Actually Useful

We chat about the rise of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), how they’re being used by law enforcement, and the effects of anti-Flock activism.

Say hi on:

⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Substack⁠ | ⁠Email⁠

Episode links:

Deflock.org

HaveIBeenFlocked.com 

404 Media’s article on Darth Vader & Flock

All of 404 Media’s Flock coverage

We chat with Charlie Becker, a second-generation used and rare bookseller, about AI buying up used books, the challenge of knowing how rare a book is, and what kind of stewardship should be required before a book can be destroyed. In Falcon Mode, we discuss the enshittification of printers.

Say hi on:

Instagram | TikTok | Substack | Email

Episode links:

charliedbecker.com 

valib.app 

404 Media’s article tracking the books Amazon bought

We chat with Keyana Sapp, creator of Worse on Purpose, about the enshittification of physical consumer goods, brands that are riding on nothing but legacy reputation, and how his work can help consumers find products that are actually useful. In Falcon Mode, we open up a real can of worms by trying to avoid shady monetization mechanics in mobile games.

Say hi on:

Instagram | ⁠https://tinyurl.com/2ezu9vb8⁠

TikTok | ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/2fjpfuv2⁠

Email | ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/9d5pvpcc⁠

Episode Links:

- Worse on Purpose 

https://www.worseonpurpose.com/

- The Brand Ledger

https://ledger.worseonpurpose.com/

- Jason Hickel’s book

https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more

We chat with child safety advocate Aaron Ping about Snapchat’s shady product mechanics, their obstructive approach to law enforcement, and why there’s been so little regulation in social media. In Falcon Mode, we discuss owning music in a world that wants us to stream it. 

Say hi on:

Instagram | https://tinyurl.com/2ezu9vb8

TikTok | ⁠https://tinyurl.com/2fjpfuv2

Email | ⁠https://tinyurl.com/9d5pvpcc

Episode Links:

- Aaron’s podcast, Superhuman - From Engineered Desire to Engineered Consent

https://bit.ly/4zazqct

- The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

https://bit.ly/4fZv7rm

- The Wolves of K Street by Brody & Luke Mullins

https://bit.ly/4qdNFZL

- Snap’s deletion policy

https://bit.ly/4g9N3j8

- California Senate Bill 918, passed in 2024

https://tinyurl.com/yes8japr

- Parents RISE!

https://bit.ly/4g3vDos

We conclude our deep dive into private equity by unpacking how the industry monetizes both financial hardship and financial discipline, and how it extracts profit from taxpayer-funded programs by keeping open a revolving door between government and private equity. In Falcon Mode, we chat about a crop-identifying app for curious minds on road trips.

Check us out on:

⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Links:

Plunder by Brendan Ballou

Bad Company by Megan Greenwell

More Perfect Union’s reporting on 401k’s stake in private equity

Fun follow-up to this Falcon Mode: after recording, Ariel found out that posting signs naming the crop in interstate-adjacent fields is a common practice in Washington state!

We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok (reluctantly).

We demystify private equity in this first episode of a two-part series. Since the 2008 financial crisis, private equity has pillaged the economy by buying companies and public services. We break down how these shady financial tactics shift money away from payroll, pensions, and long-term investment, and deliver it directly into the pockets of a select few investors and executives. Instead of a Falcon Mode, we close this episode with a spooky-silly story about how every LLM has invented the same fictional character, a whimsical guy named Elias Thorne.

Check us out on:

⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Links:

Plunder by Brendan Ballou

Bad Company by Megan Greenwell

The Hater’s Guide to Private Equity by Ed Zitron

404 Media article about Elias Thorne

We’d love to hear from you. Email us at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠ or find us on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ (reluctantly).

To mark the end of Google Search, which is soon to be replaced with “immersive AI experiences,” we chat about its history: its innovation era, its slide down the enshittification curve, and the multi-billion dollar industry that tries to reverse engineer its algorithm every day. In Falcon Mode, we tackle solutions for being a more organized homeowner. 

Check us out on:

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠

Links:

DadHowDoI on YouTube

We’d love to hear from you. Email us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ or find us on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠ (reluctantly).

This episode, we chat with feminist journalist Lyz Lenz about the agony of dating apps – their deceptive mechanics, the illusion of choice, their impact on gender inequity, and why the f*ck Trevor from Iowa thinks he can do better?? In Falcon Mode, we discuss app options for supporting older friends and family members as they navigate increasingly sophisticated scams. 

Check us out on:

⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠YouTube

Check out Lyz’s…

Books: This American Ex-Wife, Belabored, and God Land

Newsletter: Men Yell at Me

Podcast: Dingus of the Week

We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok (reluctantly).

We chat with author Justin Feinstein about his new novel, Your Behavior Will Be Monitored, about how weird it is to accidentally predict the future, and the role science fiction plays in defining our expectations of AI. In Falcon Mode, we investigate the surprisingly predatory world of teleprompter apps.

Links:

justinfeinstein.com or Justin’s instagram

Your Behavior Will Be Monitored

Flesh and Code podcast

Hank Green’s video – Josh can you add the link for this

Justin’s interview with Claude

Akinator, the mind-reading genie game

We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok (reluctantly).

We chat with author Kate Crow about the economics and illusions of the self-publishing industry, how Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program has changed both traditional publishing and book culture, and which art form is the polar opposite of AI slop. In Falcon Mode, we tell you how to avoid paying for subscriptions when you inevitably forget to cancel during the free trial period.

Links:

Til Death Do We Start on Amazon or Bookshop.org

Kate Crow on Instagram and TikTok

Kate’s website

That terrible Fortune article Josh mentioned

Draft2Digital

Kobo

We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok (reluctantly).