Understood

Know more, now. Understood is an anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Over a handful of episodes, each season unfolds as a story, hosted by a well-connected reporter, and rooted in journalism you can trust. Driven by insight and fueled by curiosity…The stories of our time: Understood.

Season 1 - The Naked Emperor: the rise and fall of bitcoin king Sam Bankman-Fried.

Season 2 - The Pornhub Empire: the story of how a Montreal-founded company came to dominate the adult industry.

Season 3 - Modi’s India: how one man rose from poverty to the peak of political power.

Season 4 - Céline: the surprising cultural, political and business alchemy that created a superstar.

Recent Episodes

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Recent Reviews

angrylf

Interesting show

I listened to this mostly because I can’t stand Celine Dion’s music. I appreciate that she has a great voice but the schmaltz of the material she chooses is like nails on a chalkboard to me and I’m always shocked that so many people love it - anyway this show filled me in on a lot of stuff I didn’t get and it makes a lot of sense. I still don’t like her music but I get where she’s coming from and why others love it. Great show.
Nickolas McGuire

The bib le

The book is not the tryth, although the truth is in the book.
bocinsky

Bible Recap

I love this how do people hate this?I love it.
Le Mallu

Biased and opinionated

This review is for Season 3, Modi’s India Biased and presented with cherry picked facts to suit a certain ideological narrative.
ursula.s

Excellent series

Tell everyone you know to listen to this podcast. Excellent reporting on Pornhub issues. I hope those victimized are healing. Justice please.
Royce1629

Balanced and interesting!

It's hard to approach such a polarizing topic without moralizing, or reacting defensively. This podcast, and it's host, does/do an excellent job of informing the listener about important abuses that were/are occurring in the porn industry, while doing a really good job of highlighting the complexities of the issue. yes, abuse is happening and needs to be stamped out, but porn is also a perfectly legal, and arguably necessary part of sex education/entertainment.
TheBigRedMachine

Little Substance

Most of the information here is available from several sources. This was more like an audio term paper. It’s ok but not much original content.
hdmebdk

HUH?!

HOW IS THIS RATED CLEAN?!
Baddie that slays 💅🏾🫶🏾

WTH

My son was listening to this
dreajohnathan

Naked

Safari
🥐bread🥐

am 4 years old

what this
hednfirjf

Not what I signed up for

I subscribed for a podcast about crypto. With season 2 they have changed the topic to porn. If you want to change topics, start a new podcast. Don’t auto subscribe old listeners to porn.
It, son of Them

SAM COLE ❤️❤️❤️

when I turned on the car radio and caught a trailer for sam cole's pornhub empire series I jumped and I said "oh my god, it's her!!" commission more work like this podcast from sam cole and I guarantee I will recommend it loudly to everyone who will listen
Han.O

Mansplaining

Another mansplaining pod. Why do dudes love rehashing public info as if they just came up with it themselves? The BONUS mansplain-fest episodes is what got me. Blah barf no thank you!
MattandAlison

Jack Wright

Great reporting. Please continue :)
Skdragon1

Review

Why no more episodes? Love the series so far
One of our favorite apps

Great Work!

Informative and very professionally produced. Great work, Jacob!
AllenBedgood

Great podcast with great presentation

I don't know that I liked the "gotcha" vibes I was getting in episode 4. But overall the podcast was great and presented well even for those who do not follow crypto in any capacity. At the end of the day nobody is putting a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to invest. It doesn't matter if Tom Brady or Kevin O'Leaory were spokesmen or not. They were paid. Pay me to promote your podcast and guess what I'll do? There has to be a level of personal responsibility here.
NocturnalBlend

Must-listen for crypto proponents and skeptics.

I’ve been a skeptic of the industry for a while now, admittedly, and follow Jacob Silverman’s coverage of the crypto and associated tech world on Twitter (along with a few other prominent voices like Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey of the Crypto Critics Corner podcast - I also recommend listening to them!). Silverman eloquently tells the story of SBF’s rise to superstardom in the crypto world as its prodigal son and his subsequent fall from grace. The episodes are concise and informative; the production is top-notch. Props to Jacob and the CBC for the miniseries. Go listen!
Rising Starz

Asks the weak questions

The host repeatedly fails to ask big questions of his guests, most of whom are weak hangers on to the FTX saga like an average Canadian investor or a layperson who happened to interview SBF and did a terrible job holding him accountable. It’s notable he doesn’t interview many outsiders and, when he does such as with the Shark Tank guy, he fails to use their own b.s. previous quotes against them to get any accountability. So boring! Moreover, there is so much forensic reporting to be done to get closer to the fact that FTX was a scam from the beginning and to look at the block chain and point out the patterns that prove FTX and Alameda was all fraud and self dealing and pump and dump from the beginning, but little of that is here.
Schhhiejsn

Wonderful

Absolutely wonderful writing. One of the best written podcasts I’ve heard. I would like a little more “dumbed down” and slower descriptions of all the transactions, the bailouts, the tokens. But, I also know in the end it doesn’t make sense 🤣.
JakeDurm

Good stuff!

TrueAnon sent me. Jacob is the crypto skeptic journalist we all need
KimWinship

Keep going!! This is so good…

Really good coverage of what I thought was already pretty well gone over -but learned so much more!
RedmanQuinn

Love it!

Came from TrueAnon, love Jacobs coverage!