Behind the digital curtain

You know what I turned yesterday? One year of telling you the truth about technology without getting sued. Three hundred sixty five days. Twenty billion dollars lost to internet crime in this country alone, in a single year. And I'm still here, still online, and Mark Zuckerberg still hasn't sent anyone to my house. This is episode one-point-oh-oh-oh of my life's algorithm. Welcome to t...

For Krypto To my beloved Krypto, You were more than a dog. You were family, comfort, loyalty, and love wrapped in fur. You filled my days with joy, my home with life, and my heart with a kind of love that words will never fully capture. Last Friday, I lost a piece of my heart. I am going to miss your presence, your eyes, your little ways, and the quiet happiness you brought into my life every sing...

Imagine a guy shows up at your door. You open it. He says, "Good afternoon. I'm from the IRS. I need you to open your safe, grab all your cash, walk it over to me, and hand it over. It's just to verify you're a real person and not a robot." What do you do? You slam the door. You call 911. You yell at your neighbor to film it. Now imagine the exact same thing happens on your c...

Today's topic is one I find genuinely urgent. Not 'red alert' urgent. More like 'the train already left the station and you're still buying your ticket' urgent. We're talking about: Token Culture. What a token is. How it became money. How it's about to become your performance review. And what you can actually do about it.

Here's a fun fact that'll ruin your morning coffee. Last year, a job applicant hid fake skills in light gray text on their resume. Text you couldn't see with the naked eye. The AI screening system read it. Gave the person a higher score. Got them interviews they had no business getting. The AI didn't cheat. It was cheated. It followed instructions. Just... not the right person'...

Nikola Tesla. The man. The genius. The guy who invented alternating current. The electricity running through every outlet in your house, charging your phone, powering your Netflix binge. In 1926. ninety-nine years before the iPhone existed. Tesla told Collier's Magazine that in the future, humanity would communicate through "small devices that fit in a pocket" that would allow people...

Someone broke into your house. They went through your filing cabinet, found your car keys, drove your car to an ATM, and cleaned out your checking account. How long do you think that took? Roger Grimes, who has spent 30 years hunting down the people who do this for a living, digitally speaking, says it took him two hours. He was PAID to do it. He's never failed. Not once. And here's the pa...

Quick question: how many passwords do you have right now? Don't answer, it's rhetorical. The right answer is: too many to remember, not enough to protect you, and at least two that still say 'Fluffy2018'. Now, more serious question: what would you do if I told you that within three to seven years. probably less. every one of those passwords, every digital lock you trust, every litt...

You’ve tried to cancel a subscription and the cancel button was tiny, gray, almost invisible, hidden behind three different menus. You finally found it. You click it. And a devastating message appears: “Are you SURE you want to leave? Your data will be DELETED FOREVER.” It sounds like a legitimate warning, right? Dramatic pause. It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t a bad design choice. It was… designe...

Before I get into the data and the stories, I need to tell you who and what this episode is about. David Dean Mauro is one of my closest friends. I don't say that as a marketing hook. I say it because it's true, and because it matters for understanding where this episode comes from. Dean is a communicator, author, attorney, member of the FBI's InfraGard group, and host of the widely kn...

Your Phone Number Just Became Your Weakest Security Link A hacker calls your mobile carrier. In 20 minutes, they’ve transferred your phone number to their SIM card. By tonight, your email is compromised. Your bank account is drained. Your cryptocurrency wallet is empty. This isn’t science fiction—it’s SIM swapping, and it’s happening to thousands of people right now. The Scale of the Problem The F...

You ever wish you had a personal assistant who never sleeps? Someone who doesn’t complain, doesn’t take vacation days, doesn’t need coffee breaks? Someone who just… does the work while you’re binge-watching Netflix or scrolling through your phone pretending to be productive? Well, that future is here. And it’s both amazing and terrifying. Picture this: It’s six in the morning. You’re still in bed....

Your mom calls you. She’s crying. Says someone just stole her entire paycheck. Is it real? Is that really your mom? Then your boss calls. Needs you to transfer fifty grand to an account. RIGHT NOW. It’s urgent. It’s official. Sounds exactly like him. Is that really your boss? Then you see a video on the news. The President just resigned. There’s chaos. Markets are tanking. Is it true? Did you real...

What’s a “data broker”? A data broker is a company that buys, sells, and rents information about you. That’s it. They’re basically in the business of harvesting everything you do, then selling it to the highest bidder. Now, let me paint you a picture, because I’m gonna explain this in a way that everyone gets: Imagine in your neighborhood, there was this guy whose job was to watch all the resident...

Last year, the cybersecurity firm Imperva published their 2025 Bad Bot Report, and they found something that should keep you up at night. In 2024, for the very first time in internet history, more than half of all web traffic, 51% to be exact, was not generated by human beings. Machines. Talking to machines. While we watch. It's like pulling up to a 7-Eleven at 3 AM and realizing every custome...

Today I'm not here to talk about tech news. Today I'm here to talk about a book. My book. It's called "The God's Prompt." And before you say "oh great, another tech guy writing fiction to feel important"... let me tell you that after it went out, several readers texted me at 1 in the morning to say they couldn't sleep. I took that as the greatest compliment...

Does anyone know who actually invented artificial intelligence? Anyone? No? Perfect. Same situation as ketchup. Everyone uses it. Nobody knows who invented it. And there are serious historians who think it was an accident. Today we're talking about something that recently everyone talks about, almost everyone uses and almost nobody knows where it came from. We're talking about Artificial I...

Saturday, February 28th, 2026. The United States and Israel launched a joint military operation. The Pentagon called it Operation Epic Fury. Israel called it Roaring Lion. People, the U.S. military is no longer naming operations. They're naming heavy metal albums. The result: Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after nearly four decades in power, was killed in the strikes. Iran&...

Today we're talking about something that sounds like the 70’s tv show “The six million dollar man”, but is happening right now, while you listen to this, probably in your car on the 405, or on the elliptical pretending to work out. We're talking about robotic arms... controlled by the mind... powered by artificial intelligence. Yes. Like a Terminator. But one that's covered by insuranc...

There's a girl. We'll call her Kaley. She started using YouTube when she was 6 years old. Six. The same age kids are learning to read. By 9, she was on Instagram. And by her early teens, there were days she spent 16 straight hours on that app. Sixteen hours. More than she slept. More than school. More than any human interaction in the real world. The result? Anxiety, body dysmorphia, suici...

Today we're talking about Moltbook, the first social network created exclusively for artificial intelligences. Is it the future? Is it Skynet? Or is it the digital equivalent of putting a mirror in front of a parrot and watching it have a deep conversation with itself? Let's find out.

Relationships with artificial intelligence aren't new, but they've exploded in the last two years thanks to applications like Replika, Character. AI, and Chai. These apps use advanced language models, cousins of ChatGPT, to create virtual companions that converse, provide emotional support and yes, also flirt. According to a 2023 Stanford University study, 23% of users of these application...

Today we’re going to talk about the largest criminal industry you’ve probably never heard of. An industry that in 2024 stole $10 billion dollars from Americans. An industry with training manuals more sophisticated than any 7-Eleven employee handbook. An industry where hundreds of thousands of people are literally enslaved. And the most disturbing part of all: this industry is texting you right now...

Today we're going to talk about something that sounds more mysterious than what's actually inside a gas station hot dog: quantum computing. Let me guess. When you hear "quantum computing," you think of some tech wizardry that only scientists who never left their basement understand, right? It's like when your uncle says his phone "has quantum" because sometimes it w...

Imagine you’re walking through Central Park on a peaceful Sunday afternoon. Suddenly, you see a group of teenagers hanging out by a bench. They look normal enough, right? But instead of selling candy bars for their school fundraiser or washing cars, they’re recruiting for something far darker. They’re like Jehovah’s Witnesses, except instead of wanting to save your soul, they want to completely de...