Snowden's Box

Trust in the Age of Surveillance

By: Jessica Bruder, Dale Maharidge

Narrated by: Chloe Cannon, Jonathan Todd Ross

One day in the spring of 2013, a box appeared outside a fourth-floor apartment door in Brooklyn, New York. The recipient, who didn't know the sender, only knew she was supposed to bring this box to a friend, who would ferry it to another friend.

This was Edward Snowden's box - materials proving that the US government had built a massive surveillance apparatus and used it to spy on its own people - and the friend on the end of this chain was filmmaker Laura Poitras.

Thus the biggest national security leak of the digital era was launched via a remarkably analog network, the US Postal Service. This is just one of the odd, ironic details that emerges from the story of how Jessica Bruder and Dale Maharidge, two experienced journalists but security novices (and the friends who received and ferried the box) got drawn into the Snowden story as behind-the-scenes players.

Their initially stumbling, increasingly paranoid, and sometimes comic efforts to help bring Snowden's leaks to light, and ultimately, to understand their significance, unfold in an engrossing narrative that includes emails and diary entries from Poitras. This is an illuminating story on the status of transparency, privacy, and trust in the age of surveillance.

©2020 Jessica Bruder and Dale Maharidge (P)2020 Tantor

Half a Story

The problem with telling a story that starts so recently (a decade isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things), is that often it continues unfolding. The material covered is well delivered by the narrators, but from a 2024 perspective is begging for a “Part 2” covering Snowden’s slow turn into a Russian disinformation asset. The irony of Snowden seeking refuge from what he would describe as a dangerous, dystopian government spying on its own people from a dangerous, dystopian government actively spying on its own people and continuously cracking down on personal liberties is fertile ground for a story. A quick glance at Snowden’s Twitter posts since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows that he is very likely (either implicitly or explicitly) under pressure to criticize every one of Russia’s numerous enemies while never once mentioning the horrendous daily actions of his host nation, both abroad and domestic. Without full consideration of the rest of the story, this work cannot rate better than “okay”.

a must listen

Bruder and Maharidge's story is unparalleled, and an important document of how we make critical decisions.