On the Media

A band called Vulfpeck has asked fans to stream an entire album of silence on Spotify while they sleep, so the band can use the royalties to tour without charging for their shows. So far, the scheme has worked. We talk to Vulfpeck's Jack Stratton about hustling as a musician on the internet. Thanks for listening! If you like our show, please subscribe to us on iTunes. You can follow PJ and Alex and TLDR on Twitter. 

A conversation with former FCC commissioner Michael J. Copps, communicating climate change to the public, and EU sanctions against Russia's chief propagandist.

The Obamacare advertising blitz tries to reach the young and uninsured, the annexation of Crimea creates a dilemma for map makers, and the history of those ubiquitous online quizzes. 

Russia's new propaganda war, not-so-private metadata, and the people with the keys to the internet.

In 1966, a bored college freshman created Project Flame, an early computer dating system that promised to pair lonely hearts. Project Flame was an overnight sensation. The only problem was that the guy who founded didn't have a computer. Or any idea how to use one.  Thanks for listening. We found out about Project Flame from an obscure weblog called Slate.com. If you like our show, please subscribe to us on iTunes. Or you can follow PJ and Alex and TLDR on Twitter. 

How the media are covering the story of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, the re-birth of the First Amendment, and copyright law in outer space.

Sgt. Star is the army’s robot. Specifically, he’s a chatbot designed to influence potential recruits to enlist in the US Army. So how do we feel about that? Alex talks to the Army and a reporter who's covered recruitment abuses to figure out if we're better or worse off for having a Siri who can talk us into going to war. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, you can subscribe to us on iTunes. Also, please check out all our previous episodes!

The effort to preserve journalistic freedom during the Crimean crisis. Plus, Bob Garfield issues a special report on the streaming video revolution.

Last fall, TLDR covered a bunch of hoaxes. Some we liked, most we didn't. On this episode, we talk to Paulo Ordoveza and Adrienne LaFrance, a couple of people who have devoted themselves to trying to debunk the innumerable falsehoods flying around the internet. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, you can subscribe to us on iTunes. Also, please check out all our previous episodes!

A look at the suspension of rights at the border, murkiness of border policies, and lack of answers from the federal government.

"Sweepers" are people who spend their free time entering hundreds of online sweepstakes -- the contests most of us skip because we're sure they're all scams. It turns out, we're wrong. Some people win big. Reporter Laura Mayer takes us into the online sweepstakes universe. Sandra Grauschopf is About.com's Contests and Sweepstakes Expert. You can visit her website, http://contests.about.com, to learn all you need to know about sweepstakes, and to check out what other sweepers have to say in About.com’s contests and sweepstakes forums. You can order Don Cruz's book "Life of an HGTV Dream Home Winner" at his website, DonCruz.net Thanks for listening. If you like the show, you can subscribe to us on iTunes. Also, please check out all our previous episodes! 

Remarkable images from protests in Kiev, a Pentagon Vietnam War commemoration website, and the proposed Comcast -Time Warner merger.

In 1998 Swatch tried to completely reinvent our concept of time. Swatch Internet Time (or .beat time) would have been a new way to conceive of moments. There'd be no time zones, and also, no hours, minutes, or seconds. PJ talks to Gizmodo's Eric Limer and Swatch Creative Director Carlo Giordanetti about Swatch's plan to create time's version of Esperanto. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, you can subscribe to us on iTunes. Also, please check out all our previous episodes! If you're curious, you can calculate beat time on Swatch's website here.

A look at Chris Christie's struggle to control his own narrative, an inside look into the TSA, and a musical scandal at the Olympics.

Every year, a small group of sports fans scattered across the U.S. play a game called "Last Man." The goal is to be the last person in America to find out who won the Super Bowl. TLDR Sports reporter Lisa Pollak followed the game this year, and found out just how hard information was to avoid in the internet age. Thanks for checking TLDR out. We're a weekly podcast about internet stuff. If you like us, you can subscribe to us on iTunes. Also, please check out all our previous episodes!