e560 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stickshift & phone handsets with Ian Bogost, camping at EMF Camp 2026 & Mountain Quest 2026, brain cooling, dwarf lemurs, World Cup 2026, USMNT, ThreeLions, the tokenpocalypse and a whole lot more!
Andy, Michael and Michael get things started with a TechCrunch interview with Ian Bogost on his about to be published book, The Small Stuff. Building on the success of his article on the demise of the stick shift, Ian wrote a book that focuses on the details of life that make a difference. The cohosts harken back all the way to episode 17 in August of 2012 when Ian was a guest on the podcast. Part of the discussion from the article focused on the nature of the telephone handset, which brought the EMF Camp telecommunications setup to mind for Andy. Electromagnetic Telecom allows anyone attending EMF to register a phone number on the network and communicate with other participants. Speaking of camping, Michael M shares an overview video of Mountain Quest 2026, where he was a participant the prior weekend in the mountains of North Carolina.
It’s hot in the UK and in North Carolina – so the maker article about the brain turbocharger looked to be a welcome relief from the heat. This modified construction helmet recognizes when the user has been thinking hard and signals multiple fans built into the helmet to cool things down so the user’s brain does not overheat from overclocking.
Recent discussions on the podcast about the Steam hardware made the BC250 an intriguing topic. Michael R recounts his recent trip to the Duke Lemur Center to see the small Fat-tailed dwarf lemur. And in the small and cool category, the team considers the “Impossible Watch” from D1 Milano.
The cohosts then take a brief World Cup interlude from the tech discussions. While neither Michael is what you may consider a ‘bandwagon’ fan for the World Cup, the Lay’s potato chip television commercial is pretty funny. Check out the embedded video below. At the time of recording and writing, both England and the USA are still in the hunt for the cup – best wishes to both national teams!
Wrapping up the episode, the team discusses the tokenpocalypse. The 404 Media article highlights how companies are have gone from tokenmaxxing to tokenhoarding as the price point for AI is soaring.
Have you been impacted by restrictions on your token usage? Have your bots 🤖 (if you can spare the tokens!) drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (our home for now) and let us know!
These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot. All rights reserved. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.
The weekly conversation hosted by Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, and Andy Piper, Games At Work dot Biz, explores the intersection where our digital play and professional lives collide. This isn't just a review show; it's a deep dive into the technology that powers our hobbies, the business behind the leisure, and the cultural news shaping both worlds. Each episode feels like pulling up a chair with three friends who are as passionate about the craft of game development and the evolution of hardware as they are about the pure joy of finding a great new title. You'll hear specific discussions on everything from the latest graphics card impacting performance to the narrative design of an indie darling, all filtered through the lens of professionals who live in the tech space. The Games At Work dot Biz podcast operates on the belief that the games we play and the tools we use are inextricably linked, offering listeners a consistently thoughtful and engaging analysis that goes far beyond a simple score. Tune in for a regular dose of insightful commentary where the serious business of technology meets the serious fun of games.
Author: Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, Andy Piper
Language: en-us
Episodes: 50
Photo by Mikey Frost on Unsplash Published 8 June 2026 e556 with Michael, Andy and Michael - Michael R’s annual edu-cation, chatbot trickery, data center data visualization, LeRobot Humanoid open source robotics, LEGO an…
Photo by Michael Martine: The Bean in Millennium Park, Chicago, IL, June 2019 Published 25 May 2026 e555 with Andy, Michael and Michael - Ploopy’s The Bean and Lenovo’s TrackPoint, The Guild, The Movie, AI in commencemen…
Stories and discussion on a robot monk, the Dead Internet Theory, agentic autonomy, Happy Net Box, the Artemis II minifig.me crew and a whole lot more!
e551 with Michael, Michael and Andy - a tour of the #Atmosphere with #ATProto, #Sifa, @eurosky.social, #Leaflet, a #LEGO #cacophonous #karaoke of “Mad About Me” and a whole lot more!
e550 with Michael, Andy and Michael - celebrating #MoonJoy with the #ArtemisII #crew, #Nutella in space, #AI, an #isomorphic reboot of #Wolf3D and a whole lot more!
e549 with Andy, Michael and Michael - boldly go into a deep set of #space discussions featuring #ArtemisII, ways to keep track of the historic flight, #COTS #software & #hardware aboard the #spacecraft, #BernieSanders co…
e548 with Michael and Michael - Stories and discussion on #UncomfortableValley & #UncannyValley, Nintendo’s #TalkingFlower, #8bit #PixelAgents for #AIorchestration and a whole lot more.
e547 with Michael and Michael - stories and discussion on #Bot2Bot communications, 50 years of #Apple, #LEGO #SmartPlay #SmartBricks and a whole lot more.
