Introducing IRL

Season 1: Trailer

Our online life is real life. We walk, talk, work, and even love on the Internet – but we don’t always treat it like real life. Host Veronica Belmont sets out to explore this disconnect with stories from the wilds of the Web.
Published: May 25, 2017

Show Notes

For behind-the-scenes video of IRL Trailer production, and a bit more about why we’re making this podcast, check out our blog.

Transcript

Speaker 1: They want to deliver fast amounts of information over the internet, and again, the internet is a series of tubes, tubes, tubes.

Veronica B.: And three, two, the internet. It’s amazing if you love pandas, complicated OK Go videos, buying stuff, gifs, jiffs, no, it’s gifs, seeing governments toppled by popular uprisings, kittens getting their heads stuck in jars, or watching mean people from high school get middle aged on Facebook, but it’s a rough place if you don’t like cyberbullying, anonymous threats, fake news, companies stalking your every move, ransomware, identity theft, or getting hacked, getting doxxed, getting catfished … Maybe we can’t have nice things. We just break them or make them too weird or obnoxious to enjoy. So given its current state, I have to ask. Is the internet broken beyond repair? I’m Veronica Belmont, and I’m hosting this brand new podcast for Mozilla. It’s called IRL. Yep, that’s right, IRL as in In Real Life, because your online life is real life. I think we forget that sometimes because we do stuff online that we wouldn’t dare do in meet space. Online, we let companies follow us around as we hop from website to website. In real life, we don’t answer the door when someone’s trying to sell us cookies. Online, we split up in highly politicized camps. IRL, we could probably talk out our differences over a few beers.

Speaker 3: Yay!

Veronica B.: Online, we stalk our Tinder dates before we even meet them in person. In real life, we do that and we end up in front of a judge. These days, it feels like the web’s at a critical juncture. On IRL, I’ll dive into the internet to find out what needs fixing, saving, or made stronger. Together, let’s find out how we can fix the internet for good and prove we can have nice things. IRL, an original podcast from Mozilla, launching on June 26th. Find out more at irlpodcast.org. IRL, because online life is real life.