Ever wonder where the internet stops and IRL begins? Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor. From internet trends to AI slop to the politics of memes, Close All Tabs covers it all. How will AI change our jobs and lives? Is the government watching what I post? Is there life beyond TikTok? Host Morgan Sung pulls from experts, the audience, and history to add context to the trends and depth to the memes. And she’ll wrestle with as many browser tabs as it takes to explain the cultural moment we’re all collectively living. Morgan Sung is a tech journalist whose work covers the range of absurdity and brilliance that is the internet. Her beat has evolved into an exploration of social platforms and how they shape real-world culture. She has written for TechCrunch, NBC News, Mashable, BuzzFeed News and more. We love listening to shows about technology and culture like Power User with Taylor Lorenz, ICYMI, Wow If True, Hard Fork, There Are No Girls On the Internet, Endless Thread, Uncanny Valley from Wired, It’s Been a Minute, and You’re Wrong About. If you like them too, then trust us–you’ll like Close All Tabs.
49 episodes transcribedSocial media creators started using words like “unalive” and “seggs” to dodge algorithmic filters that might suppress “inappropriate” content. But the...
In another installment of Save or Scroll, Morgan teams up with internet culture writers Daysia Tolentino and Moises Mendez II to dig into the stories...
Who decides what is and isn’t a library? The Internet Archive now has federal depository status, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries that archiv...
In a field obsessed with the future, sometimes it’s worth looking back. OGs of Tech is a new occasional series from Close All Tabs that looks beyond t...
Young people are increasingly turning to AI “companion chatbots” to meet their emotional needs. But a new study shows that these chatbots, which are d...
Furries are often known for wearing full-body animal suits at conventions — but the characters they inhabit, called “fursonas,” are much more than cos...
The animation industry has long struggled to get Black hair right — from the infamous “Killmonger locs,” named after the Black Panther character and c...
Spotify didn’t just change how we listen to music — it changed what a genre even is. In this episode, producer and rapper Quinn reflects on being thru...
Elon Musk and President Trump breaking up? LA protesters clashing with law enforcement? Waymos on fire (again)? Things have been moving fast the last...
Spotify has morphed from a straightforward music library and search engine into a data-driven system built to feed you songs to match your mood and op...
Are you old enough to remember the “Magic Eye” optical illusion mania that gripped the nation in the 90’s—random patterns that you had to squint at ju...
Hentai, sexually explicit Japanese animation (anime) and comics (manga), is a genre that’s been criticized for depicting violent or ethically question...
Think you can opt out of surveillance? Think again. Our locations, behaviors, and images are being tracked at unprecedented levels — and private tech...
The tools of high tech surveillance are increasingly all around us: security cameras in public and embedded in doorbells, location data on your phone,...
Recession indicator memes are everywhere, pointing to everything from office wear at the club to Lady Gaga’s return to pop music as signs of looming e...
After a divorce, KQED health reporter Lesley McClurg felt anxious over the prospect of dating again. On a whim, she turned to ChatGPT for a little emo...
In this episode, tech reporter Samatha Cole shares what happened when she tried to “vape the internet” after seeing a viral post about a disposable to...
We can’t cover every wild post from every corner of the internet — and not everything online warrants a full multi-tab journey. That’s where Save or S...
The ”broligarchy” didn’t come together in a vacuum — this combination of extreme wealth, right wing leanings, and an anti-establishment point of view...
The term “broligarchy” refers to the Silicon Valley elite tech leaders who have accumulated vast amounts of wealth, power, and now, political control...
