I recently discovered a new privacy/security oriented podcast called The Lockdown. I don’t know about everyone else but podcasts are my preferred method way to consume media because I can listen to them on the go. So far I’ve been impressed with this podcast and seems like it may be a spiritual successor to The Pirvacy, Security, and OSINT show (which forever holds a special place in my heart).
Curious if anyone else has come across this podcast and what their thoughts are? The host as a website which can be found here.
Shoutout to @Carey, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons is (in my current opinion) hands down the best and most well rounded podcast in the privacy space. And I very much appreciate the moderate, and less-dogmatic tone.
I also really enjoy Opt-Out and Darknet Diaries, though I wouldn’t consider the latter to be a privacy podcast. I used to listen to the Privacy, Security, and OSINT podcast, I found it enjoyable and often informative, I preferred the early episodes with Justin as a co-host.
To add my own perspective, here are my recommendations.
Not Mentioned Yet
Ungovernable Misfits — Has good content including exclusive, as far as I know, interview with Ashigaru devs (samourai wallet fork). It can get quite risque and uncouth depending on the hosts or guests. Monero Monthly with Seth for privacy is the best channel to follow (you can automatically download by keywords in AntennaPod). Be aware that some episodes occasionally veer off into alt-right/libertarian topics.
The Changelog: Software Development — Not mainly about privacy, but the quality is stellar. The hosts are eloquent advocates of opensource and are privacy conscious. Recently they’ve been on an AI hype thing which I guess is obligatory for a show like theirs since that’s where “it’s happening” in the industry. Their newsletter blog often promotes links to web design minimalism which shares a relation with security due to maintainability issues. The great thing about this set of shows is that the hosts are very capable of giving push back to each other and their guests in a cordial manner, often pealing back layers of conflicting interests and getting to the nitty gritty of opensource, enterprise, and business while not dominating the conversation with a single point of view. Thrilling examples of this are “What exactly is Open Source AI?” where they put the guest on the spot to give an explanation on the competitive value of opensource AI considering that it takes millions of dollars to pretrain an LLM even if the training data were available to the public[1], and “Elasticsearch is open source, again” where the host totally trashes the guest in an ever so gentlemanly manner on why they went source-only when the AGPL fulfilled all their needs (I’m biased so I could be hearing the interaction differently from someone else).
Journey to Sovereignty — A small collection that is no longer releasing. Their episode “What in the world is a “secure element?”” was good. Seth for privacy is on the crew.
MoneroKon Podcast — MoneroKon talks are often in depth dives on how monero works and proposed improvements. Frequently very technical.
Simplified Privacy Podcast — Now defunct, this guy is over-reactionary, but he brings up valid points in “NSA Taps Ocean Cables, What to Do About It” and “How Mullvad Empowers the NSA”. (I am a happy Mullvad user by the way.) His articles are better, focusing on tech that’ll work in a decentralized, self-sovereign manner and actually executing on it today.
FLOSS Weekly — Gets into all sorts of interesting opensource tech tools and projects that could enhance your journey to self-sufficiency and comprehension of technology. The host is privacy aware and a contributor to meshtastic which is an exciting effort to selfhost one’s own communication network with LoRa radios.
Privacy Files — Now defunct, has a low level of technical expertise, but interesting episodes with private detectives and such.
Security
Security is quite relevant to privacy especially when global access is involved.
Security Now
Open Source Security by Josh Bressers
The Social-Engineer Podcast — This one has some weird episodes on human psychology, but it really highlights the human factor in security. A lot of episodes don’t seem to be relevant in my view, but you can listen selectively as well.
Selfhosting
Selfhosting is becoming easier every year and it’s the ultimate guarantee of data sovereignty.
Sudo Show — Recently rebooted, they have excellent conversations on selfhosting tech.
The Homelab Show — Now defunct, still useful info.
Hybrid Cloud Show — Even though cloud is not selfhosted they do cover useful selfhosted technology with great expertise. And hybrid cloud does include integration with on-premise.
2.5 Admins — Pretty decent expertise. A lot of personal experience about managing infrastructure. Their focus on corporate will tend to skew their advice against selfhosted needs, but if filtered right it’s still good information.
Self-Hosted — Part of the Jupiter Broadcast Network and is now defunct. Great archive though.
Ask Noah Show — I’m still new to this one so it may be better in the Linux category. Good back and forth between the hosts. Technical expertise seems to be medium. They do discuss personal experience with JMP chat and other liberating tech.
Linux
Linux is a cornerstone of privacy until RedoxOS should take the reigns and dispose of the old men with their more secure microkernel architecture and Rust implementation . Therefore it’s valuable to keep up with the ecosystem for those with extra time.
Linux Unplugged — Good coverage of opensource in general. I usually skip the boost section because of its low signal to noise ratio (they have chapter titles). The hosts do selfhost and mention their setups in detail often. They also were the only news outlet that I follow that favored the developer of bcachefs with an interview in “The People’s Filesystem | LINUX Unplugged 664” which was quite enlightening.
Untitled Linux Show — A panel of hosts including the one from FLOSS Weekly discussing the news in long format.
This Week in Linux — Quick news on the Linux ecosystem. Covers gaming, same as below.
The Linux Experiment — Same as above, but with a French accent and differing views.
Linux Out Loud — I don’t listen to this anymore because the TuxDigital Network podcasts ramble a lot, but if that’s your style then it’s a family friendly show.
Destination Linux — Also a TuxDigital podcast. The interviews are good; That way it’s low traffic and increases the signal.
Going Linux — I would only recommend this for entry level users. They have a Listener Feedback session where anybody can ask their questions so might be good for those on the edge or curious about Linux.
BSD Now — For that rare guy who uses Unix and writes most of his applications himself in emacs of course.
There are other channels that could be included in this list, but they probably won’t be of much use to people here and out of reach currently, such as building your own collaborative mesh network and more hardcore content. But even topics like gardening and going to the farmers’ market can improve your privacy; however, that would balloon out to an unmanageable list for me. If you want pointers check out https://permies.com/ and freedom circles that specifically focus on local community and support groups that’ll help you not be so dependent on the corporate world. These people are also more likely to adopt privacy tech given their innate suspicion of big government and surveillance. Exercise caution though since some of these groups may not align with your beliefs.
Already Mentioned
Opt-out — Seth always puts out quality content , but the releases have trickled to a halt on this one. Still and all these perspicacious interviews will remain timeless exemplars of acute attention to detail and rigorous analysis of privacy tech.
Watchman Privacy — The technical expertise is medium, but the content is extremely valuable for anyone with a high threat model. Like Michael Bazell it can get into the legal gray zone.
Monero Talk — Love the fact that Doug is willing to have anybody on the show, offering a multitude of perspectives. “Is Zano a Scam? w/ Untraceable + Zano” is an exhilarating episode. And if you search Luke Parker those are guaranteed to be high quality. Skipping the price report segment will save a lot of time. Unfortunately no chapters, but they’ve got segment links in the show notes. The host runs XMRBazaar.
Citadel Dispatch — Bitcoin maxi who should switch to Monero . Otherwise possibly the best podcast on Bitcoin. They’ve got nostr episodes and other assortments as well.
Techlore Talks — Great interviews with amazing guests.
The Privacy, Security, & OSINT Show — The technical expertise is low, but the understanding of legal concepts is very high, at least for me.
The Lockdown — Now defunct, I think the advice on data removal and some legal issues is most valuable.
Techlore Surveillance Report — Short podcast to stay up with the news on privacy.
This Week in Privacy — Longer podcast covering the news with varying quality and a Q&A section.
Malicious Life — User friendly stories about hacking and security with nice structure and presentation.
Darknet Diaries — More cinematic than Malicious Life.
Thanks guys for all the suggestions. I’ll look into those other podcasts when I free up my queue.
There’s another reason why companies don’t release training data, namely copyrighted works. ↩︎
. Therefore it’s valuable to keep up with the ecosystem for those with extra time.
and differing views.
, but the releases have trickled to a halt on this one. Still and all these perspicacious interviews will remain timeless exemplars of acute attention to detail and rigorous analysis of privacy tech.
. Otherwise possibly the best podcast on Bitcoin. They’ve got nostr episodes and other assortments as well.