Best A Couple Bots Podcasts (2026)

10 years ago, Justin found himself on the side of the road with a blown out tire. Hours went by and no one stopped to help. But just as he was about to give up, something happened that changed Justin forever. This episode was originally published on Nov. 13, 2020. ***Survey alert: Tell us what you love about the show, what you want more of; what yo…

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Year In Tech: Will There Be An AI Catastrophe In 2026? 30:11

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3d ago30:11

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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 …

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Talking Comics Podcast: Issue #734 - THE TC BEST OF 2025, Part Three: Return of the First Family 1:13:15

5d ago1:13:15

1:13:15

Issue #734 - THE TC BEST OF 2025, Part Three: Return of the First Family Download Directly From iTunes NOW on SPOTIFY! Hip hip... NEW YEAR! Well, not yet--as long as it's still 2025, we still have some BEST OF 2025 to share with all of you! This week, John and Bob share all of their favorite things from the past year, including John's undying passi…

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TechStuff Redux: Inside a Couples Retreat for AI Companions 30:24

6d ago30:24

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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 d…

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Episode 232: The Very Private Digital New Year Episode 35:47

9m ago35:47

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Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy DeleteMe

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Skiing in … 2023?! 13:02

7d ago13:02

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Archival footage! Cause it’s vacation!!By Fully Functional Parents

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Encore: Never Gonna Give You Up 43:55

43m ago43:55

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Who gets credit for starting a meme? Usually... nobody — they're made too quickly and organically. In the case of one of the most famous bait-and-switch memes of all time, the "Rick Roll," we may be looking at something experts call convergent evolution. Did the Rick Roll originate with a piece of code on the message board 4Chan, or with a prank ca…

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TechStuff Redux: Will NVIDIA Save or Ruin The World? 36:39

11d ago36:39

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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 singl…

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DK Metcalf, Come On Now!!! 19:48

4h ago19:48

19:48

Squandered potential!!By Fully Functional Parents

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Talking Comics Podcast: Issue #733 - THE TC BEST OF 2025, Part Two: The Hive Strikes Back 1:27:20

12d ago1:27:20

1:27:20

Talking Comics Podcast: Issue #733 - THE TC BEST OF 2025, Part Two: The Hive Strikes Back Download Directly From iTunes NOW on SPOTIFY! 'Twas the night before Christmas, and the BEST OF 2025 TC Episodes keep rolling on! This week, Joey and Bronwyn take us through their 2025 highlights, including Joey's desperate search for redemption in the X-men c…

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The Year in Brainrot 25:49

13d ago25:49

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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…

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Holiday Gifts and Rick Moranis Giving Me the Tingles… 15:57

1d ago15:57

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What a pain in the ass!By Fully Functional Parents

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Episode 231: WTH 2025: Laptop Farms, Campus Cults, and the End of Anonymity 46:30

13d ago46:30

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From AI regulation fights and North Korean laptop farms to Nigerian campus cults, the human toll of online crime, and the death of online anonymity it's time to review the year in cyber stories—the good, the bad, the unimaginable, and what to do when "they" come for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

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We Went to College! 19:32

3d ago19:32

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And sometimes it was hard and lonely!By Fully Functional Parents

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Stuffing Your Stocking! 12:57

6d ago12:57

12:57

And be a Tom, not a Fredo!By Fully Functional Parents

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Happy Gadget Season To All Who Celebrate! 27:59

17d ago27:59

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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 hottes…

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Lost without you: 20 years of finding (losing?) our way with Google Maps 33:15

6d ago33:15

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2025 marks 20 years of Google Maps — a tool that many of us would be, quite literally, lost without. We hear from New Orleanians who used Google Maps/Google Earth in its inaugural year to survey the damage to their homes following Hurricane Katrina. We also talk to the internet's Map Men, who ask whether "the best maps humanity has ever produced ar…

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#189 – A Short One – The Game Awards Results, GOTY Prep 18:33

19d ago18:33

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Nick and Josh sit down for a quick episode to determine who won The Game Awards competition and to pick the January Book Club Game. Sorry the episode is so short folks, we’re in the middle of recording our Game of the Year Episodes. In lieu of ratings and reviews we say … FUCK THE ALGORITHM, TELL A FRIEND! We have a new website! Come check it out! …

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Talking Comics Podcast: Issue #732 - THE TC BEST OF 2025, Part One: A New Kind of Hero 1:22:31

20d ago1:22:31

1:22:31

Issue #732 - THE TC BEST OF 2025, Part One: A New Kind of Hero Download Directly From iTunes NOW on SPOTIFY! It's the most wonderful time of the year! The gang's all here for the annual BEST OF 2025 conversations! For the next few weeks, your favorite TC co-hosts will share their favorite comics, movies, TV shows, and other comics-adjacent media fr…

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The Story: Will Nuclear Fusion Save the World? 29:01

19d ago29:01

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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 conversati…

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Aaron’s Super Power: Seeing Farts! 12:31

8d ago12:31

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And midget mayhem?!By Fully Functional Parents

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David’s Assessment of 4th Grade Girls: A Family Heirloom?! 16:08

9d ago16:08

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And living in a cold climate!! Tom and Jerry’s for all!!By Fully Functional Parents

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Episode 230: The Cursor Moved at 2 A.M. 52:56

21d ago52:56

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A deadbolt clicks. This email, that voice--they sound all right. Then things go sideways. This week, 911 Cyber CEO Marc Raphael joins the pod to explore how AI makes scams faster, smoother, and harder to spot, and what you can do to stay hard to hit in the new threatscape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

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The Pope-ener!! 11:41

10d ago11:41

11:41

The only thing worth saving?!By Fully Functional Parents

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The drone web: how consumer drones have covered Ukraine's battle lines with fiber optic cable 38:31

13d ago38:31

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There's a lot of drone warfare footage on the internet from Ukraine and Russia. But over the last year, a surprising change has emerged, via photos from the battlefront posted online. It has become clear that a huge part of the drone war, from dropping grenades on soldiers in bunkers, to dropping explosives on infrastructure or airfields, is wired.…

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Week In Tech: Would You Rather Live in a World with No Privacy or No Crime? 31:31

25d ago31:31

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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 crime…

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What’s Your Superpower?! 12:57

15d ago12:57

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And ?!By Fully Functional Parents

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#188 - Ozempic Dr. Eggman - We Predict The Game Awards Winners 1:19:08

27d ago1:19:08

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Nick and Josh predict the winners of The Game Awards. Josh explains the difference between a Mega Man X and a Mega Man Zero. Nick has played Horses and it left him saying “what the hey?” about all this censorship. In lieu of ratings and reviews we say … FUCK THE ALGORITHM, TELL A FRIEND! We have a new website! Come check it out! https://www.smashin…

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Talking Comics Podcast: Issue #731: Juggling Lots of Balls 1:34:22

27d ago1:34:22

1:34:22

Issue #731: Juggling Lots of Balls Download Directly From iTunes NOW on SPOTIFY! It’s the WINTER OF JOHN as John returns to the show this week with thoughts on Matt Fraction’s Batman and Hoya Oku’s Gantz!!! Bob and Joey come along for the ride with even more comics talk. But before all that, did you hear a bunch of billionaires were swapping billio…

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The Story: The Death of Dining In 24:58

27d ago24:58

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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 w…

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The Diary of Trans Jenika: My Friend's Wife and Her Panties 3:10

16d ago3:10

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Jenika shares a new update on her personal transformation, sending a message to Miss Brat about a moment that pushed her deeper into her hidden desires. In this story, she reflects on an unexpected discovery that challenged her identity, stirred emotions she had kept buried, and marked another step in embracing who she truly is.…

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Doubling Up with an Ode to Montreal!! 20:03

17d ago20:03

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We love you, you frozen icy tundra!!By Fully Functional Parents

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Episode 229: Why Most Cybersecurity Advice Is Wrong 46:51

28d ago46:51

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How do you stay safe online? (Wrong answers only.) Avoid public Wi-Fi, QR codes, charging stations. Cyber OG Bob Lord (Yahoo, DNC, CISA) wrote an open letter tackling the real harm caused by bad advice, and offering a better path with proven practices to stay safe online. Check out https://www.hacklore.org/letter Learn more about your ad choices. V…

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Episode 96: Hitman Blood Money 56:42

17d ago56:42

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Nicky and Eric do their best to imitate a highly trained assassin with pickup lines in an episode all about Hitman: Blood Money. Hitman: Blood Money is a stealth game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released in May 2006 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360. The story follows cloned assassin …

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Pickles on Trees! 7:25

18d ago7:25

7:25

A Sunday special!By Fully Functional Parents

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What's on the menu: Ruby Tandoh on how the internet and algorithms shape our appetites 28:38

20d ago28:38

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The internet decides what's for dinner. Ruby Tandoh is the author of the new book, All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now. A stint on the Great British Bake Off when she was in college launched her into the world of cookbooks — increasingly irrelevant in a world where we're more likely to turn to Google for a recipe than turn to our bookshelv…

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Week in Tech: Should Tech Bros Dim the Sun? 33:42

1M ago33:42

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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 la…

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The Popomatic Bubble! 9:24

21d ago9:24

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License plates too!By Fully Functional Parents

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#187 – Wet Sandwiches – Silksong, Lost Soul Aside, Game of the Year 1:37:03

1M ago1:37:03

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Josh is checking out Lost Soul Aside and he’s just ok with it. Nick is finally in act 3 of Hollow Knight: Silksong. Someone escaped Tarkov? Finally, Nick and Josh pick the categories for this year’s Game of the Year. In lieu of ratings and reviews we say … FUCK THE ALGORITHM, TELL A FRIEND! We have a new website! Come check it out! https://www.smas…

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Talking Comics Podcast: Issue #730: Cuttin’ Promos with Steve Orlando 2:04:27

1M ago2:04:27

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Issue #730: Cuttin’ Promos with Steve Orlando Download Directly From iTunes NOW on SPOTIFY! It’s a special episode this week as the boys are joined by comics superstar STEVE ORLANDO! As you know, his healthy Scarlet Witch run has been a favorite on the podcast, so there’s lots of Wanda talk this week. Additionally, Steve cuts a promo on his upcomin…

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The Story: Will AI Agents Build a Unicorn? 27:32

1M ago27:32

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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, …

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Guess What I Just Did in the Shower!! 14:02

23d ago14:02

14:02

TMI time too!!By Fully Functional Parents

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Episode 228: Paul Raffile on the Sextortion Economy 43:04

1M ago43:04

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Sextortion scams targeting teenage boys doubled this year—and Paul Raffile says the platforms knew it was happening. Learn how Instagram's default settings let criminals to weaponize friends lists for blackmail, and how social media continues to fail the children it claims to protect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

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Episodes we love: Sandwiches of History 35:42

27d ago35:42

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In honor of the day-after-Thanksgiving leftover sandwich, we're revisiting our conversation with Barry Enderwick, the man behind the beloved and wildly popular "Sandwiches of History" social media accounts. Barry joined Ben and Amory to make a triple-decker sandwich from 1958, and to talk about his first cookbook, "Sandwiches of History the Cookboo…

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Shell Game: Minimum Viable Company 33:56

1M ago33:56

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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 alongsi…

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A Showgirls Thanksgiving! 11:57

29d ago11:57

11:57

Wtf Elizabeth Berkeley?!9By Fully Functional Parents

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#186 – Vulnerable Invisigal - Dispatch, Silksong, Golden Joysticks 1:18:26

1M ago1:18:26

1:18:26

Josh is suffering through Blue Prince, Clair Obscur gets all the Joysticks, and Nick thinks all you sickos should leave Invisgal alone. In lieu of ratings and reviews we say … FUCK THE ALGORITHM, TELL A FRIEND! We have a new website! Come check it out! https://www.smashinggametime.com/ Thank you to Alex Marvin Clark for our opening theme Hunt Him D…

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FFP VP: 2026! 13:54

30d ago13:54

13:54

Wayne Newton! Buffets! Cabanas! Join us next year!By Fully Functional Parents

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Talking Comics Podcast: Issue #729: Happy Doomsgiving! 1:22:06

1M ago1:22:06

1:22:06

Issue #729: Happy Doomsgiving! Download Directly From iTunes NOW on SPOTIFY! Joey, Steve, and Bob gather 'round the table on a special Thanksgiving Eve edition of the Talking Comics podcast. And what are we most thankful for? Well, Ryan North and RB Silva’s One World Under Doom of course and finally getting a satisfying, meaningful, moving ending t…