Episode 230 - Dog Singularity
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen would have liked to spend the whole episode talking about dogs, specifically Yoko. Alas, the new cycles will not allow us that luxury. So we discuss being nice to Claude, being superintelligence to dogs, the Matter Complier, the ugliness of livestreaming an execution by firing squad, and whatever that is going on with MAGA in Texas. For our WAWC, Noam recommends the game Well Dweller, a fun Metroidvania game that doesn’t make you want to throw your controller. Jen recommends the book Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, since we are apparently rehabbing Elizabeth Holmes and we...
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Episode 229 - K Drama
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam have a nice long chat about the FlyDubai airplane hijacking, Jacob Geller’s weird Title IX admission, the whole mess at Cornell, and Eric Schmitt’s publicity stunt gone awry. For our WAWC, Noam talks about Lanterns again now that the season is over, specifically about how the internet is wrong about the show (but what’s new). Jen is happy that The Apothecary Diaries is back (so is Noam), and we both explain that the show isn’t just for the ladies but is in fact a pretty hefty drama.
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Episode 228 - Artificial Intransigence
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen get to have the conversation about the upcoming AI apocalypse that they were going to have last week until Nikole Hannah-Jones ruined everything. We discuss AI doomerism, AI CEOs warning of impending doom yet doing nothing to stop it, how AI isn’t a sentient being, and how we’re not all going to die from AI. For our WAWC, Jen doesn’t have anything because we’re in the dead time between anime seasons, but Noam has two fun puzzle games for you - Dimhaven and Penelope Pendrick and the Art of Deceit. We also have a little discussion about if it’s finally time to upgrade to...
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Episode 227 - Failing Grade
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam are finally back! Just in time to discuss Nikole Hannah-Jones’ big piece on how she was an inattentive parent who left her kid in a bad school because reasons. OK, that’s our interpretation of what happened, not hers, not that she seems to have learned anything from the experience either. Nevertheless, she is persisting, along with some of her supporters. Since it has been so long since we recorded we have a bit of a grab bag of WAWC - Noam is still watching Lanterns and ignoring the online discourse, and Jen went and saw Akira in IMAX when it was showing. Jen...
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Episode 226 - Harp Attack
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen are back to discuss navigating DC during Freedom 250 events, Trump’s continuing ballroom saga, if we will see a constitutional amendment in our lifetimes, the very weird case of Natalie Harp and her obsession with being close to Trump, Jen’s big theory as to who leaked all these stories, and the never-ending Arday apologia. For our WAWC, Noam assures us that the new HBO Plus series Lanterns is actually good, and Jen pitches you on going through the trouble of seeing The Odyssey in IMAX. Programming note - we will be taking a few weeks off, since Noam has moving chores...
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Episode 225 - Arday of Reckoning
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam discuss a little Francesca Hong and the general woes of the DSA crowd before getting into the end of the Jason Arday saga. On that topic there is a lot to unpack; where Cambridge went wrong, the responsibility Arday holds for his own actions, blaming “online mobs” for repeating factual information, and the consequences Arday was not going to face for his many egregious lies. In all of that we also discuss Luigi Mangione’s guilty plea and the case of Lindsay Clancy. For our WAWC, Noam is re-reading the novel Neuromancer in anticipation of the upcoming Apple TV...
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Episode 224 - Gaming The System
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen know that 2026 is hard and scary and that everyone wants to return to 2020. But alas, we do have to discuss the things happening in 2026, like El-Sayed’s very slim win in the Michigan Democrat primary for Senate. As per usual the polling was wrong. The problem is, the polling was very, very wrong and people are starting to ask questions about if that happens for less than honest purposes. Speaking of manipulation, Twitter announced that they will be rolling out a new content creator payment system that seems designed to demonetize those who aren’t providing anything of...
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Episode 223 - The Web Of AI
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam take a (slight) break from discussing the depressing political news to talk about important things, like the controversies surrounding data centers and generative AI and the new Spider-Man movie. Important things. We get a bit into the drama surrounding the YouTube content creator Hank Green, who has for some reason self canceled over his sin of….using ChatGPT to do his grunt work so that he can have more time to make more content. Yeah, we don’t understand either. We also get into the thornier issue of authors allegedly using genAI in their writing, which has become a...
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Episode 222 - Beware Geeks Bearing Grifts
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen spend a little time talking about things like Iran and what’s going on now before getting into the most important topic of the year: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Spoiler alert - it’s a good movie and will win many awards. We discuss the movie itself and, of course, the extremely weird online reactions to the movie and its success. Just a good, old fashioned Ambitious Crossover Attempt episode, like we used to be able to make before everything went pear shaped.
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Episode 221 - The Mainechurian Candidate
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam record a day late because they were busy mourning the loss of Lindsey Graham. OK not really, but we did have to push back recording to make sure we could get a full headcount on current GOP leadership and their health status. Luckily Mitch McConnell also made an appearance (kinda) after being MIA for a month, but it’s fair to say we have a bit of an old man problem going on. As for the other Graham that left us last week, Graham Platner’s Senate run finally came down in flames after Politico ran the story the NYT wouldn’t detailing the sexual assault allegations...
info_outlineJen and Noam return to the war (it’s a war now, the president said so) in Iran, including the additional strikes completed by Israel on the Assembly of Experts. What they are experts in we’re not sure, obviously not in Zoom. We also talk about how we still don’t have an explanation for why the US attacked Iran, let alone an idea of what all of this is supposed to accomplish or what the endpoint is. Not ideal for a situation where the president is flippantly discussing how people die in war.
Speaking of war, TwitX has decided to declare war on AI slop war videos. Naturally, some people think this is some nefarious plot to hide from the world that Israel is destroyed, because surely the internet wouldn’t lie to them. Then again, Trump is posting that Iran is destroyed, so there is that.
For our WAWC, Noam recommends Slay The Spire II which is finally out on early release on Steam. It has already consumed hours of his life, and we may not see him for a while. Jen recommends the anime Oshi No Ko and wonders about what makes a story ending bad vs just not what you wanted it to be.