The Pirate, the Silk Road, and the Dark Web: Ross Ulbricht‘s Empire
Explicit content warning
09/23/21 • 53 min
1 Listener
Ross Ulbricht created the most notorious website in history when he launched the The Silk Road in 2011. An online marketplace for drugs, guns, poisons, and explosives, the Silk Road would become synonymous with the Internet's lawless new frontier: the so-called "Dark Web."
But what really IS the Dark Web? And how did a middle-class suburban kid become the notorious criminal kingpin known as the "Dread Pirate Roberts"?
Fire up your TOR browser and cover your digital tracks as you follow Shane and Duncan into the darkest depths of the web for a fascinating true story of drugs, contract killings, and betrayal.
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Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD
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In this episode:
- Deep Vs Dark
- Ross Ulbricht, Libertarian
- TOR (The Onion Router)
- The Bitcoin Connection
- 'Shrooms
- Altoid
- Dread Pirate Roberts
- Variety Jones
- The Kingpin Statute
- Gawker and Chuck Schumer
- Julia and Erica
- Ross's Rules and the "Nonaggression Principle"
- DEA, FBI, and IRS
- Agent Carl Force, aka Nob
- Curtis Green, aka ChronicPain
- Agent Shaun Bridges, Thief
- Assassinations
- IRS Agent Gary Alford
- Caught
- Trial and Sentencing
- Carla Sophia, the "French Maid"
~
Join the Midnight Masses!
Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas.
And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word!
~
~
~
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~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~
Ross Ulbricht created the most notorious website in history when he launched the The Silk Road in 2011. An online marketplace for drugs, guns, poisons, and explosives, the Silk Road would become synonymous with the Internet's lawless new frontier: the so-called "Dark Web."
But what really IS the Dark Web? And how did a middle-class suburban kid become the notorious criminal kingpin known as the "Dread Pirate Roberts"?
Fire up your TOR browser and cover your digital tracks as you follow Shane and Duncan into the darkest depths of the web for a fascinating true story of drugs, contract killings, and betrayal.
~
Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD
~
In this episode:
- Deep Vs Dark
- Ross Ulbricht, Libertarian
- TOR (The Onion Router)
- The Bitcoin Connection
- 'Shrooms
- Altoid
- Dread Pirate Roberts
- Variety Jones
- The Kingpin Statute
- Gawker and Chuck Schumer
- Julia and Erica
- Ross's Rules and the "Nonaggression Principle"
- DEA, FBI, and IRS
- Agent Carl Force, aka Nob
- Curtis Green, aka ChronicPain
- Agent Shaun Bridges, Thief
- Assassinations
- IRS Agent Gary Alford
- Caught
- Trial and Sentencing
- Carla Sophia, the "French Maid"
~
Join the Midnight Masses!
Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas.
And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word!
~
~
~
~
~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~
Previous Episode
Hunting for Easter Eggs: Secrets Hidden in Movies and Video Games
Ten episodes away from the big 1-0-0, the boys are hunting for the true origin story of the elusive video-game Easter egg. (Hint: Ready Player One got it wrong.) Follow along as Shane guides Duncan through some of the most famous, interesting, or pathetically failed examples of hidden content from movies and games.
PS: is there an Easter Egg in episode 90? Guess you'll have to keep listening to find out...
~
Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD
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In this episode:
- Debunking Spielberg's Version of the First Easter Egg
- Adventure, by Warren Robinett
- Adam Clayton, Snitch
- Not Fixed by Brad Stewart
- Steve Wright and the Origin of the Term "Easter Egg"
- Video Whizball and the First Name Drop
- The True Origin: Moonlander, by Jack Burness
- The DEC G40
- Red Faction: Armageddon and Mr. Toots
- Stormtrooper Blooper and the Battlefront Homage
- Resident Evil and the Jill Sandwich
- Castlevania CD Remix
- Doom II and John Romero's Head
- Diablo's Nonexistent Cow-Level
- Diablo II's Actual Hidden Cow-Level
- Batman: Arkham Asylum and the Product-Placement Easter Egg
- Konami, Solid Snake, Psycho Mantis, and the Creepiest of Easter eggs
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Literal Easter eggs
- Back to the Future and the Case of the Disappearing Pine
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Samuel L Jackson, Pulp Fiction, and Nick Fury's Tombstone
- Ezekial 25:17, Murder Monologue
- Big Kahuna Burger and the Tarantino/Rodriguez connection
- From Dusk Till Dawn, Reservoir Dogs, Four Rooms, Death Proof
- Indiana Jones and Droid Hieroglyphs (C-3PO and R2D2)
- The Phantom Menace (Galactic Senate E.T.s)
- Ready Player One and the Death of Easter Eggs
~
Join the Midnight Masses!
Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas.
And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word!
~
~
~
~
~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~
Next Episode
The Fascinating History of Personality Tests
Are personality tests accurate? How were they developed, how reliable is the science behind them, and which are most respected? Most importantly: which developers of personality tests were sexy MFers and which of them wrote erotic fiction about old men? Follow along to discover the strange history behind personality tests.
~
Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD
~
In this episode:
- WW1 and Shell Shock (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- The Robert Sessions Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (WPDS)
- Carl Jung's Psychological Types
- Katherine Cook Briggs
- Isabel Briggs Meyers
- The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- The 8 Functions
- The 16 Types
- The Forer (Barnum) Effect
- CPP (Formerly Consulting Psychologists Press)
- ENTJ, The CEO Type
- Objective vs Projective Tests
- Hermann Rorschach, Sexy Badass
- Psychodiagnostik
- Pareidolia
- The Rorschach Test
- Ink Blot Interpretation (Klecksography)
- Gobolinks
- The Five Factor Model (FFM, or the Big 5)
- Enneagram
- Type A and Type B
- The DISC Model
~
Join the Midnight Masses!
Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas.
And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word!
~
~
~
~
~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~
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