Understood
By CBC
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Category: Entertainment News
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Subscribers: 371
Reviews: 4
Episodes: 30
Lee
May 22, 2025
"Who Broke the Internet" is essential listening for anyone who's touched a piece of technology in the last 5 years. Doctorow is a philosopher on all things digital and thank you to the CBC for calling out the rise of enshittification!
Rebecca
May 28, 2024
Excellent reporting and a very interesting podcast! No matter what the topic is, I listen and know it's going to be good. 😊
Apr 5, 2023
ian
Mar 28, 2023
high quality, well produced, well narrated. i liked it a lot.
Description
Host Cory Doctorow coined the word "enshittification" to describe the state of the modern internet: a broken down, decaying place, once full of promise, now overrun with intrusive ads, hateful trolls, aggressive algorithms, zero privacy, and AI-generated slop, with every billionaire tech titan in a race to the bottom to bleed their users and their customers alike.
It can feel like it was inevitable — but it didn't have to be this way.The modern internet is the result of decisions made by powerful people, at key moments in history, despite repeated warnings about where it would lead.
In Understood: Who Broke the Internet?, Doctorow traces the downward spiral from the heady days of '90s tech-optimism through to today's rotten "enshitternet." You'll meet everyone from visionaries to villains to regular people just trying to survive in today's online world. And you'll discover who broke the internet — and, more importantly, a plan to fix it.
Know more, now. Understood is an anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Over a handful of episodes, each season unfolds as a story, hosted by a well-connected reporter, and rooted in journalism you can trust. Driven by insight and fueled by curiosity…The stories of our time: Understood.
Season 1 - The Naked Emperor: the rise and fall of bitcoin king Sam Bankman-Fried.
Season 2 - The Pornhub Empire: the story of how a Montreal-founded company came to dominate the adult industry.
Season 3 - Modi’s India: how one man rose from poverty to the peak of political power.
Season 4 - Céline: the surprising cultural, political and business alchemy that created a superstar.
Season 5 - Who Broke the Internet? The internet sucks now, and it happened on purpose.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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Kick 'Em in the Dongle
|
May 26, 2025 |
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In God We Antitrust
|
May 19, 2025 |
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Ctrl, Ctrl, Ctrl
|
May 12, 2025 |
|
Don't Be Evil
|
May 05, 2025 |
|
Introducing Understood: Who Broke the Internet?
|
Apr 28, 2025 |
|
Céline Episode 4: The Céline-aissance
|
Nov 05, 2024 |
|
Céline Episode 3: The Globalization of Céline
|
Oct 29, 2024 |
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Céline Episode 2: The U.S. Gamble
|
Oct 22, 2024 |
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Céline Episode 1: Conquering Québec
|
Oct 15, 2024 |
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Introducing Céline: Understood
|
Oct 08, 2024 |
|
BONUS: Modi’s weak win
|
Jun 05, 2024 |
|
Modi's India Episode 4: The Storyteller
|
May 27, 2024 |
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Modi's India Episode 3: The Strongman
|
May 20, 2024 |
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Modi's India Episode 2: Development Man
|
May 13, 2024 |
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Modi's India Episode 1: Emperor of Hindu Hearts
|
May 13, 2024 |
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Modi's India: Season 3 of Understood
|
Apr 24, 2024 |
|
The Pornhub Empire Episode 4: Cleanup crew
|
Apr 01, 2024 |
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The Pornhub Empire Episode 3: Pornhub’s disgrace
|
Mar 25, 2024 |
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The Pornhub Empire Episode 2: Pornhub goes mainstream
|
Mar 18, 2024 |
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The Pornhub Empire Episode 1: Free porn for everyone
|
Mar 11, 2024 |
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Introducing: The Pornhub Empire
|
Feb 22, 2024 |
|
Bonus: Click Here from Recorded Future News
|
Feb 21, 2024 |
|
The Naked Emperor BONUS | Guilty: The fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
|
Nov 06, 2023 |
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The Naked Emperor BONUS: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried
|
Oct 02, 2023 |
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The Naked Emperor BONUS: Binance and its CEO sued in major crypto case
|
Jun 08, 2023 |
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The Naked Emperor Episode 4: It Takes a Village
|
Apr 03, 2023 |
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The Naked Emperor Episode 3: Busted
|
Mar 27, 2023 |
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The Naked Emperor Episode 2: The Beginning of the End
|
Mar 20, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor Episode 1: The Hype
|
Mar 13, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor Trailer – Season 1 of Understood
|
Feb 22, 2023 |