Intentional AI

10: Cal Newport: Automate Tedium, Protect Thought Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

Cal Newport joins David and Chris to explore the line between automating tedious work and outsourcing thought. They discuss jagged robot capabilities, cognitive surrender, digital minimalism, and protecting human judgment.

Guest Starring:

Cal Newport

Links and Show Notes:

Credits

Intentional AI
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

YouTube Queen
Dana Hurley

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Focused Podcast YouTube Channel

Cal Newport’s Books

The Deep Life — Cal Newport

The Economics of Bicycles for the Mind

Has AI Already Killed How-To Nonfiction? — Tim Ferriss

Life 3.0 — Max Tegmark

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Mac Power Users 865 — Teddy Svoronos

Thinking—Fast, Slow, and Artificial

How AI Is Reshaping Human Intuition and Reasoning — Wharton

Why A.I. Didn’t Transform Our Lives in 2025 — Cal Newport

On Digital Minimalism — Cal Newport

It’s Time to Investigate the AI Labs — Cal Newport

9: Dissecting the Extinction Headlines Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

OpenAI's Hugging Face incident shows how powerful robots can cause real harm without malicious intent. David and Chris separate today's risks from Skynet headlines, ask who should write the rules, and draw a line between robot drudgery and human judgment.

Links and Show Notes:

Credits

Intentional AI
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

YouTube Queen
Dana Hurley

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Focused Podcast YouTube Channel

Intentional AI Feedback and Membership

OpenAI: The Hugging Face Incident and the Road Ahead

METR: Independent Investigation of the OpenAI/Hugging Face Incident

Anthropic: Mythos Preview Cybersecurity Capabilities

Find Your Values: AI Model Values Research

FTC: Voice-Clone Emergency Scam Guidance

FBI: Generative AI and Financial Fraud

NIST: Generative AI Risk Management Profile

Apple Reference Image

Aidan Gomez: Who Gets to Define the Rules for AI?

The Four Levels of Knowledge Work

Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom

AlphaFold and the Protein Universe

MPU 865: Teddy Svoronos

8: Whisper to Write Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

Dictation is a quiet success story of the AI era. David and Chris cover the history of dictation, the apps they use, the great free options (and the ones they pay for), their privacy concerns, their desktop and mobile setups, and practical tips for 2026.

This episode of Intentional AI is sponsored by:

Making Light: Craft a daily ritual to focus on what matters most. Get $10 off your first order with the code 'INTENTIONAL26'

Links and Show Notes:

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Intentional show page

Intentional on YouTube

MacSparky Robot Field Guide

Chris's Values Test

Shalom Schwartz — Theory of Basic Human Values

Dragon

OpenAI Whisper

Google Chirp

Meta MMS

NVIDIA Parakeet

Mistral

Wispr Flow

MacWhisper

Superwhisper

Whisper Memos

Drafts

Simplenote

Hollyland Lark M2S

Transmit

Making Light (sponsor)

7: We're All Developers Now Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

A walkthrough of how personal software gets made, and how artificial intelligence is democratizing software development. Including the three stages of developing your own app: design, implementation, and creation.

Links and Show Notes:

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Intentional AI - Relay

Intentional AI Podcast - YouTube

Chris's new TED talk

Intentional by Chris Bailey

Vestaboard

The Omni Group

Apple Developer Program - Apple Developer

Wispr Flow

Things - To-Do List App for Mac & iOS

Mac Power Users #863: 20 Years of Things with Werner Jainek - Relay

ChatGPT can now send texts for you with new Apple Messages plug-in | TechCrunch

AI was supposed to win people over by now -- it hasn't | TechCrunch

‎The No List App - App Store

The Case for a Personal Apple Developer Tier - MacSparky

WWDC26: Platforms State of the Union | Apple - YouTube

6: Sparky’s AI Email Odyssey Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

David hands his email to AI, tries the Big Swing, fails, and lands on a system that works. Plus Gemini Notebook, Claude Opus 5, and Siri AI finding an airport lounge.

Links and Show Notes:

Credits

Intentional AI
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Intentional AI YouTube channel

Superhuman

Superhuman MCP

Fastmail

SaneBox

Obsidian

Wispr Flow

Claude

Claude Scheduled Tasks

Model COntext Protocol

Anthropic's Chip Team

Gemini Notebook

Siri AI

Vestaboard

5: There Be Dragons Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

David and Chris map four dragons waiting at the edge of the AI map: false confidence, scope creep, becoming the donkey, and surrender.

Links and Show Notes:

Credits

TheHosts
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Intentional AI

Intentional AI on YouTube

Cognitive Offloading (Risko & Gilbert)

Siri AI

LM Studio

Aristotle's Ethics

The Odyssey (Film)

Your Obedient Servant

Pronouncing "Claude" on Reddit

Chris's Book, Intentional

4: Skills Outlast the Model Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

This week, Chris and David chat about Skill files—the text files of instructions that your robot assistant can use to complete tasks for you. They also dig into Anthropic's Fable model, and Chris's fancy home dashboard that he programmed using AI.

Links and Show Notes:

Credits

The Hosts
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Brave (web browser)

Robot Assistant Field Guide (code "intentional" for 10% off)

Chris's caffeine experiment

Has AI Already Killed How-To Nonfiction? - The Blog of Tim Ferriss

Anthropic author copyright settlement (Authors Guild explainer)

BLOOMIN8 E-Ink Canvas

Home Assistant

The Globe and Mail

.zip file: Color e-ink dashboard skill builder file

Intentional AI - Relay

3: Context is King Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

David and Chris make the case that context, not the model, decides whether your robot helps or flails. They get practical about how to take advantage of context to get more fom AI.

This episode of Intentional AI is sponsored by:

Making Light: Craft a daily ritual to focus on what matters most. Get $10 off your first order with the code 'INTENTIONAL26'

Links and Show Notes:

Credits

TheHosts
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Intentional AI feedback and membership

Claude (the harness David uses most)

Obsidian (the text vault behind Cowork)

ChatGPT

Google Gemini

Wispr Flow (both hosts dictate context with it)

Context Rot research (Chroma, the long-context degradation report Chris cites)

The Cornell WARP study (13 words in a Reddit thread can steer AI search)

The AI burnout paradox (77% of managers see efficiency, 88% of heavy users report burnout)

Christina Maslach on the three dimensions of burnout

Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey (where he writes about attention residue)

How to Calm Your Mind by Chris Bailey (the burnout book)

2: The Useful Architecture + Siri AI Jun 17, 2026

Show notes

Chris Bailey and David Sparks chat about the four essential parts of a useful AI system: the harness, context, memory, and reach. They also discuss Apple's recent WWDC announcements—including the new Siri AI.

Links and Show Notes:

Credits

TheHosts
David Sparks
Chris Bailey

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership

Submit Feedback

Claude

Claude Cowork

ChatGPT

OpenAI Codex

Google Gemini

What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)? - Model Context Protocol

Wispr Flow (voice dictation)

MacWhisper

Todoist

Health Auto Export

Circle

David's Robot Assistant Field Guide

1: Anyone Can Cook Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

David Sparks and Chris Bailey launch Intentional AI, a show about using AI to get real work done without the hype or the doom. Episode 1 lays out why the show exists, introduces the hosts, and makes one promise. Anyone can cook.