Hosted by Ben Johnson and produced by Clare Toeniskoetter, MarketPlace Tech in partnership with TechInsider, breaks out from its daily five to seven minute podcast with weekly full length (30-40 minutes) shows covering various technology topics and their intersection with society in depth; their new podcast: Code Breaker.

Code Breaker gets an enthusiastic thumbs up as it takes deep dives into everything from the Dark Web to Online Tracking to Viral Content and Internet Porn. Interviews and opinions from industry, academia, practitioners and the general user of the web provide a well-rounded view of the subject matter from multiple angles.

One note of warning, don’t base your opinion of the series on episode one, Email. Email, felt like it could have been one of many other public radio shows such as This American Life or RadioLab. While the quirky stories were entertaining, it did not provide the depth and well roundness on technology that one expects from MarketPlace Tech. However, my respect for the daily podcast was enough to give Code Breaker a second chance and I’m glad I took it.

There is one caveat to my approval of the series. The reoccurring premise is to explore a technology with the goal of answering this question: “Is it evil?” To be honest this is a ridiculous question to be asking about a thing. I do applaud their effort to provide a different angle but “Is it evil?” doesn’t make the grade. Luckily for the listener it’s one you can get by and is only of minimal distraction. Perhaps a better angle would have been around balance of use between, good, neutral and evil.

Code Breaker also offered a unique twist in that each show provides clues to a code. Break the code and you could have unlocked all of the episodes in advance of their planned release date. Sounds like fun but to be honest, with a full schedule, I was listening for the actual content and not for clues.

Season one has just wrapped up and Code Breaker is highly recommended as an addition to your professional listening library.