About Us
Hi. It's been a while, huh?
In late 2022, we launched a revised edition of BJ Mendelson's book, "Privacy: And How We Get It Back" that was called “Stupid Sexy Privacy.”
The book was originally published in 2017 by Curious Reads and released as an audio book known as "The End of Privacy." It consisted of an entire section of BJ's first book, "Social Media Is Bullshit" (St. Martin's Press), that was cut prior to that book's publication in 2012.
Stupid Sexy Privacy's first run was sponsored by DuckDuckGo and Slate even interviewed BJ about it.
Now, given everything happening in the world, we've again partnered with DuckDuckGo to bring the show back.
The original mini-series will begin re-airing in August of 2025, and 25 (or so) new episodes will begin airing immediately after that, taking us through August of 2026.
Old, and then new, episodes will release once a week on Thursday evening / Friday morning at 12am EST.
Additional information and podcast links are forthcoming. (Not to mention, a new logo. The one you see above is temporary.)
Hang with us, we just got this website set up. It's still very much a work in progress, and will be until the first few episodes re-air.
One More Thing ...
A lot of the "meatier" stuff is going to be for members only.
There is NO cost to become a member. It's free.
We do this to stop AI from stealing, repurposing, and distributing our content.
So we encourage you to sign-up while you're here reading all this. (And don't forget to use your @ Duck forwarding address.)
If You'd Like To Check Out The Original Miniseries From 2022 ...
Old Episodes (Audio Only For Now)
Episode 1: Get Yourself a Privacy Notebook Right Now
Episode 2: Start Practicing Good Privacy Hygiene Now, Or Else
Episode 3: Your Smart TV May Be The Biggest Snitch In Your House
Episode 4: Now Every Car Is Creepy, Not Just Your Windowless Van
Episode 5: There’s a Hidden Camera Watching You Sleep Right Now … Probably
Episode 6: Put Your Pants on and Turn Off Facial Recognition
Episode 7: Creeps, Weirdos, and How to Protect Yourself From Both After a Bad Breakup
Episode 8: Don’t Leave Home Without These 3 Apps On Your Phone
Episode 9: Evict Your Creepy & Unused Apps Right Now (Digital Detox Part 1)
Episode 10: Why Your Bedroom Should Be a Phone Free Bone Zone (Digital Detox Part 2)
Episode 11: What’s Club Got To Do With It & Why You Need a YubiKey
Episode 12: Why You Should Keep Your Contacts Offline Like a Fussy Old Man
Episode 13: How to Get a Stranger Danger Phone of Your Very Own
Episode 14: Want to Stay Safe on a Date? This Episode Is For YOU
Episode 15: How You Can Save The Planet By Storing Your Important Files Offline
Episode 16: So, Uh, What’s OpenAI and Other Generative AI Doing with My Face?
Episode 17: RIP HIPAA: Now Everyone Knows What’s Wrong With You, Including Your Boss
Episode 18: How To Protect Your Privacy from Glassholes & The Metaverse
Episode 19: How Anti-Woman Creeps Know When and Where You Got an Abortion
Episode 20: Now Your Boss Has Even Creepier Ways to Kill You
Episode 21: How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos Part 1
Episode 22: How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos Part 2
Episode 23: Here’s The Real Problem With Generative AI
Episode 24: How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos Part 3
Episode 25: Season 1 Recap with Rosie Tran, BJ Mendelson, and Amanda King
Episode 26: Bonus Interview Episode: Dr. John Gartner
Episode 27: Bonus Interview Episode: Cory Doctorow
Previous Stupid Sexy Privacy Guests
- Nina Jankowitz, Former Executive Director of the Disinformation Governance Board of the United States
- Dr. John Gartner, clinical psychologist, author, and founder of “Duty to Warn,” a national organization of mental health professionals.
- Corey Doctorow, science fiction author, and journalist, recently published the expose “Chokepoint Capitalism.”
- Tom Virelli, Chief Product Officer at Twitch
- Victoria Song, Reporter and wearables reviewer at The Verge
- Frank Ahearn, blackmail consultant and author of “How to Disappear” and “The Self-Help Guide for Stopping Blackmail”
- Matthew D. Green, Associate Professor at John Hopkins University Information Security Institute
- Brittan Heller, Senior Fellow Democracy and Technology at the Atlantic Council, World Economic Forum Metaverse Governance
- Dr. Arthur Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City
- Karen Levy, Associate Professor, Department of Information Science, Cornell University
- Andrew Strait, Associate Director of Emerging Technology and Industry Practice, Ada Lovelace Institute
- Bob Hoffman, former ad agency executive and industry commentator. Recently invited to speak to British and European parliaments on Ad fraud.
- Dr. Nicole Prause, neuroscientist, researcher on human sexual behavior and addiction, psychologist, and founder of Liberos, a private research institute.
A Word About AI, Data Collection, and Affiliate Links
Our project is sponsored by DuckDuckGo.
But DuckDuckGo has no editorial oversight over the content of Stupid Sexy Privacy.
Thanks to DuckDuckGo we can give all of our information away for free, including a copy of our new e-book and audio book, "How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos."
More on that in February of 2026.
We're (Mostly) Anti-AI
With the exception of the temporary logo pictured above — which will be replaced with a human created one in about a month — no generative AI tools were used to produce this project.
Everything you read and hear was written and produced by B.J. Mendelson. Typos, spelling errors, and borderline inappropriate jokes about Wonder Woman included.
The only AI tools we use are AI tools provided by Riverside for the "Privacy Tips" podcast, and for interview transcripts. BJ still proof reads and edits all transcripts generated by Riverside.
If there was a way to completely prevent our content from being scraped by AI companies, we would do it. We will take every measure we can to keep our stuff from training these models. That is why we make a lot of our content for Members only.
If you like what we're doing, there are additional ways you can support us:
-In addition to the FREE membership, we also offer a $2 a month paid option. Subscribers using this plan will be able to leave comments on our blog posts. Yes. It's a "Troll Toll." Yes. This is a reference to what you think it is. No. There is no obligation to subscribe. You can become a member of Stupid Sexy Privacy for free. We utilize this gate to keep out AI Scrapers (for example.)
If you pay $24 for the whole year, you'll also get a mystery prize in December of 2025. After December, anyone who pays $24, instead of $2 a month, will get the mystery prize.
-We utilize affiliate links. Mostly for books. But you should know none of these affiliate links costs you anything extra to use. We use them because they kick back a small amount of money toward us IF you do use them.
There is no product or service recommended through an affiliate link that we do not personally use ourselves. There is also no obligation to use these links.
For example, with DuckDuckGo, we've been using services such as their search engine, browser, and more recently, the @ duck forwarding service for years now.
Our recommendation of their products would have happened regardless of their involvement in the show.
We Use Ghost & Plausible
This website is powered by Ghost. While Ghost does function as a newsletter platform first, we want to be clear: Nobody is accessing or seeing your data beyond the producers of this show. This data will not be shared or provided to anyone, for any reason. Ghost is also pretty solid in terms of respecting your privacy compared to some of the other publishing platforms that exist today. We also use Plausible Analytics to gather information on this project's performance in the least invasive way possible. As they explain:
Plausible is privacy-friendly analytics. All the site measurement is carried out absolutely anonymously. Cookies are not used and no personal data is collected. There are no persistent identifiers. No cross-site or cross-device tracking either. Your site data is not used for any other purposes. All visitor data is exclusively processed with servers owned and operated by European companies and it never leaves the EU.
No company is perfect. *Card Subject to Change as they say in the professional wrestling business. We will do our best to protect your data whenever possible.
Get In Touch
If you'd like to get in touch, here's how to do so.