Hacker Cinema
Behind the Bastards
2018 · TV series · 1 season
Created by Robert Evans, Sophie Lichterman
There’s a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater’s insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein’s side career as a trashy romance novelist.
8 positive1 mixed2 neutralfrom 11 commenters
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11 comments on Hacker News
I'm saying the existence of the trope, within the training data, and the experimental setup, negate the breathless "Oh my god it did something unexpected in order to preserve itself!" as if an LLM has any sense of identity or self.
Many, many other bad things are in the training data. For an example of how this can manifest bad things that people don't seem to be discussing too much check out the recent Behind the Bastards episodes about how an AI Chatbot became a Cult Leader (The title is an exaggeration that the host explains while raising some excellent points about how LLMs have ingested a lot of cult leader material and can therefore mimic those speech patterns and impact people vulnerable to such things)
There's a Behind the Bastards from last month on him as well. I am not endorsing it (I am only half an hour in) but https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-christmas-hero-episode-aaron-136561888/
Behind the Bastards has a good couple episodes about Walter Freeman[1]. If you want a good review of exactly how fucked up lobotomies are and what kind of person decides “yeah I could jam an ice pick in a brain”, take a listen.
[1] https://spotify.link/rS6ePKIXvDb
> podcasts' focus on guests (and hosts)
Not all podcasts do that, though. I listen to about ten podcasts fairly regularly; one ("Behind the Bastards") has regular guests, though their purpose is largely to have someone for the host to tell a story to, two ("The Rest is History" and "The Rest is Politics") have occasional expert guests, on perhaps 10% of episodes, the remainder don't have guests at all.
Would have to be “Decoding the Gurus” [1]. It’s hosted by a Behavioral Anthropologist and a Psychologist, and they do a great job exposing popular grifters like Jordan Peterson. “Behind the Bastards” [2] is a close second. They give a more modern dissection of horrible people and prominent organizations throughout history. Not so coincidentally, they also have a mini-series on Jordan Peterson.
[1] https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/
[2] https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/
I really enjoy this one - https://callingbullshitpodcast.com/episodes/ It is about the gap between companies' stated goals and their actual behavior.
Citations needed - https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ I think I found it on HN. Well worth your time
Behind the bastards - exactly what it says on the title. Every episode is about a shitty human being (some alive, most dead). Listen to the episodes on Henry Kissinger - it is a crime he was given the Nobel peace prize
If you'd like the context of how extremely weird his life was, there is a 4 part podcast about him from behind the bastards.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-the-clarence-thomas-story-99759984/
Nice. There's also a great podcast series on this. First episode here: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-the-cash-for-kids-92013545/
Can't wait for a Behind The Bastards episode on Spez
In the "Behind the Bastards" special podcast series "Behind the Police", which ran only a month or two ago, one of the running themes of the police is that they historically are not just entangled with corruption, but are a source of corruption. In particular, in "How Police Unions Made Cops Even Deadlier" [0], they examine several cases where police unions were the primary nexus of organized crime in major cities in the USA.
Another major theme of the police is that they are slave patrollers, which is where the Klan connection becomes most obvious. (And there is an entire episode, "The History of American Police and the Ku Klux Klan" [1], dedicated just to that topic.)
[0] https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/behind-the-police-how-police-unions-65862640/
[1] https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/behind-the-police-the-history-of-65331090/
Dang, really enjoying reading all these great recommendations; my podcast load is going to be growing (again)!
My personal faves out of my 100+ subs are below. All should be available through a typical podcatcher app. Tried to mark some as NSFW but probably missed some. Some of these are extremely well-known but the question didn't specify "hidden gems".
Part-Time Genius - General interesting stuff
James O'Brien's Mystery Hour - BBC radio program. People call in with questions and answers to (generally) interesting questions.
Stuff You Should Know - Interesting general topics
Irish and Celtic Music Podcast - Best celtic music podcast around IMO
Behind the Bastards - Profiles of evil or otherwise undesirable people/entities in history (NSFW)
Crazy Genius - Interesting topics, sponsored by The Atlantic
In Our Time - BBC 4 science show (very high quality IMO)
Business Wars - Multi-part series regarding company vs. company stories (Blockbuster vs. Netflix and Nintendo vs. Sega are my faves)
Something You Should Know - General info, tends toward self-help and lifehacks
Curiosity Podcast - Curiosity is one of my favorite apps (interesting topics every day) and these are short episodes
Freakonomics Radio - From the same author of Freakonomics
The Changelog - Tech stuff; recent episodes include "Segment’s transition back to a monorepo" and "Istio service mesh and microservices"
Ear Hustle - Interviews with death row inmates; oddly fascinating (NSFW)
Linux Unplugged - Linux stuff
Lexicon Valley - Interesting stories about language
We Hate Movies - Riffing on bad movies; I especially like it when they blast movies I actually like (NSFW)
Skeptoid - Stories for skeptics (of general antiscience etc)
More or Less: Behind the Statistics - BBC4 radio podcast, insight behind hard data
Linux Action Show - Linux stuff
Internet History Podcast - Really more of a 'tech history' podcast; recent eps include "History of Google", "The Epic Fall of Digg", and interviews with folks like CmdrTaco (Slashdot)
Oh No Ross and Carrie - One of my absolute favorites. They investigate pseudoscience and other stuff from the inside out. My absolute favorite series by them is their 9-parter on Scientology. If you're a Scientologist, ignore this recommendation.
Skeptic's Guide to the Universe - Pushing back on the pseudoscience
This Week in Enterprise Tech - Tech podcast; recent eps include "Bullying Black Hat" and "Unikernels and the Death of the Security Patch"
StarTalk - Neil Degrasse Tyson (usually) and occasionally Bill Nye
Mysterious Universe - OK, I generally consider myself mostly rational but can't deny I enjoy listening to "out there" stuff. This is one of the "out there" podcasts with two Australians
How Did This Get Made? - Funny podcast about bad movies (NSFW)
Thirty Twenty Ten - These guys provide a "this day in history" from 30/20/10 years ago. Typically covers pop culture, video games, etc.
Science Vs. - Another very well done science podcast FLOSS Weekly - Free and open source topics
DogCast Radio - Dog stuff
The Curious Case of Rutherford and Fry - ANOTHER well-done science podcast from BBC Radio
Foot Stompin Free Scottish Music - Free Scottish music. If it's not Scottish, it's crap!
Late Night Last Week - Condenses all of the late night comedians. Host is kind of preachy and annoying, come for the content though (NSFW)
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History - Best history podcast on the planet
Seincast - Going through every Seinfeld episode; they've concluded their run now. Breaks down the minutia and trivia from each episode, each scene.
The Weirdest Thing I learned this Week
Disgraceland - Pods about wild musicians
Hello From The Magic Tavern - Guy falls through a dimensional portal in a Burger King to the magical land of Foon. Radio-play style, I find this hilarious and well done.
Artificial Intelligence - Recent interviews with Christof Koch, Ray Kurzeil
Eddie Trunk Podcast - Interviews rock/metal musicians
Awkward Human Survival Guide - NSFW, adult topics
NPR Shows, BBC Shows