Weird Things

The episode opens with discussion of SpaceX’s newly reported FAA approval to launch from Boca Chica, Texas. The hosts explain that launch sites need government permission, compare Boca Chica with other regulated sites, and use the moment to talk about the scale of SpaceX’s Starship program, including the massive factories, high bays, and launch towers being built in Texas and Florida. The middle o...

What’s the difference between 5 million views on 1 video and 50,000 views on 100 videos? BeReal, a new social network around once-a-day posting, brings a conversation about being authentic online and how limits differentiate BeReal from Instagram and TikTok. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Blue Apron Justin: The Off-White Album fr...

The episode opens with a long speculative discussion about rogue planets as possible interstellar transports. The hosts describe free-floating planets as something a civilization might ride by mapping trajectories, using geothermal heat under ice, and treating the whole planet like a generation ship. They extend the idea with VR and slowed subjective time, imagining a moving habitat that could car...

Update time: Bryce’s LFG Marbles project is back on and he talks about opening a Patreon, diving right in from zero, and the anxiety of *not* doing it. Brian finally kicks off a project to hold business classes. The freeing feeling of talking to a smaller, select group. Business guru or business guru for sale? Andrew’s experiments with speed-reading inspired a new project for him. Can he solve rea...

The episode opens with the hosts discussing Boeing's Starliner docking at the ISS and using it as a comparison point for NASA's commercial crew program, where SpaceX reached crewed spaceflight sooner and Boeing is still catching up after test-flight issues. That leads into a longer conversation about why SpaceX and Tesla often seem faster and more effective than traditional companies, with the hos...

Slowing down and enjoying something or an international war crime? How is text being handled in a modern age and what could the next information delivery medium look like? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: River Out of Eden from Richard Dawkins Justin: The Pentaverate Brian: Animal Jam Bryce: Knotwords

The episode opens with a long discussion about the human microbiome and the idea that bacteria in the gut, mouth, and skin are integral to human health. The hosts then focus on fecal transplants and related research, including mouse studies suggesting younger donor material may reduce inflammation and improve health, while older material can have negative effects; they also briefly connect this to...

Listener Nate is fascinated by DALL-E 2, but doesn’t know where to start. How can you get into ML/neural net technology and what are good tricks for making the most of self-driven coding education? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Fireship on YouTube Brian: The Book of Niall from Barry Jones on Kickstarter Bryce: Things

The episode begins with a discussion of an Ars Technica piece about highway message signs, especially Texas signs that display the annual road death toll. The hosts weigh whether such alerts and clever roadside messages help or distract drivers, with some arguing that simple, practical information like travel times may be more useful and that overly complex messaging can pull attention away from t...

Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter. Is Twitter inevitable? What are the uncertainties and what can we infer from the little we know? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Pick: Bryce: Killing Time at Lightspeed

The episode opens with a pre-show anecdote about Brian repeatedly trolling a coffee drive-thru, culminating in him theatrically dropping a penny into a hot chocolate in front of a very young worker. From there the hosts move into a discussion of a Florida spider monkey born with a Batman-shaped face marking, joking about whether it looks painted or stenciled and using it as a springboard into ques...

What is present-you doing to help future-you? How do you handle the future–not just preparing, but shaping your future? Success can come from examining other successful people. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

The episode opens with a long discussion of NASA's Space Launch System and its failed wet dress rehearsal. Andrew says the test hit valve, cooling, and sensor problems, leaving most of the liquid hydrogen unloaded, and he argues the program is an outdated, expensive government rocket that should be scrapped rather than preserved by sunk-cost logic. The panel contrasts SLS with newer commercial lau...

Andrew’s latest mystery novel, “Sea Storm,” made the WSJ best-sellers list. What inspired the Underwater Investigation Unit series and Sloan McPherson? Plus, a system to give feedback. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

The episode begins with a roleplayed investigation of a North Dakota fossil site, where the hosts describe a Thescelosaurus leg and fossilized Triceratops skin and joke about what could have caused the remains. They settle into the reported claim that the site preserves evidence from the Chicxulub impact event, including fish, a turtle, a pterosaur embryo in an egg, and glass-like particles in fis...

How to get started and two tools you can use to get the ball rolling: the social media “scary hour” and the classic pomodoro timer technique. How can you organize your work and get unstuck? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” PICKS: Andrew: Anthony Metivier’s video on memory palaces Bryce: Pommie

The episode opens with a discussion of NASA's wet dress rehearsal for the SLS rocket, the Artemis program, and the tension between the expensive, delayed SLS approach and SpaceX's lower-cost reusable systems. The hosts note that SLS has repeatedly run into problems and that Starship is still unproven, while also arguing that having multiple launch providers is strategically useful. They then broad...

World’s Greatest Con’s season 2 finale is out today. How was the process of building this season compared to season 1? Plus, a discussion on the crowd-funding campaign for Brandon Sanderson’s surprise novel series. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

The episode opens with banter about meme culture and shared cultural shorthand, then moves into Andrew's discussion of the Soviet Venus probe and the space race. The hosts connect early space ambitions to Cold War ideology, Soviet engineering strengths, and why some technologies and missions were dismissed before they worked. A long middle section focuses on speculative transport ideas and then CO...

Listener David sends in an update on his guitar-lesson project, Song Notes. What advice can he take away when he takes Song Notes full time? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: The Intelligent Investor from Benjamin Graham Brian: Cordkillers

The invasion of Ukraine has affected space! Is yellow really just yellow? Half of a giraffe makes an astral appearance. Got something weird? Email neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “Weird Things.” Picks: Andrew: Twitter lists Justin: Encanto Brian: Eye Wonder Bryce: F1TV

How do you make free-time and what are the benefits of taking time off? How do you protect the machine and remember you aren’t a machine? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

Blue Origin is ferrying a new celebrity to the edge of space while Elon handles the realities of being a celeb. You hear about this doors and wheels thing? An awful, awful prank. Got something weird? Email neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “Weird Things.” Picks: Andrew: The Cuphead Show! Justin: Our Flag Means Death Bryce: Drive to Survive season 4

TikTok will allow creators to post videos up to 10 minutes long. Bryce shares an experience opting *in* to marketing and what you can take away. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

A new discovery on Mars reminds us of Sting. Our new favorite Twitter account! Smart birds make smart devices very dumb. Reflecting on the passing of The Amazing Johnathan. Got something weird? Email neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “Weird Things.” Picks: Justin: Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy Bryce: Severance and The Righteous Gemstones