musk stepped up to help with the News. That Algorithmic Oligarchic joke is no longer funny. On 4.20.2023 Elon...
ListenFalse Alarm! (Stormy Daniels 2023 Appreciation remix) from 2023-04-04T17:18:42
Back in 2018 your host met Stormy Daniels as part of his 15 part investigation into America’s disinformation complex. You can find that series Listen
How to tell the truth about lies (complete) from 2023-03-14T19:21:41
A remixed complete version of our two part Watergate series from last year: Journalists may write the first draft of history but Hollywood prints the legends and the myths. The 1976 film Al...
ListenLives of the Wives from 2023-02-07T18:01:31
Some books have titles that jump out right out at you, Carmela Ciuraru’s new group biography Lives of the Wives is definitely one of those books. She tells us about her five wives and t...
ListenListening to Noise from 2022-12-20T19:14:01
As decibel levels continue to rise, threatening human existence we turn to two listening experts for help. Listen
American Histories from 2022-11-29T14:25:42
One of our heroes Barbara Ehrenreich passed away earlier this year. She was one of America’s best undercover journalists. We once spoke with her about her book Bright Sided, her journey into the...
ListenNot going back to normal (a conversation with Jeremiah Moss author of Feral City) from 2022-11-15T13:51:08
Jeremiah Moss’s Feral City is much much more than a Covid memoir. In many ways it is a continuation of his desire to understand how and why New York city has changed, and if there is s...
ListenTransformers remix from 2022-10-18T14:48:52
Yvette Gonzales tells us a first person story about what its like to be transgender in Prison. Gender theorist B. Preciado tells us about what happens when a person takes testosterone without th...
ListenRisky Business: Hollywood and Israel from 2022-09-28T18:59:34
In their new book Hollywood and Israel, film scholars Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman ta...
ListenPerformance Peace (reprise) from 2022-09-12T15:17:29
911 final reprise. George Bush celebrates the anniversary of 911 with some new ‘dark’ paintings. Your host marks the occasion with some high stakes performance art. Plus un-learned art l...
ListenTrouble and Travel with James Campbell from 2022-08-30T12:39:45
Growing up in Glasgow in the 1960s James Campbell got into loads of trouble. At the age of 15 he left school and started work at a printing factory. But then he discovered the magic of the road ...
ListenThe longest Shortest Flight of Rudolf Hess (remix) from 2022-07-20T06:40:46
On May 10th 1941 Rudolf Hess flew from Germany to Scotland. He hoped to bring the Nazis and the British together. He failed. But the details behind his flight remain one of the greatest mysterie...
Listenrevisiting Dark Karma from 2022-06-14T18:51:39
“G.S.” was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Bozeman, Montana many years ago. The story he told me about how bad karma brought him from Devon, England to the C.U.T. bomb shelters i...
ListenCovid after Covid from 2022-05-25T13:44:52
One million plus dead Americans into the pandemic and the ‘long covid’ odds are now 1 in 5. What happened? How did we end up here? And more importantly, how does one win the covid lotte...
ListenWhere does real art come from? (three fakes) from 2022-04-12T15:04:28
Hitler and Goebbels read Walter Benjamin in the bunker, Orson Wells discovers the magic of the fake crowd.
Plus, a profile of artist Lynn Hershman Leeson.
ListenEven More Broken Windows from 2022-03-29T19:26:30
New York’s new mayor recently announced a new strategy to fight crime. As the New York Daily News proclaims: BROKEN WINDOWS is back! In this ToE we examine the roots of this policing theory and...
ListenHow to tell the truth about lies (part ii of ii) from 2022-03-10T20:14:55
We conclude our investigation into Hollywood’s retelling of the secret crimes, conspiracies and lies that rocked America in the first half of the 1970s. Plus a reporter from the Washington Post ...
ListenMaking Trouble, Asking Questions from 2022-02-22T15:51:25
When he was 16 your host mistook the Hollywood movie The Manchurian Candidate for real life. This confusion led to decades of trouble. This episode is both an extra for our ...
ListenHow to tell the truth about lies (part i of ii) from 2022-02-15T15:25:55
Journalists may write the first draft of history but Hollywood prints the legends and the myths. The 1976 film All the President’s Men remains our most authoritative account of Watergat...
ListenNightvision from 2022-01-31T14:01:23
After testing positive in Lisbon, your host assesses Portugal's expat and exile scenes. Plus! lunch with the writer Joseph Roth at a hotel on the waterfront.
ListenArt vs Commerce (Iron and Lies remix) from 2022-01-18T15:48:44
*** New ToE series debuting next week about truth, lies, American democracy and the 50 year legacy of deepthroat and trouble-making investigative journalists***
But first a look back to ...
ListenHerdest Immunity (New York after Rona part v of v) from 2021-12-15T17:10:18
Our New York after Rona miniseries comes to an end just in time for the latest Variant. The WHO turns to podcasts for a new endless stream of naming possibilities. Plus a ToE favorite playwright...
ListenÉmigration Intérieure (remix) from 2021-11-30T15:18:09
As the Nazi nightmare came to an end Thomas Mann thought long and hard about collective guilt. Can Mann’s idea help America in 2021, or do we need a new theory of collective shame.
Afterschool Special (New York After Rona (part iv) from 2021-11-16T15:36:38
New York Schools were closed for most of the pandemic. Education reporter Anya Kamenetz explains w...
ListenBelow and Beyond (New York After Rona (part iii) from 2021-10-27T14:47:37
We visit an empty storefront in Greenwich Village to talk with journalist and curator Alex Brook Lynn about her latest immersive multimedia exhibition: “Listen
Faraway, So Close (New York after Rona part ii) from 2021-10-07T13:49:56
March 2020, writer Craig Taylor believed he was finally done with his 11 year oral history project featuring...
ListenThat was Real (New York After Rona part i) from 2021-09-28T19:26:05
We kick off our new ToE miniseries with a radical rethink on surveillance and the post pandemic city with theorist and writer Benjamin Bratton. His new book Revenge of the Real, both ch...
ListenPerformance Peace from 2021-09-08T12:27:10
George Bush celebrates the 20th anniversary of 911 with some new ‘dark’ paintings. Your host marks the occasion with some high stakes performance art. Plus art lessons from the $150,000 ...
ListenCharlie Brown's America from 2021-07-23T14:21:17
Cartoonist Charles Schulz wrote and drew Peanuts every day for half a century. In his new book Listen
International Coffee (remix) from 2021-06-23T10:36:29
Now that international travel is becoming more and more a realistic possibility, I find myself dreaming and scheming about new journeys for the podcast. This episode is an audio travelogue of th...
ListenLouis Menand and the Cold War from 2021-06-10T14:30:10
Your host talks with Louis Menand about his new book “The Free World, Art and Thought in the Cold War”
Radiotopia is a network of creators who are able to follow their curiosity and tell...
ListenThe Return from 2021-05-26T13:03:31
Your host escapes the island, and returns to New York. Plus writer Tim Kreider on Vaccine side effects.
Radiotopia is a network of creators who are able to follow their curiosity and tel...
ListenBroken Windows revisited from 2021-05-07T15:11:43
Modern Policing owes a lot to the idea of Broken Windows theory, in this ToE we examine the roots of where this idea came from and the individuals who pushed it.
We revisit CRIME FILES a...
ListenStages on Life’s Way (r) from 2021-04-13T21:19:24
Back in the day, your host took a pilgrimage to Copenhagen to walk the streets the great Dane Søren Kierkegaard once walked. He wanted to understand the meaning of Kierkegaard’s religious stag...
ListenUTOPIA: the Callaway Cut from 2021-03-24T16:06:57
Permaculture! Anarchy! Pagan Sex Dungeons!
ToE's Andrew Callaway revisits his 2017 tour of intentional communities for our five part Utopia Series. We are calling this one UTOPIA: The Ca...
ListenWithdrawal from 2021-03-11T09:40:57
After one year of island confinement, your host joins AlamoFort - a clubhouse alternative, and discovers a new community in the #covid1984 room. Plus the true meaning of the Island of t...
ListenConvolution from 2021-02-16T20:47:22
This year your host wrote an original crime thriller for Audible Originals. Listen to the first chapter here, then go to Listen
Only the lonely (toe remix) from 2021-02-02T17:43:24
A couple of years ago.. Long before I even knew what a coronavirus was I produced one of my favorite episodes ever.. On loneliness.
So many of us are now dealing with the long term effec...
ListenLurking (a conversation with Joanne McNeil) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Just before the Coronavirus upended our lives I recorded a conversation with writer Joanne Mcneil about her new book Lurking, a book about the internet. Its actually one of my now favorite...
ListenInfluencers (complete told you so version) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
A couple of years ago I wrote a story for the truth podcast, Radiotopia’s one-of-a-kind audio fiction show. Part One ran on the Truth and Part Two ran here. Now that there are actual camps...
ListenAuthoritarian Schizophrenia from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Right wing populists have stormed the world wide web. They even have a beachhead in China. Chenchen Zhang tells us about the ra...
ListenFailure (interlude) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Failure Flashback! Failure has always been a key concept for your host so this week we pull two stories out of the Benjamen Walker podcast archive. First a musical number about the loser b...
ListenFake it till you make it (False Alarm! part xv) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The grand finale of False Alarm! This one has it all, the little boy who cried wolf, your host’s AI plant, the paintings of Hilma af Klint, the blockchain powered SingularityNet, and Nucle...
ListenNight Wolves (False Alarm! part xiv) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Night Wolves are a Russian biker gang. Their rallies and bike shows run on state TV and Putin gave members medals for their contributions to the annexation of Crimea. The Kremlin outso...
ListenÉmigration Intérieure from 2021-01-19T12:11:43
As the Trump years finally come to an end, your host contemplates collective guilt and shame.
ListenThe longest Shortest Flight of Rudolf Hess (2020reprise) from 2020-12-02T13:38:58
On May 10th 1941 Rudolf Hess flew from Germany to Scotland. He hoped to bring the Nazis and the British together. He failed. But the details behind his flight remain one of the greatest mysterie...
ListenExile on Pain Street from 2020-10-06T12:41:07
Six months later and still in France your host tries to make sense of his situation: Refugee? Exile? Retiree? Plus a conversation about the writing life with novelist Todd London whose new book ...
ListenMore Broken Windows from 2020-09-15T15:30:15
Broken Windows policing is one of the reasons so many people are out protesting in the streets right now.
We revisit CRIME FILES a Police Foundation TV show from the 80s to be...
Going Karura (r) from 2020-08-09T20:04:03
My good friend Sean Cole guest hosted TAL this week and we spoke about my trip to Kenya for G...
ListenMan Without A Country (2020 remix) from 2020-07-08T16:28:48
Curse the USA and America will strike you up. That’s what happened to the Man Without a Country. They stuffed him in a hot air balloon and sentenced him to ride sea to shining sea for the rest ...
ListenNew Statues from 2020-06-23T11:12:39
As statues of slaveholders and Confederate War losers come down, we imagine what could go up in their stead, revisiting a conversation with artist and rememorialization expert Chris Vargas. And ...
ListenHerd Immunity (Social Distance Learning part v of v) from 2020-06-11T10:40:33
As the island (and the world reopens) your host tries his best to join the celebrations, Dr. Lauren Powell explains the risks of protesting during a pandemic and ToE’s special correspondent Chri...
ListenMaking The Best Of It (Social Distance Learning part iv) from 2020-05-22T15:48:47
As the weeks turn into months, one man decides to learn how to cook for himself even though he can no longer taste or smell. ToE’s Andrew Callaway decides its time to get in shape, and your host...
ListenCountryside (Social Distance Learning part iii) from 2020-04-17T13:45:26
Urbanites are fleeing cities for beach communities and small country towns! Tensions are spreading faster than the Coronavirus. Your host turns to the last exhibition he saw in New York (Cou...
Listen14 days later (Social Distance Learning part ii) from 2020-04-01T13:48:57
Your host keeps a diary for his first 14 days of Coronavirus confinement. Special appearances from the family, Andrew Callaway, and a old ToE standby!
ListenEscape From New York (Social Distance Learning part i) from 2020-03-23T14:33:12
Coronavirus Evacuation! Your host decamps New York for a quiet isle in France and ToE’s Andrew Callaway flies home to San Francisco to look after Mom. Is this the end? No! Just the beginning of ...
ListenThe longest shortest flight of Rudolf Hess from 2020-02-28T15:34:35
On May 10th 1941 Rudolf Hess flew from Germany to Scotland. He hoped to bring the Nazis and the British together. He failed. But the details behind his flight remain one of the greatest mysterie...
ListenThe Cultural Marxism Industry (Russia Hospital 2020 Update) from 2020-02-11T13:32:35
Jordan Peterson’s daughter took to YouTube to announce that her father, Jordan Peterson (one of the subjects of our 2019 Failure Maxiseries) is convalescing in a Russian Hospital. We check out h...
ListenDesert Lies from 2020-01-22T18:02:17
Benjamen Walker the podcaster often receives emails meant for Benjamin Walker the actor. A few weeks ago your host received an email inviting Benjamen Walker to Saudi Arabia.
ListenThe Great Divide from 2019-12-20T03:59:32
Man on the street divides couple in a car. Your host is triggered by a flag pole and writer Chris Arnade explains why America is so polarized. PLUS Joseph Roth on the difference between great an...
ListenToE 2019 Radiotopia Fundraiser Spectacular! from 2019-12-18T12:07:05
Every Radiotopia podcast created a special episode for the 2019 Fundraiser. Many of these gems focus on the idea of a dream show as in what would your dream show be? well I am already making my ...
ListenWake up and smell the coffee! from 2019-12-04T15:37:21
Your host chases a great cup of coffee from Paris to Copenhagen and Kenya.
Make your mark. Go to radiotopia.fm to donate tod...
Guided By Voices (r) from 2019-11-12T15:03:30
Philosopher Daniel Heller-Roazen tells us the story of Pythagoras and the fifth hammer and how Kant and Kepler both tried (and failed) to record the universal harmonies Pythagoras once heard. Y...
ListenDeep State Revisited from 2019-10-24T17:43:13
On this episode we dig down into the substratum of the ToE archive to better understand the true meaning of the Deep State.
ListenGoing Karura from 2019-10-10T13:26:53
While reporting in Nairobi, Kenya a group of striking Uber drivers turn your host on to a revolutionary strategy of resistance. Plus: stuck in a broken elevator!
ListenThe boy who cried wolf from 2019-09-24T16:13:59
The boy who cried wolf crosses paths with the Emperor with no clothes and little red riding hood. Plus Computer Pinocchio. A remix of the Fairy tales from last year’s False Alarm series.
ListenEpstein's funeral from 2019-09-12T13:38:49
A million conspiracy theories are launched when Jeffrey Epstein is found dead in his jail cell on August 10th 2019. Your host wonders if this is “the big one.” ToE’s special correspondent Chris ...
Listen1984 (the BOOK not the year) from 2019-08-20T14:42:13
Your host has always wanted to talk to someone about 1984 the book and Listen
YouTube's Inferno from 2019-06-19T20:56:10
YouTube insists it is not liable for the hate speech in its platform. This is also what YouTube said about the copyrighted material back when it was a start up in 2006. We revisit YouTube’s hist...
ListenOperation Three-Eyed Raven from 2019-06-03T13:50:46
ToE's special correspondent Chris tells us the truth about Game of Thrones, Trump, the CIA, and the importance of stories.
Chapter seven in the new ToE Failure miniseries.
ListenThe Greater Firewall from 2019-04-24T14:25:42
China’s next generation surveillance technology is being used to build out the world’s internet. But China is also exporting new philosophical and business models. Hao Wu explains how live strea...
ListenBad Recommendations from 2019-04-03T13:37:07
John Herrman EXPOSES the truth about YouTube’s paranoid style. <...
ListenInstitutionalized from 2019-03-01T18:20:54
Critic Anand Giridharadas demystifies the rise of the thought leader, artist Chris Vargas rememorializes the Stonewall riots and your host clears up where he stands on the YouTube platform. Chap...
ListenThe Cultural Marxism Industry from 2019-02-12T16:06:57
In the 1930's,Theodor Adorno fled Nazi Germany. In America, he studied the Authoritarian Personality. On YouTube, he’s the object of study in a massive conspiracy theory that many have ...
ListenThe People have Spoken from 2019-01-09T18:50:22
Filmmaker Astra Taylor asks "What is Democracy?" and YouTube creates the most Listen
Failure (prelude) from 2018-12-25T14:20:44
After Meghan Daum’s marriage falls apart she meets some new friends on YouTube. Also, reporter Paris Martineau tells us about a new game changing online harassment tool: the thotbot.
Meg...
ListenBonus 2018 from 2018-12-20T04:22:31
Earlier this summer at a listener meet up in Vancouver your host learned the difference between Listeners and Fans. Find out why this distinction matters. And if you are a fan or a listener dona...
ListenVictory is ours from 2018-12-11T22:08:19
Mark Galeotti takes us into the Soviet Gulag to tell us the brutal history of the Bitch War, ToE's Andrew Callaway checks in on the war on smoking and P.W. Singer explains how #likewar works. Pl...
ListenJK After The Fact (False Alarm! part xiii) from 2018-10-24T16:00:13
A handful of tech barons now own the news but only one can rule the fake news. A chat with the comedy team behind the CBC’s This is That satirical news show turns into breaking news about Elon M...
ListenWolfgang (False Alarm! part xii) from 2018-10-12T20:11:57
The Hoaxers took over the Conspiracy Theory Championship Title from the Truthers in December of 2012 in response to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary. Eight years later the hoaxers are ever...
ListenMistakes were made from 2018-09-25T21:04:01
We’re taking a short break from False Alarm! because your host made a big big mista...
ListenTrue Lessons (False Alarm! part xi) from 2018-09-12T18:23:50
I set out on this False Alarm! journey with a quest to figure out how to better deal with this blurry...
ListenSecond time as fake (False Alarm! part x) from 2018-08-23T15:08:41
The Nazis believed the secret to turning a lie into a truth was repetition, for the Spi...
ListenHeavenly Truths (False Alarm! part ix) from 2018-08-07T16:23:20
A postmodern prehistory of post-truth and an alternative history of the Civil War. Our exploration of the Nazi Supernatural concludes with Werewolves and Mass Suicide. Plus: another inst...
ListenPseudoscience (False Alarm! part viii) from 2018-07-24T14:09:33
As the border between border science and science dissolves we continue our examination of two other time periods when science tried to account for both the real and the unreal.
In the 1...
ListenThe Power of Magical Thinking (False Alarm! part vii) from 2018-07-11T12:56:05
Magic! That’s what alt-right face-punchee Richard Spencer claims brought Trump to the White House. Esoteric historian Gary Lachman investigates and discovers an unholy alliance of memes, chaos, ...
ListenIt is happening again (False Alarm! part vi) from 2018-06-22T15:21:33
Little girls who can talk to ghosts! The Nazi Supernatural! The legacy of artist Iris Häussler’s first fictional character Joseph Wagenbach. Plus America’s Greatest Lie!
Listen
Real costs extra (False Alarm! part v) from 2018-06-06T02:50:23
Many of us are struggling with the real and the fake – but if you’re willing to pay enough, you don’t have to worry about it. Your host collaborates with 99% Invisible on a sto...
ListenThe Fake in the Crowd (False Alarm! part iv) from 2018-05-21T15:56:13
The power of the fake person, multiplied! Curator Karen Patterson puts a fake outsider artist in the museum and artist David Levine puts on a museum show about the fake crowd. We hear ...
ListenS-Coin (False Alarm! part iii) from 2018-05-01T14:29:09
Our investigation of the real and the fake continues as your host hunts for a way to monetize it! We ask Alex Goldmark from Planet Money and Bitchcoin artist Sarah Meyohas for advice and author ...
ListenFake Nudes (False Alarm! part ii) from 2018-04-17T20:48:52
The future of face-swapping! The REAL deepfakes speaks! Artist Lynn Hershman Leeson tells us how technology has transfor...
ListenThis Is Not A Drill (False Alarm! part i) from 2018-04-03T14:53:57
Our New ToE series on the battle between the real and the fake begins with a text alert sent out to everyone in Hawaii on a balmy Saturday morning. We also hear from the man who has written the ...
ListenUtopia (part v) from 2018-03-22T14:58:29
Our search for Utopia comes to an end at Christiania, an Anarchist haven in the heart of Copenhagen. In 2012 this Utopia went legit, the squatters become property owners. But now they must figur...
ListenUtopia (part iv) from 2018-03-06T18:53:11
Our search for Utopia takes Andrew far from Mundania to the magickal Den of Iniquity in a pagan community called The Valley of The Dragons. Plus, your host takes a tour of FDR’s New Deal Utopias...
ListenTime Travelin’ Trump from 2018-02-14T19:49:10
Donald Trump says all his ‘nuclear knowledge’ comes from his favorite uncle John G Trump. According to ToE special correspondent Chris, Uncle Johnny also gave Donald a time machine ring.
Utopia (part iii) from 2018-01-22T19:47:15
Artist and Filmmaker Ruth Dusseault tells us about how the internet has changed the American Commune. Plus ToE’s Andrew Callaway lets us in on an internet joke about Socialist Dolphins.
False Flags from 2017-12-30T06:17:19
Underneath a giant American Flag in a Midwest Airport Your host takes a knee in order to tie his shoe. Trouble. Big Trouble. Plus False Flag meets Dictionary.com
Listen
Utopia (part ii) from 2017-12-20T17:41:38
Our series continues with ToE’s Andrew Callaway reporting from an off the grid fully sustainable little piece of heaven called Earthaven. Plus Will Wilkinson on Libertopia and the limits...
ListenUtopia (part i) from 2017-11-16T16:57:03
A new ToE mini series on technology, society, work, art, love (the ToE basics) but this time your host dons a pair of Utopian tinted glasses, and sends Toe Producer Andrew Callaway on the road t...
ListenCthulhuCon (Revisited) from 2017-11-03T19:49:25
A special Halloween week fall treat! We’re revisiting a segment from my old podcast Too Much Information. I’ve always w...
ListenBad Science from 2017-10-20T19:14:05
When ToE’s special corespondent Chris told me about Russian Gay Bashing Drones onstage during my performance in London I was certain he was once again putting me on – or this was Satire. I forgo...
ListenIron and Lies (Wisconsin part II of II) from 2017-10-16T21:49:41
The ToE family Wisconsin road trip wraps up with a visit to the House on the Rock. Even though Alex Jordan’s tourist attraction is one of the most visionary unique places in the world you still...
ListenConcrete and Respect (Wisconsin part I of II) from 2017-09-21T17:54:20
Benjamen, Mathilde and Arthaud head off on a family trip to Wisconsin to see art environments built by immigrants out of concrete and to discover what’s going on in rural America today. Plus: ma...
ListenIllicit Objects from 2017-08-08T14:12:17
Rob Walker and Josh Glenn have a long history of getting writers to share stories about their objects, but when th...
ListenPrivate Ear from 2017-07-19T14:58:59
Lawrence Abu Hamdan is an internationally celebrated artist who works with sound and an internationally recognized expert forensic listener. He likes to call himself a Private Ear. Your host vis...
ListenInfluencers (part II of II) from 2017-06-28T23:57:51
Frankie isn’t a real Media Influencer but the Government saw the 500k followers he bought for his Instagram profile back in the day and arrested him anyway. Now he’s in a Media internment camp. ...
ListenEmergency from 2017-05-29T14:07:22
A special ToE emergency pod: Chris explains the Orb, Andrew dives into the mystery of Twin Peaks and your host tries attempts SpaCasting.
Listen
Droning for Dollars from 2017-04-27T02:50:48
Can a Self-Droning drone start up save the Trump Presidency? Our special correspondent Chris fills us in on YouFired!
Listen
Art Districts from 2017-04-12T02:10
Empty buildings, run down neighborhoods and cheap rents.
This is the bait you need to attract artists, speculators and urban revitalizers. But in order to attract pioneers you also need ...
Nothing to Hide from 2017-03-10T13:12:10
Potemkin apps, Fake ads, and the return of little pepe the frog. Your host busts out all his best deep state moves for the grand conclusion of our Surveillance miniseries. Plus Finn Brunton pitc...
ListenThe Rainbows of Inevitability from 2017-02-23T16:31:41
We take a tour of the sprawl with Metahaven to learn about the propaganda of propaganda and we travel beyond the Facebook wall to learn the real truth about targeted advertising. Plus Project Ma...
ListenDoomed to Repeat from 2017-02-08T19:22:37
Your host examines the targeted advertising and fake news that some say put Donald Trump in the White House. Plus: the colonial history of Biometric Surveillance.
Listen
The Twentieth of January from 2017-01-20T06:23:24
A spy novel from the 80’s gives Donald Trump and his Russian friends some ideas. PLUS your host inspires the youth with cowardice.
Listen
Entrapment from 2017-01-16T05:13:41
The FBI builds more surveillance traps that don’t work, and your host shares a few of his earliest adventures in surveillance.
Listen
The fairest of them all? from 2016-12-28T06:54:07
Our Surveillance miniseries continues with a special holiday episode. Your host visits both the glass room ( a fake pop up store) and the Google pop up store (a real pop up store).
Useful Idiots from 2016-12-12T13:03:31
Your host discovers you can’t beat the Russians at the fake game and ToE’s Chris reviews Oliver Stone’s Edward Snowden. Plus: Vladislav Surkov and the Potemkin Panopticon.
Listen
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum from 2016-11-23T13:33:45
Donald Trump promises women he will make Surveillance great again. Plus Digital Security Training!
Listen
Targeted from 2016-11-08T15:39:54
Your host tries his hand at targeted advertising and he dooms his child to a life of exclusion with the simple gift of a stuffed frog. Plus the truth about Facial Recognition.
Listen
Honeypot from 2016-10-25T05:06:37
Your host decides to follow back a Joy Division T-shirt that is following him around the internet. Plus the surveillance that powers behaviorally targeted personalized advertising. Listen
Burning down the Panopticon from 2016-10-11T19:38:10
Our new miniseries on Surveillance begins with your host tripping over the corpse of Jeremy Bentham, the man who gave us the Panopticon.
Listen
You are so Pretentious from 2016-09-20T16:23:54
Writer Dan Fox wants to reclaim the word pretentious. Take it back from those who use it like a stick to beat down the curious and the adventurous.
Listen
revolutionary slogans will be written by the winners from 2016-08-25T21:17
As the 2016 American presidential election heads into the final round – we are featuring a story your host stumbled upon during the last election in October of 2102. Radio producer Silvain Gire ...
ListenThe art of the deal from 2016-08-04T15:24:21
The secret history of ISIS from ToE’s special corespondent Chris. PLUS Donald Trump is ready for sacrifice.
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ListenSomething will happen, eventually from 2016-07-21T13:13:44
Your host opens his file of near misses and close calls. Joe Mazur examines the math and myth behind the stories we call coincidences. Plus a grasp at the law of truly large numbers.
Because there’s nothing else to do from 2016-07-06T10:42:05
Your host wanders London just before and after Britain’s historic vote to leave the European Union.
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sudculture (part II of II) from 2016-06-21T12:41:30
Part two of your host’s craft beer drinking adventure. As the battle over shelf space intensifies we meet a couple of brewers who are doing things differently?
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sudculture (part I of II) from 2016-06-06T14:17:41
Your host sets out to better understand America’s craft beer scene. The latest food trend? Or oppositional culture? And can it survive the attention from Megabrew?
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Analog Time from 2016-05-29T19:59:48
Your host explores the transition from UFO to Drone on stage as part of Radiotopia Live! and pinpoints the date he crossed his own personal digital divide (Feb 21st 1997). Also filmmaker Alix La...
ListenTransformers (r) from 2016-05-13T14:43:39
Yvette Gonzales tells us a first person story about what its like to be transgender in Prison. Gender theorist B. Preciado tells us about what happens when a person takes testosterone without th...
ListenPlatform of the Real from 2016-04-28T16:44:27
A look at the most revolutionary media format that has ever existed and a trip back to 1968 when video became real. Plus Virtual reality!
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The Future from 2016-04-13T02:20:29
Your host has a chance encounter with the supposed inspiration for a Listen
A light touch and a slight nudge from 2016-03-28T18:47:12
Is Donald Trump actually a CIA asset with implants in his small hands or are our brains just wired for paranoia – or both! Rob Brotherton, author of Listen
After Work from 2016-02-10T01:18:25
ToE instaserf Andrew Callaway gets invited to do a TED ALPHA Talk on the sharing economy. Listen
The Escapers from 2016-01-28T03:53:48
Artist Gary Panter packs up and sizes down, Alix Lambert explains the new computer trap. Plus your host on Gordon Comstock (the escaper protagonist of Orwell’s novel Keep the aspidistra flyi...
Listen70×7 (Holy War part II of II) from 2015-12-29T17:20:04
The second half of our sly-fi story about redemption, forgiveness and torture. Margo hopes to leave Christian America with Ali Baba ( a terrorist clone she was given as recompense for the deat...
ListenAlaska Is Closer (Holy War part I of II) from 2015-12-22T16:35:36
As 2015 winds down we offer you a story about redemption, forgiveness and torture. When Margo’s husband is killed in a terrorist attack, she is given Ali Baba, a terrorist clone. This is how it ...
ListenNew York After Rent (post prop f director’s cut) from 2015-11-25T06:32:19
Now that Airbnb has proved it can beat regulation we return to the post-gentrified city. Two! new segments: we meet a landlord (named Benny) who built an illegal artists space in Bushwick, and ...
ListenThe things we do for money from 2015-10-31T01:07:38
Allen Ginsberg tries his hand at Market Research, Walter Benjamin goes on the radio and ToE’s Chris drops in on a new bar in DC called the Freedom Cock. Also visit Listen
Secret Histories of Podcasting from 2015-10-22T02:27:53
It turns out there are (at least) three ways to tell the secret history of podcasting: it is a story about technology, it is a story about a business model for audio, and it is also a story abou...
ListenEnchanting By Numbers (2015 version) from 2015-10-09T14:21:21
We take another look at algorithms. Listen
Resolution from 2015-09-07T16:30:23
Your host attempts to write a description for the Podcast. He seeks assistance from an old book, and the plot whisperer.
Artifacts (redux) from 2015-08-12T14:43:38
Photographer Robert Burley takes pictures of the end of analog for his book The Disappearance Of Darkness. Christine Frohnert and Christiane Paul explain why it is difficult to care for...
ListenInstaserfs (III of III) from 2015-07-07T20:35:46
“This is part of the sharing economy, I am sharing myself”
Our instaserfs series comes to a crushing conclusion, Hear Instapoder Andrew attempt to Listen
Instaserfs (II of III) from 2015-06-24T18:16:11
Instaserfs II: “Chipolte Strikes back” or “Seriously, in the sharing economy no one can hear you work” Either tagline works for our second installment in our future of work series. Andrew (our ...
ListenInstaserfs (I of III) from 2015-06-17T17:02:29
In the sharing economy no one can hear you work. This is because companies like Uber, Lyft, Postmates and others only employ “partners” or independent contractors. So your host decided to partn...
ListenArt De Vivre (II of II) from 2015-06-02T19:15:41
Benjamen and Mathilde continue exploring the intersection between France and China over wine. In this installment they traverse China talking with winemakers, wine enthusiasts and drinkers to fi...
ListenArt De Vivre (I of II) from 2015-05-26T02:59:38
The voice of the ToE episode announcer revealed! (her name is Mathilde) and she joins our host for this two part series about the intersection between France and China and wine. The st...
ListenThe Dislike Club (finale/ABC version) from 2015-05-12T04:47:32
In this program (which originally aired on the ABC last December) your host makes his final attempt to build the ultimate anti-social-media-social-platform. Things continue to decline: the phone...
ListenNew York After Rent (III of III) from 2015-04-30T15:41:41
Our series concludes with an attempt to examine the suburbanized commodified inner cityscape of New York. Author and activist Sarah Schulman tells us about the Gentrified Mind, plus we hear from...
ListenNew York After Rent (II of III) from 2015-04-22T17:10:44
Our series continues with a journey from Avenue B to Bushwick: Kathy Kirkpatrick tells us about the final days of her Life Cafe in the East Village and essayist Tim Kreider tells us abo...
ListenNew York After Rent (I of III) from 2015-04-08T06:50:38
The financial crisis of September 2008 overshadows one of the most important events in recent New York History: the arrival of Airbnb. And while your host wasn’t paying attention back then eithe...
ListenDark Karma from 2015-03-17T01:36
“G.S.” was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Bozeman, Montana many years ago. The story he told me about how bad karma brought him from Devon, England to the C.U.T. bomb shelters i...
ListenRadio WIFM from 2015-03-02T20:38:05
Decades before the first shot was fired in the American revolution a band of runaway slaves known as the Maroons living in the mountains in Colonial Jamaica took on the British Empire and won. ...
ListenAn Illumination from 2015-01-27T00:12:39
Cédric Villani won the prestigious Fields Medal for his work in 2010. He wrote a book about his experience called Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure. It is a book about where ideas co...
ListenOccupy Siberia (dislike club prequel) from 2014-12-29T21:47:44
Yours truly is recuperating from 2014 in France but wishing you a happy holiday. Hope you e...
ListenLogical Fantasies (the dislike club part V) from 2014-12-22T18:19:06
In the penultimate episode of our series, Kathy Sierra tells us how one tweak could fix everything and ToE’s Chris tells us the secret origin of Facebook. PLUS #marksbros (as in Zuckerberg) #ma...
ListenWishful Thinking (the dislike club part IV) from 2014-12-09T02:06:30
In 2007 writer, programmer, and horse trainer Kathy Sierra quit the internet because of misogynist hate trolling. She stayed off the social web for 7 years but last year she came back to see wha...
ListenIf you dislike like, then you will… (the dislike club part III) from 2014-12-03T19:11:43
This week Anthropologist Gabriella Coleman tells us about the internet’s original Dislike Club, Anonymous. Biella has spent the last eight years hanging out with Anons both on IRC and i...
ListenPaying For It (the dislike club part II) from 2014-11-25T07:17:32
Our mini-series about the internet continues. This week we take a close look at the fundamental business model of the web – advertising. In 1993 your host was a founding member of an internatio...
ListenBackspace to the Future (the dislike club part I) from 2014-11-14T17:10:13
Paul Ford is a technologist and a writer, sometimes these two things blur. For example, he’s currently working on a book about webpages, but he’s also building a content management system for we...
ListenMaking it Happen from 2014-11-04T17:20:14
For this special installment of the Theory of Everything we explore Maker Culture. Makerbot co-founder Bre Pettis gives us a tour of his new venture: Bold Machines. Plus we go to China to learn ...
ListenEnchanting By Numbers from 2014-10-06T19:41:04
When I was in Beijing last summer I dropped by the Microsoft research campus to talk with Dr. Yu Zheng. He studies the air pollution in his city, and the noise pollution in mine. Using algorith...
ListenIt will always be hard from 2014-09-16T18:44:59
When the photographer Garry Winogrand died in 1984 he left behind hundreds of thousands of unpublished negatives and undeveloped rolls of film and a few out of print books that ...
ListenMan Without a Country (3 of 3) from 2014-08-08T11:55:16
What happens when you curse your own country? In this version of the classic Americana tale your host is sentenced to live out the rest of his days in a hot air balloon. Our story concludes(?) ...
ListenMan Without a Country (2 of 3) from 2014-08-08T11:54:55
What happens when you curse your own country? In this version of the classic Americana tale your host is sentenced to live out the rest of his days in a hot air balloon. In part two of the stor...
ListenMan Without a Country (1 of 3) from 2014-08-08T11:54:32
What happens when you curse your own country? In this version of the classic Americana tale your host is sentenced to live out the rest of his days in a hot air balloon. In part one we hear the...
ListenRecent, Relevant, Random from 2014-07-25T15:55:28
We don’t have metrics to measure what happens when we read something that changes our life. So this episode is an attempt to deal with that. We begin with writer Rob Walker who...
ListenStages on Life’s Way from 2014-06-13T18:03:33
A few years ago your host took a pilgrimage to Copenhagen to walk the streets the great Dane Søren Kierkegaard once walked. He wanted to understand the meaning of Kierkegaard’s religious stage ...
ListenA Better Tomorrow from 2014-05-18T01:01:10
This week we examine the legacy of The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility by Walter Benjamin. Media Theorist and Benjamin scholar (and translator) Thomas Levin exp...
ListenThe Bootlickers from 2014-04-25T22:15:07
Andrew Rubin opens up his Archives of Authority to tell us the story of how George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 became global phenomenons. Melissa Gira Grant tells us about her new boo...
Listen1984 (the year not the book) from 2014-04-04T18:29:22
In 1984 your host was twelve years old and like George Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith, he kept a diary, for the citizens of the future. For this special installment of Benjamen Walker’s Theo...
ListenPrêt-à-Portable from 2014-03-24T15:42:25
Technology consultant Sarah Slocum loves social media and her Google Glass, she wears them everywhere. But when she walked into Molotov’s, a bar on Haight Street in San Francisco, she discovere...
ListenWhen You’re Lonely, Life is Very Long from 2014-03-03T06:08:54
After moving to New York alone, writer Olivia Laing discovered the truth about loneliness. She says it is a gift. Eric Klinenberg explains why more and more people are choosing to live...
ListenF is for Fake from 2014-02-11T23:14:24
To Bot or Not? That’s the big question for Data Scientist Gilad Lotan. His research suggests we may be damaging o...
ListenArtifacts (2 of 2) from 2014-01-16T17:48:06
Social Media theorist Nathan Jurgenson wants us to understand what is truly revolutionary about ephemeral photogr...
ListenArtifacts (1 of 2) from 2014-01-01T00:08:42
Photographer Robert Burley takes pictures of the end of analog for his book The Disappearance Of Darkness. Christine Frohnert explains how conservators must care for Art with a Plug. Cu...
ListenNot Soon Enough from 2013-12-11T16:39:14
This week your host tries to break through to the other side using the art of John Singer Sargent as a… jumping off point. Also we get an update from our corespondent Peter Choyce. When we last ...
ListenWaiting In Line from 2013-10-23T04:05:11
About a year ago I travelled across America for the BBC. I visited Airports, Amusement parks, Highways and Community Colleges in order to understand how the priority queue is changing the Americ...
ListenOut Of The Office from 2013-10-14T17:58:47
Programmer David Heinemeier Hansson tells us about his Out Of Office experience, David is a partner at 37signals ...
ListenAdmissions Of Defeat from 2013-10-03T14:46:24
We check in with a few of our TOE regulars: Peter Choyce has is one of my oldest friends and a listener favorite, but he has a secret we’ve never addressed until now. We also check in w...
ListenRed, White, Blue&Orange from 2013-05-14T04:05:05
A torture expert records an imaginary criterion commentary track for the torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty. We learn about Umarov Muhibullah, one of the first innocent men to be released from G...
ListenThe Clouds (part 3 of 3) from 2013-05-06T13:00:31
Our series concludes with some revelations. Metahaven uses the story of Wikileaks to show us the infrastructure of the cloud and its super-jurisdictional powers. The BBC’s Paul Mason takes us on...
ListenThe Clouds (part 2 of 3) from 2013-04-29T19:44
We continue our journey to the center of the cloud, by way of the earth: Rare Earth. China controls 95% of the market for the 17 Rare Earth elements that power our invisible technologies so your...
ListenThe Clouds (part 1 of 3) from 2013-04-19T21:38:07
Twitter employee #7 tells us what happened when Justin Bieber joined twitter in 2009. An Amazon Data scientist, explains how the cloud is changing our relationship with technology, Obama’s CTO H...
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