Here is a wonderful piece from NPR’s “This America Life” about patent trolls. This one hour episode (make sure you get this one, not the shorter twenty minute version that aired on “All Things Considered”) sounds like a thriller, and it also describes in a chilling, outrageous and downright depressing way how patent trolls are eviscerating the hopes and dreams of real inventors and start up creators while imposing a mafia-like rule of silence to prevent anyone from discussing anything related to the matter.

The podcast is largely focused on Intellectual Ventures, a company created by former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, who claims through the podcast through his Vice President Joe Chernesky that Intellectual Ventures’ only goal is to help inventors get the money they are due. The podcast tells a very different story.

I am hoping that this episode will be a turning point in the war against patent trolls and that something will finally be done about them, but the financial stakes in this market are so high that I’m not very optimistic.

Listen and see for yourself.