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This week on Privacy Tips, Co-author of How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos, B.J. Mendelson, finishes up his reading of chapter two, which covers why you should freeze your credit asap, how to spot phishing emails, and a future world where people can use AI to video chat with you and pretend they're a celebrity. We wish we were kidding. All this and more ...

This week on Privacy Tips, Ohio State University professor, Dr. Viet Trinh, joins BJ to talk about Flock Safety cameras, how everyone is basically under surveillance all the time by the police thanks to them, and what we can do about it. No book excerpt this week, we'll be back doing those next Thursday!

This week on Privacy Tips, host BJ Mendelson walks through Chapter 2's essential security checklist from How to Protect Yourself from Fascists and Weirdos— including why a simple sticky note over your laptop camera matters more than you think, yes even in 2026 ten years after we first gave that advice in our original book on privacy, and how LinkedIn is used as a resource by fascists and weirdos to get "dirt" on their enemies. All this and more, including odd duck sounds, are waiting for you to enjoy.

Your phone isn't secure by default—and neither are you. So today, BJ Mendelson walks you through 15 easy privacy moves that separate people who are actually protected from those who think they are. Come take a listen.

This week on Privacy Tips, the authors of "How to Survive Authoritarianism," Dan Storyev and Masha Kuznetsov, discuss with BJ how to recognize and resist authoritarian tactics, including troll factories, misinformation, and political repression, with insights applicable to both Russia and the United States. If you think American democracy is guaranteed to last forever, you're wrong, and this episode will help show you why.

This week on the show, host BJ Mendelson discusses how to properly secure Firefox, why you shouldn't use Google Chrome and Apple's Safari, and what to do about your Internet Service Provider creeping on you. All this and more as we get ready for the launch of our new book, How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos next month.

This week, BJ Mendelson speaks with Ian Head from the Center for Constitutional Rights about FOIA, who broke it, and whether or not there's still value in using it (Answer: YES!) This week's book excerpt also covers how to bulletproof your voter registration, and how to protect yourself when crossing the border into, and out of, America.  And, of course, we tell you why every single American citizen should go and get themselves a passport card. Like, right now.

Your browser choice matters more than you think. So this week on Privacy Tips, BJ reveals why ditching Chrome, Edge, and Google isn't just about privacy—it's about starving the systems that enable authoritarians and corporate surveillance.

We're back for another edition of Privacy Tips. This week, we read more from How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos (BJ's version of the upcoming book) and explain, briefly, what you can use instead of Google's increasingly inferior search results, and why the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Privacy Badger is something to share with your friends and family.

Nearly half of all Americans are politically unaffiliated—and vulnerable. This week, B.J. Mendelson explains why oligarchs are terrified of this silent majority, and what you need to do right now to protect yourself and organize your community. If you're one of the 154 million, this episode is required listening.

This week, Rosie reads you an excerpt from How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos about how to become a journalist, and why you can help millions of Americans, right now, by becoming one. BJ is then joined by Dr. Daniel R. Kelly, co-author of Someone Should Do Something, about the need for all of us to step up and be the change we want to see in our world. No one else will do it for you.

Bartz v. Anthropic is a major court case that you might not have heard of. But BJ has, because Anthropic stole his book, "Social Media Is B******t," along with thousands of other books from authors, in order to train their Claude model. This week, we're joined by Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger to help break down what's happening.

This week, BJ is joined by Dr. Robert Lustig. A Professor emeritus of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology at UCSF, and the author of numerous books you should read, including The Hacking of the American Mind, which is the subject of this week's interview. Dr. Lustig had a lot to say about the power corporations wield over us, Citizens United, and why you should cut as much sugar from your diet as you can. That's because, like the end result of Citizens United, sugar could kill you. Politically speaking of course.

This week on the show, BJ is wrapping up copyedits for the upcoming book, How to Protect Yourself From Fascists and Weirdos, so we're going right to our interview with Amanda Litman. Amanda is the author of When We're in Charge, and the co-founder of Run for Something. Run for Something has helped elect more than 1,650 candidates since 2017, presenting people across America with candidates who aren't fascists, weirdos, or funded by the kind of people who pay the bills for fascists and weirdos. If you want to run for office, this is the interview you want to hear. Links we mentioned in the intro:How to Search Now That Google Search is dead: https://stopgenai.com/this-is-how-to-search-now-that-google-search-is-gone-a-guide-for-family-and-friends/ Kim Crawley's Technofascist Survival Guide: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kimcrawley/technofascism-survival-guide/

Bella ciao. Things aren't looking good out there in America right now, are they? Well, that's why this show exists. To help protect you from fascists and weirdos. So today we're joined by Rainey Reitman, author of the book Transaction Denied and president of the board of Freedom of the Press Foundation. It's important to know all the ways the fascists can get at you, and this week's episode involves your money. So listen closely.