Codebreaker, by Marketplace and Tech Insider
Marketplace
Show overview
Codebreaker, by Marketplace and Tech Insider launched in 2015 and has put out 17 episodes, alongside 1 trailer or bonus episode in the time since. That works out to roughly 8 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a monthly cadence, with the show now in its 2nd season.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 31 min and 35 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language Technology show.
The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 9.5 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. Published by Marketplace.
From the publisher
Codebreaker is a podcast that dares to ask – and answer – the fundamental questions about technology that consume us every day. From “is it evil?” to “can it save us?” – it’s up to you to listen, decode and decide. In partnership with Tech Insider.
Latest Episodes
S2 Ep 7Technology Crossing Borders
The gadget that saved a refugee in the middle of the Aegean Sea, how an agent uses technology to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico, and how a journalist in exile broadcasts the news with WhatsApp. Listen, decode, and decide: Can technology crossing borders save us?
S2 Ep 6Encryption
S2 Ep 5World Building
A proposal to bioengineer shorter humans with cat eyes, a decades-old idea for a totally new kind of power, a battery made from trash and Bill Nye the Science Guy tries to get us in gear. Listen, decode, and decide: Can world-building save us?
S2 Ep 4Watching
S2 Ep 3The Augmented Self
The man who collected too much data, cyborgs who want to make their body-hardware mainstream, robots that rebuild your hairline and a conversation with Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge aka LeVar Burton. Listen, decode, and decide: Can the augmented self save us?
S2 Ep 2Alternate Reality
A therapist who creates virtual reality experiences for people with dangerous disorders, a grandmother who uses a headset to escape her surroundings and Ernest Cline on virtual reality in fact and fiction. Listen, decode, and decide: Can alternate realities save us?
S2 Ep 1Recognition
A toddler who saved her mother’s life with Siri, a man whose mysterious ailment opened up a world of voice recognition technology and a dating service that wants to scan the faces of all your exes. Listen, decode, and decide: Can recognition software save us?
Introducing Codebreaker Season 2
You have a message from Codebreaker
S1 Ep 7Data Tracking
How targeted ads for a pair of men’s sandals broke up one relationship, the researchers trying to keep data tracking honest, and the casualties of ad blockers. Listen, decode, and decide: Is data tracking evil?
S1 Ep 6Going Viral
How people-rating app Peeple drew rage and put its co-founders in danger, how a 16-year-old embraced identity through virality, and the funny video that threatened to put its makers into crushing debt. Listen, decode, and decide: Is going viral evil?
S1 Ep 5The Decisive Machine
A guy who thinks machines can prevent crime, another who thinks machines could destroy humanity and a machine-learning algorithm outsmarted by squirrels. Listen, decode and decide: Is the decisive machine evil?
S1 Ep 4The Software Update
A software update that almost brought down the International Space Station with astronauts inside, updating software inside your body, and the days when even geeks dreaded installing new programs. Listen, decode, and decide: Is the software update evil?
S1 Ep 3The Dark Web
A couple is forced onto the dark web to buy life-saving medicine; Ben buys a drug scale; and a researcher who says the dark web might make the illegal drug trade safer. Listen, decode, and decide: Is the dark web evil?
S1 Ep 2Internet Porn
A man whose job is scrubbing porn from the web; adult film star Stoya’s battle against free, pirated porn; and the dirty history of tagging. Listen, decode and decide: Is internet porn evil?
S1 Ep 1Email
A woman answers a mysterious email and finds herself on a plane, spam buries our inbox, and a band falls apart over the send button. Listen, decode, and decide: Is email evil?
Announcing Codebreaker Season One
trailerProduced by Marketplace in partnership with Tech Insider, Codebreaker is a podcast that dares to ask — and answer — the fundamental questions about technology that consume us every day. In season one, we’re starting with three deceptively simple words: Is it evil? In each episode, host Ben Johnson applies this question to a different technology. Codebreaker launches November 11, 2015.