Introducing - Absolute: Taser Incorporated, Teaser

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Absolute, Season 1: Taser Incorporated is at once a tale as old as time - a true believer learns the hard way that the costs of lofty ambition and hubris just might outweigh even the most optimistic upside - and a thoroughly modern story of technology overtaking the very people it is meant to serve. In this case: the ubiquitous electric gun carried by cops everywhere and inspiring comedic shenanigans in movies like The Hangover.

Host and documentarian Nick Berardini has been obsessed with this story for his entire adult life. With Absolute, Season 1: Taser Incorporated, he left no stone unturned.

Taser, Inc., now known as Axon, the 800-pound gorilla in the paramilitary police equipment industry, is led by its charismatic CEO and co-founder, Rick Smith. Fueled by a self-described religious dedication, Smith’s Star Trek obsession, and an ambitious vision of a world without gun violence, Rick leads Taser, Inc. to be the key tech supplier to virtually every police force in America. But as stories of alleged misuse, deaths, and serious injuries from Tasers begin to emerge, Taser, Inc. and Rick arrive at a crossroads between Rick’s vision and reality, with cops and the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect paying the price.

Absolute, Season 1: Taser Incorporated is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Jason, and I'm excited to tell you about a new show from Lava for Good.
0:08.8	It's called Absolute Taser Incorporated with filmmaker Nick Baradini.
0:14.7	Now, Taser Incorporated comes from the same team that work with Gilbert King on Bone Valley.
0:18.8	And just like Bone Valley, this podcast is a
0:21.8	riveting listen that will open your eyes and tug at your heart. We've all seen the taser
0:26.7	carried by cops, seen it in the news, even in movies, but have you ever wondered how they
0:31.5	became so ubiquitous? Nick Baradini and Lava for Good are taking a deep dive into
0:37.3	Taser Inc, now known as Axon,
0:39.8	the 800-pound gorilla in the paramilitary police equipment industry.
0:43.5	Their story is one of ambition, hubris, and technology overtaking the very people it was meant to serve.
0:50.3	Look for Absolute Taser Incorporated wherever you hear this, and check out this clip from episode one.
0:59.6	Stay right where you are.
1:01.7	We'll throw you a gun.
1:04.6	Say hello to my little friend.
1:16.6	Gun violence is surging across the U.S. So far as...
1:17.6	A teacher Columbine High School.
1:19.6	There is a student here with a gun.
1:22.6	It's still happening.
1:25.6	What would it be like to live in a world where none of this is possible?
1:29.3	One man had a vision, a vision of a new reality.
1:46.0	The whole reason we started this company is we want to get people to stop killing each other.
1:51.0	And in order to do that, he was going to make it happen with an invention.
	...

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