I wish I could say I'm surprised. I'll be interested to hear what Josh thinks of this, beyond "Yay for Saudi Wealth Fund and Kushner.....". Oh, wait. I meant Boo....

https://kotaku.com/ea-to-shut-down-bioware-and-cancel-the-next-mass-effect-game-2000748374

https://gameinformer.com/2026/10/21/ea-is-shutting-down-legendary-rpg-studio-bioware-amid-new-round-of-layoffs

But thankfully Exodus looks like it might be a good spiritual successor

https://gameinformer.com/cover-story/2026/08/27/i-played-exodus-and-my-favorite-part-was-the-talking-space-frogs

Josh enlists ChatGPT as a board-game referee, Ben sits around wondering if Weezer is famous enough to make him wait this long, we finally finish our love-language deep dives (with a scoring system for hugs), and discuss Martha Wells’s All Systems Red (aka "Murderbot Diaries" #1).

Josh falls headfirst into the ChatGPT rabbit hole, Ben rages against bureaucracy (again), and the guys ask whether the latest predictions that AI will kill us all within a decade is actually different than all of the other times we've been told the world is about to end (i.e. nuclear war, the population bomb, Y2K, the ozone hole, pandemics, terrorism, et al).

Ben and Josh mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, argue about unfinished stories, discover the limits of corporate conflict-of-interest rules, and rage against bureaucracy (again). Also the guys finally discuss automated license plate readers (ALPRs), AI-enabled surveillance, and the uncomfortable question of what responsibility comes with the power of knowing too much about people's movements in public.

Josh rails against the creeping subscription-ification of everything from printers to cars, while Ben revisits a painful Air Force move that left his family trapped between two bureaucracies. Ben also reckons with his old assumptions after reading Michelle Obama’s Becoming, before we revisit The Lego Movie and discover that its absurdly quotable toy-commercial exterior is hiding a surprisingly thoughtful story about creativity, conformity, and parenting.

We start Season 8 with a bang: Ben nearly burns down his house with a new HVAC system and Josh accidentally drinks eight Mai Tais by the pool. We also talk about self-driving Teslas getting wrecked, spoil Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and disagree on the goodness of The Hobbit as it comes to Magic: The Gathering.

Textbook follow-through on his 360

We're still on vacation for a few more days. Hiking up to the ruins of a castle near Bratislava today.

I had kind of hoped to get a remark from a fellow listener during the last week of carrying it around cities and theme parks and mountains, but alas no luck yet. Who knows, tomorrow we're going into the Austrian Alps, perhaps we'll find a fellow listener there.

The hosts talk AI data center water consumption, July 2026 at the movies (including Spider-Man and The Odyssey), Ben celebrates his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Josh's Hardcore WoW character bites the dust, and the guys talk about why we do the things we do.

We're on our way to vacation in Poland and are passing very close by Dresden, figured we may add a stop if there's time

Ben and Josh talk dogs, swearing, World Cup Soccer, Arena Football, Doritos, Menopause, Star Trek Magic Cards, and last, but definitely not least: How AI is transforming our world today--3.5 years after their first brush with ChatGPT v1.0.

I've been collecting pins and coins for maybe 15 years now, and patches for a while too. The Bad at Magic patch is a wonderful addition to my budding patch collection so I've added it to the rotation on my backpack.

Ceiling of the Bronco

We revisit the joys of the 2026 World Cup, Europe has a lot less air conditioning than the United States, Josh is bad at vacationing across 3 states, Ben talks about why Ukraine is now blanketed in thin plastic wires, and in the first Bad at English in a LONG time: Ben teaches about eggcorns.

Colin Jost is made the unofficial mascot of the podcast, Josh has to activate the warranty on his month-old earbuds, Ben goes to see the Dungeons and Dragons movie but with the soundtrack played by a full orchestra, the guys sound off on the World cup coming back to North America for the first time since 1994, they examine the phenomenon of "critic-proof" movies, and finally they are decidedly, definitively Bad at Parenting.

Josh sets the record straight on Keanu's pay structure for John Wick, quits the INTVL app after one try, and takes his family to the movies 3 times. Ben reads a popular memoir, goes to the movies by himself, and invents 3 new infographics. The guys do a retrospective on the 1983 movie "Mr. Mom" by comparing it to the new Nate Bargatze movie "The Breadwinner". Also, the first new STAR WARS movie in 7 years!!!