After Things Podcast

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 on speculative science fiction ideas about humans adapting to space travel and microgravity. A long middle section turns to AI and mixed-reality tools. Andrew demos the Sol Reader and Quest 3 passthrough, while the hosts discuss how VR and spatial computing might change reading, work, and social presence. They also explore ChatGPT roleplay and image generation, talk about latency and model scaling, compare AI summarization tools and news feeds like RSS, NewsBlur, Twitter/X, and Substack, and debate prompt secrecy, guardrails, and whether AI assistance can feel therapeutic. Later, Brian shares a striking real-world sto

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, life, and AI: Europa's carbon detection and the possibility of independently evolved alien life, panspermia and life spreading between worlds, interstellar probe concepts like Project Starshot, AGI/ASI timelines, fusion commercialization, lunar regolith bricks, and a long back half about ChatGPT, prompt engineering, AI-assisted creativity, comedy writing, and the group’s promo of Andrew Heaton's sci-fi work. Key topics UFOs as socially safe conversation: The hosts say UFOs/UAPs can be easier to discuss because they are not obviously tied to partisan politics, and Justin says he uses ghosts as a similarly low-stakes conv

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 covers the Mexico alien-body story, which the hosts conclude appears to be a hoax or paper-mache-style fabrication, followed by a discussion of how hoaxes and fake artifacts persist because people want to believe. The episode then shifts into practical topics: warning future people about nuclear waste, the history of Sudafed restrictions and the ineffectiveness of phenylephrine, stimulant use and drug policy, and finally a series of picks and a long appreciation of the first Superman films. The picks segment features enthusiastic recommendations for Baldur's Gate 3, The Road to Redonction, and Taskmaster. The episod

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 Bryce: finity.

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 behavior or a stubbornly American spirit of self-determination. The conversation then pivots to a NOAA deep-sea find: a gold-colored orb attached to a rock off Alaska. The hosts speculate about whether it is an egg casing, sponge, coral, amber, or another biological object, and note that rover lighting makes it look fake or CGI-like. A later story about Peruvian villagers reporting 'flying aliens' becomes a more grounded theory involving illegal gold-mining gangs using flyboard or jetpack-style devices, which leads into broader speculation about the technology's capabilities, cost, and uses. In the final segment, the sho

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 debunking, a broader discussion of pessimism about progress, then several space-and-Moon topics including the lunar south pole, water ice, lunar bases, and far-side radio astronomy. The episode ends with picks: Brian recommends Project Hail Mary and The Afterparty, Bryce recommends Planet of the Bass, Andrew recommends Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, and Justin recommends What We Do in the Shadows. Key topics Visual ambiguity of sun bears standing upright: The hosts repeatedly note that sun bears can look like people in costumes because of their posture and body shape, but they conclude they are real bears. Zoo pub

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 magnet behavior, note that tiny samples and experimental error make the evidence hard to interpret, and repeatedly frame the story as exciting but still unproven. Later, the show moves into a puzzle about an electric work vehicle that has supposedly operated for years without needing a battery charge. After a series of jokes and guesses, they identify it as the E-Dumper, a giant electric dump truck in Switzerland that hauls rock from a quarry and recharges on the downhill run while loaded. The episode then shifts into a speculative alien-contact game, where the hosts brainstorm obvious, large-scale messages or structures

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 study on rhesus macaques in Puerto Rico. The hosts discuss reported same-sex behavior, a small heritable component, and possible evolutionary explanations such as alliance-building, increased access to females, or simple aggression/virility, while keeping the interpretation cautious. Later, the hosts cover NASA Plus, an ad-free no-cost streaming service for live mission coverage and original content, and then get sidetracked by an unexplained thumping sound that they joke may be a ghost. The episode closes with Cotard's syndrome and its nihilistic delusions, followed by the usual picks segment. In the picks segment, Ju

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

Andrew opens by talking about how he uses ChatGPT and related tools throughout his work and daily life, arguing that AI is already accelerating coding, research, and other tasks. From there the conversation expands into a speculative case that widespread AI, more abundant intelligence, cheaper manufacturing, and improved energy systems could make a much more expansive future possible, including Starfleet-like space development, orbital habitats, and terraforming. The discussion then turns to the mechanics and scale of space travel, especially the difficulty of slowing down at the destination. Andrew describes beam propulsion and other near-relativistic ideas for reaching places like Alpha Centauri, but emphasizes that braking and destination infrastructure are the hard parts. The second half of the episode shifts into ethics: how to think about non-interference, the prime directive, slavery, genocide, refugees, uncontacted tribes, and whether the right moral response is to preserve cultures or offer individua

A casual extra chat with Dr. Daniel Simons about diagnosticians, expertise information, and Andrew’s blockbuster formula to make best-selling book. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Be sure to check out Dr. Simons’s “Nobody’s Fool”

The episode is a conversation with Dan Simons about his book Nobody's Fool and the general ways people get deceived. The discussion moves through examples from chess cheating, fraudulent research data, social media sharing, and everyday scams to show how suspicious regularity, incentives, and expectation bias can hide deception or honest mistakes. Evidence includes the chess tournament anecdote, the odometer study fraud case, and the repeated emphasis on truth bias and confirmation bias (L33-L34, L41-L49, L77-L85, L109-L110, L169-L170). A second major thread is practical skepticism: when it is worth checking carefully, when it is impossible or undesirable to distrust everything, and what kinds of controls can help. The speakers use the Van Halen brown M&M story as a positive control, discuss allergies and expensive purchases as high-stakes cases, and end by recommending the book and bookshop.org. Evidence includes the trust/limits discussion, the positive-control example, the allergy and art examples, and the

Streaming has taken a new turn the past few years, but it likely won’t be an extension of the early-COVID explosive growth and spending. Netflix is now an old dog and things like Jury Duty are taking way more cultural cache than The Rings of Power. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Kindle Scribe Justin: Detroiters Brian: The Righteous Gemstones Bryce: Pocket City 2

The episode opens with discussion of Apple Vision Pro and related VR/AR questions, including improved resolution, hand tracking, pupil tracking, developer interest, possible future controllers, and the idea that Apple is trying to avoid framing it as a gaming-first device. The hosts also compare headset use to everyday life across phones, tablets, computers, Kindles, and TVs, arguing that new devices have to fit into a broader multi-screen ecosystem rather than replace everything. A long middle section focuses on Threads and other post-Twitter platforms, with the hosts criticizing algorithmic feeds, account-locking behavior tied to Instagram, and the difficulty of building real community on social apps. They then move into UAP/UFO skepticism and a moon-landing-hoax argument, emphasizing how artifacts, imaging systems, and weak skepticism can create misleading conclusions. The episode closes with a comedic cell-culture sabotage bit, then picks for Far Cry 6, The Idol, and Blinkist. Key topics Apple Vision Pro

VR, MR, XR, A-Arrrrgh, or maybe, just maybe…maybe. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

The episode opens with discussion of Virgin Galactic's first paying passenger flight and broadens into a comparison with OceanGate's Titan disaster. The hosts emphasize the difference between a new but real spaceflight capability and a submersible tragedy that, in their view, ignored known engineering limits, especially around carbon fiber fatigue and other structural risks. They also explain what suborbital flight means in practice, including that these vehicles go roughly straight up, cross the Karman line, and land near where they launched. The conversation then turns to the economics and future of commercial space tourism, including whether Virgin Galactic can remain viable as SpaceX and Blue Origin push different models. After that, the episode shifts into a long film-and-franchise discussion about sequels, Indiana Jones, and Marvel crossover fatigue, ending with several clear picks: Asteroid City, Satya Pram Ki Katha, a Sunday Times podcast on COVID origins, and a Doom mod video essay. Key topics Virgin