The Enhanced Games are Silicon Valley's version of the Olympics -- the athletes are invited to bulk up with performance enhancing drugs, then gather in Las Vegas for competition, and of course, it's funded by some notorious figures in venture capital. Amanda's colleague, Lucas Ropek, got to attend this carnival of debauchery and is here to tell us all about it. And yes, he saw Byran Johnson there.

If you missed our episodes on the Chinese Peptide craze (ep. 137) or the general antics of Byran Johnson (ep. 128), you may find those to be useful primers -- but also, you can just enjoy the absurdity of the Enhanced Games on its own.

Lucas's article: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/31/i-went-to-the-so-called-steroid-olympics-to-understand-why-silicon-valley-is-obsessed-with-peptides/

Balaji's Greys: http://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat

Find Us Online 

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Website: https://wowiftrue.com/

Email: [email protected]

About Us 

Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In which Amanda makes the worst PowerPoint ever (it's about rationalists and fan fiction, iykyk), Isabel goes on book tour, and we experiment with flip phones.

The PowerPoint in question: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ch0rBRdr8PGindVGa0cGQaKDiYR5rFmMiclL58CPci8/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p

Find Us Online 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue

Website: https://wowiftrue.com/

Email: [email protected]

About Us 

Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this collab-isode, we're joined by Dr. Adam Becker of Dreaming Against the Machine, a podcast about envisioning a realistic and hopeful future in the face of tech oligarchs... or, as we call them, Horrible Little Guys.

Sublimation is out now!!: https://bookshop.org/p/books/sublimation-isabel-j-kim/75bdbf4afed5475f?ean=9781250376794&next=t

Join our Patreon: https://patreon.com/wowiftrue

Listen to Dreaming Against the Machine: https://www.dreamingagainstthemachine.com/

Also, ISABEL IS ON TOUR ! Dates below, and more info + tickets at https://us.macmillan.com/tours/isabel-j-kim-sublimation/

VIRTUALLY: 

June 2 — I’ll be on r/Fantasy doing an AMA more or less all day! Come ask me your burning questions, also, your unburning questions. You can just ask me whatever. 

June 7 — I’m going to be at The Back Room for a virtual event (details to come at their website)! 

PHYSICALLY: 

May 30 — PGH Bookfest in Pittsburgh (with John Scalzi) 

June 2 — Barnes and Noble, Clifton, NJ (with Neil Clarke)

June 3 — The Strand, NYC (with Jinwoo Chong) 

June 4 — Harvard Books Store, Boston (with R.F. Kuang) 

June 6 — RJ Julia, Madison CT (with @redreadsreviews) 

June 10 — Center for Fiction, Brooklyn (on a panel with Joseph Eckert & Thomas Elrod, moderated by Yume Kitasei) 

June 20 — Bronx Book Festival, the Bronx (on a panel with Nicole Glover, Andrea Hairston, and Vincent Tirado) 

June 30 — Dungeon Books, Jersey City (with Yume Kitasei)

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

HAPPY SUBLIMATION PUBLICATION DAY! Or, Publimation Day! Isabel's long-awaited debut novel SUBLIMATION is out now. Everyone is very excited. We are proud of Isabel here at Wow if True HQ. Isabel did a billion other podcast interviews about the book, so we decided that on our podcast, we'll ask Isabel some questions that maybe people who are meeting her for the first time via podcast interview wouldn't ask. Also, for some reason Amanda goes on a tangent about cannibalism and Catholicism which is... kinda relevant? YAY SUBLIMATION!!

Here it is. The link. The link to buy Sublimation: https://bookshop.org/p/books/sublimation-isabel-j-kim/75bdbf4afed5475f?ean=9781250376794&next=t

Also, ISABEL IS ON TOUR ! Dates below, and more info + tickets at https://us.macmillan.com/tours/isabel-j-kim-sublimation/

VIRTUALLY: 

June 2 — I’ll be on r/Fantasy doing an AMA more or less all day! Come ask me your burning questions, also, your unburning questions. You can just ask me whatever. 

June 7 — I’m going to be at The Back Room for a virtual event (details to come at their website)! 

PHYSICALLY: 

May 30 — PGH Bookfest in Pittsburgh (with John Scalzi) 

June 2 — Barnes and Noble, Clifton, NJ (with Neil Clarke)

June 3 — The Strand, NYC (with Jinwoo Chong) 

June 4 — Harvard Books Store, Boston (with R.F. Kuang) 

June 6 — RJ Julia, Madison CT (with @redreadsreviews) 

June 10 — Center for Fiction, Brooklyn (on a panel with Joseph Eckert & Thomas Elrod, moderated by Yume Kitasei) 

June 20 — Bronx Book Festival, the Bronx (on a panel with Nicole Glover, Andrea Hairston, and Vincent Tirado) 

June 30 — Dungeon Books, Jersey City (with Yume Kitasei)

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Google is broken, and so is Amanda, apparently, because she is seeking validation from an AI chatbot. Also, video games. Sublimation is out on 6/2. This is what we have for you.

We'll be back next week for the "Sublimation is out!" spectacular, but you should pre-order it now: https://bookshop.org/p/books/sublimation-isabel-j-kim/75bdbf4afed5475f?ean=9781250376794&next=t

Also, ISABEL IS ON TOUR ! Dates below, and more info + tickets at https://us.macmillan.com/tours/isabel-j-kim-sublimation/

VIRTUALLY: 

June 2 — I’ll be on r/Fantasy doing an AMA more or less all day! Come ask me your burning questions, also, your unburning questions. You can just ask me whatever. 

June 7 — I’m going to be at The Back Room for a virtual event (details to come at their website)! 

PHYSICALLY: 

May 30 — PGH Bookfest in Pittsburgh (with John Scalzi) 

June 2 — Barnes and Noble, Clifton, NJ (with Neil Clarke)

June 3 — The Strand, NYC (with Jinwoo Chong) 

June 4 — Harvard Books Store, Boston (with R.F. Kuang) 

June 6 — RJ Julia, Madison CT (with @redreadsreviews) 

June 10 — Center for Fiction, Brooklyn (on a panel with Joseph Eckert & Thomas Elrod, moderated by Yume Kitasei) 

June 20 — Bronx Book Festival, the Bronx (on a panel with Nicole Glover, Andrea Hairston, and Vincent Tirado) 

June 30 — Dungeon Books, Jersey City (with Yume Kitasei)

About Us 

Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Party drugs are out, and injecting grey market peptides with your LinkedIn connections at Silicon Valley house parties is in. Yes, the biohacker tech bros have peptide dealers in China who are sending them dubious chemicals to construct things like "the Wolverine stack," which are supposed to make them more alert and/or younger and/or tanner? This doesn't make any sense, which is why we brought in our friends and actual scientists from Tiny Matters -- Dr. Sam Jones and Dr. Deboki Chakravarti -- to explain to us the science (or lackthereof?) behind the peptide craze.

Links

Tiny Matters

Find Us Online 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue

Website: https://wowiftrue.com/

Email: [email protected]

About Us 

Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Isabel and Amanda talk about raising $1,234,567 dollars for your startup, Giggles, that began as a meme, and also finding your cofounder in Minecraft, along with the latest analysis of which human person Satoshi might actually turn out to be, and also, turning down $175,000 dollars because you can't figure out the wifi, something that happened to a real human person last week. It's ok, though. Since recording, Helen Dewitt has found a new source of capital, and she doesn't even need to do any promo for it—not a bit, this is genuinely what happened.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're talking about Shy Girl, the horror novel cancelled over alleged AI use, the conclusion of a romantasy lawsuit, recent Meta rulings, and a bunch of other random stuff in the middle because come on, you know us, we love to gab.

Sources

Shy Girl timeline

Writers telling on themselves

Meta lawsuits

Find Us Online 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue

Website: https://wowiftrue.com/

Email: [email protected]

About Us 

Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We have found the literal worst song: "Take the Lead" by Tilly Norwood, who is an AI actor, and is singing about overcoming the oppression that AI actors face. Yes, this is real. Also: we talk about Isabel's wedding. Yay parasociality!

Sources

AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood put out the worst song I’ve ever heard

Find Us Online 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue

Website: https://wowiftrue.com/

Email: [email protected]

About Us 

Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Iz and Amanda talk about Moltbook, a forum only for AI agents (and the humans pretending to be them), which caused a brief moment of panic that our AI overlords were going to rise up against us. Special guest star Iz's fiance weighs in on the eigenvector of evil and also, whether sommelier-ing is anything.

Sources

Amanda's Moltbook article: https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/16/after-all-the-hype-some-ai-experts-dont-think-openclaw-is-all-that-exciting/

Find Us Online 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue

Website: https://wowiftrue.com/

Email: [email protected]

About Us 

Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.