Weird Things

Latest Episodes:

WT: TracGalaxy Jun 21, 2022

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The episode opens with a recap of a friendly wager about when SpaceX Starship will be reused and safely land after a second launch. The hosts discuss Starship progress, the FAA's finding of no significant impact, remaining regulatory items, Elon Musk's July launch remark, and SpaceX's rapid production ambitions, including talk of building one Starship per day and using Starbase to build the fleet for Mars. A large portion of the episode is devoted to the Wow signal and broader SETI-style speculation. The hosts describe the signal as a strong, unresolved candidate for alien contact, discuss why repeatability is difficult in astronomy, and then widen the conversation to beacons, Dyson spheres, interstellar messaging, and the possibility of advanced civilizations communicating across the galaxy. The episode also covers Voyager 1 and 2 powering down after decades in space, with reflection on their extraordinary longevity and legacy. Key topics FAA approval and remaining Starship hurdles: The FAA's finding of no significant impact is treated as important but not the final step; the hosts note SpaceX still has many conditions to satisfy, including practical requirements and an indigenous history report. Starship production goals and Mars ambitions: The discussion emphasizes SpaceX's goal of producing Starship at industrial scale, including the claim of one per day, and frames that as tied to a genuine Mars-colonization plan. Beyond-the-decade tech optimism: Andrew and Brian specula

AT: Table as a Service Jun 15, 2022

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We’re back and we are imagining training artificial intelligence to create dynamic media that can be rewritten, recut, and A/B tested in realtime. What would a post-scarcity world look like post-tech-singularity? A future where real-time media modification could be automatic–that’s coming from a world where animatronics can do human-sized stunts on a theme park schedule. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Coffeezilla on YouTube Justin: Dennis Miller Live Brian: Harvard’s Python courses Bryce: Airtable

WT: Pie for a Pie Leaves the World Satisfied Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

The episode opens with discussion of SpaceX’s newly reported FAA approval to launch from Boca Chica, Texas. The hosts explain that launch sites need government permission, compare Boca Chica with other regulated sites, and use the moment to talk about the scale of SpaceX’s Starship program, including the massive factories, high bays, and launch towers being built in Texas and Florida. The middle of the episode turns into a long joke-driven segment about a Raleigh-area pest-control study offering $2,000 for people to let 100 cockroaches live in their home for 30 days. The hosts debate the risks, the legality and nuisance of it, and then call Brian’s mom and Bryce on-air, both of whom refuse the offer even when the amount is escalated to a billion dollars. Key topics FAA regulation for SpaceX launches: The hosts say Boca Chica launch operations require FAA approval and note that even other launch sites involve regulatory review. Starship infrastructure and reusable rocket manufacturing: Andrew describes SpaceX’s giant high bays, launch towers, and parallel construction in Texas and Florida, emphasizing mass production of reusable rockets. Launch facilities beyond government jurisdiction: Brian speculates about seasteading or international waters as a launch platform, and Andrew jokes that such a facility would effectively be ballistic missile infrastructure. Reusability as the defining SpaceX milestone: The hosts frame the key breakthrough as a rocket that goes to orbit, lands,

AT: Double-Tapped Out Jun 08, 2022

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What’s the difference between 5 million views on 1 video and 50,000 views on 100 videos? BeReal, a new social network around once-a-day posting, brings a conversation about being authentic online and how limits differentiate BeReal from Instagram and TikTok. Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Blue Apron Justin: The Off-White Album from Dennis Miller Brian: Hacks Bryce: Airtable

WT: Fluoride in the Air Jun 07, 2022

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The episode opens with a long speculative discussion about rogue planets as possible interstellar transports. The hosts describe free-floating planets as something a civilization might ride by mapping trajectories, using geothermal heat under ice, and treating the whole planet like a generation ship. They extend the idea with VR and slowed subjective time, imagining a moving habitat that could carry people between star systems while keeping them entertained or comfortable. From there the conversation moves into metaphysical speculation about simulations and nested realities, then into a stretch of joking about Avatar, tentacles, and the Papyrus font meme. The back half of the episode becomes a broad grab bag of science-fiction and pop-culture commentary: praise for Meg as a self-aware giant-shark movie, discussion of megalodon extinction theories, fusion-powered planetary engineering, moon-etched information archives, criticism of expensive entertainment projects being asked to be charity, and recommendations for Top Gun: Maverick, Coherence, Things, Yellowstone 1883, and Stranger Things season four. Key topics Rogue planets as generation ships: The hosts discuss a paper proposing that extraterrestrial civilizations could use free-floating planets as interstellar transports. They imagine life under ice with geothermal heat, mapping planetary currents, and riding rogue planets from system to system. VR and slowed subjective time for long voyages: They joke that virtual reality

AT: X is Cool! May 25, 2022

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Update time: Bryce’s LFG Marbles project is back on and he talks about opening a Patreon, diving right in from zero, and the anxiety of *not* doing it. Brian finally kicks off a project to hold business classes. The freeing feeling of talking to a smaller, select group. Business guru or business guru for sale? Andrew’s experiments with speed-reading inspired a new project for him. Can he solve reading? Expert business gurus and marbles guys say “yes!” Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.”

WT: Ed & Bed Buy a Hat May 24, 2022

Show notes

The episode opens with the hosts discussing Boeing's Starliner docking at the ISS and using it as a comparison point for NASA's commercial crew program, where SpaceX reached crewed spaceflight sooner and Boeing is still catching up after test-flight issues. That leads into a longer conversation about why SpaceX and Tesla often seem faster and more effective than traditional companies, with the hosts emphasizing engineering culture, vertical integration, and practical problem-solving over formal corporate assumptions. From there the conversation moves into supply chains and just-in-time manufacturing, with the hosts arguing that those systems can work well during periods of rapid expansion but become fragile when shortages, supplier power, or market tightening appear. The middle of the episode also includes a listener animal-sighting mystery that the hosts explain as likely a mundane creature seen badly at night, and then a second long section about data loss versus compression, foveated rendering, and the idea that systems often preserve only approximations of reality. In the latter half, Andrew introduces First Light Fusion and uses it to discuss alternative fusion approaches, legacy scientific inertia, and why a shock-compression design might be worth exploring. The episode closes with a broader defense of nuclear power and criticism of regulatory delay, followed by the picks segment where the hosts recommend a speedrunning YouTube video, Disney's Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Range

AT: Versatile Sweater May 11, 2022

Show notes

Slowing down and enjoying something or an international war crime? How is text being handled in a modern age and what could the next information delivery medium look like? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: River Out of Eden from Richard Dawkins Justin: The Pentaverate Brian: Animal Jam Bryce: Knotwords

WT: Blood Letting Is Back! May 10, 2022

Show notes

The episode opens with a long discussion about the human microbiome and the idea that bacteria in the gut, mouth, and skin are integral to human health. The hosts then focus on fecal transplants and related research, including mouse studies suggesting younger donor material may reduce inflammation and improve health, while older material can have negative effects; they also briefly connect this to blood donation and the possibility that regular donation may trigger the body to replenish blood in a way that offers some rejuvenation-related benefit. A large portion of the episode is devoted to speed reading and reading-comprehension experiments. Andrew Mayne describes RSVP/Spritz-style one-word presentation, then argues that chunking words into phrases or clauses may work better, citing an older study and his own experimentation. The conversation broadens into accessibility, captions, emoji, text-to-speech, and other ways of adding context, and the episode concludes with picks including the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, the US Chemical Safety Board YouTube channel, and Brian's choice to step back from fiction and listen to nonfiction for a while. Key topics Human microbiome and the idea that we are symbiotic organisms: The hosts discuss gut biota, bacteria in the mouth and on the skin, and joke that humans are partly made up of resident microbes. They connect bacteria to digestion, immune function, and possibly mood. The science and stigma of fecal matter transplants

AT: Learning Machine Learning May 04, 2022

Show notes

Listener Nate is fascinated by DALL-E 2, but doesn’t know where to start. How can you get into ML/neural net technology and what are good tricks for making the most of self-driven coding education? Send your project questions/ideas to neshcom@gmail.com, subject line “After Things.” Picks: Andrew: Fireship on YouTube Brian: The Book of Niall from Barry Jones on Kickstarter Bryce: Things

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