Recommended Podcast: "The Enforcers" from This American Life
Act 1 of this American Life's latest episode, The Enforcers, mesmerized me. I highly recommend listening to it. Here's the description:
Three guys who go by the names Professor So and So, Jojobean and YeaWhatever spend part of each day running elaborate cons on Internet scammers. They consider themselves enforcers of justice, even after they send a man 1400 miles from home, to the least safe place they can bait him: the border of Darfur. The three self-made enforcers tell Ira their story. For more on what they did, along with photos, maps and phone recordings, go here. (29 and 1/2 minutes)
In short, Ira Glass tells the story of how some "baiters" returned a con on one of the Nigerian email con men. It's hilarious at first, and then becomes somewhat dark and unethical.
While you're downloading podcasts, be sure to include Alistair Christie's podcast on Virtual Machines -- very useful if you're writing installation documents.
About Tom Johnson
I'm a technical writer based in the San Francisco Bay area. In this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, visual communication, information architecture, writing techniques, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out simplifying complexity and API documentation for some deep dives into these topics. If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the field, be sure to subscribe to email updates. You can also learn more about me or contact me.