Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants, and Us Podcast with Natalia Antelava cover art

Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants, and Us

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Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants, and Us

By: Coda Story
Narrated by: Natalia Antelava
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About this listen

 Smartphones, social media, and surveillance tech are sold to us as ways to build a safer, more connected, and convenient world. Many of us were hopeful this tech would also lead to a more open, more free society. But with authoritarianism seemingly on the rise across the world, did we get it wrong? Maybe tech is just making life easier for the tyrants. In eight episodes, reported from around the world, journalist Natalia Antelava and the team from Coda Story focus on the stories of people caught up in the struggle between tech, democracy, and dictatorship, and ask whether tech is doing more for dictators than it is for democracy.©2022 Coda Story (P)2022 Audible Originals Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Trailer: Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants, and Us.

    Trailer: Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants, and Us.
    Dec 16 2022

    Natalia Antelava, co-founder of Coda Story, brings stories of people from around the world whose lives were turned upside down when digital technology collided with the tyrants. Tech is reshaping the age-old struggle for democracy - but is it more useful to dictators, or the people trying to take them down?
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    1 min
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  • Escaping China’s Surveillance Net

    Escaping China’s Surveillance Net
    Jan 5 2023
    A young man is detained by police in China’s Xinjiang region, and stumbles on an unlikely means of escape. He double-crosses his interrogators and runs as far as he can -all the way to the frozen Arctic. But will he ever really be free from China’s surveillance web? Even in his new home in northern Norway, the eyes of the Chinese state are never far away.
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    43 mins
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  • Tech and the Taliban

    Tech and the Taliban
    Jan 5 2023
    Smartphones and mainstream apps power a volunteer team racing against the clock to help Afghans leave the country before the Taliban takes over. For those left behind, those who opposed the Taliban, how do they stay safe? Because this Taliban regime is very different from the one that ruled 20 years ago. This one uses social media and biometric databases.
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    42 mins
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Watch the preview for Undercurrents

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About the Creator and Performer

Natalia Antelava is a co-founder and editor in chief of Coda Story, an award winning newsroom that reports on roots of global crises. Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, Natalia started her journalism career freelancing in West Africa. Following that she was the BBC’s resident correspondent in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East, Washington DC, and India. She covered the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, the war in Ukraine, and reported undercover from Burma, Yemen, and Uzbekistan. Her investigations into human rights abuses in Central Asia, Iraq and the United States have won her a number of awards and an Emmy nomination.

All stars
Most relevant  
Great story telling & mandatory listen for everyone who really wants to understand what's going on with the world. Nice narration too. Highly recommend

A podcast that is not to be missed.

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This podcasts takes you on a journey — from India to Belarus to Florida — that you don’t want to end, but also do want to end because it feels like the world has entered a tech dystopia.

Couldn’t stop listening

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If you enjoy inspiring human interest stories, this podcast is for you. If you love traveling to unusual places, this podcast is for you. If you think technology is slowly eroding our democracy, guess what -- this podcast is for you!

A bingeworthy listen

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I never write reviews but felt compelled to with this show! I binged the series, which was so thought-provoking and compellingly told. I learned something new in each episode. This is a great show for curious, globally-minded listeners who love good storytelling. Hope there’s another season!

Incredible listen

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I've gotten into political podcasts and documentaries as of late, it was what I studied at Uni and it's something that is dear to me. I'm also very tech oriented so this is a great match to my interests.
Thia has great story telling and pacing, and it's easy to follow, and explores everything from tech security to espionage in a way, and it's coinciding with some of the subjects I am studying in my Masters so I am a fan. It's been heard to stop to listen to anything else.

The Ppdcast for Techies and Conscious Minds

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Real stories told in an engaging way that takes listeners across different continents while painting a picture of use of tech for good vs evil.

Informative, engaging and thought provoking

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An important and easy listen, tough journalism that is of great consequence. well-reported and nicely narrated.

Great journalism, thoroughly considered

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Spectacular series. Takes us from Calais to Xinjiang, from Afghanistan and India to small town USA. It shows us how governments, whether democratic or authoritarian, use big tech to enhance surveillance and control. As an Indian, the episode on India was particularly shocking, showing how the government of a country that styles itself the 'mother of democracy' can put people in prison based on malware and planted evidence, at least according to US forensic investigators. Another episode I found compelling was the one in which a young man from Xinjiang flees all the way to northern Norway... but can he ever outrun Chinese surveillance? This is binge-worthy stuff, a reminder of why great international journalism remains so important.

Eye-opening global reporting

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As someone whose eyes normally glaze over when it comes to tech, I found myself hooked on my first ever tech podcast with this one. The series does a great job humanizing these massive topics into binge worthy listening. Each story has an unexpected twist and transports you around the globe. Nothing like a podcast that makes you feel smarter after listening but also kept you on the edge of your seat the whole way.

This is really excellent

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This series has a very balanced perspective, with multiple views and opinions. Well researched. It does an excellent job of showing how tech is used for not just for freeing or oppressive actions, but also ways tech is used to harass people considered undesirable.

As technology becomes more sophisticated and easier to use by non-technical operators, and how intrusive it has become, this series shows how important it is to act ourselves.

VERY balanced and informative

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