Defense Against the Dark Arts

# Episodes

All 29 chapters. Click any episode — it streams right here, or subscribe anywhere.

1. ▶
   EP 0111:23

   Prologue — Meatware Is Hackable

   A training class for the general public in the dark arts of influence. Thirteen modules teach how manipulation actually works — cold reading, gaslighting and DARVO, the liar's dividend, radicalization funnels, astroturf, deepfakes — how to see each move coming, how to defuse it, and how to catch yourself running it. Your brain is easier to hack than a large language model; the only defense is 'never trust, always verify,' moved from the network to your own attention. Transmitted to you by Space Pirate Zero from Spaceship Alpha 9. Contains strong language..

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2. ▶
   EP 0228:24

   Module 1 — Sixty-Four Sources, One Afternoon

   Funny thing about safety — it's the exact feeling a good con hands you for free. This is your field course in the dark arts of influence, broadcast from Alpha 9, where I teach you to guard the softest machine you own: the one between your ears. We open on a message. Not a threat, not a virus — a note that knows your project, your boss, your deadline, the nickname only three souls use. Your brain won't flinch. It'll feel *recognized*. Stay with me, friend — that warm feeling's the knife.

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3. ▶
   EP 0328:56

   Module 2 — The Machine Majority

   Ever counted the crowd before you joined it? Course you haven't — nobody does. This is your field course in the dark arts, and last time out we watched a woman named Priya wire away fourteen million on the strength of two faces that were never in the room, certainty failing loud in both directions. Now stay with me, because tonight opens on something softer: two restaurants, one empty, one with a line out the door, and the little shortcut in your skull that picks for you before you've tasted a thing. Mind that line, friend. Somebody rented it.

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4. ▶
   EP 0428:42

   Module 3 — The Spinozan Brain

   ...and that's two cons run and one crowd turned to acid, and you still trust that quick little voice in your skull, don't you? This is your field course in the dark arts, friend, run from a beat-up radio on Alpha 9. So far we've watched a wire go out on a face that was never there, and a good man nearly apologise to a mob of ghosts. Now we go under the floorboards, to the flaw beneath every trick — a dead philosopher, a courtroom in your head that never was. Sit close for this one.

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5. ▶
   EP 0531:34

   Module 4 — The Feeling of Being Known

   Static crackles, then my voice finds you through the noise from Alpha 9. This is the field course for a world where nobody's who they claim — your meatware's the softest target on the network, and I'm here to teach you the moves before they land. Last we transmitted: a fabricated headline, a café burned by strangers, faces stitched from nothing. Now we open small. Small enough to shame you. A stranger says something vague, you fill in the specifics, and suddenly you feel known. Watch that trick land, friend — I'll show you the wires.

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6. ▶
   EP 0630:44

   Module 5 — The Con at Home

   Somebody, somewhere, is being loved and worked at the same time. That's not a threat. That's a Tuesday. This here's your field course in the dark arts — how the con lands and how you catch it, running on your own soft meatware. We've walked the fake faces, the mob at the café, the fortune-teller reading a crowd. Now we come home. This one opens quiet, tender even — everything you've learned so far, run on someone who once heard "I love you." Come sit at the kitchen table with me.

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7. ▶
   EP 0728:52

   Module 6 — The Pipeline

   Still turned face-down, that phone. That's where we left the frame bent — evidence flipped, the guilty man walking, and you learning to keep your eyes on what's true. This whole class? Me teaching you to catch the hands before they reach your pockets. Now we go somewhere gentler and worse. It opens not with a monster but with a word — "radicalization" — and how it lies to you the second you say it. Sounds like lightning striking a tree. It isn't. It's a slope. Watch your footing.

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8. ▶
   EP 0836:47

   Module 7 — Biderman's Chart

   A single sheet of paper. Eight words on it, and they explain a cult, a bad marriage, and the app you opened on the toilet this morning — all the same. That's where this field course in the dark arts is taking you tonight, friend. So far you've watched the small cons up close — the warm read, the crowd that wasn't real, the kitchen turn that made the wrong man apologize. This one's different. This one's the spine. It got reverse-engineered from a prison camp. Come see how it fits together.

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9. ▶
   EP 0932:08

   Module 8 — Manufactured Consensus

   They say a lie travels halfway round the world while the truth's still lacing its boots. Cute. This is your field course in the dark arts of influence, friend, and I'm the one with the black eye teaching it. You've watched a café buried under a boycott, a town that wasn't a town — a few hundred day-old accounts posting in bursts. This one starts with the oldest cheat in your skull: if everybody thinks so, it's safe to think so too. Now somebody's aimed that at a whole country. Stay with me.

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10. ▶
    EP 1034:44

    Module 9 — The Liar's Dividend

    Ever notice how "that's fake" ends every argument now? This is the field course in the dark arts of influence, and I'm the one running the dojo with a black eye of my own. You've watched a wire go out on a faked face, a good man buried by ghost accounts, one desk running both sides of a fake fight. Now — a man drowns standing up in a kitchen, evidence face-down on the granite. Then we walk that same play up to a podium. Come see how big the con gets.

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11. ▶
    EP 1129:01

    Module 10 — What Didn't Happen

    ...and that's the ugly little secret of this dojo, friend — I've taught you nine ways to smell a rat, and now I owe you the tenth. This is your field course in the dark arts, meatware and all. So far we've watched the crowds turn fake, the tapes turn "fake," the liars turn the gun on their accusers. But tonight I turn it on you. Because your shiny new paranoia? That's a lever too. Somebody can hack your alarm as easy as your trust. Stay close. This one bites the hand that trained it.

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12. ▶
    EP 1226:04

    Module 11 — Proving the Real

    That crackle you hear? That's me, patching through from Alpha 9, teaching you the dark arts so nobody works them on you. So far we've watched liars flip guilt onto the honest, crowds swarm a good man, whole tapes waved off as fakes while the truth got shrugged into "both sides." Now the smartest people in the room quit chasing lies altogether. They had a better dream — prove what's *real*, sign it at the source, flip the burden. It's the right idea, friend. Watch it die on contact with the internet.

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13. ▶
    EP 1327:18

    Module 12 — The Boomerang

    Come close, friend. Somebody says a thing on a screen, and it wrecks a life — and the folks who built the screen just shrug and say, we only carried it. That's the tender lie we've lived under for twenty-five years. This is your field course in the dark arts, and you've watched the liar's dividend, the fake photo, the stripped signature — all of it dodging blame. Now we hunt the builder. This chapter opens quiet, with a magic phrase that ended every fight — and then someone learns to walk around it. Stay close.

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14. ▶
    EP 1435:09

    Module 13 — Cognitive Zero Trust

    Last we left Priya, she'd wired away fourteen million on a stranger's face and a whispered nickname. This here's the field course in the dark arts — how the con lands, how you see it coming. Now spin the clock forward. One year on, same woman, and I'm about to hand back everything I stole from you across twelve rooms — assembled, named, a single word I've been circling since the first breath. It's the last lesson, friend. Stolen goods and all. Come see what "never trust" really costs.

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# The Book

Succession meets Flowers for Algernon, by way of a Twilight Zone broadcast.

# Listen, Read & Follow

Follow the feed and every chapter lands automatically — read the book, or get every transmission on Substack.

# Space Pirate Zero

Signal finds signal. No algorithms. No noise.