I just finished listening to "Episode 49: Elliot" and I must say, I'm quite upset by the host's reaction.

He doesn't seem at all to be someone in the security research field.

Either he has those reaction because this is a mainstream podcast and purposely tries to have a "dumb" reaction for his audience (like in a children's film) or he doesn't seem to understand hacker culture at all.

He acts surprised as part of making the podcast available to a broader audience. It's silly, but the episodes are usually so good I can get over it.

I think I had a similar reaction to you for this episode. I've listened to all of them, and love them, but episode 49 rubbed me the wrong way too. I actually asked him about it and got a response that made me feel better about it: https://twitter.com/mknox42/status/1184533813185130502?s=19

I've listened to almost every episode and I really like the podcast but I admin I share this criticism. His tone seems pretty unnatural at times and the longer you listen the more it bothers you. Still worth listening for the great stories.

I just inhaled several episodes of this podcast. I recently realized I liked true crime podcasts, and had an interest in cyber security...searched my podcast app and boom, I’m hearing about ransomware and Xbox bios hacking :)

I was going to mention the same two episodes of this outstanding podcast that deserves a much wider audience. With those two episodes taken, The Beirut Bank Job is next in line. Crazy stuff.

BTW, you might want to check out /r/darknetdiaries/ on Reddit for discussion of the episodes. Jack drops by now and then to participate.

I can second this. Even though I stumbled upon this podcast only 2 weeks ago. Just after the first episode I knew I had to hear more stories, so I started listening these back to back from the start. I can highly recommend this.

A friend of mine also likes this podcast. I guess I'll really have to get around to checking it out now, thanks for sharing.

xbox underground was batshit insane. I loved it

The really crazy part is it all started with two fairly small things, finding a supply of dev kits from an e-waste facility and a dump of passwords that didn't seem that significant at first, and all the antics depended on those two things really.