Robot or Not?

Listener Kev needs us to unpack John’s comment about “spiders and other bugs.” Does that mean spiders are bugs? And what are the other bugs? Spooky!

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Matt can’t stand it when someone calls a USB cable a wire. But what does John think?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Who scapes the lands? Who gardens the gardens? Who mows and who blows? Not us!

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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John fields some important questions about pasta from listeners Connor, Joshua, and Lee, including the definition of Al Dente and noodles versus pasta.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Eric asks if vehicles are only motorized, and we ponder how small a thing can be before it’s not a vehicle anymore.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Can a drinking glass be made out of plastic? Or is it just a cup?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Summer is in full swing, so Listener Ken has asked us to differentiate between umbrellas and parasols.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Marc ponders the “VR headset market” and wants to know what makes a market a market.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Eric really needs his kids to differentiate between charger blocks and charging cables.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Christian, your time has come. Is an AI Lock the same as a Smart Lock? Or a Fuzzy Logic Lock? When bicycle gear shifters are called “AI”, how do we define what any of this means? I know—let’s ask John.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Lorne asks what makes a spacesuit a spacesuit, and it gets complicated in a hurry.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Let’s get back to basics. We celebrate our improbable 10th anniversary with a letter from Listener Scott, who has a lot of questions about his son’s book “Science Comics: Robots and Drones.”

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Science Comics: Robots and Drones: Past, Present and Future

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Listener Paul doubts the efficacy of the Bay Leaf. Host John ponders the longevity of Spices. Host Jason admits to keeping spices 15 years past their expiration dates.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Jason (not host Jason) wants to know if “non-tech items” are really tech items.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

WVFRM: Our favorite ordinary objects!

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Listener Ben asks: If a Buoy is unanchored and works hard to stay where it is, is it the Roomba of the seas?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Robotic Buoys Make their Mark at 2024 Olympics

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Listener Jim wants John to weigh in on the story of the mushroom that was given a robot body, and while that does sound fascinating, the answer seems to be right there in the description.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Mushroom is Given a Robot Body and Runs Wild

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Listener Victor brings us a question from another “or Not?” podcast about how many points are required to make something a story, episode, or character arc.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Sponsors

Show Notes & Links

Risky or Not?

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Listeners Joshua and Matthias want to know about flying in (or on) an airplane.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Sponsors

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Listener Jason (not that one) wants to know if the Gibson Robot Guitar is just trying to jump on the robot bandwagon as a form of fancy marketing.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Gibson Robot Guitar

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Two listeners have requested that we revisit recent court and podcast rulings regarding the definition of a sandwich. Also, Jason details his meager high-school lunch.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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In the end, the Grain Weevils and robot lawn mowers come for us all.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Is a Game Boy a game console? What about a Switch? Can a handheld gaming device also be a console? What makes something a console?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Alexander has seen through the calendar’s deceptions and wants to know why any old day couldn’t be the start of a new year. When does the year begin in our hearts?

(Happy New Year, everyone!)

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Death Cab for Cutie-inspired theme song by Host Jason in the spirit of “Transatlanticism.” It worked better than “The New Year,” okay?

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Listener Ben and his sister-in-law have come up with a sophisticated system of rules for when and when not to leave a gratuity. But someone else may have his own rules.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Many listeners are concerned about recent legal rulings that suggest tacos and burritos are sandwiches. But we all know who the real voice of authority is.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Patrick is concerned about taxonomy, most particularly involving fans that are also lights.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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There are so many different ways to define fast food. Is pizza fast food? Also, Jason has a story about the Shake Shake in the Minneapolis airport.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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I can see clearly now.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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As so often happens with us, discussions of evil henchman end up becoming discussions of legal employment status.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Live from the Relay Podcastathon, Jason and special guest Casey Liss ask John a bunch of questions from the Robot Or Not question list.

Topics include: All-In-One computers, dates, pasta, and antique vs. retro.

It’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Please consider donating as a part of our campaign at stjude.org/relay.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell with Casey Liss

Show Notes & Links

Relay FM for St. Jude

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Oh, Listener Sean wants to know about catchphrases! Well, isn’t that special?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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In a rare timely episode, John and Jason discuss a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that Apple is designing a series of robots, including a “robot” that sits on a table and moves its display around, and a “robot” that follows you around your house folding laundry, reminding you of your mortality, and possibly running a viral campaign for Apple TV+ shows.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Daniel would like John’s blessing for his practice of putting two spaces after every sentence he types.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Arne received a severe weather alert for a fire. Fires are very bad, but are they weather? Are some natural disasters weather, and others not?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Is “truffle mushroom tea” just a soup? Did a fancy New York restaurant play a trick on Listener David and his wife? And what is tea, really?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Are Hawaiian shirts just fun to wear, or are they cultural appropriation?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

National Geographic: It’s OK to wear an Aloha shirt

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Listener Erik sent us this video of self-navigating wheelchairs in the Miami Airport. Does the Roomba Rule apply?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Friend of the show Frank is seeking to delineate when something is a “vending machine” and when it’s just a machine that vends.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Thanks to Friend of the Show Casey, we’re talking about weird cars and car classes again.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Ivan sent in a link to an autonomous excavator that assembled a six-foot wall out of rocks. Is it the Roomba of construction materials?!

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

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A tale of dishwashers and large sinks.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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We follow up on some feedback about our theme songs, and theme songs in general, while taking on whether we use the Skip Intro button when we should be listening to TV theme songs.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

End theme lyrics written and sung by Lex Friedman. 🐸

To become a member and hear all our members-only Robot Or Not bonuses, visit theincomparable.com/members.

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It’s baseball’s Opening Day, so here’s our discussion of automated balls and strikes, also known as “Robot Umps,” how they relate to automated Hawk-Eye tennis calls, and why we won’t ever know how good human umpires could actually be.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

We May Never Find Out How Good Umpires Can Be

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Fresh out of the oven for Pi Day, here’s a discussion of who exactly thinks pizza is a pie.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Do you have to leave the airport or get out of the car to claim you’ve been somewhere? (And are you under oath?)

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Kent is building actual killer robots.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

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What makes a hat a hat?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

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I want to run, I want to hide, I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside. Sometimes the streets have no name, but other times they are named roads, or avenues, or boulevards, or drives. What does it all mean? Does Jason live on a road or a drive? When we go there, we go there with you. It’s all we can do.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Spatulas, scrapers, flippers, and home economics.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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A question about cold brew coffee makes us question everything about coffee. Is everything coffee? Probably not.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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A perfectly normal discussion of Italian Ice takes a left turn and goes into outer space, where other ices are available.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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When is someone a musician? Are DJs musicians? And more importantly, are John and Jason musicians?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Some timely news regarding a university warning its community members to “avoid all robots.”

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Jason: John, I’ve got some breaking robot related news, got a link literally just half an hour ago before we recorded this.

What are the chances? Because we only record this two or three times a year. From our friend Shelly, it’s a story on Ars Technica with a headline, Do Not Open Robots, warns Oregon State, amid college food delivery bomb prank. These are those co...

On John’s other podcast, Casey Liss often says he lied when he means he made a mistake. So what is a lie? (Trust us, we totally answer this one.)

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Nick wonders what John’s policy on spoilers is. (Spoilers for “Romeo and Juliet” and “Citizen Kane.”)

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Hold on, John, Jason’s got this one.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Live from the Relay FM Podcastathon, Jason and special guest Stephen Hackett ask John a bunch of questions from the Robot Or Not question list.

Topics include: Toast, Roadkill, Sandwich Order of Operations, Garage, and Cereal Soup.

Please donate to St. Jude and help move us one step closer to the day where no child dies from cancer.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell with Stephen Hackett

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Listener Jamie wonders whether his dog is really sighing. We discuss noises dogs make. Also, after posting our previous episode we realized we got the numbering of the podcast out of order. Sigh.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Andrew is worried that things we say are “the worst” are really just bad.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Magnus is concerned that his favorite podcast is on hiatus. When is something on hiatus and when is it cancelled?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Hello Internet: On Hiatus

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Finally we talk about robots again. If a robot controls a camera, is it a camera robot?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

AI Camerabot video

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☹️

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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If it’s never meant to make a cookie, is it still cookie dough? (Also: Peanut Butter Spread, Cheese Food, and other food labeling we have known.)

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Cookie Dough Bites

Baking a cookie from Cookie Dough ice cream

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This time we’re throwing shade. But do sunglasses?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

John, listener Andy wrote in to robot@theincomparable.com. You know, I say listener, maybe Andy doesn’t listen to the podcast at all, but for some reason submitted a question. I don’t want to assume, but probably a listener. Andy says, “As we head into the sunnier months of the year, I wonder what you define as shade. I think most people agree that trees and umbrellas provide shade, but do clouds provide...

If any device can open a door, is every device a key?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

John, Lister Gabriel wrote into robot@theincomparable.com, which is the right place to do this, and said, “What is a key? Is a tag that opens my house door is a key? The app that unlocks the door of my building is a key? Or just those pieces of metal are considered keys? What makes something a key?”

Yeah, so the things with the, like the little, you know...

A chair is not a house and house is not a home, but is a house a building? And what about gazebos?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

John, we were having a discussion in the Incomparable member slack. People can become a member of the incomparable sport this podcast directly. This is not meant to be a member appeal. I’m just mentioning it in passing. And the question was about a building. We were talking about, we actually played D&D honestly, and we were talking about a...

Jason’s trip to his mother’s house makes him rethink his definition of what a dish is. Also, he gets some upsetting news about the long-term relationship between the fork and the spoon.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

“Robot Or Not? (Boardwalk Mix)” performed by Lex Friedman (feat. Jason Snell). Parody lyrics by Jason and Lex.

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Don’t anthromorphize ports. They hate that.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Jason: John, listener Chris wants to know about plugs.

He writes, “I’ve been taught that computer cables and ports are gendered to identify each side of the connection. The male end refers to the tab or protuberance and the female end is the cavity that receives the tab. For example, in the Lightning connection on Apple products, the cable is the male end and the devices contain the female end, except for the genera...

Where do beaches exist? And what materials do they need to be comprised of?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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The difference between islands and continents, and also why Pluto can be a planet if you want to lower your standards.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Sometimes they’re wicked, sometimes not. Can an adult call a parent’s new wife a stepmom? Bonus: Can you be too old to be an orphan?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

John, listener Alesh wants to know, Alesh writes, “A certain person I know refers to her stepmom, someone her father married after she was an adult and living alone. This sounds odd to me. My intuition is that something like 16 is the tipping point. If my parents had divorced and one of them had remarried after that a...

Listener Chris clues us into an important ice safety campaign.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

John, listener Christopher would like to know, he sent us a picture of ice, bagged ice from the store, and on it in the corner is a little logo from some ice association that says, “Ice is food!” John, is ice food? Thank you, Chris says, for bringing clarity to the universe. Thank you, listener Christopher. Is ice food?

My first point of contention is whether or not this litt...

Shoes, socks, sandals, boots. Footwear is complicated.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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What makes a university? Is it the buildings, or the people, or the big hole you throw money into?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Rob and Listener Reiner, who are not Director Rob Reiner, want to know if they are Friends of the Show.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Are we too late to say it?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Some deeper questions about whether certain Roomba behavior makes it more or less of a robot.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Blaine is a pain, and that is the truth.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Referenced Works

The Dark Tower (series)

Show Notes & Links

Blaine the Mono (Dark Tower wiki)

Nozz-A-La

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For the very first time, we do some housekeeping about holes, Russian robots, salad, genocide, Voltron, and available sales leads.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Is garlic a vegetable, an herb, a spice, or what?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Spooky!

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Death Metal theme by Antony Johnston.

Scientists Turned Dead Spiders Into Undead Zombie Robots

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If you’re a werewolf, are you a werewolf all the time?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Cal Dress Your Pet Contest

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It’s a house, but it floats.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

'Our house is really a boat'

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Sometimes, everyone on the Internet wants John’s opinion.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Doors vs Wheels debate

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When robots flock together naturally, will humans give them a name? Or will we be too busy dying?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

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Many robots, one robot, or no robots?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Topology can be tricky.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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It’s a big thing in the middle of nowhere. Does it need to be a rock to be a monolith?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Mysterious monoliths

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When is something electronic, and when is it electric?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Is that just a really short acting part, or is it only a cameo?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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We salute all Moms, no matter their classification.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener/Professor Lisa can handle conceptual analysis on her own, but she does wonder why campus delivery robots make her so angry. (It wasn’t just because they’re Russian.)

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Russian Robot Deactivated

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A bunch of baseball writers drafted pastas. John has thoughts.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Sponsors

Show Notes & Links

The baseball writer pasta draft

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Does texture matter when it comes to robots?

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Sponsors

Show Notes & Links

Robot made of magnetic slime could grab objects inside your body

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Paul Atreides and the Fremen sure look cool, but won’t they die of hyperthermia in those suits?

(Incomparable Members will find a special bonus episode of Robot or Not in the First Class feed today. Become a member for lots of goodies!)

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Select all ROBOT RELATED PODCASTS.

If there are none, click Stop.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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John has one, but also doesn’t have one. Mary married some merry carrots.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Ashley wants to know about the true meaning of friendship.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Why do Americans crowd out the rest of two continents from the namespace? John thinks it’s about imperialism; Jason thinks it’s because our country has no proper name.

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

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Listener Scott wants to know what “homemade” cooking is. Jason made this episode from scratch. (But the theme song was store-bought.)

John Siracusa and Jason Snell

Show Notes & Links

Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee

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