The Iranian government is set to launch a "Halal Internet" this spring as an alternative to the greater World Wide Web. Bob speaks to Fast Company reporter Neal Ungerleider about the most ambitious attempt by a government to censor the internet since China's "Great Firewall."

Quantic and His Combo Barbaro - Cancao Do Deserto

Last week, public outrage forced congress to table some bills backed by Hollywood lobbyists that would have barred access to sites accused of piracy. But Hollywood’s influence extends well beyond the US Congress. Bob talks to Rainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has created a website called Global Chokepoints that tracks pending or existing legislation worldwide (often pushed by the US and Hollywood) that would kick people or websites off the internet.

Dan Bull & Friends - SOPA Cabana

This week we re-ran a 2010 interview between Bob and B.R. Myers about the near omnipotence of North Korea's propaganda machine. Citizens, according to Myers, had little access to international news under Kim Jong-il. Unsurprisingly, the tradition continues under his son -- but here's a case where government censorship appears pointless and reflexive.

This week the government advisory board overseen by the National Institutes of Health asked two science journals to redact details of a new study about the bird flu virus. The government’s worried that, in the wrong hands, the research could be used to cause a pandemic. Bruce Alberts, the editor of Science talks to Bob about why he’s complying – for now – with the government’s request.

tUnE-yArDs - Doorstep

When early film legend George Méliès made 1899's L'Affair Dreyfus, a movie about the controversial Dreyfus Affair in France, it inspired riots. The topic was so dangerous for so long in France that the film was banned for decades and wasn't aired again in the country until the 1970s. Brooke speaks with writer Susan Daitch, who wrote Paper Conspiracies, a novel about the impact of the Dreyfus Affair and the Méliès film.