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A new scam – aided by AI and remote work – is letting one of the most sanctioned regimes on Earth sneak tech workers into the American job market. How it works, what they’re like as co-workers, and the stories of the Americans swept up in the scheme.  Inside North Korea’s Operation to Conquer the American Job Market Send us your questions for our upcoming AMA! Sign up to become an Incognito Mode member!

Jensen Huang is CEO of the most valuable company in human history, NVIDIA. He is arguably the one person who could slow down the AI race. But he’s made a massive bet that AI is safe.  Is that conviction, insulation, salesmanship, or something else?  We find answers in his very unusual life story.  The Thinking Machine by Stephen Witt Sign up for Incognito Mode

An interview with a writer, Meghan O’Gieblyn, who started lying to herself about her relationship to alcohol and God. And afterwards wondered: when did it start? Why did it happen? How do you make peace with the part of yourself that wants something that could destroy you?  Meghan O’Gieblyn, Will and Attention Sign up for Incognito Mode

This week, our favorite interview we’ve never published. A conversation with Evan Prodromou, who is trying to fix the internet.

Nine months ago, three podcasters attempted to build a better internet. Today -- they confront foreign adversaries on a digital battlefield. Watch the Machine Gods trailer. Instructions for moving your Forkiverse account to a different server. Become a premium member!

Search Engine has some exciting news about the moving image to announce, and we’re sharing an interview we loved with an unusual architect. Check out the video version on Freakonomics' YouTube page.

In our story Bollywood Dreams, we briefly introduced you to Ankur Pathak, a Bollywood reporter who switched sides to become a Bollywood screenwriter. In this extended conversation with him, we take a funny trip into an entertainment industry that's a mirror image of ours, starting with whether you should call the city Bombay or Mumbai. Family Business trailer

An email hits our inbox with the subject line: “My Dad is making a Bollywood Movie… is he being scammed?” We investigate.  Become a premium subscriber.

A Japanese listener gets so many houseguests she starts a spreadsheet to try to figure out what's going on. Why has American tourism to Japan gotten so out of control? The story of a government plot. Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. by Roland Kelts Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style by W. David Marx Become a premium subscriber!

Mahmud Almadhoun ran a soup kitchen in the north of the Gaza Strip. In November 2024, he was killed. A reporter tries to answer a big question. Was Mahmud intentionally targeted? And if so, what does that mean about the future of war? Listen to The Gaza Chef. Become a premium member!

A listener asks: whose penis gets the top spot on the Wikipedia page for penis? Our quest for an answer takes us on a surprisingly philosophical journey — where we learn about the cutthroat fight to be number one and the extremely overthink-y debate that precedes the coronation. Wikipedia page for Lane Rasberry. Wikipedia page for penis. Wikipedia page for human penis. Become a premium member!

The midterms are approaching, and as the discourse heats up, one of the big new villains is: a kind of building. Data centers. Reporter Jasmine Sun took a road trip through two swing states to meet the people living at the center of these debates, and to understand where this all might be headed.   no data centers in my backyard by Jasmine Sun

For the first time, an AI model has autonomously hacked a company. This week, an evolving story, a postcard from a strange, frightening moment in the story of our technology. A big week for AI denialism by Casey Newton Its AI agent spent days hacking a company, but sources say OpenAI did not notice for a week by Deepa Seetharaman, Raphael Satter, and Kenrick Cai Cheating behaviour in frontier model evaluations by AI Security Institute More On An Internal OpenAI Model Hacking Into HuggingFace by Zvi Mowshowitz

An interview with a cocaine salesman about cocaine adulterants, plus – questions Search Engine can’t answer, with special guest Kelefa Sanneh.  Become a premium subscriber!

The world right now, seems tilted towards the good enough. The AI-written wedding toast, the half-assed attempt. Despite this, a handmade noodle shop is trying to make perfect noodles. Trying so hard that they have signs admonishing their customers to ONLY EAT THEIR SPICY NOODLES THE CORRECT WAY, DO NOT TAKE THEM TO-GO, THE EXPERIENCE WILL BE RUINED. Why do some people still want to do small things perfectly, even at the expense of profits? An interview with Jason Wang, of Xi'an Famous Foods. Become a premium member!