You’re meeting us at a ‘very Chinese time in our lives’ and today’s episode is no exception — it’s all about China. First, Oz explains China’s attempt to claw a Singaporean AI company, Manus, back from Meta. And why Chinese customs are rejecting NVIDIA H200 chips. Is China fighting back? Then, Karah fills us in on why everyone on TikTok is saying they are Chinese. Finally, humans fold laundry for hours while humanoid robots just watch, TikTok launches a new app for microdramas and Silicon Valley...
Jan 23, 2026•33 min
Ever wonder why Gen Z is so obsessed with Millennial culture? Casey Lewis can tell you. She’s a trend researcher and author of “After School,” a Substack newsletter about youth and internet culture. Casey joins Karah to discuss why Gen Z is doubling down on nostalgia and buying up analog products. She runs through the latest trends you may have seen, but didn’t understand… And she unpacks why Gen Alpha might not feel the need to get away from their screens. Additional Reading: Nostalgia Economy ...
Jan 21, 2026•30 min
What would you do if AI took your clothes off? Elon Musk’s AI model, Grok, will strip women of their clothes when prompted and the results are all over X.com. “Nudify” apps and communities have been doing this for years, but now it’s trending on one of the biggest social media platforms out there. And no one is protected—even children. Karah sits down with Samantha Cole from 404 Media to discuss how X and authorities are responding, the societal implications of this trend and why it’s so concern...
Jan 16, 2026•26 min
Hey entrepreneurs! Your favorite hosts Jannese Torres (Yo Quiero Dinero & Financially Lit!) and Austin Hankwitz (Rate of Return & Rich Habits) are back for Season 4 of “Mind the Business: Small Business Success Stories", brought to you by iHeartMedia’s Ruby Studio in partnership with Intuit QuickBooks. This time around, we're diving deep with more exciting small business owners at the cutting edge of their fields. We'll be discussing overcoming challenges and celebrating successes – as w...
Jan 15, 2026•2 min
Eliot Peper gets paid to dream about the future. He’s a science fiction writer who has stumbled into an unusual position: writing speculative fiction for Fortune 500 companies. He is also the Head of Story at Portola, which is an AI-companion company. Eliot is responsible for developing a whole new alien culture and forming the personalities of your new favorite AI creature. Karah and Eliot discuss the overlap between art and AI, what science fiction reveals about our current reality, and how he...
Jan 14, 2026•31 min
NASA and IBM have developed advanced AI foundation models that analyze satellite data to reveal patterns across Earth and beyond. These tools are already driving real‑world impact, from helping Kenya plan the planting of 15 billion trees to enabling the UK to track harmful algae blooms. This collaboration provides strategic insights for climate action, environmental monitoring, and emergency response. This is a paid advertisement from IBM. The conversations on this podcast don't necessarily repr...
Jan 13, 2026•34 min
Would you live in a zero labor home – with a robot? This week, the latest trends and gadgets coming out of CES in Las Vegas and what Karah learned about consenting to biometric surveillance at a Wegmans. Then, Oz takes us to a peptide rave and Karah unveils how influencers and OnlyFans models are getting US visas — they can thank John Lennon. If you’ve used a chatbot in an unusual or surprising way, send us a 1–2 minute voice note at techstuffpodcast@gmail.com . Additional Reading: What to expec...
Jan 09, 2026•29 min
What’s your New Year’s Resolution? We want to help you keep it. The Verge’s senior tech reviewer, Victoria Song, joins the pod to tell us what tech can help you develop better habits, which wearable is worth buying, and why a new mattress could change your whole sleep game. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 07, 2026•27 min
What was your tech takeaway in 2025? And what is going to be the big story in 2026? Oz sits down with the author of The Running Ground and The Atlantic ’s CEO, Nicholas Thompson, to discuss the odd intersection between tech and religion, the tech to compensate media companies for AI training data, who OpenAI’s real rival is, why we don’t understand how AI works, and much, much more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jan 02, 2026•30 min
Could you resist falling for an AI companion? We’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes of 2025: author and journalist Sam Apple takes us on romantic getaway for people who are in love with their AI companions He wrote a piece for Wired about what he observed that weekend, whether the love between humans and AI is real, and what the future of dating could look like in a world with AI companions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 31, 2025•30 min
One of the companies you couldn’t ignore this year was NVIDIA, so we’re re-airing a conversation Oz had with Stephen Witt, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and author of The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, NVIDIA, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip . They discuss what’s made NVIDIA the most valuable chip company in the world, how a single piece of hardware changed the world forever, and why data centers are shrouded in so much secrecy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...
Dec 26, 2025•37 min
What was your internet obsession this year? Karah is joined by writer and podcast host, Aminatou Sow, to talk about what they watched — and what rotted their brains — in 2025. They talk about niche internet obsessions, vertical shorts, AI depicting the oldest generation, and the never-ending Wicked press tour. Additional Reading/Watching: Exploring My Mustard Collection | Tiktok Scottish Weather Rant | TikTok Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande vs Lie Detector | Vanity Fair Cynthia Erivo and Arian...
Dec 24, 2025•26 min
Are you a gift go-getter, or a holiday procrastinator? This week, Karah spoke with Kyle Chayka, tech writer for The New Yorker and author of the book “Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture”. They talk about his gadget gift guide, how analog products are back in style, and why books are his preferred gift of choice. Oz also shares the hottest toy of the year: a console that helps the whole family stay active. Additional Reading: The Hottest Toy of the Year Is Made by a Tech Startup You’ve...
Dec 19, 2025•28 min
Is nuclear fusion the clean energy we need? Oz speaks with Commonwealth Fusion Systems' scientist and engineer Alex Creely and fashion designer Gabriela Hearst about why the public should get excited about nuclear fusion. Together, they discuss what it will take to commercialize fusion, how Gabriela’s 2022 fashion show changed the public conversation, and whether we’ll have nuclear fusion by 2030. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 17, 2025•29 min
Should LLMs monitor crime? This week, Oz tells us why the US pharmaceutical industry may have competition… and why we’ve yet to see a flood of new products from AI drug discovery companies. Then, Karah explains how a telecommunications company is feeding recordings of inmate phone calls into LLMs that can then monitor future calls for planned crimes. Also, the UK government wants to cross-reference CCTV footage with the passport photo database, there’s a new self-made female billionaire in town ...
Dec 12, 2025•32 min
What does the death of restaurants look like? Ellen Cushing, staff writer for The Atlantic , joins Karah to talk about the rise of delivery apps and the fall of the in-person dining experience. They discuss how delivery apps became part of the millennial lifestyle subsidy, how they reshaped what’s on the menu, and why this feels all too similar to what’s happening to movie theaters. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 10, 2025•25 min
Is unplugging from your phone the ultimate luxury? This week, Oz introduces us to the businesses that specialize in “dimming the sun” and Karah introduces us to “LinkedIn Face.” Polymarket’s bets lead to disinformation about Russia’s war with Ukraine. 23andMe reveals secret families — and secret inheritances. And Oz and Karah almost cry over the latest invention from Japan: a human washing machine. Finally, we celebrate ChatGPT’s 3rd birthday (and possible decline) with Axios technology reporter...
Dec 05, 2025•34 min
Can you run a billion dollar company with only one human employee? Journalist Evan Ratliff, along with technical advisor Maty Bohacek, join Oz to answer this question. Evan is host of the hit podcast Shell Game. In Season 1, he used AI agents to imitate his voice, which he sent out into the world to interact with customer service agents, scammers, and his own family and friends. This season, Evan co-founds a company… and employs five AI agents to keep it running. How effective are the agents at ...
Dec 03, 2025•28 min
This is the first episode of the second season of Shell Game. Journalist Evan Ratliff tells a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age; or, how he tried to build a real company, run by fake people. Meet Kyle Law and Megan Flores, Evan’s AI agent cofounders, as he puts to the test the claims about an emerging future in which AI employees work alongside — or instead of — humans. Over the course of the season, the three cofounders will grind it out in a sprint that would sound familiar to any start-...
Nov 28, 2025•34 min
This week, what does defense technology look like in 2025? Oz talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dexter Filkins about his recent piece in The New Yorker titled “Is the US ready for the next war?” They discuss how the Ukraine and Israel are reimagining what warfare looks like in the 21st century, Silicon Valley’s race toward fully autonomous killer robots, and how it all might affect the potential conflict in Taiwan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Nov 26, 2025•33 min
Would you buy a boat or a midcentury sideboard from your high school pals? Because Oz’s alma mater has opened an exclusive online marketplace for just this purpose! This week, Oz spins a yarn about Kitkat, the San Francisco cat killed by a Waymo. Locals are furious. Karah fills us in on Blued and Finka, the gay dating apps being censored by the Chinese government. Tech bros are obsessed with building statues, the FBI tries to unmask the owner of a popular internet archiving site, and we check ou...
Nov 21, 2025•33 min
This week, Oz talks to Nick McKeown, who is a member of the PM’s Council of Science and Technology, where he advises the British government on the best opportunities for economic growth in the tech sector. And according to Nick, that opportunity is AI Chips. He argues that the UK is in a good position to take second place in the race to design the next generation of AI chips and lays out how the British government can help make that happen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Nov 19, 2025•31 min
Malcolm Gladwell heads to San Francisco Tech Week to talk with IBM’s new Director of Research Jay Gambetta in front of a live audience. They discuss IBM’s plans to scale quantum computing power, the groundbreaking experiments already underway, and what impact these new computers could have on chemistry, medicine, and even finance. This is a paid advertisement from IBM. The conversations on this podcast don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions. Visit us at https://www.i...
Nov 18, 2025•54 min
This week, we dive deep into the future of prosthetics. Karah speaks with Jim Ashworth-Beaumont, who lost his arm in a traumatic bike accident. Most people upon recovery would be given a traditional prosthetic arm, but Jim is something of an expert in prosthetics and his peers have outfitted him with an experimental, high-tech device. He talks about how his work in orthotics influenced his own rehabilitation, the limitations of traditional prosthetics, and how the science fiction fantasy of rest...
Nov 14, 2025•26 min
This week, Oz sits down with Stephen Witt, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and author of The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, NVIDIA, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip. They’ll discuss what's made NVIDIA the most valuable chip company in the world — and the most valuable publicly traded company, period. And how a single piece of hardware changed the world forever, and its journey to existence — from a sketch on a Denny’s napkin to powering data centers the size of Central Park. Then...
Nov 12, 2025•36 min
Do school cell phone bans actually work? This week, Oz tells us why Europe is investing so heavily in defense tech and why one company is investing in cockroaches… Karah introduces us to Billboard’s first charting AI musician, Xania Monet — and the humans that make her possible. Google dreams of data centers in space, school phone bans are making libraries more popular, and France’s DNA database catches the Louvre thieves. Then on Chat and Me, the National Women’s Soccer League gets comfortable ...
Nov 07, 2025•30 min
404 Media ’s Joseph Cox joins Oz to discuss his extensive reporting on the technology ICE is using in the agency’s mass deportation efforts. Joseph sheds light on how widespread ICE’s reach is, from facial recognition to location tracking to information databases. And the shift in how major tech companies are interacting with this current Trump administration. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 05, 2025•26 min
Do you find facelifts frightening? This week, we celebrate sp0o0ky Halloween by NOT having a party at an AirBnB. Oz unpacks the gadget-filled poker scandal, and Karah contemplates the importance of international accents. Tesla’s new full self-driving profile,“Mad Max” mode, breaks traffic laws. And the scariest thing of all: AI has its own will to survive. Finally, on Chat and Me, Fortune’s Eva Roytburg shares her experience with an AI wearable — the ‘Friend’ pendant. Additional Reading: AirBnB ...
Oct 31, 2025•30 min
Ever feel like tech is actually fueling your worries? This week, we explore the murky world of parenting tech and pregnancy apps with Amanda Hess, who is the author of “Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age” and a writer-at-large for the New York Times covering technology and internet culture. Amanda shares with Karah how pregnancy changed her relationship to technology, discusses the blurry line between pregnancy tech and eugenics, and explains why pregnancy apps aren't actually that h...
Oct 29, 2025•28 min
Malcolm Gladwell sits down with IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna in a special live episode of Smart Talks with IBM. They discuss the groundbreaking potential of quantum computing, the transformative impact of AI on business, and how Krishna’s visionary predictions from the 90s continue to guide IBM’s innovations. This is a paid advertisement from IBM. The conversations on this podcast don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions. Visit us at https://www.ibm.com/think/po...
Oct 28, 2025•53 min
