Celebrating 500 Episodes!

My podcast is about to hit a major milestone: 500 episodes! I’ve spent the last several months thinking about how I wanted to celebrate that milestone. I decided I didn’t want to celebrate by giving away prizes or making this about me. Instead, I’d like to celebrate by seeing whether we can make the Internet just a little bit better. I need your help.

A Brief Look Back

It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this for over 11 years now. It all started with self-publishing Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons in January of 2015. The Snowden revelations in the summer of 2013 really upset me and I had always wanted to write a book. So I decided to try to help regular, everyday people be more secure and private, hoping to thwart mass surveillance. My book had a lot of screenshots and detailed instructions, which necessitated updates every two to three years. I expanded the content over time and found a publisher (Apress). The most recent edition (5th) was published in February of 2023, a little over three years ago. It’s grown to about 600 pages in length and contains over 200 specific tips for protecting your data and devices.

So let me take this opportunity to announce that I’ve just signed on again with Apress to create a brand new 6th edition of the book! If all goes according to plan, this new version will be available before the end of 2026. Stay tuned for updates!

In March of 2017, after appearing as a guest on a couple of podcasts, I decided to launch my own show. After almost 10 years of publishing every week, I’m fast approaching 500 episodes! On September 28th, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons will join a remarkably small club. Of the nearly 4.8 million podcasts tracked worldwide, only about 43,000 have lasted ten years or more (fewer than 1%).

Celebrating by Giving

I’ve thought about this a lot over the last few months, spending many hours brainstorming ideas for achieving this goal. I came up with several ideas – maybe too many ideas. All of them centered around taking concrete steps to improve the current state of affairs (which is honestly rather abysmal).

I believe that if enough ordinary people each take a few small, practical steps – and then help someone else do the same – we can meaningfully improve our collective privacy, security and resiliency. I think that’s true, but I don’t know – and I’d like to find out. And I need your help.

My goal, for all these years, has been to help as many people as possible. But I’ve learned that to do the most good, I need help. I can’t do this alone. Furthermore, despite years of experience, I know I don’t have all the answers.

So here’s the deal. Instead of trying to create a grand, master plan for this on my own, I’m going to ask for your help. I’m going to run an experiment from now until the 500th episode – and along the way, try to do some good in the world. I have some ideas for how this could grow into something much larger, but I don’t want to build it in a vacuum. If it’s going to work, it needs to be shaped by the people who use it.

Self Care is Not Selfish

As I often say, security and privacy aren’t simply “me” things – they’re also very much “we” things. When you protect your own digital realm, you’re not just helping yourself – you’re lowering the risk to everyone you’re connected to, as well. Helping yourself first is not selfish. When the airplane cabin pressure suddenly drops, you’re told to put your own oxygen mask on first. Why? Because you can’t help others if you’re unconscious. As a parent, you can’t be there for your kids if you don’t first care for yourself.

Improving your own privacy and security isn’t the finish line – it’s the foundation. Once you’ve taken care of yourself, you’re in a position to help someone else. That’s where this experiment is headed.

Phase 1: Protect Yourself

Here’s what I’m asking you to do. Over the next few weeks, I want you to make time to tackle some very basic tasks to improve your security and privacy. Pick something you’ve been meaning to do. Choose a few improvements you’ve been wanting to make. If you have my book already, then you have 200 Tips to choose from. But if not, then don’t buy it now because I’m working on the next edition. 😉 Instead, have a look at my dragon coupons or past blog articles for some ideas.

But beyond just performing these tasks, I want you to help me improve them. While you’re doing these tasks, I’d like you to wear a second hat – not just as a participant, but as a collaborator. Take notes, answering questions like:

• How difficult was it? How much time and effort did it take?
• Why did you choose this particular task – what was your motivation?
• How do you know you did it correctly? This is honestly missing from my existing coupons.
• If you were to do this again, perhaps for someone else, what would you do differently?
• Did you find any resources that were particularly helpful?

When you complete the task, please send me your feedback using the button below. (You can also send me an email with feedback or ideas: feedback@firewallsdontstopdragons.com.)

Next Phase

As you might have guessed, the next phase of this experiment will be helping your friends and family. That article will probably come out in four weeks. Use this time to complete some tasks that improve your own situation, to eventually help someone else do these same tasks.