Riley and Casey explore technology and society in rural communities. Today's focus: Arts, Culture & Digital Storytelling.

NEWS ROUNDUP: We break down [New Atlas] Ancient Roman board game stumped experts for decades – until AI played and [XDA Developers] I built a DIY automation keypad for under $20, and it replaced three devices on my desk, plus 1 more stories, and explore what these developments mean for communities like ours.

RURAL CONNECTIONS: Deep dive on Arts, Culture & Digital Storytelling Topics include: data sovereignty, AI, infrastructure, community ownership, maintenance.

Hosts: Riley (Tech optimist with an engineering background) and Casey (Community-first skeptic of tech promises).

Sources discussed:

• New Atlas: [New Atlas] Ancient Roman board game stumped experts for dec...
• XDA Developers: [XDA Developers] I built a DIY automation keypad for under $...
• 100 Mile Free Press: [100 Mile Free Press] ALEXANDER: Aaron and Gail Bregg will b...
• TechCrunch: [TechCrunch] Sora’s shutdown could be a reality check moment...
• Neowin: [Neowin] Firefox gets big update with built-in VPN, Split Vi...
• Boing Boing: [Boing Boing] Top devs share their placeholder art to prove ...

Additional sources provided:

• Kottke.org: [Kottke.org] An interview with Andy Weir about the accuracy ...
• Hackaday: [Hackaday] Writing an Open-World Engine for the Nintendo 64
• Noahpinion: [Noahpinion] Maybe you should have bought an electric car
• New Atlas: [New Atlas] Clever telescopic camper trailer reinvents a gam...
• Hackaday: [Hackaday] Training a Transformer with 1970s-era Technology
• New Atlas: [New Atlas] Pig-boar hybrids in Fukushima evacuation zone re...
• XDA Developers: [XDA Developers] I revived my old Android phone by turning i...
• New Atlas: [New Atlas] Upside-down tiny house packs clever layout and e...
• How-To Geek: [How-To Geek] The weirdest smart lighting gadget I never kne...
• XDA Developers: [XDA Developers] I stopped buying desk organizers once I rea...
• XDA Developers: [XDA Developers] Your smart TV is screenshotting everything ...
• How-To Geek: [How-To Geek] Stop buying hard drives based on capacity—chec...
• TechRadar: [TechRadar] 'Weekend work increased more than 40%': How AI i...
• MacRumors: [MacRumors] Apple Reportedly Working on 'Small Sensor for Ma...

Credits
Theme Song: Cariboo Signals by Suno
Content Curation & Script: Claude (Anthropic)
Script Review Model: claude-sonnet-4-20250514
TTS Voices: OpenAI TTS API
Cover Art: ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Podcast Coordination: Erich Zirnhelt
© 2026 Erich Zirnhelt. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.