IRL status update: 1,000,000 downloads and a new episode

Earlier this year, we started IRL, a podcast about what it means to live with the Internet. Because online life is real life. Questions like “who am I” and “who are we” are being reframed by what we do in digital spaces. Our goal is to uncover the voices and issues shaping culture, on and offline.

We went looking for answers in Charlottesville. We explored fiber collectives in Minnesota. We went deep into the comments section with white hat trolls. We destroyed a surveillance doll (super satisfying actually). We visited the Yelp of Ransomware, and talked to the hacker who stopped the largest cyber attack in history.

If there’s one thing we learned, it’s that the Internet is a profoundly human thing: weird, messy, beautiful, a little scary. Like us, it’s complicated. And like us, it’s always changing. Everything happens so much. To mark hitting one million downloads this past month, we wanted to retrace our steps, and see what’s different now.

In our new bonus episode of IRL, we’ll talk to Amanda Werner about becoming the Monopoly Man, and creating visibility for the victims of the Equifax breach. We’ll explore new warning labels for the Internet of Things. We’ll follow up on the case of Marcus Hutchins, and hear back from the troll we sent cake to last season. Listen to the full episode below. And mark your calendar: IRL Season 2 will return on January 8.

Original article written by sschreder >