You Should Be Traveling with a VPN

The Wirecutter Show

The New York Times

Wirecutter, Education, Life Hacks, Product Testing, Products, Product Recommendations, Society & Culture, Advice, How To, Leisure, New York Times, Home & Garden, Testing, Recommendations

4.4 • 894 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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0:00.0	I'm Christine Zier-Clicette.
0:04.2	I'm Kyra Blackwell.
0:05.6	I'm Rosie Garan, and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show.
0:15.2	This episode is called You Should Be Traveling with a VPN.
0:23.5	Hey there, it's Christine.
0:25.3	Summer is rolling in, and lots of people are probably making big summer travel plans,
0:30.4	and some of you might be going abroad.
0:32.9	Today, we're going to do a special mini episode about something that might help keep you
0:37.2	and your information safe while you're gallivanting about the world.
0:41.3	VPNs, which stand for virtual private network. If you're like me, you might be like, what does this mean? I don't understand this.
0:47.9	But we're going to get into it in this episode because a VPN can be really helpful for keeping your information secure while you are web browsing.
0:57.1	In just a second, Kaira is going to chat with Max Eddy, a staff writer who covers privacy and security here at Wirecutter.
1:03.9	He's been featured on another bonus episode of ours about 23 and me a few months back.
1:09.1	And this week, he's going to talk with Kyra about what you need to
1:13.6	know about a VPN, why it might be helpful, and why you should probably have one if you're
1:18.4	traveling overseas. We'll be right back. I'm here with Max Eddie, who is a staff writer who's covered privacy and security for over a decade. And now he's here to chat with me about VPNs. Max, welcome to the show.
1:45.7	It's great to be here. I'm so excited to have you on, especially because I don't know much about
1:49.8	VPN. So could you tell us what exactly is a VPN? Explain it to me like I'm five.
1:54.7	Sure, sure. So a VPN is a service. You're going to need to buy a subscription. It's usually
2:00.3	monthly, but you can find shorter term or longer term. And once you've purchased a service, so you're going to need to buy a subscription. It's usually monthly, but you can find shorter term or longer term.
2:02.6	And once you've purchased a subscription, you're going to want to install the application on your phone or laptop.
2:08.6	The application is actually going to handle all the setup for you, so that's how you're going to interact with it.
	...

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