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What Bitcoin Did

Exposing Pegasus: How the State Spies on You | John Scott-Railton

By Danny Knowles

Aired Sep 9, 2025 · 1h 40m · Last boosted Sep 17, 2025

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Show Notes

John Scott-Railton dives into the dark world of spyware, surveillance, and state power — and what it means for our freedoms in the digital age. From uncovering Pegasus spyware in 2016 to exposing private intelligence firms like Black Cube, John explains how governments, corporations, and authoritarian regimes exploit our phones and data to control narratives and suppress dissent. We discuss how spyware has evolved from phishing texts to zero-click exploits, the chilling stories of journalists and dissidents targeted, and why even democracies are sliding into mass surveillance under the guise of “safety.” John also warns about the next frontier: AI sup...

Nostr Boost Stats

sats
7.2k
boosts
7
boosters
7

Nostr Community

Everyone who has boosted Exposing Pegasus: How the State Spies on You | John Scott-Railton on Nostr, ranked by sats sent, all time.

  1. sean 3k sats
  2. Kirk 2.1k sats
  3. Shawn 1k sats
  4. saibeaks 500 sats
  5. npub1m0gm4…7lad 250 sats
  1. JP 210 sats
  2. Wartime 133 sats
Other Episodes This Community Boosts Other shows' episodes boosted by people who boosted this episode
Sep 17, 2024
Nostr Boosts:5.3k
shawnSep 19, 2024
5k
If you’re experiencing low blood pressure, give this @npub1sk7mtp67z… episode a listen.
wartimeSep 18, 2024
333
🔥🍻
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Nostr Boosts:M04.3k
6102Jun 19, 2025
4k
Great rip, love the detailed privacy discussion
npub1m0gm4qa…Jun 4, 2025
250
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Sep 27, 2024
Nostr Boosts:4.2k
6102Sep 28, 2024
3k
We love the bank rant!
KirkSep 28, 2024
1.2k
When it comes to increased totalitarianism, this is definitely one of those “suddenly” moments.
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Nostr Boosts:4.1k
wartimeMar 18, 2026
133
🎯 help you bring ideas into reality That's one thing I've struggled with, I've got lots of good ideas but I need assistance and assistants 🤭 to help me move forward to completion
wartimeMar 18, 2026
133
What I would like to see more Nostr apps doing is hiding the fact that they are Nostr apps. Just obscure it away so normal people think it's a normal app, and not a power app. And let the features and usability make them a fan without them realizing it
wartimeMar 18, 2026
133
Custom scripts for everybody! 🥳🥳
wartimeMar 18, 2026
133
Ya there's definitely nothing wrong with waiting. 6 to 12 months from now it will be much more capable, and in order of magnitude easier to set up
wartimeMar 18, 2026
133
I've been setting up mine to automatically log conversations. I've been feeding it all of my notes and business ideas. Everything gets automatically cataloged into obsidian. That obsidian vault is included in the QMD database for vector memory search. My agents have excellent short and long-term memory with minimal token usage. To set it up right, you really need to spend quite a while setting it up - or buy the files from somewhere. I've been setting up going on 3 weeks. It has already made me more productive. Soon my calendar will be synchronized. Client leads with automatically be filtered and surfaced front and center to me. The more you use something like this, the more you will start to understand how you can compound little abilities on top of each other. One cron job can trigger a cascade of events and work. I have used simplistic bots for many years. I used to have one that would pay my child support for me. That ran with no issues for about 5 years before they updated the site and broke my bot. I used to use another one for automatically populating descriptions and titles for an online store. At that time, I was replacing an employee with a simple bot. These things have been providing real value for people, for longer than people assume. Again it all comes down to how you use it and what you're doing with it. 6 to 12 months from now the landscape will be much different. Right now it's very hard to set up correctly and easy to burn money if you don't know what you're doing. But soon a lot of these things will be ironed out and much more normal people will be able to get higher value from it. On top of that, every time the models get better or cheaper, that means you can also upgrade your system to be smarter or cheaper.
wartimeMar 18, 2026
133
I don't know who's spending $1,000 but you doing it wrong. I spent $15 in the past 3 weeks with more usage than I've ever had. It all depends on the model. But If they are also using it to do scraping and analyzing, it's not exactly simple work. And if you compare that to a human being doing the same work - that $1,000 is probably much cheaper than a human spending the time manually scraping and analyzing. I think I saw a graph recently saying that Claude opus outputs - in one prompt - between 5 and 15 hours of human work. Obviously that's not on every prompt, but that's pretty substantial even if it's expensive at a 30 cent API call, then maybe it's an extremely good deal. It's all very relative to what you're using it for and what your accomplishing in the end. Some of us have been playing with AI models for years already so we already know how to prompt better and we get better results. You've got to keep playing with different models - talk to them in different ways - and be explicit, try to remove ambiguity. And if you're having problems writing prompts - ask one AI to write a prompt for you to give to the other.. and that will often increase your chance of a one shot successful prompt
wartimeMar 18, 2026
3.3k
🍻
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Feb 27, 2026
Nostr Boosts:M02.5k
npub1m0gm4qa…Feb 27, 2026
250
KirkFeb 27, 2026
100
KirkFeb 27, 2026
2.1k
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Nostr Boosts:6.7k
wartimeMar 3, 2026
3.3k
Banger 🧨🧨 Pure signal
wartimeMar 3, 2026
3.3k
🫡🍻
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Nostr Boosts:3.7k
wartimeApr 17, 2025
3.3k
Need part 2, great conversation 🧨
wartimeApr 17, 2025
333
There are still good women out there... Just snagged one... Alas I did not get a girlfriend this cycle... Moved her straight to wifey
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Nov 20, 2024
Nostr Boosts:3.7k
wartimeNov 21, 2024
3.3k
Congrats! 🎉🔥🧡
wartimeNov 21, 2024
333
Cool to hear you're expanding on Wavlake and Nostr 🔥
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wartimeFeb 17, 2026
1.8k
Love this series, keep up the great work!🚀🧨
wartimeFeb 16, 2026
1.8k
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Oct 13, 2025
Nostr Boosts:3.5k
wartimeOct 15, 2025
3.3k
More! ❤️‍🔥🧨🧨
wartimeOct 15, 2025
133
The North Sea nexus. Fuck the Brits, butt hurt bastards
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Sep 20, 2025
Nostr Boosts:1.7k
6102Sep 23, 2025
1k
The revolution will not have good UX🫡
wartimeSep 21, 2025
133
Ente is "en tay" ✔️
wartimeSep 21, 2025
133
Top notch recommendations all around
wartimeSep 21, 2025
133
I recently verified a sock puppet Google account using Jmp too. They are an excellent anonymous Google Voice/esim/sms alternative
wartimeSep 21, 2025
133
Cheogram aka https://Jmp.chat Gajim on Windows too It's basically a complete alternative to Google voice and how that works. I have been using it for years at this point and it's excellent
wartimeSep 21, 2025
133
🧨❤️‍🔥🧨
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Apr 1, 2025
Nostr Boosts:M01.7k
6102Apr 3, 2025
1k
We are the swamp!
npub1m0gm4qa…Apr 2, 2025
350
npub1m0gm4qa…Apr 2, 2025
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Oct 29, 2025
Nostr Boosts:M01.4k
npub1m0gm4qa…Oct 31, 2025
250
wartimeOct 30, 2025
133
Sounds like a lot of gay faggot shitcoin talk and banking sympathization.. let's see, and stop with the hype bullshit
6102Oct 30, 2025
1k
Great rip, excited to see where this goes
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Nostr Boosts:M02.5k
npub1m0gm4qa…May 12, 2025
350
KirkMay 12, 2025
2.1k
Last 15mins was A+
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Nostr Boosts:M02.5k
npub1m0gm4qa…Feb 27, 2025
350
shawnFeb 27, 2025
2.1k
Great rip. Side note: Ian needs a NIP-05.
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Sep 5, 2025
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KirkSep 6, 2025
2.1k
npub1m0gm4qa…Sep 6, 2025
250
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Sep 6, 2025
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6102Sep 13, 2025
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MACRO MARTY
npub1m0gm4qa…Sep 7, 2025
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npub1m0gm4qa…May 31, 2025
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6102May 14, 2025
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Great topic!
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KirkSep 26, 2024
1.2k
Really thoughtful conversation. Definitely needs a round 2
shawnSep 26, 2024
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Fascinating conversation. Thanks, @npub1h8nk2346q… and @npub155smppdaq….
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I will make a correction - bitchat was mentioned. I overheard somebody asking somebody else if they want to try it. It sounded like a group of two or three people were going to try it at Lake Satoshi
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Rev.Hodl da man, we need more people like him 🧨🧨🧨
wartimeAug 12, 2025
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Karl is the real Rev 😏
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npub1m0gm4qa…May 4, 2025
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wartimeMay 1, 2025
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Real rich listening to NVK complain about using the state when he's the fagot who attacks people in the community with bullshit trademark infringements. That's why I bought a BTClock yesterday. Everybody should buy a BTClock. Fuck NVK in his slobbery stuttering mouth
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Pro trip, when using NFC to broadcast your transactions, open up Tor browser first, then broadcast and it will use Tor browser to broadcast your transaction over Tor
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Jan 7, 2025
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6102Jan 8, 2025
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Love the new consensus section!
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npub1m0gm4qa…Jul 29, 2026
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BIG BTC in control
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May 5, 2026
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MASSIVE BREAKING
npub1m0gm4qa…May 6, 2026
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6102Jan 16, 2026
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Where can we find the covenants for nation states article @npub1r8343wqpr…
npub1m0gm4qa…Jan 16, 2026
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Dec 26, 2025
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npub1m0gm4qa…Dec 28, 2025
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6102Dec 27, 2025
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@npub1guh5grefa… You need to practice pronouncing glyphosate
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6102Jul 22, 2025
1k
The memes will take us higher🫡
npub1m0gm4qa…Jul 16, 2025
250
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Dec 11, 2024
Nostr Boosts:2.5k
wartimeDec 15, 2024
2.1k
🎄🧡🔥🍻🌟
wartimeDec 11, 2024
333
I thought that sounded like AI. Not bad though!
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Sep 20, 2025
Nostr Boosts:1.1k
wartimeSep 21, 2025
133
🧨🧨
6102Sep 20, 2025
1k
@npub1qny3tkh0a… confirmed still on Twitter!
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Aug 15, 2025
Nostr Boosts:1.1k
wartimeAug 24, 2025
133
Bullish 🧨🧨
6102Aug 21, 2025
1k
It’s not vee-log😂
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Episode Boosts

Every boost sent to this episode, as published to Nostr, newest first.

  • 133 via Fountain
    Good rip, moar ❤️‍🔥
  • 3,000 via Fountain
    Excellent show
  • 500 via Fountain
    Recommended episode on pegasus.
  • 210 via Fountain
    My key insight is, that the neural engine in my iPhone is not there for me but for them. Never looked at it this way. Incredible show, must listen.
  • 2,112 via Fountain
  • 1,021 via Fountain
    This is a must-listen conversation if you're tracking the state of privacy and surveillance.