Robot or Not?
Hosted by John Siracusa and Jason Snell
Jason Snell asks John Siracusa to rule on the meaning of various words and concepts. It’s not just about robots anymore.
Have a question for John? Email robot@theincomparable.com.
292 Tea
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?
Previous Episodes
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July 8, 2024291 Hawaiian Shirts
Are Hawaiian shirts just fun to wear, or are they cultural appropriation?
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June 24, 2024
290 Airport Wheelchair
Listener Erik sent us this video of self-navigating wheelchairs in the Miami Airport. Does the Roomba Rule apply?
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June 10, 2024
289 Vending Machine
Friend of the show Frank is seeking to delineate when something is a “vending machine” and when it’s just a machine that vends.
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May 27, 2024
288 El Camino
Thanks to Friend of the Show Casey, we’re talking about weird cars and car classes again.
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May 16, 2024
287 Autonomous Excavator
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?!
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April 15, 2024
285 Theme Songs / Skip Intro
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.
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March 28, 2024
284 ⚾️ Robot Umps ⚾️
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.
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March 14, 2024
283 (Pizza) Pie
Fresh out of the oven for Pi Day, here’s a discussion of who exactly thinks pizza is a pie.
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March 4, 2024
282 Places You’ve Been
Do you have to leave the airport or get out of the car to claim you’ve been somewhere? (And are you under oath?)