Actually Useful

We demystify private equity in this first episode of a two-part series. Since the 2008 financial crisis, private equity has pillaged the economy by buying companies and public services. We break down how these shady financial tactics shift money away from payroll, pensions, and long-term investment, and deliver it directly into the pockets of a select few investors and executives. Instead of a Fal...

To mark the end of Google Search, which is soon to be replaced with “immersive AI experiences,” we chat about its history: its innovation era, its slide down the enshittification curve, and the multi-billion dollar industry that tries to reverse engineer its algorithm every day. In Falcon Mode, we tackle solutions for being a more organized homeowner.  Check us out on: ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ |...

This episode, we chat with feminist journalist Lyz Lenz about the agony of dating apps – their deceptive mechanics, the illusion of choice, their impact on gender inequity, and why the f*ck Trevor from Iowa thinks he can do better?? In Falcon Mode, we discuss app options for supporting older friends and family members as they navigate increasingly sophisticated scams.  Check us out on: ⁠Instagram⁠...

We chat with author Justin Feinstein about his new novel, Your Behavior Will Be Monitored, about how weird it is to accidentally predict the future, and the role science fiction plays in defining our expectations of AI. In Falcon Mode, we investigate the surprisingly predatory world of teleprompter apps. Links: justinfeinstein.com or Justin’s instagram Your Behavior Will Be Monitored Flesh and Cod...

We chat with author Kate Crow about the economics and illusions of the self-publishing industry, how Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program has changed both traditional publishing and book culture, and which art form is the polar opposite of AI slop. In Falcon Mode, we tell you how to avoid paying for subscriptions when you inevitably forget to cancel during the free trial period. Links: Til Death Do W...

We chat with Jeremy Carrasco (@jeremyfindsai) about the most common uses of AI-generated video, what to make of the US-Iran meme war, and why beloved intellectual property can only be what it is when it’s created by humans. In Falcon Mode, we chat about the new DualShot Recorder iPhone app, made by @derrickdowneyjr to solve his own frustrating problem.  Links: @jeremyfindsai on TikTok , Instagram...

We chat with Meta whistleblower Kelly Stonelake about Meta’s toxic culture being encoded into their products, how much they’re willing to exploit kids for profit at any cost, and what meaningful social media regulation might look like – especially after the landmark trials Meta lost in the days before we recorded this episode. In Falcon Mode, we chat about tools to help gig workers discover which...

We chat about “human fracking,” how little we actually know about human attention, and the growing Attention Liberation Movement – a radical idea of agency that you’re probably already practicing! In Falcon Mode, we discuss platforms to strengthen renters’ rights. All the books we’ve mentioned in this episode: Attensity! by the Friends of Attention Mutual Aid by Dean Spade How to Do Nothing by Jen...

We chat about the explosive rise of sports betting, the underlying tech that makes it especially insidious, and how relentlessly gambling products are marketed to young men. In Falcon Mode, we give flowers to a hobbyist developer who solved the problem of creeps with smart glasses. Links: VICE Sports’ Out of Bounds, “The Sports Betting Boom” r/problemgambling keeps an incredible wiki of recovery r...

We chat with Natalie Ponte from Libro.fm about generative AI abolitionism, the cult of early big tech, and why book people are so obsessed with Libro.fm, the audiobook platform that supports independent bookstores. In Falcon Mode, we chat about a crowdsourcing tool where people vote on whether or not something includes AI-generated content. Links: Libro.fm   Natalie’s LinkedIn NYT article about wo...

We chat with recruitment fraud expert Jay Jones about scam jobs, the grift of hustle posting, and how LinkedIn profits from unemployment. In Falcon Mode, an app Ariel has imagined for over a decade is finally brought to life. Links: TheProfiler.org and JonesDoYouCopy.com NeighborCats - on iPhone , on Android We’d love to hear from you. Email us at heyactuallyuseful@gmail.com or find us on Instagra...

We chat with AI strategist Allen Martinez about constitutional AI, the cost of multiple AIs conflicting with one another, and how operators tasked with implementing AI can do it without making their product worse. In Falcon Mode, we have another “give me Google but make it actually work” – this time for city cyclists frustrated with Google Maps. Links: Noble Digital , Allen’s personal site , and h...

We chat about Laura Bates’ incredible (and incredibly depressing) new book, The New Age of Sexism: How AI and Emerging Technologies are Reinventing Misogyny. Between deepfakes and nonconsensual image abuse, the child predators propping up the metaverse, and AI “companions” being explicitly marketed as women who can’t fight back… the AI industry is even darker than we thought. In Falcon Mode, we li...

After six months and 12 episodes of Actually Useful, what have we learned? We chat about the worst patterns we saw in tech news this year, the most dangerous lie tech workers tell themselves, and the best heuristics for usefulness that we’ve discovered so far. And then, The Falkies 🏆 – Actually Useful’s first inaugural awards ceremony, where, among other categories, we do the important work of ra...

We chat with JP Candelier, a front-end developer and graphic designer, about how visually and artistically bland today’s tech has become compared to just a decade ago, why private equity firms seem determined to make everything look the same, and which Instagram filters shaped an entire generation’s aesthetic taste. In Falcon Mode, we dig into the pros and cons of a socially connected, gamified ap...

Ariel, AJ, and Producer Josh are finally all together for a very anticipated episode: we’re digging into Cory Doctorow’s new book, Enshittification . We talk about who really owns your shoelaces, how Amazon controls the price of everything you buy everywhere you buy it, and what happens when the company you rent your eyeballs from runs out of business. In Falcon Mode, we discuss how to build a low...

We chat with Michelle Yang, a former PM at Amazon, about the good, the bad, and the ugly of Amazon product development, and how it felt from the inside as this once-beloved shopping platform enshittified. In Falcon Mode, we discuss apps to find free produce. Hana Fields - use ACTUALLY25 for a discount! Ichigo Farms Cosmic Jelly MutualAidHub.org Produce Good We’d love to hear from you. Email us at...

We chat with Alex Sanfilippo, co-founder of PodMatch, about imbuing products with personality, building tech as an act of community care, and how culture is shaped by products that price-gouge creativity. In Falcon Mode, we revisit a previous listener submission with a new suggestion. PodMatch.com Commons (sustainable budgeting app) We’d love to hear from you. Email us at heyactuallyuseful@gmail.c...

We chat with Raj Singh, VP of Product at Mozilla, about AI slop, closed discovery loops, the productization of unsociable behavior, and whether or not popularity is the only metric of usefulness that really matters. In Falcon Mode, we debate the usefulness of an app for finding pro-laptop coffee shops. Solo by Mozilla Disney and the Decline of America’s Middle Class NYT article on “996” culture

Ariel and Producer Josh dive into super spooky surveillance giant Palantir, which powers everything from beverage planning on commercial flights to predictive policing, ICE kidnappings, and literal war. In Falcon Mode, we imagine a more useful way to avoid parking stress.  Links: Does Palantir See Too Much? , a New York Times Magazine article Alex Karp Has Money and Power. So What Does He Want? ,...

We chat with Marcos Moldes, a UX researcher at Monzo, about UX dark patterns, the ethics of freemium, and the peace of working on a product that does what it says it does. In Falcon Mode, we wonder why there isn’t an app that tells you how long the TSA line will be before your flight. Links: Focus Friend & Finch App Monzo the bank & Monzo the rapper 404’s article on Tea , including a scree...

We chat with Sal Mohammed, co-founder of LangSync and founder of healthcare app DOGO, about not letting small businesses get left behind in the AI revolution, the stark reality ahead for middle-market AI tools, and why he’s that rare technologist who sees a problem in his community and just…builds the fix. In Falcon Mode, we tackle 'like Google Search for Google Search,' because apparently...

Ariel and Producer Josh discuss Karen Hao’s book Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI , a chronicle of tech’s current AI fervor and everything left in its wake. Along the way, everything AI tumbles out: Trump banning “woke AI,” whether this AI boom is just a financial illusion or a catastrophic arms race, and the problems for which AI solutions would be actually useful. In Fa...

We chat with Dorian Perron, co-founder of Groover, about democratizing the discovery of new musical artists, measuring “sadness rate,” and the ethical lines he’d never cross for growth. In Falcon Mode, we help a listener find alternatives to shopping on Amazon. Groover Dorian’s Instagram Our outro music this episode is Dorian’s song “Metropolitan” 💖 Additional Resources: Chokepoint Capitalism by...

We chat with Alex, a developer at an audio-first news organization, about the ethics of remote work, how to unionize, avoiding burnout at mission-led companies, and the peculiar relationship between disinformation and outdated UX. In Falcon Mode, we explore a listener’s idea for a combined valet/car expert to reduce the opacity and hassle of getting your car fixed. Additional Resources: Tech Worke...