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Kaleidoscope

Were we sleeping when everything changed? Seems like the technologically driven future is already here. On kill switch, we explain the right NOW of our super charged technological lives. New host Dexter Thomas answers questions big and small – like who’s behind Shrimp Jesus, and could you get arrested by a computer?

kill switch also brings the DIY back to tech – “How to Now” on everything from how to run your own LLM to tips to keep your data safe. Because the more “user-friendly” our devices get, the less we understand how they work, and the less control we have. We’re here to help you take back control. And if we can’t… Well, maybe we need to look for the kill switch.

Sleepwalkers

Tea called itself a women’s safety app. Then, 4chan found it. Selfies, IDs, even private messages were left exposed after two massive data breaches. Tens of thousands of women were affected, but hundreds of thousands still want to sign up. We break down what went wrong, and what it says about the tech we trust to keep us safe. 
 
Dexter talks to journalists and 404 Media co-founders Emanuel Maiberg and Sam Cole about what happened, and what this could mean for women (and men!) whose information was exposed. 
 
Read + Watch: 
 
Emanuel’s coverage on the Tea data breach: 
 
Women Dating Safety App 'Tea' Breached, Users' IDs Posted to 4chan
 
A Second Tea Breach Reveals Users’ DMs About Abortions and Cheating
 
Tea User Files Class Action After Women’s Safety App Exposes Data
 
Sam’s coverage on ‘Are We Dating the Same Guy?’ Facebook groups: 
 
Man Who Sued 'Are We Dating the Same Guy?' Groups Files Class Action Lawsuit
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @killswitchpod on IG, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

why are women still signing up for tea?

This week we want to take a look at a little-known technology kept from public view: electronic tablets in prisons. Dexter talks to Gaby Caplan, a journalist and documentary filmmaker who has been researching how these tablets are used, the connection to the outside world that they promised, and why federal prisons have gone back on that promise.
 
Read + Watch: 
 
Gaby’s piece on WIRED: https://www.wired.com/story/electronic-tablets-in-federal-prisons-chat-apps-disabled/
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

tech review: tablets in prisons

If you’ve been resistant to using a password manager, or if you want to step up your overall digital security, this episode is for you. Dexter talks to Josh Blackwelder, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer of SentinelOne, about the dangers of having weak passwords (even for accounts you don’t care about), why you definitely should use a password manager, and why you should switch your email account to login by something better than a password: the passkey. We’re here to evangelize the importance of digital security – and keep you from getting hacked. If there’s someone in your life who needs to hear this, share this episode with them.
 
Useful links: 
 
Check to see if your data’s been leaked: https://haveibeenpwned.com/
 
Check how strong your passwords are: https://bitwarden.com/password-strength/
 
Set up Google passkey: https://g.co/passkeys
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

how to: make better passwords

We’re living in a world shaped by algorithms. They’re not just curating our feeds, they’re changing the way we speak. 
 
Dexter talks with Adam Aleksic, aka the Etymology Nerd, about his new book Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language. They unpack how algorithmic censorship on social media is reshaping the way we use language online, and how it’s bleeding into real life. 
 
Read + Watch: 
 
Make sure to check out Adam’s book: Algospeak
 
Where to find Adam online: 
https://www.etymologynerd.com/
 
https://etymology.substack.com/
 
Or @etymologynerd on social media.
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

the algorithm made me say it

AI music generators are not only the product of scraped (read: stolen) music, they’re also threatening the livelihood of musicians. But there are people who are finding ways to fight back – by using a technique called poison pilling. This week, Dexter talks to two of them: Benn Jordan, a musician and YouTuber who developed a tool called Poisonify, and Jian Liu, the lead developer of HarmonyCloak and Music Shield. These programs add imperceptible noise to a music file rendering it indecipherable to an AI model – and we got to test out how these work with our own theme song.
 
Read + Watch: 
 
Benn’s YouTube video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMYm2d9bmEA
 
Jian Liu and Syed Irfan’s paper on HarmonyCloak – https://mosis.eecs.utk.edu/publications/meerza2024harmonycloak.pdf
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @killswitchpod on IG, or @dexdigi anywhere.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

how to poison AI music scrapers

Once upon a time streaming delivered a utopian fantasy – anything you wanted to watch or listen to, at your fingertips. Now, we’re saddled with dozens of subscriptions and our digital library is at the whim of big tech companies. Even your Kindle books can be deleted without your consent. Is there another way? Dexter talks to Janus Rose, a journalist and artist, who has a solution to this problem: become a digital packrat. That means keeping all of your favorite digital media locally and setting up your own server. And if you want to try it for yourself, this episode will walk you through how.
 
Resources:
 
Janus’s article on 404 – The Digital Packrat Manifesto
 
Download Plex: https://www.plex.tv/
 
Download Handbrake (use this to rip DVDs): https://handbrake.fr
 
Download MakeMKV (not mentioned in the show, but see below): https://www.makemkv.com
 
### YouTube How-To Links ###
 
"3 Ways to Start Your Own Plex Server" (15 minutes): 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKDSld-CrHU
 
"Plex Media Server for Mac" (4 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNRcIOf0YYE
 
"How to rip DVDs with MakeMKV and Use Handbrake for Hardware Transcoding" (15 minutes):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_xdrscVB0Y
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @killswitchpod on Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

how to: break up with netflix (and spotify, and…)

Big Tech promised AI would solve our biggest problems. But behind the hype there is a more unsettling reality: labor exploitation, environmental harm, and the looming threat of mass automation. 
 
Dexter sits down with journalist Karen Hao to talk about her new book Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. They dig into how today’s AI companies are operating less like tech innovators and more like empires. 
 
Make sure to check out Karen’s book: Empire of AI
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

boomers, doomers, and the new empire

When ICE raids sparked massive protests across Los Angeles, something unusual appeared in the sky: Predator drones. Dexter talks to Joseph Cox over at 404 Media to understand how military-grade surveillance aircrafts ended up flying over U.S. citizens and what that means for the future of civil liberties. 
 
Read + Watch: 
 
Joseph’s articles on the Predator drones flying over the protests:
 
DHS Flew Predator Drones Over LA Protests, Audio Shows
 
CBP Confirms It Is Flying Predator Drones Above Los Angeles To Support ICE
 
Also: 
How to Protest Safely: What to Bring, What to Do, and What to Avoid
 
How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

why are predator drones flying over LA?

The Nintendo Switch 2 is out – but why did Nintendo credit someone who died in 1997 in a press release for the console? Dexter talked to Patrick Klepek, of the video game website Remap, and Jeremy Parish, an expert in video game history, to tell the story of Gunpei Yokoi and how his influence led us to the Switch 2.
 
Read + Watch: 
 
 • Patrick's article on Switch 2 games he's excited to play with his kids – 
https://www.crossplay.news/p/best-games-for-kids-and-families-june-2025 • Jeremy on Bad Dudes and Ronald Reagan – 
https://youtu.be/ZpZddGOKrIk • Did You Know Gaming on Gunpei Yokoi – 
https://youtu.be/uLznLtgcqXI 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

sideways thinking: why is Nintendo so weird?

Dexter doesn't have a car. But he uses AI… a lot. So, is his environmental impact worse than someone who drives a truck to work every day? 
 
This seemingly simple question led us to a bigger conversation about water, public health, and why we still don't know much about the true environmental cost of artificial intelligence. 
 
To help us understand all this, we talk to researchers Shaolei Ren and Alex de Vries, who’ve been studying the toll AI takes on the planet.
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

is using AI worse than driving a car?

While you were going about your life, we all narrowly avoided a complete disaster. This is the story of how one lone Microsoft engineer saved all of us. Dexter talks to Alex Stamos, Chief Information Security Officer at SentinelOne, about how it all went down and why this story still terrifies him today.
 
Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc, or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

the biggest hack that never happened: the xz utils story

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