Introducing Levittown, new podcast from Kaleidescope and Bloomberg

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.2 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you ever been deepfaked? Or maybe this is just a new fear – that photos of you end up online that are you – but not really you? What would you do? For an increasing number of people – especially women – this is becoming a reality.

So much so that a recent bill in Congress called the “Take It Down” Act has found some incredibly rare bipartisan support. The bill is sponsored by republican Senator Ted Cruz and democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar – making it illegal to post explicit deepfakes – First Lady Melania Trump has also been a vocal supporter. But the thing is, it isn't law yet and… it might not be enough.

A new podcast called Levittown, from Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope Podcasts, takes listeners on a sort of cyber thriller for the AI age. It's the story of a bunch of young women in the suburbs of Long Island who find naked fakes of themselves online and when told there’s nothing they can do about it – set out to catch the perpetrator. This ends up connecting them to a web of online vigilantes – and cyber criminals taking advantage of a justice system not ready for the reality of AI.

Endless Thread brings you the first episode in this series. If you like what you hear – find Levittown wherever you like to get your podcasts to listen to the full series.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Endless Thread comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simuling Software for
0:06.1	technical computing and model-based design. MathWorks, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering
0:12.6	and science. Learn more at MathWorks.com. Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken,
0:19.2	a podcast from BU Questrum School of Business.
0:22.9	A recent episode asks what happens when big investors hold stakes in competing companies.
0:28.7	Stick around until the end of this podcast for a preview.
0:32.4	Hey friends, if you're a regular endless thread listener, you know from deepfakes.
0:37.7	We've had deep fake episodes about audio, about video, about cheerleaders, about the law.
0:43.5	And what we've learned over time while reporting on this topic is that over time being deep faked has become a threat for an increasing number of people, especially women.
0:54.4	We want to introduce you to a new show we think our listeners would enjoy.
0:58.3	It's called Levittown.
1:00.1	It's from Bloomberg and kaleidoscope.
1:02.5	And it's a kind of cyber thriller for the age of AI.
1:06.7	Levittown follows a bunch of young women in the suburbs of Long Island
1:10.2	who find naked fakes of themselves online,
1:14.1	and when told there's nothing they can do about it, set out to catch the perpetrator.
1:20.2	This ends up connecting them to a web of online vigilantes and cybercriminals taking advantage of a justice system
1:26.5	not ready for the reality of artificial intelligence.
1:30.8	We're bringing you the first episode in the series, and if you like what you hear, you can find Levittown wherever you get your podcasts to listen to the full series.
1:55.4	Thank you. This series explores sexualized imagery involving minors and violence.
2:08.2	Please take care when listening. Can we start from the beginning?
2:10.5	How did this all start for you?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WBUR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WBUR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.