TechStuff

Would you live in a zero labor home – with a robot? This week, the latest trends and gadgets coming out of CES in Las Vegas and what Karah learned about consenting to biometric surveillance at a Wegmans. Then, Oz takes us to a peptide rave and Karah unveils how influencers and OnlyFans models are getting US visas — they can thank John Lennon. If you’ve used a chatbot in an unusual or surprising way, send us a 1–2 minute voice note at [email protected]. Additional Reading: What to expect at CES 2026 | The Verge NYC Wegmans is storing biometric data on shoppers' eyes, voices and faces | Gothamist Chinese Peptides Are The Latest Biohacking Trend In The Tech World | New York Times Influencers and OnlyFans models dominate US ‘extraordinary’ artist visas | Financial Times See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s your New Year’s Resolution? We want to help you keep it. The Verge’s senior tech reviewer, Victoria Song, joins the pod to tell us what tech can help you develop better habits, which wearable is worth buying, and why a new mattress could change your whole sleep game.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What was your tech takeaway in 2025? And what is going to be the big story in 2026? Oz sits down with the author of The Running Ground and The Atlantic’s CEO, Nicholas Thompson, to discuss the odd intersection between tech and religion, the tech to compensate media companies for AI training data, who OpenAI’s real rival is, why we don’t understand how AI works, and much, much more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Could you resist falling for an AI companion? We’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes of 2025: author and journalist Sam Apple takes us on romantic getaway for people who are in love with their AI companions He wrote a piece for Wired about what he observed that weekend, whether the love between humans and AI is real, and what the future of dating could look like in a world with AI companions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the companies you couldn’t ignore this year was NVIDIA, so we’re re-airing a conversation Oz had with Stephen Witt, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and author of The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, NVIDIA, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip. They discuss what’s made NVIDIA the most valuable chip company in the world, how a single piece of hardware changed the world forever, and why data centers are shrouded in so much secrecy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.