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PODCAST

Let"s Know Things

A calm, non-shouty, non-polemical, weekly news analysis podcast for folks of all stripes and leanings who want to know more about what"s happening in the world around them. Hosted by analytic journalist Colin Wright since 2016. letsknowthings.substack.com

news news commentary

All Episodes

27:43

Google AI Overviews

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/06/11

This week we talk about search engines, SEO, and Habsburg AI.We also discuss AI summaries, the web economy, and alignment.Recommended Book: Pandora’s Box by Peter BiskindTranscriptThere's a concept in the world of artificial intelligence, alignment, which refers to the goals underpinning the development and expression of AI systems.This is generally considered to be a pretty important realm of inquiry because, if AI consciousness were to ever emerge—if an artificial intelligence that's truly

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22:43

Trump's Conviction

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/06/04

This week we talk about secret documents, hush-money payouts, and federal court cases.We also discuss polling, independents, and post-presidential felonies.Recommended Book: The Final Empire by Brandon SandersonTranscriptIt's a weird time in American politics for many reasons, including but not limited to the increasing polarization of the two main parties, the difficulty in finding bipartisan opportunities to work together, the concomitant tendency for Congress, and lawmakers at other levels of

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16:55

UK General Election 2024

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/05/28

This week we talk about the Tories, Labour, and the UK Parliament.We also discuss the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and Rishi Sunak’s gamble.Recommended Book: Like, Literally, Dude by Valerie FridlandTranscriptThe government of the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy led by a Prime Minister and their cabinet, the Prime Minister attaining their position through the primacy of their party in the country's key legislation-passing body, its Parliament.So the Prime Minister runs

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28:32

Gaza Conflict Update

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/05/21

This week we talk about Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Hamas.We also discuss Egypt, the Rafah Crossing, and Netanyahu’s motivations.Recommended Book: Going Zero by Anthony McCartenTranscriptIsrael, as a country, was founded as a consequence of, and in the midst of, a fair bit of conflict and turmoil.It was formally established in mid-1948 after years of settlement in the area by Jewish people fleeing persecution elsewhere around the world and years of effort to set up a Jewish-majority

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17:28

La Niña 2024

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/05/14

This week we talk about ENSO, El Niño, and attribution science.We also discuss climate change, natural disasters, and the trade winds.Recommended Book: Titanium Noir by Nick HarkawayTranscriptThe field of attribution science, sometimes referred to as "extreme event attribution," focuses on figuring out whether and to what degree a particular weather event—especially rare weather disasters—are attributable to climate change.Severe floods and tornadoes and hurricanes all happen from time to time,

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18:56

GPS Jamming

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/05/07

This week we talk about APT28, spoofing, and hybrid warfare.We also discuss the Baltics, Tartu airport, and hacking.Recommended Book: The Middle Passage by James HollisTranscriptIn early May of 2024, the German government formally blamed a Russian hacking group called APT28 for hacking members of the governing German Social Democratic Party in 2023, and warned of unnamed consequences.Those consequences may apply just to APT28, which is also sometimes called "Fancy Bear," or they may apply to the

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25:12

TikTok Ban

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/04/30

This week we talk about Huawei, DJI, and ByteDance.We also discuss 5G infrastructure, black-box algorithms, and Congressional bundles.Recommended Book: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette KowalNote: my new book, How To Turn 39, is now available as an ebook, audiobook, and paperback wherever you get your books :)TranscriptIn January of 2024, Chinese tech giant Huawei brought an end to its years-long US lobbying effort, meant to help mend fences with western politicians.In mid-2019, then US President

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17:01

Section 702

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/04/23

This week we talk about STELLARWIND, 9/11, and the NSA.We also discuss warrantless surveillance, intelligence agencies, and FISA.Recommended Book: Period: The Real Story of Menstruation by Kate ClancyTranscriptImmediately after the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, then President George W. Bush gave his approval for the National Security Agency, the NSA, to run a portfolio of significant and ever-evolving cross-agency efforts aimed at preventing future attacks of that kind, scale,

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20:22

Presidential Immunity

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/04/16

This week we talk about diplomatic immunity, Trump’s court cases, and the Supreme Court.We also discuss Nixon, Clinton, and the US Constitution.Recommended Book: My upcoming book, How To Turn 39 (https://books2read.com/htt39), which is available for pre-order today :)TranscriptThere's a concept in international law—diplomatic immunity—that says, in essence, certain government officials should be immune from the laws of foreign countries, including those within which they're operating.This is a very

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19:10

XZ Utils Hack

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/04/09

This week we talk about Linux, backdoors, and the Open Source community.We also discuss CPU usage, state-backed hackers, and SSH.Recommended Book: The Underworld by Susan CaseyTranscriptIn the world of computers, a "backdoor" is a means of accessing a device or piece of software via an alternative entry point that allows one to bypass typical security measures and often, though not always, to do so in a subtle, undetected and maybe even undetectable manner.While backdoors can be built into hardware

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24:28

Cocoa Shortage

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/04/02

This week we talk about cacao, plantations, and bean-to-bar chocolate.We also discuss black pod disease, swollen shoot virus, and seed pod currency.Recommended Book: The City & The City by China MiévilleTranscriptThe cocoa bean, also called "cacao," is a seed derived from the cocoa tree, which is native to the Amazon Rainforest in South America.More than 5,000 years ago, near present day Ecuador, the Mayo-Chinchipe culture domesticated and cultivated this tree, which then found its way north into

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22:27

DRC Conflict

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/03/26

This week we talk about the Rwandan genocide, the First and Second Congo Wars, and M23.We also discuss civil wars, proxy conflicts, and resource curses.Recommended Book: Everyday Utopia by Kristen R. GhodseeTranscriptThe Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, was previously known as Zaïre, a name derived from a Portuguese mistranscription of the regional word for "river."It wore that monicker from 1971 until 1997, and this region had a rich history of redesignations before that, having been owned

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24:20

Bigger Oil

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/03/19

This week we talk about mergers, acquisitions, and the Shale Oil Revolution.We also discuss liquid natural gas, energy diplomacy, and political hypocrisy.Recommended Book: Eversion by Alastair ReynoldsTranscriptFor the sixth year in a row, the United States is the largest oil producer in the world.As of March 2024, it's producing an average of 12.93 million barrels of oil per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration, and it periodically pops above that average for stretches of

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20:29

Ukraine War Update (Early 2024)

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/03/12

This week we talk about foreign aid, brain drain, and long-term economic consequences.We also discuss the Rasputitsa, counteroffensives, and strategic rethinks.Recommended Book: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John ScalziTranscriptWe've done this a few times before, but it's been a while since I've done a real update on Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine—September of last year, I think, was the last one, a bonus episode on the topic—and a fair bit has happened since then, even if a lot of

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15:12

LockBit

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/03/05

This week we talk about virtual reality, the Meta Quest, and the Apple Vision Pro.We also discuss augmented reality, Magic Leap, and the iPhone.Recommended Book: Daemon by Daniel SuarezTranscriptRansomware is a sub-type of malware, which is malicious software that prevents its victim from accessing their data.So that might mean keeping them from logging into their cloud storage, but it might also mean encrypting their data so that there's no way to access it, ever again, unless they have the

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18:00

Japan's Economy

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/02/27

This week we talk about the Meiji Revolution, shoguns, and the Lost Decade.We also discuss NVIDIA, economic bubbles, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.Recommended Book: The Blue Machine by Helen CzerskiTranscriptWhat became known as the Meiji Restoration, but which at the time was generally, locally, called the Honorable Restoration, refers to a period of massive and rapid change in Japan following the restoration of practical powers to the country's Emperor.In 1853, the arrival of Commodore Perry and

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19:49

Spacial Computing

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/02/20

This week we talk about virtual reality, the Meta Quest, and the Apple Vision Pro.We also discuss augmented reality, Magic Leap, and the iPhone.Recommended Book: Extremely Online by Taylor LorenzTranscriptThe term spacial computing seems to have been coined in the mid-1980s within the field of geographic information systems, or GIS, which focuses on using digital technology to mess with geographic data in a variety of hopefully useful ways.So if you were to import a bunch of maps and GPS coordinates

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15:09

News Media Collapse

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/02/13

This week we talk about The Messenger, ads, and generative AI.We also discuss search engines, algorithms, and Semafor’s new curation tool.Recommended Book: The Coming Wave by Mustafa SuleymanTranscriptThere was a piece published on McSweeney's, a humorous, often satirical writing site, recently, entitled "Our Digital Media Platform Will Revolutionize News and Is Also Shutting Down," written by Devin Wallace, that includes gems, ostensibly from an announcement by some kind of new media business, like

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18:00

Autoimmune Disease Therapies

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/02/06

This week we talk about CAR Ts, lupus, and antigen-presenting cells.We also discuss Hashimoto’s, potential cures, and allergies.Recommended Book: The Avoidable War by Kevin RuddTranscriptChimeric antigen receptors, usually shorthanded as CARs, are a type of protein structure that receives and transmits signals within biological systems.The term "CAR T cell" refers to chimeric antigen receptors that have been altered so that these structures can give T cells, which are a component of the human body's

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18:21

AI Impersonation

Let"s Know Things ·

2024/01/30

This week we talk about robo-Biden, fake Swift images, and ElevenLabs.We also discuss copyright, AI George Carlin, and deepfakes.Recommended Book: Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David GraeberTranscriptThe hosts of a podcast called Dudesy are facing a lawsuit after they made a video that seems to show the late comedian George Carlin performing a new routine.The duo claimed they created the video using AI tools, training an algorithm on five decades-worth of Carlin's material in order to generate a

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502 results

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