682: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Luigi

682: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Luigi

Author: Jason DeFillippo & Brian Schulmeister with Dave Bittner February 1, 2025 Duration: 1:27:25
Brian and Jason kick things off with a look at why Gen Z grads are getting fired just months after landing jobs and a curiously viral declassified CIA sabotage guide. Speaking of sabotage, U.S. students are struggling with their lowest reading scores in decades, raising questions about the future workforce. Meanwhile, Google Maps’ controversial renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” for U.S. users has sparked some amusing geopolitical tit-for-tats. In the AI wars, OpenAI is fuming over claims that DeepSeek trained its models using OpenAI’s own stolen data—ironic, given OpenAI’s history of scraping the internet. As if that weren’t enough, California’s Attorney General warns AI companies that nearly everything they’re doing might be illegal, while the Copyright Office suggests AI copyright issues were settled way back in 1965. Oh, and OpenAI is now in the nuclear weapons game. What could possibly go wrong? In tech and business news, CVS is making customers jump through app hoops to unlock cabinets, Uber claims it’s the victim of an elaborate fake crash scheme, and Tesla promises a robotaxi business and humanoid robots in 2025—though Musk admits current Teslas will need new hardware to achieve full self-driving. Whole Foods workers have formed their first union since Amazon took over, and MoviePass is considering a pivot to crypto, because of course it is. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s ventures keep making headlines, and Waymo’s driverless taxis are facing vandalism in Southern California. Law enforcement in California is also in hot water, having misused state databases over 7,000 times last year. For media lovers, Star Trek: Section 31 is on the horizon, while The Expanse‘s first three seasons are vanishing from Amazon soon. Behind the Music is back, and Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music offers a deep dive into the show’s musical legacy. On the gaming front, classic titles like Spaceship Warlock and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are getting attention alongside newly accessible archives of 1,500 classic gaming magazines. The Night Agent Season 2 is here and it sucks, and Amazon is hiking the price of its Music Unlimited subscriptions. Finally, the episode wraps with a nod to Marianne Faithfull’s passing and China’s new “magic beans” shaking up American markets—because, in this chaotic world, even the beans are making headlines because AI wrote this terrible summary.

There’s a certain flavor of chaos that defines the technology industry each week, and Grumpy Old Geeks serves as your brutally honest guide through the wreckage. Hosted by Jason DeFillippo, Brian Schulmeister, and Dave Bittner, this isn't a polite roundtable discussion. Instead, it feels like grabbing a drink with friends who have seen it all and have absolutely no patience left for corporate spin or broken promises. They pick apart the biggest tech news stories with a seasoned, cynical eye, always asking the messy questions about what actually went wrong and who should be held accountable. Listening to this podcast is like getting the unfiltered post-mortem from veterans who remember when the internet felt different. The tone is sharp, often funny, and deliberately irreverent-picture a conversation that’s equal parts informed critique and cathartic venting about the state of digital life. You’ll hear them dissect the moves of figures like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg not as distant celebrities, but as players in a ongoing saga of power and missteps. It’s a weekly ritual for anyone who loves technology but is deeply frustrated by the direction it often takes, offering analysis that’s as informed as it is impatient. If you’re tired of sanitized tech commentary and want a take that pulls no punches, this is the place.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Grumpy Old Geeks
Podcast Episodes
749: Surge Bananas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:16:10
AI companies get sued, tracked, hacked, funded, and IPO'd; governments keep trying to ban kids from screens; Tesla rewrites history while BYD bets money on the future; and somehow the safest place this week is watching s…
748: Space Bone [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:52
Self-driving cars drown themselves; AI keeps getting dumber while executives keep firing humans anyway; surveillance capitalism mutates into full sci-fi horror; Jony Ive redesigns Ferrari into an Apple Store accessory; a…
747: Why We Sigh [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:52
Social media panic; AI backlash; Musk chaos; robotaxi disasters; crypto collapse; fake-content infestations; Star Wars exhaustion; surveillance capitalism and Gen-Xers desperately trying to back up their hard drives befo…
746: Reality is Frequently Inaccurate [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:19:40
Merch plugs; billionaire AI stupidity; methane-powered robot futures; scammy crypto ghosts; flood-seeking robotaxis; AI morality fanfic; poop surveillance capitalism; Wordle becoming network television; Spotify tracking…
745: Unwanted Senior Discount [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:24
Amnesty warns people about visiting America for the World Cup; AI continues speedrunning societal collapse through podcasts, surveillance, fake therapists, layoffs, and murder-planning chatbots; GameStop tries to buy eBa…
744: Goblin Mode [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:23:28
The child social media ban industrial complex expands to Canada while Utah breaks the internet trying to enforce it; a US soldier got arrested for Polymarket insider trading on the Maduro capture; Google sold out to the…
743: Category Five Dystopia [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:28
Elon Musk admitted Tesla FSD was vaporware for millions of customers; the AI money squeeze is killing free tiers while xAI drains Memphis's drinking water; Anthropic's Mythos got accessed by hobbyists and adopted by the…
742: Uncouth Yet Highly Litigious [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:31
Estonia and Australia prove social media bans don't work; ChatGPT is linked to mass shootings and stalking while also praising fart music; Allbirds pivoted to AI and immediately imploded; France dumped Windows for Linux;…
741: Moon Joy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:24
Greece bans kids from social media (announced on TikTok); the FBI pulls Signal messages from iPhone notifications; OpenAI wants liability shields for AI mass-casualty events; wheels fall off a Mercedes EV; and Dave Bittn…
740: To the Moon! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:16:39
Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks, where we're starting to notice a patience epidemic! As people get used to barking orders at their AI, they're starting to talk to other humans with the same terse impatience. We discuss the e…