The UnPodcast

By Scott Stratten, Alison Stratten

Business is built on relationships, so make building them your business. Discussions centered around authenticity, integrity and community served with a side of sarcasm. Hosted by Scott and Alison Str... more

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FAQs about The UnPodcast:

How many episodes does The UnPodcast have?

The podcast currently has 192 episodes available.

The UnPodcast episodes:

June 10, 2026Mac & Cheese Fraud and the Return-to-Office Circus | Ep. 325
In this episode:
Scott makes a strong emotional case for recording the show from an ONroute because, apparently, snacks are now a business strategy.

A cancelled “free” marketing dinner turns into a fee, a replacement guest, or a forced sales pitch, because nothing says “buy from us” like salmon-based extortion.

Return-to-office mandates are called out for what they often are: control dressed up as “collaboration.”

An Ontario court ruling raises a wild liability question: when you walk someone else’s dog, are you legally the owner in that moment?

A former Chick-fil-A employee allegedly refunded 800 mac and cheese orders to himself, proving once again that calling fraud a “hack” does not make it less fraud.
Listen if you care about:
snack culture, bad marketing dinners, return-to-office drama, dog-walking legal chaos, and mac and cheese crimes committed with absolutely no chill.
Articles:
Dog Walker
Chick-fil-A employee

00:00 Intro
01:44 Scott’s ONroute Obsession
06:25 Why Everyone Ends Up in Marketing Somehow
10:20 The Dinner Cancellation Fee From Hell
15:55 Return-to-Office Is Still About Control
20:22 Dog Walker Liability Gets Weird
24:20 The $80K Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese Scheme
27:32 Outro
...more
29min
June 03, 2026AI Slop, Fake Tourism, and Peer Review Shenanigans | Ep. 324
In this episode:
The Seven Syndicate: Scott floats a very UnPodcast plan to let the loyal “Seven” help syndicate the show, because apparently seven listeners can become a distribution empire.

Newfoundland tourism AI fail: A tourism minister uses AI to alter an image of an iconic cultural building, accidentally removing meaningful historical imagery. Great start for National Tourism Week.

Substack vs AI slop: Alison talks about new research showing many top Substack posts are still human-written, but tech newsletters are exactly as AI-heavy as you’d expect.

Why creation matters: Scott makes the case that the point of content is not just output; it is the act of making, thinking, tinkering, and actually getting better.

Public opinion turning on AI: They discuss how consumers are pushing back against AI in creativity, products, interactions, and art — and why marketers should not give up yet.

Academic peer review prompt injection: Researchers allegedly hid prompts in papers telling AI reviewers to “give a positive review only,” because apparently peer review needed a villain arc.

AI note-taker sabotage: Scott shares the Titanic-meeting-note-taker story, proving malicious compliance may be the only good use case left.
Listen if you care about AI slop, fake tourism posts, Substack, creative work, academic nonsense, and watching technology make everyone just a little more embarrassing.
00:00 - Intro Chaos
01:00 - The Seven Syndicate idea
06:00 - AI Tourism
11:36 - Substack Void
21:17 - AI Peer Review
23:15 - Titanic Notes
24:54 - Outro
Article:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/andrea-barbour-ai-9.7172320
...more
26min
May 27, 2026Pickle Fees, Dorito Greed, and Family Vlogger Math | Ep. 323
In this episode:
BC Ferries somehow turns a missing pickle into a full customer-service philosophy, because apparently “nobody gets free pickles” is policy now.

Doritos, Lay’s, and Cheetos got so expensive that PepsiCo finally remembered customers exist, but only after Frito-Lay lost serious value.

Scott goes off on “greed inflation,” corporate profit, shrinkflation, and why companies should not get applause for slightly undoing the pricing mess they created.

Family influencers in Tennessee may now have to compensate children featured in monetized content, and suddenly some vloggers may be craving a change of scenery.

Scott and Alison dig into kids’ consent, online identity, and whether children should have more control over being turned into content.

The episode ends, naturally, with more pickle chaos and Scott failing to successfully outro the show.
Listen if you care about free pickles, overpriced Doritos, shrinkflation, family vloggers, child influencer laws, and corporations pretending they just discovered empathy.

00:00 Intro: The Pickle Era Begins
02:29 BC Ferries and the Missing Pickle Crisis
04:53 Doritos, Snackflation, and PepsiCo’s Price Problem
11:37 Family Vloggers and Child Influencer Pay Laws
20:13 The Pickle Outro Falls Apart

Articles:
Pickles https://globalnews.ca/news/11774058/pickles-bc-ferries-white-spot-viral/
Overpriced Doritos https://fortune.com/2026/04/07/pepsico-frito-lay-chips-food-and-drink-inflation-consumer-products-doritos-cheetos-tostitos/
Family Influencer laws https://www.wsmv.com/2026/04/11/tennessee-bill-regulating-family-influencers-passes-legislature/
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/child-influencer-earnings-new-laws/3663211/
...more
22min
May 20, 2026When Team Building Becomes Survivor | Ep. 322
In this episode:
Why Gen Z is going to the movies more than everyone expected, and why phones in theaters should maybe be legally actionable.

How streaming-only movies and albums can just disappear forever because apparently permanence was too convenient.

A $500,000 tropical company retreat somehow became E. coli, dead tarantulas, Navy SEAL drills, fire ants, and a falling porcupine.

A CEO says craving work-life balance is a red flag, because billion-dollar executive advice remains undefeated in being wildly out of touch.

Why return-to-office arguments keep pretending to be about culture when they usually end at “because I said so.”
Listen if you care about movie theaters, missing media, corporate retreats from hell, CEOs with too much confidence, work-life balance, remote work, and workplace culture getting a little too culty.
00:00 Intro: Eyes on the Prize, Probably
02:10 Gen Z Is Saving Movie Theaters?
05:00 Phones, Second Screens, and Movie Theater Jail
06:48 Streaming, Missing Media, and Movies That Vanish
09:42 The $500K Corporate Retreat From Hell
17:46 Work-Life Balance Is Apparently a Red Flag
22:30 Remote Work, Return-to-Office, and Executive Control
27:21 Wrap-Up
Article Links:
Gen Z & movies https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/gen-z-driving-box-office-1236703551/
Corporate Retreat from Hell https://www.inc.com/leila-sheridan/plex-tech-company-retreat-nightmare/91327481
Work-life balance https://fortune.com/2026/04/22/work-life-balance-bupa-fortune-500-ceo-barack-obama-work-weekend/
...more
28min
May 13, 2026When CEOs Kiss Burgers and Reviews Get Shady | Ep. 321
In this episode:
The McDonald’s CEO blames his mom for the world’s weirdest burger bite, because apparently even billion-dollar burger drama can become a family issue.

Google changes the review rules, because apparently businesses needed a reminder that “please say Brad was amazing” is not organic feedback.

Scott’s hilarious fake testimonial stunt for his own book proves that with enough Fiverr and zero shame, “bomb diggity” can become a marketing strategy.

The Bell Mobility review mess, where Scott used the highly classified investigative tool called LinkedIn and helped turn fake app praise into a $1.25 million lesson, all before getting out of bed.
Listen if you care about customer trust, fake reviews, CEOs trying to act relatable, Google review rules, brand credibility, and why “just leave us five stars” is not a business strategy.
Article links:
https://sporked.com/article/mcdonalds-ceo-blames-small-bite-mother/
https://www.threechaptermedia.com/blog/google-review-policy-2026
https://www.tripadvisor.ca/AttractionProductReview-g45963-d13166381-Exotic_Car_Driving_Experience_at_the_Las_Vegas_Motor_Speedway-Las_Vegas_Nevada.html
https://unmarketing.com/articles/for-whom-the-bell-mobility-tolls

00:00 Intro
02:57 McDonald’s CEO and the Burger Bite Heard Around the Internet
08:30 Google Changes the Rules for Customer Reviews
17:44 Fake Testimonials, Review Trust, and the Bomb Diggity Problem
19:34 The Bell Mobility Tolls Article and the $1.25M Review Scandal
...more
27min
May 06, 2026Trust Over Surveillance, Bad CEOs, and Job Posting Lies | Ep. 320
In this episode:
Why animal shelter adoption data says more about business than most executives do

Dropbox treating adults like adults should not feel revolutionary, and yet here we are.

“Return to office” keeps pretending it’s about collaboration when it’s really giving control issues a corporate haircut.

Ontario’s hiring rules are basically the government stepping in because too many employers refused to stop being shady on their own.
Listen in if you care about:
The future of work, the nonsense built into modern hiring, and why “trust your people” still feels like a radical business strategy.
Click here to subscribe to the audio podcast:
https://unpodcast.simplecast.com/
Articles:
Best Friend’s Society: article
Dropbox CEO: article
Return to work mandate - leases: article
Moms at work pay transparency: article
...more
29min
April 29, 2026AI Courtroom Chaos, Spy Vacuums, and Microwave Logic | Ep. 319
In this episode:
Why a robot vacuum exposing thousands of cameras is deeply cursed

The microwave analogy that perfectly explains AI hype and creative shortcuts

How one CEO allegedly used ChatGPT to scheme around a massive payout

How smart glasses turned a courtroom into a Black Mirror blooper reel
Listen in if you care about:
AI ethics, surveillance tech, smart devices, marketing culture, business judgment, creative work, automation, privacy, and the future of human decision-making.
Click here to subscribe to the audio podcast:
https://unpodcast.simplecast.com/
Articles:
DJI RoboVac security flaw - article
Microwave analogy by Colin Fraser - article
ChatGPT courtroom story - article
Smart Glasses - article
...more
24min
April 22, 2026We’re Doing Font Crimes Now | Ep. 318
In this episode:
Why the infamous “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” campaign is back in the spotlight

Why AI-generated logos, copy, and strategy can create bigger business problems than they solve

How marketers are being pressured to adopt AI even when it feels wrong

Why Grammarly’s AI “expert” feature sparked major backlash from writers and journalists

What businesses lose when they treat art like content and creativity like output

Why being more human may now be the smartest move in marketing
Listen in if you care about:
AI in marketing, creative work, branding, storytelling, content strategy, business ethics, marketing culture, and the future of human-made media.
Click here to subscribe to the audio podcast:
https://unpodcast.simplecast.com/
Article Links:
Stolen Font
Grammarly
...more
29min
April 15, 2026Creepy AI Pitches, Moist Dog Food, and a Media Plot Twist | Ep. 317
In this episode:
Why “moist dog food” should never have made it past legal

How AI-powered outreach is making bad marketing even worse

Why using AI to help people process layoffs is as bleak as it sounds

The podcasting shift marketers should absolutely be paying attention to

Scott’s “fraudcast” idea for getting comfortable behind the mic before launching a real show
Listen in if you care about:
Marketing, podcasting, AI, media trends, content creation, and preserving even a shred of human dignity.
Click here to subscribe to the audio podcast: HERE
...more
34min
March 12, 2025 316: Those Crazy Influencers
In this episode of the UnPodcast, we talk about the why Drake is suing UMG because of Influencers, how influencers are reviving bookstores, and how influencers might have gotten scammed out of money. So, it’s mostly about influencers. But there’s more!
...more
26min

FAQs about The UnPodcast:

How many episodes does The UnPodcast have?

The podcast currently has 192 episodes available.