A collection of Bob Sullivan’s various podcasts.
Day after day, week after week, month after month, the strangers came knocking and asked one question: Where’s my puppy? Rochelle Dallons couldn’t help them. She had recently purchased her dream home, in charming Leesburg, Virginia, outside Washington D.C. But criminals took a liking to her home address — the [Keep reading]
Hearing about an old flame can be…a strange feeling. Maybe it’s charming – you learn that the first girl you ever kissed on the lips, 20 years ago or so, just gave birth to twins – or maybe it makes you a little mad – “They started dating ONE WEEK [Keep reading]
Kay Bransford’s elderly mom had a generous but lonely heart — her husband had passed away recently – so she began donating to charities that sent her solicitations by mail. Pretty soon, that led to an avalanche of junk mail. At its worst, Bransford spent her visits with mom scrambling [Keep reading]
It’s been a busy week in Facebook-must-answer-to-someone land. I really do feel like the conversation has been elevated by whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony before the Senate on Tuesday. I feel strongly that Facebook should be forced to offer an algorithm-free version of its product, as I argued earlier this week. [Keep reading]
Facebook was again hauled before Congress this week, this time to answer for a set of stories published in the Wall Steet Journal saying the company has internal research showing its tools hurt kids — Instagram exacerbates body image issues for teen girls, for example — but it hasn’t really [Keep reading]
Will a new Texas law require social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to host vaccine disinformation, or even hate speech? The law also makes it a crime to “de-boost” comments and other posts, forbidding firms from taking away algorithmic amplification that helps extreme posts go viral. But are Facebook [Keep reading]
How do you catch Internet con artists? Well, you con them. Alan, who lives near Washington D.C., had traveled to Dubai and to Ghana thinking he was helping a princess gain access to her multi-million dollar inheritance. Before his fever was broken, Alan — not his real name — sent [Keep reading]
Jeremy Vincent was startled out of his sleep in the middle of the night with the ring of his smartphone. Its screen read, “Mom’s Cell.” But when he answered, he didn’t hear his mom’s voice. Instead, he heard this: “I’m going to let you talk to your mom, your mom’s [Keep reading]
I like a good challenge as a storyteller. And let me tell you, making “third-party code” sound sexy is a challenge. But that recent Apple ad showing an army of people following a cell phone user around, cataloging his every move — well, that’s real. It’s hard to believe, but [Keep reading]
What do you do if you think your friend is bugging you? I don’t mean bothering you. I mean…bugging you…using a device to listen to you, maybe e1ven recording your conversations, when you visit their home. Well, that’s the world most of us live in now. Personal assistants, many modern [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan