Podcast: Biography of Tor

Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy

This episode of Peoples & Things completely nerd sniped me. On recommendation from Biella Coleman, hosts Lee Vinsel and Paula Bialski interview Ben Collier about his new book Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy (available Open Access from MIT Press.

I love ethnographic works on computing history and especially admire Biella’s book Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking. I used Tails on a USB stick when I was on campus at Royal Military College of Canada back in the day. I was lucky to meet Roger Dingledine at the Internet Governance Forum a few years ago. We have had Tor folks speak at a DWeb Seattle event I helped organize. And just last week at ATmosphere Conf (my recap) I met one of the inventors of onion routing in person!

So, between all these overlapping experiences I listened to Lee and Paula’s podcast with interest and I was not disappointed. With rising authoritarianism we could see more adoption of this useful piece of internet infrastructure. Ben tells a number of funny stories of his work in various Tor communities. And they end on a discussion about standards nerdery (and a DnD shoutout!), so what’s not to love! Give it a listen.