Close All Tabs

AI-generated Lego videos have become a tool of war. Since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began in late February, increasingly elaborate videos featuring LEGO figures and catchy rap lyrics have been flooding our feeds. They're shareable, surprisingly high quality and they're deeply critical of the U.S. and Trump. They're also propaganda.

Welcome to the age of "slopaganda" — where AI Slop meets information warfare.

Michał Klincewicz, assistant professor of computational cognitive science, joins Morgan to break down the rise of slopaganda, what it's doing to our information ecosystem and why the U.S. is losing the meme war.

Guest:

Michał Klincewicz, assistant professor of computational cognitive science at Tilburg University. 

Further Reading/Listening:

Slopaganda: The interaction between propaganda and generative AI

 — Michal Klincewicz, Mark Alfano, and Amir Ebrahimi Fard, Filosofiska Notiser 

Slopaganda wars: how (and why) the US and Iran are flooding the zone with viral AI-generated noise — Mark Alfano and Michal Klincewicz, The Conversation

‘Vengeance for all’: How Iran’s Lego videos won narrative war against Trump | US-Israel war on Iran News — Alia Chughtai, Al Jazeera

The Team Behind a Pro-Iran, Lego-Themed Viral-Video Campaign — Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker

YouTube removes pro-Iran channel producing anti-Trump videos — Alex MacDonald, Middle East Eye

‘We want the mullahs gone’: economic crisis sparks biggest protests in Iran since 2022 — Deepa Parent and William Christou, The Guardian 

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Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.
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We’re diving into the world of nonconsensual deepfake porn and why this problem reaches far beyond influencers and sex workers.

When users on X started asking Grok to generate explicit images of real women and girls without their consent, Twitch streamer and OnlyFans creator Morgpie watched the harassment spiral in real time. Cosplayer and software engineer Zander Small saw firsthand how nonconsensual images affected his girlfriend, a SFW creator, and her friends. The two decided to team up to build tools that help creators detect leaks, remove deepfakes, and reclaim control over their images online.

Note: This episode contains mentions of gender-based violence and nonconsensual intimate imagery, which may be triggering for some listeners.

Guests:

Morgpie, OnlyFans creator and cofounder of Fanlock

Zander Small, content creator and cofounder of Fanlock

Further Reading/Listening:

Influencers take on AI deepfakes with their own creator protection agency — Virginia Glaze, Dextero

Musk’s Grok AI chatbot is still making sexual deepfakes, despite X’s promise to stop it — David Ingram, NBC News

The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought — Matt Burgess, WIRED

Take It Down Act: How to use it to remove revenge porn — Jasmine Mithani, The 19th

Image-Based Sexual Abuse Laws: Combat Nonconsensual AI Deepfakes — RAINN

AI & Tech-Enabled Sexual Abuse: Risk & Prevention — RAINN

Deepfake Statistics 2025: AI Fraud Data & Trends — Mohammed Khalil, DeepStrike

Read the Transcript here

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Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.
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What happens when your therapist is… a chatbot?

For KQED health reporter Lesley McClurg, it started with a late-night spiral over dating. Instead of texting a friend, she opened ChatGPT and got the kind of calm, reassuring advice she needed. It worked… maybe a little too well.

Lesley joins Morgan to dig into the rise of AI therapy, why so many people are turning to chatbots for emotional support, and what they might be risking in the process. These systems promise something traditional mental health care often can’t: instant, affordable, judgment-free access. But there are limits and, sometimes, serious consequences. 

Note: This episode includes discussions of suicide and mental health conditions. Listener discretion is advised.

This episode first aired on April 23rd, 2025 

Guest: 

Lesley McClurg, KQED health correspondent

Further Reading/Listening:

Can AI Replace Your Therapist? The Benefits, Risks and Unsettling Truths - Lesley McClurg, KQED

The AI therapist can see you now - Katia Riddle, NPR 

Woebot, a Mental-Health Chatbot, Tries Out Generative AI - Casey Sackett, Devin Harper, and Aaron Pavez, IEEE Spectrum

AI Prophets and Spiritual Delusions — Close All Tabs 

New Studies Reveal Mental Health Blindspots of AI Chatbots — Marlynn Wei, Psychology Today AI in the mental health care workforce is met with fear, pushback — and enthusiasm — Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR 

Read the Transcript here

Email us at [email protected]

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Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.
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In 2018, researcher Eva Galperin made a discovery about a colleague. He had been sexually abusing women for decades, and threatening to expose their private information using “stalkerware” — hidden applications that allow people to spy on another person’s private life through their mobile device. This set Eva on a new path. She went on to found the Coalition Against Stalkerware, a network of researchers and advocacy groups working to limit the spread of stalkerware and support survivors of tech-enabled abuse. 

Eva joins Morgan to talk about how her background in cybersecurity allowed her to help countless survivors of stalkerware abuse, and how activists and researchers are beginning to turn the tide against a sprawling, largely hidden industry.

Guest: 

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Further Reading/Listening:

What is stalkerware? — Coalition Against Stalkerware 

Hacked, leaked, exposed: Why you should never use stalkerware apps — Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, TechCrunch 

When whisper networks let us down — Sarah Jeong, The Verge

Spyware Company Leaves ‘Terabytes’ of Selfies, Text Messages, and Location Data Exposed Online — Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Vice 

A massive 'stalkerware' leak puts the phone data of thousands at risk  — Zack Whittaker, TechCrunch 

Support King, banned by FTC, linked to new phone spying operation — Zack Whittaker, TechCrunch 

EFF Teams Up With AV Comparatives to Test Android Stalkerware Detection by Major Antivirus Apps — Eva Galperin, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Read the Transcript here

Email us at [email protected]

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Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard and Brian Douglass. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.
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Life on an H-1B visa — a visa that lets U.S. companies hire foreign-born workers for specialized jobs — is difficult, unpredictable, and has gotten even harder under the Trump administration. A new gaming studio, Reality Reload, is trying to capture that experience in a mobile game. It’s called H1B.Life, and it simulates the difficult choices, competing priorities, and personal sacrifices visa holders face — complete with chaotic design elements, like all-powerful “gods” who control your fate.

KQED reporter Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman joins Morgan to break down the game’s surprising design choices, the mission behind it, and the stories he heard from people navigating the H1-B process.

Guest: Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, reporter at KQED

Further Reading/Listening:

What Does It Take to Get a H-1B Visa? This Video Game Shows Just How Complicated It Is — Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, KQED

Meta, Google, and Amazon slash H-1B petitions after Trump's visa crackdown — Geoff Weiss, Melia Russell, Andy Kiersz, and Alex Nicoll, Business Insider 

Faculty Warn Against State Bans on H-1B Visas — Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed 

H-1B Visa Restrictions Will Hurt America’s Research Potential, Experts Say — Shelby Bradford, PhD, The Scientist 

US Tech Visa Applications Are Being Put Through the Wringer — Lauren Goode, Wired 

A New Game Turns the H-1B Visa System Into a Surreal Simulation — Zeyi Yang, Wired 

Read the Transcript here

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠

Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices