Matt Bevan

But there's a reason the US military kept spitting out these awful diagrams.

They were in the midst of a decades-long battle to figure out how all the different parts of the armed forces could work together more efficiently.

The interesting thing is, in the last three years or so, it appears that one company has finally figured it all out.

You might have heard of this company, Palantir.

It seems to be the evil multinational corporation du jour.

Largely secretive, Palantir specialises in the shadowy practice of data mining.

For most of its existence, Palantir flew under the radar.

It was an extremely obscure US defence contractor that few people outside the industry had ever heard of.

But in the last few years, it's kind of been everywhere.

Special thanks to our sponsor, Palantir.

These days, Palantir is involved in everything from retail to military operations to immigration enforcement to space travel.

Up until recently, the CEO has tried to remain out of the spotlight.

And perhaps that was for a good reason, because since becoming more of a public figure, he's been saying things like this.

Our product is used on occasion to kill people.

Okie dokie.

Despite its exponential growth in size and strategic significance, Palantir is still a bit of a mystery to most people.

We're going to spend the next two weeks on this company, taking a look at Palantir's origin story and how it's grown to be one of the biggest companies in the world.

I'm Matt Bevan, and this is If You're Listening.

This story begins with a terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City, but not the one you're thinking of.

This one happened in 1993.