Click Here: A special five-part series about the people making and breaking our digital world

Click Here is a five-part special series telling true stories about the people making and breaking our digital world.

Hosted by former NPR Investigations correspondent Dina Temple-Raston and produced by Recorded Future News, Click Here uses deep reporting and investigative journalism to introduce listeners to the people behind today’s cybersecurity and intelligence headlines.

You’ll meet not just the hackers, but the people who are chasing them.

If you missed hearing any of the Click Here episodes live on MPR News, find them on the Click Here podcast at The Record.

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Episodes

1) Moving from URL to IRL (episode 1)

Sometimes technologies take on a life of their own and end up doing things we never dreamed of. We have three stories about technologies that started out doing one thing and ended up doing quite another with potentially dangerous consequences — from online tractors, to an unusual use of tasers, to a gang of cell phone hackers who’s online battles violently burst into the real world.

The episode aired Monday, Nov 27.

2) Decoding dictators (episode 2)

Dictators use bombast and bullying as a kind of malevolent calling card. Today on the show, we meet people who have found creative ways to decode shadowy regimes. They’re ordinary people who sift fact from fiction and danger from big talk in North Korea, Ukraine and Mexico to reveal the darkest secrets of powerful regimes.

The episode aired Tuesday, Nov. 28.

3) Digital morality (episode 3)

What happens when authorities use digital weapons to impose their vision of morality on the people they are supposed to serve? Across the globe, rulers have launched apps, tracked phones, and used personal data in increasingly hostile ways and it has sparked some very creative responses.

The episode aired Wednesday, Nov. 29.

4) Lessons from Ukraine (episode 4)

Ukraine is the world’s first truly hybrid war. And the battle is raging on two fronts, on the ground and in cyberspace. We talk to members of the all-volunteer cyber hacking force helping Ukraine punch above its weight, meet women drone pilots who are providing intelligence about Russian troop movements, and look at what Ukraine is teaching us about the future of war.

The episode aired Thursday, Nov. 30.

5) Meet the hackers (episode 5)

Hackers and cybercriminals may not be so different from the rest of us after all. They deal with grumpy bosses and irritating colleagues and salary disputes. We talk to three real-life hackers who tell us, in their own voices, how they came to do what they do from an early dark market entrepreneur to an accidental recruit to the latest addition to the FBI’s most wanted list.