The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building is seen on Sept. 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Samuel Corum/Getty Images
In a video posted on social media, the assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division, Brett Leatherman, vowed Tuesday to hunt down the members of a cybercriminal group going by the name of ShinyHunters, the same group that last week claimed to steal reams of sensitive data from the FBI itself.
“You know how to find us, and we know how to find you,” Leatherman said in the video, encouraging the prolific group of loosely connected data extortionists to come forward and share information or face the consequences. “I suggest you reach out first while the choice is still yours.”
A Valar Atomics microreactor is seen on a C-17 aircraft, without nuclear fuel, at March Air Reserve Base in California on Feb. 15. The reactor was transported from March Air Reserve Base to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Matthew Daly/AP
A startup whose founder has vowed to “make nuclear great again” is planning to place hundreds of reactors on federal land in Utah, according to documents reviewed exclusively by NPR.
Gil Durán’s new book, The Nerd Reich, catalogs how tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel took over America.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images, Florencia Tan Jun/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images and Marco Bello/Getty Images.
This completes the COMPLEAT Broadcast series. It will remain here on this Substack so you may revisit it or share it. If you’d like a print copy of the book section of this work, it is available through https://compleat.store
I hd fun doing this interview. As I said when I announced that I was doing this interview, after deciding at the beginning of this year I would no longer do interviews, this will be my last interview I do. I made an exception this time because AJ and I had emailed a few years ago; he brought up my doing an interview, and I agreed. The Why Files team was very gracious and accommodated my schedule, so here is the result. I hope you enjoy it. Interviews have lost their luster for me, and god knows, you have plenty of examples of me blathering on. I wish you all well. –JM
Joseph Matheny invented something in 1989 that nobody had a name for yet. He called it a story. The internet called it the first alternate reality game. The Navy called him to ask how he did it. He turned them down.
Tonight he’s in the basement explaining how he built an early AI, game-mastered Robert Anton Wilson at Esalen, and why QAnon looks so familiar to him.
Some things are better understood when you know how the trick works.
Tonight he’s in the basement explaining how he built an early AI, game-mastered Robert Anton Wilson at Esalen, and why QAnon looks so familiar to him.
Some things are better understood when you know how the trick works.
