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The Passing Through PodcastAuthor: Danny
I currently live in a German-made van named Wilma with my partner. Weve given up our old way of life and are touring Europe passing through farms and eco-villages while I record a rambling, ranting podcast examining consciousness, mental health, ecology, philosophy, mindfulness, literature, language, and the human condition. Fasten your seatbelt and come along for the ride! Language: en Genres: Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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E119 | Big Other | The Surveillance Episode
Wednesday, 13 May, 2026
Did you ever get the feelin’ you was bein’ watched? This week I’m passing through a network of Flock Safety cameras that are all watching my every move and making me wonder what my Fourth Amendment rights are for. This is the surveillance episode.This episode is all about how the most powerful surveillance apparatus in human history was built — not by a government, or a dictator, but in plain sight, incrementally, by companies whose products you use every day, funded by investors whose names you might not know, operating inside a legal framework that doesn’t meaningfully safeguard your civil liberties. More importantly this episode is about what it means for you — not in abstract, terms, but materially — in your wallet, or for your body — as you pass through a world where your every move is being tracked, profiled, and sold.Join me for a deep dive into how we went from Jeremy Bentham’s theoretical Panopticon, to a literal cacophony of cameras tracking and monitoring the American public without their consent. I’ll talk about COINTELPRO, FISA, Snowden, The Patriot Act, data brokers, Shoshana Zuboff’s concept of Surveillance Capitalism, and a bunch more.ReferencesJeremy Bentham’s PanopticonMichel FoucaultShoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019)Zuboff's Congressional Testimony, House Committee, February 16, 2022Chatrie v. United States — Supreme Court, argued April 27, 2026Bugs BunnyMalcolm XLinkshttps://abcnews.com/Politics/house-republicans-struggle-spy-powers-reauthorization/story?id=132073585https://observer.co.uk/news/science-technology/article/billionaire-backed-startup-convenes-ai-juries-to-take-aim-at-journalists-7465https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/clearview-ai-immigration-ice-fbi-surveillance-facial-recognition-hoan-ton-that-hal-lambert-trump/https://www.npr.org/2016/05/17/478266839/this-is-your-brain-on-uberhttps://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/flock-rounduphttps://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/nyregion/911-tapes.htmlhttps://www.rangemedia.co/flock-safety-cameras-spokane-county-abortion-texas/https://observer.co.uk/news/science-technology/article/billionaire-backed-startup-convenes-ai-juries-to-take-aim-at-journalists-7465https://www.brookings.edu/articles/supreme-court-weighs-constitutionality-of-geofence-warrants/https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=gXRYcnM5KKUhttps://theintercept.com/2026/04/24/palantir-irs-contract-data/https://www.thenerve.news/p/palantir-revolving-doors-peter-thiel-transparency-corruption-riskhttps://usercentrics.com/guides/data-privacy/data-privacy-statistics/https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2026/03/30/walmart-promises-digital-price-labels-in-every-store-by-end-of-year/https://gizmodo.com/walmart-wins-patents-for-ai-powered-price-changes-2000735833#:~:text=The%20other%20claim%20was%20that,Senate%2C%20and%20the%20White%20House.https://stateofsurveillance.org/articles/government/church-committee-cia-fbi-investigation-1975/https://docs.house.gov/meetings/HA/HA00/20220216/114403/HHRG-117-HA00-Wstate-ZuboffS-20220216.pdfhttps://epic.org/documents/epic-v-doj-prism/https://ij.org/press-release/as-abuses-mount-nationwide-federal-government-calls-on-court-to-reject-lawsuit-challenging-constitutionality-of-license-plate-readers/https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/192-3133-flo-health-inchttps://www.axios.com/2025/08/05/palantir-army-software-contracthttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-trump-vp-peter-thiel-billionaire/https://www.npr.org/2022/08/12/1117092169/nebraska-cops-used-facebook-messages-to-investigate-an-alleged-illegal-abortionhttps://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/target-reaches-5m-settlement-with-california-district-attorneys-over-alleged-false-advertising/https://privacyinternational.org/legal-action/challenge-against-clearview-ai-europehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/16/clearview-expansion-facial-recognition/
