Chris Boyer and Ed Bennett step knee-deep into sludge. Not the metaphorical goo clogging your gutters, but the bureaucratic muck that slows down everyday life. Inspired by The Atlantic’s takedown of “customer service sludge,” they rant about hold purgatory, Kafkaesque support calls, and the modern art of being endlessly transferred. If you’ve ever yelled “representative!” into a phone like it was a sacred incantation, this one’s for you.

On the tech side, Ed and Chris explore why AI tools like ChatGPT are quietly replacing traditional search engines. From clearer answers to smarter follow-ups, they show how natural language processing is more than just a parlor trick.And in this week’s Stump GenAI segment, they put AI's grammar skills to the test, revealing that, yes, punctuation and phrasing can hilariously derail your digital assistant’s logic circuits.

Because sometimes the biggest roadblock isn’t the problem -  it’s the sentence you used to ask for help solving it.

Mentions from the Show: 

That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose.

You Can’t Nudge If You’ve Got Sludge

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Ed Bennett on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Ed Bennett of BlueSky

Chris Boyer on BlueSky