After Things Podcast

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 closing promotional exchange (L169-L170, L179-L189, L199-L201, L211-L213, L347-L357, L359-L373). Key topics Suspicious regularity as a fraud signal: The episode repeatedly highlights that fake or manipulated activity often leaves patterns that do not match real-world behavior, such as odd chess timing, flat mileage distributions, or duplicated spreadsheet data. Confirmation bias and truth bias: The guests stress that people tend to accept claims that fit what they alread

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 [email protected], 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 and headset adoption: The hosts discuss Vision Pro's resolution, hand tracking, pupil tracking, developer use, potential controllers, and Apple's apparent long-term plan. They frame it as a device that must make sense alongside other screens and daily devices. Threads, algorithms, and social media communities: The conversation covers Threads, Blue Sky, Mastodon, Parlor, Truth Social, and Twitter, with criticism of algorithmic feeds and concern that social platforms fragme

VR, MR, XR, A-Arrrrgh, or maybe, just maybe…maybe. Send your project questions/ideas to [email protected], 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 Galactic's first paying passenger flight: The hosts celebrate Virgin Galactic's first paying passenger mission and note that the passengers were Italian Air Force officers. They frame it as an important milestone for space tourism and commercial suborbital flight. Titan submersible disaster and engineering limits: The discussion contrasts Virgin Galactic with the OceanGate Titan tragedy. They talk about carbon fiber hull issues, repeated stress, microfractures, and a por

Andrew went to VidCon and interfaced with The Youths. We rizz up Andrew and see if he would even hug Baby Gronk. Does childhood today compare to childhood in the 90’s? Send your project questions/ideas to [email protected], subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Disney Spellstruck and Amazon Kindle Bryce: PPKP+

The episode opens with a discussion of the hypothetical Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg fight and whether it could become a huge pay-per-view event. The hosts compare it to major combat sports buys, talk about Zuckerberg's public year-by-year challenges and his training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and generally doubt that the fight would become more than a spectacle across social platforms. The conversation then moves through Meta's reported interest in a Twitter-like service built on ActivityPub, followed by a long discussion of Apple's Vision Pro and spatial computing. The hosts speculate about how 3D interfaces, eye tracking, and app placement in physical space could change software and productivity before shifting to the Titan submersible disaster, where they discuss the likely structural failure, the public reaction, and the ethics of joking about the tragedy. The episode ends with media recommendations: Final Fantasy 16, You Must Remember This, and Remember by Lisa Genova. Key topics Influencer boxing and Musk vs. Zuckerberg speculation: The hosts debate whether a Musk-Zuckerberg fight would draw massive pay-per-view numbers, comparing it to Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, Paul brothers fights, and other major combat-sports events. Zuckerberg's yearly challenges: Justin mentions Zuckerberg's public annual challenges, including learning Mandarin, eating only what he killed, smoking meats, and training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. ActivityPub and federated social networks: They discuss Met

The episode opens with a discussion of UFOs as a seemingly bipartisan or "safe" conspiracy topic, then widens into a broader debate about how conspiracy beliefs and pseudoscience can be culturally coded. The hosts compare UFOs, astrology, Bigfoot, spiritualism, QAnon, flat earth, and simulation theory, with recurring skepticism about how much of these ideas come from evidence versus narrative-building or paranoia about hidden control. Evidence: the group explicitly talks about UFOs as a bipartisan conspiracy theory, then moves through pseudoscience coding and flat-earth/simulation speculation (L45-L49, L57-L66, L73-L85, L89-L97, L113-L117). After the UFO talk, the conversation shifts into a long practical and technical digression on human perception, foveated rendering, ray tracing, and graphics hardware, using Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest Pro as examples. That leads into a separate segment on memory techniques: Andrew says he wants to remember books, authors, and sources better for critical thinking, Brian describes citing sources as a habit, and the group discusses mnemonic tricks for names, credit cards, and other everyday recall. Evidence: the perception/rendering discussion appears in the middle of the episode, and the memory discussion begins when Andrew introduces memory methods and later Brian describes source-citing and memorizing cards (L117-L149, L313-L353, L337-L345). Key topics Political coding of pseudoscience and conspiracy beliefs: The hosts speculate about

Andrew’s been deep in memory-training and it’s important to remember: memory is fallible! How do false memories begin and who is susceptible? Brian’s DIY method of journaling and next-day planning. Send your project questions/ideas to [email protected], subject line “After Things.” Pick: ChatGPT now on iOS

The episode begins with a long discussion of Apple’s Vision Pro announcement and what it says about Apple’s strategy for spatial computing. The hosts react positively to the presentation while staying skeptical about demos versus reality, and they repeatedly compare the headset to the iPhone and iPad launch cycles, emphasizing Apple’s pattern of waiting until battery, display, and processor technology are good enough for a new category. They also discuss the headset’s form factor, eye-tracking, external battery, realistic avatar and eye-display choices, privacy implications, and Apple’s emphasis on family-friendly, real-world use rather than an isolated metaverse experience. The conversation then shifts to possible use cases like work, media consumption, sports viewing, and future 3D/spatial content, including speculation that Apple will build a services and content ecosystem around the device over time. After the Vision Pro segment, the hosts move into picks: Justin recommends Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Bryce recommends both Across the Spider-Verse and The Good Nurse, and Andrew recommends The History of the Future, a book about Oculus, Facebook, and Palmer Luckey. Key topics Apple Vision Pro launch reactions and the iPhone comparison: The hosts compare the Vision Pro reveal to the original iPhone moment and treat it as a potentially major product category. They talk about launch timing, preorder/notify-me behavior, and whether Apple is aiming for a 2024 launch rat