Weird Things

The episode opens with a long discussion of SpaceX test launches and the broader idea that visible failures are part of iterative engineering. Andrew and Brian contrast that with the Space Shuttle program, noting that shuttle design involved practical compromises, unexpected hazards, and a much messier reality than the idealized version often told. They also briefly touch on the value of publicity...

The episode opens with the hosts riffing about recording and editing workflow, including the value of planning for cuts, trusting the edit, and how much polished media depends on invisible post-production. From there, Andrew introduces a preprint about panspermia via cosmic dust, then the conversation shifts to a monkey-raft explanation for how monkeys may have crossed into South America on floati...

Andrew apologizes to the Weird Things audience for the lack of recent episodes and says the show has still been recording. He explains that the delay is due to changes in how the show is handled on the backend, and says they hope to have episodes out soon. He adds that if listeners can hear this message, the new fix is working. He describes the fix as using AI to handle some of the process and cal...

The episode opens with casual chatter about a possible Starship launch while the hosts are near Brownsville, followed by a long discussion of major AI announcements from Google and OpenAI. Andrew explains Gemini 1.5's large context window claims and the limits of simply increasing tokens, while the group shifts into a detailed examination of Sora's text-to-video results, including improved realism...

The episode opens with a discussion of Google's Gemini Ultra launch and the rebranding of Bard to Gemini. The hosts compare Gemini with ChatGPT on model quality, pricing, integrations, and usefulness for coding and summarization, while also talking about how AI tools are already woven into their workflows for transcripts, show notes, and quick summaries. Brian also describes using AI for a real-wo...

Andrew and Brian start with travel and recovery talk: Brian describes being knocked out by illness and bad sleep, while Andrew explains returning from a three-week trip to India and how he managed jet lag by staying awake through the long flight. Andrew also says he was careful about water and food after getting sick on a prior trip, and that he brought antibiotics with him via an online doctor vi...

The episode opens with the hosts greeting each other for 2024 and then moving into a discussion of older dystopian science fiction that reflected the anxieties of its era. They talk about Logan's Run, Make Room, Make Room/Soylent Green, Clockwork Orange, and Silent Running as stories shaped by fears about population growth, pollution, youth violence, and social instability, before widening the con...

Whale songs and AI tools. Picks: Justin: Squid Game: The Challenge Brian: Amanda Knox

Google’s new AI launch might not be what it seems. Picks: Justin: Fargo Andrew: Doom Patrol | Now Streaming | Max Original | Max

A Thai restaurant tried to game Google, but accidentally went viral. We knew Google paid Apple a lot to be the default search engine. We didn’t know it was *a lot.* The Humane AI Pin? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Justin: Space: 1969 from Bill Oakley Brian: Play Date

The episode opens with a discussion of SharkNinja's Ninja Neverstick cookware and a lawsuit over marketing claims that the pans are heated to 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The hosts debate whether the claim is literal or exaggerated advertising, compare it to other flashy marketing language, and talk through how a deceptive-marketing class action might work if consumers were misled. Later, the hosts...

Phone wars, flame wars, nearly-warring podcasters! The simple task of geopolitics. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Curiosity Show on YouTube and “This Isn’t a Ponzi Scheme” from Coffeezilla Brian: The Economist Podcasts+ Bryce: Kagi Search

The episode opens with Andrew quizzing the others about an extinct goat from Mallorca and revealing that the animal was a mammal that had evolved extremely unusual cold-blooded traits on an island with limited resources and no predators. The hosts then dig into the evolutionary tradeoffs between cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals, mention the naked mole rat as another unusual mammal, and riff o...

The episode opens with the hosts joking about UFOs, ghosts, and why those topics feel politically safer or socially easier to discuss than religion or partisan issues. That leads into a playful moon-landing conspiracy riff, followed by a discussion of an F-35 pilot ejecting and the confusing aftermath of a missing aircraft and a farmer calling 911. From there the conversation moves into space, lif...

Andrew announced that he’s leaving OpenAI after a very positive experience! What’s next for him after years of being in the AI space. What will his new venture, Interdimensional.ai, offer to bridge the gap between ideas and new AI technologies? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Joker Justin: The Afterparty Bryce: Interdimensional.ai

The episode opens with a discussion of a NASA UAP research appointment and quickly becomes a skeptical conversation about UFO evidence. The hosts argue that many reports are based on shaky, secondhand, or artifact-prone imagery, and that if aliens or unexplained craft were being captured reliably, the evidence would be much stronger than a few headlines or low-quality clips. A large middle section...

iPhones, can you believe they’ve made 15 of them so far? Smartphones and how we own them have changed multiple times now. What could be next in the next, best iPhone? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Paul Reubens, The Pee-Wee Herman Show Justin: March to the Majority from Newt Gingrich Brian: The Diamond Age from Neal Stephenson Br...

The episode opens with a long discussion of Reza Belucci, a Florida man who attempted multiple ocean crossings in improvised human-powered contraptions, including a hamster-wheel-like vessel and later a buoy-based setup aimed at London. The hosts debate the Coast Guard's intervention, whether he was in legitimate danger, how jurisdiction works offshore, and whether his stunt reflects reckless beha...

There’s actually too much to watch now. Can a 20-year-old book give us a sign on the next steps of online media? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: The Long Tail from Chris Anderson and FREE from Chris Anderson

The episode opens with a discussion of a viral Chinese zoo story in which sun bears were mistaken by some viewers for people in costumes. The hosts joke about the bears' upright posture and sagging skin making them look suspiciously human, but they ultimately treat them as real bears with odd anatomy rather than a hoax. Later, the conversation moves through LK-99 and the speed of scientific debunk...

We can see our boundaries of “The Internet” fading and being lost to time. What does permanence in data mean? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Justin: Audio Hijack Brian: Airplane II: The Sequel Bryce: Paste

The episode opens with a long discussion of LK-99, the South Korean room-temperature superconductor claim. The hosts explain why superconductors would matter for power transmission, motors, microprocessors, and other electrical systems, then compare the situation to cold fusion and stress that the central question is whether the result can be replicated consistently. They discuss the reported magn...

Bryce talks out a new idea for LFG Marbles: a patron race series with changes to appeal to live and video-on-demand viewers. What are the stakes? What are the comps? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

The episode opens with discussion of a false emergency alert in Kleinmachnow outside Berlin about a supposed lioness. The hosts explain that police initially reacted to dark video and public reports, but later concluded the animals were wild boars, and they use the story to talk about misidentification, pattern recognition, and social contagion in sightings. The middle of the episode turns to a st...

Artificial intelligence? P’shaw! Give me artificial languages! What could you do with an artificial or minimal language to benefit humanity? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Mini Language on Medium Bryce: Things app