After Things Podcast

How do you get an opportunity in a time of high convenience and tech? To get started, who has to tell you yes? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Bryce: Real Sports, July 2022 – Sumo and Habits on iOS

The episode opens with the hosts returning to the Georgia Guidestones after news that the monument had been damaged by an explosion. They walk through the inscriptions one by one, treating the stones as controversial late-20th-century art and debating the meanings of its population, reproduction, language, governance, law, rights, and abstract moral guidelines. The back half shifts from joking about the stones and the explosion to a more serious discussion of how people interpret information, including the value of reading primary sources and the problem of willful misunderstanding online. That leads into a reflective conversation about criticism, baggage, and compassion, and then into the pick segment, where they recommend a novel, a TV show, and a pair of educational YouTube resources about puzzles and math. Key topics Georgia Guidestones controversy and inscriptions: The hosts discuss the Georgia Guidestones after noting that they had been damaged by an explosion. They read several inscriptions directly fr

The episode opens with the hosts celebrating the end of the "weird wars" and then spending much of the first half discussing the first James Webb Space Telescope images. They talk about gravitational lensing in the SMACS 0723 deep field, the telescope's six-point diffraction spikes, the Southern Ring Nebula in near- and mid-infrared, the Carina Nebula, and Stephan's Quintet, including mention of a dual-star system, an active black hole, and many newly visible stars. The conversation then moves into broader space speculation, including NASA's release strategy, the telescope's expected longevity, the idea of simulated exploration versus physically traveling to other galaxies, and possible orbital solar-energy projects. After that, the episode covers a story about pocket gophers possibly practicing agriculture, a Bass Pro Shops class action over sock warranty changes, and ends with recommendations for The Old Man, Bad Sport: Need for Weed, and The Bob's Burgers Movie, followed by a short discussion of AI-generat

Brian held his first class on being a creative and story-telling. How did it go? How much confidence does he have for it? What goals did he hit and what’s next? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

The episode opens with Andrew Mayne describing a YouTube creator, Mashpo, who made a one-dimensional game and then pushed the idea toward a 4D Minecraft project. The hosts unpack what it would mean to perceive a world as a thin strip or a slice, compare it to barcode-like visuals and anaglyph 3D, and discuss whether humans could adapt to higher-dimensional perception using new sensory cues and neuroplasticity. Andrew also ties the discussion to educational games and how such projects could help people, especially younger learners, build intuition for higher-dimensional thinking. The conversation then moves into AI image generation, especially DALL·E. Andrew says newer versions can generate convincing red-blue anaglyph 3D images and can respond to camera-lens and macro-photography language, while the group debates whether the system is just a toy or something more useful. They discuss prompting strategy, reporting outputs that miss expectations or show bias, and the value of tools that better understand user i

How do you keep track of reminders? Email, notes, whiteboards, what works for us? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

The episode opens with a recap of a friendly wager about when SpaceX Starship will be reused and safely land after a second launch. The hosts discuss Starship progress, the FAA's finding of no significant impact, remaining regulatory items, Elon Musk's July launch remark, and SpaceX's rapid production ambitions, including talk of building one Starship per day and using Starbase to build the fleet for Mars. A large portion of the episode is devoted to the Wow signal and broader SETI-style speculation. The hosts describe the signal as a strong, unresolved candidate for alien contact, discuss why repeatability is difficult in astronomy, and then widen the conversation to beacons, Dyson spheres, interstellar messaging, and the possibility of advanced civilizations communicating across the galaxy. The episode also covers Voyager 1 and 2 powering down after decades in space, with reflection on their extraordinary longevity and legacy. Key topics FAA approval and remaining Starship hurdles: The FAA's finding of no s

We’re back and we are imagining training artificial intelligence to create dynamic media that can be rewritten, recut, and A/B tested in realtime. What would a post-scarcity world look like post-tech-singularity? A future where real-time media modification could be automatic–that’s coming from a world where animatronics can do human-sized stunts on a theme park schedule. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Coffeezilla on YouTube Justin: Dennis Miller Live Brian: Harvard’s Python courses Bryce: Airtable

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 of the episode turns into a long joke-driven segment about a Raleigh-area pest-control study offering $2,000 for people to let 100 cockroaches live in their home for 30 days. The hosts debate the risks, the legality and nuisance of it, and then call Brian’s mom and Bryce on-air, both of whom refuse the offer even when the amount is escalated to a billion dollars. Key topics FAA regulation for SpaceX launches: The hosts say Boca Chica launch operations require FAA approval and note that even other launch sites involve regulatory review. Starship infrastructure and reusable rocket manufacturing: Andrew describes SpaceX’

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 from Dennis Miller Brian: Hacks Bryce: Airtable

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 carry people between star systems while keeping them entertained or comfortable. From there the conversation moves into metaphysical speculation about simulations and nested realities, then into a stretch of joking about Avatar, tentacles, and the Papyrus font meme. The back half of the episode becomes a broad grab bag of science-fiction and pop-culture commentary: praise for Meg as a self-aware giant-shark movie, discussion of megalodon extinction theories, fusion-powered planetary engineering, moon-etched information archives, criticism of expensive entertainment projects being asked to be charity, and recommendations

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 reading? Expert business gurus and marbles guys say “yes!” Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

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 hosts emphasizing engineering culture, vertical integration, and practical problem-solving over formal corporate assumptions. From there the conversation moves into supply chains and just-in-time manufacturing, with the hosts arguing that those systems can work well during periods of rapid expansion but become fragile when shortages, supplier power, or market tightening appear. The middle of the episode also includes a listener animal-sighting mystery that the hosts explain as likely a mundane creature seen badly at night, and then a second long section about data loss versus compression, foveated rendering, and the ide

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 blood donation and the possibility that regular donation may trigger the body to replenish blood in a way that offers some rejuvenation-related benefit. A large portion of the episode is devoted to speed reading and reading-comprehension experiments. Andrew Mayne describes RSVP/Spritz-style one-word presentation, then argues that chunking words into phrases or clauses may work better, citing an older study and his own experimentation. The conversation broadens into accessibility, captions, emoji, text-to-speech, and other ways of adding context, and the episode concludes with picks including the movie Everything Eve

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 the road. Later, the conversation moves through several science and psychology topics: a study about who dislikes magic, research on how people generate "random" choices, and a broader reflection on free will, rationalization, and bias. The back half of the episode turns into media recommendations, including enthusiastic discussion of Severance, The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, Not Words, and Yellowstone season four, along with praise for strong internal logic in fiction. Key topics Highway message signs and driver distraction: The hosts debate whether variable highway signs and safety messages help or distract drive

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 questions about the ethics of cosmetic changes to animals. That animal-marking discussion expands into a broader moral debate about human genetic modification, concierge IVF, and whether adding a cosmetic corporate-style mark would be acceptable if paired with advantages like health or intelligence. The conversation then shifts into sponsorships, scholarships, and controversial naming, and later into a long segment on cryptocurrency, money, inflation, proof-of-work versus proof-of-stake, fusion power, climate optimism, and the social and political resistance that can shape how new technologies are judged. In the back hal

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.”