Artificial intelligence is the frontier of human innovation. But it has a dark side, too. In this episode, we explore how AI intersects with everything from criminology to creative writing — and in the process, we see how biased algorithms have the…

Is the next war going to happen in space? What are space weapons like, anyway? And why should we be worried about the space ventures of billionaires? In this episode, we look at the militarization of space, including everything from giant space…

Is it a crime to steal back something that was once yours?    That’s the question we’ll tackle this week, as we look at a string of sophisticated art heists aimed at reclaiming some stolen heritage objects. And we’ll explore how Facebook is…

This week’s episode is an excerpt from the opening chapter of Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us.   (If you pre-order the book or audiobook, you’re eligible for a bonus episode of Power Corrupts that won’t be released publicly)….

The title of this podcast is Power Corrupts. But is that true?   In this week’s episode, host Brian Klaas has the microphone turned around on himself, as he’s interviewed by Emma Nelson about his new book, Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It…

The International Criminal Court prosecutes perpetrators of horrific crimes. But what if the perpetrator is also a victim?   That’s the question we explore this week, with the disturbing tale of a child soldier who was kidnapped into a militia,…

How do you capture a pirate after they’ve hijacked a ship? In today’s episode, we look at two ingenious sting operations that managed to lure some pirates across borders to their arrest. And in the process, we’ll see how clever law enforcement…

Pirates can teach us quite a lot about democracy and economics. What can Blackbeard teach us about signaling theory? Why were pirates racially progressive for their era? And is it possible that pirate ships were laboratories for experiments with…

Can doing the wrong thing ever be the right policy? That’s a question we’ll tackle this week as we look at the possibility of letting some very bad people get away with their crimes…in order to prevent them from causing further damage. From drug…

What if you hacked a hitman-for-hire website and found out the identities of people who were slated to die before the murder? How much does it cost to hire a hitman on the Dark Web? And what if all of these supposed hitmen were just part of a giant,…