The Interface

Tim Cook resigns: what does a new Apple boss mean for your smartphone?
Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down later this year, with John Ternus — a long‑time hardware leader — named as his successor. We look past the boardroom drama and asks what this means for the thing most of us hold all day: your phone. Apple’s design choices set the tone for the entire industry; when Apple shifts, everyone else tends to follow. And if the next era is led by a hardware engineer, does that point to a different kind of iPhone future — in how it looks, behaves, and what Apple chooses to prioritise (or drop)?
Also this week:
Geese — psyop or marketing?
A band called Geese seemed to come out of nowhere - and now they’re playing Coachella. But alongside their rise, a bigger question has caught fire: how much of what we think is “organic” online is actually engineered? A WIRED report digs into “trend simulation”: networks of accounts, seeded clips and manufactured discourse designed to push an artist up the algorithmic ladder. None of this is entirely new - the music industry has always shaped what we hear - but the machinery is now quieter, faster, and harder to spot. And that changes the emotional core of fandom: when something breaks through, we don’t just ask “is this good?” — we ask “did I choose this… or was it chosen for me?”
Maine becomes the first state to ban data centres
Maine lawmakers have approved what’s being described as the first statewide pause on large data centres - driven by fears over electricity demand, rising bills, water use and environmental strain. This isn’t just a Maine story. Across the US, analysts are already warning that a huge chunk of planned data‑centre capacity for 2026 is being delayed or cancelled - not only because of local pushback, but because power, transformers and other basic electrical kit are becoming the bottleneck.
At the same time, cracks are showing in the AI boom’s confidence game: OpenAI has shut down its standalone Sora video app, citing a wind‑down timeline, after reports that the economics and compute costs didn’t add up. And in one of the most surreal signs of the hype cycle, Allbirds has announced it’s selling off its shoe business and rebranding as an “AI compute infrastructure” company.
So Karen asks the question beneath the headlines: are we looking at normal growing pains — or early signs that the AI bubble is hitting real limits: energy, hardware, planning, and public consent?
The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and our world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain, Karen Hao, and Nicky Woolf, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the stories that matter — whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.
New episodes every Thursday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”).
To get in touch with the team: [email protected]
The Interface is a BBC Studios production.
Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

Claude Mythos: is this a real risk or the AI industry’s latest fear campaign?
Anthropic’s unreleased model, Claude Mythos, is being talked about in the headlines as the next genuinely dangerous leap in AI - powerful enough, the company says, that it can’t be safely released to the public. But we at The Interface think we should take this self created panic with big serving of caution. The AI industry has learned that “too dangerous” can be a safety claim but also a major a publicity strategy: warn loudly, drip‑feed details, then proceed anyway. Until we know more about what Mythos can actually do, and how those claims are being independently verified, aren't we just in familiar territory: another episode of a self-publicising sector acting like the boy who cried wolf?
Also this week: we take on one of the most repeated bits of modern wellbeing advice, the idea that your phone’s blue light is wrecking your sleep. The evidence is messier than the panic, and the bigger culprit may be the lighting habits of modern life, and what we’re doing on our phones, rather than the colour of the glow itself. And, Amazon is ending support for older Kindle models, a move that leaves some owners unable to download new books and raises awkward questions about built in obsolescence and what “ownership” means when your device still works but the platform decides it’s done.
The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and our world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain, Karen Hao, and Nicky Woolf, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the stories that matter — whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.
New episodes every Thursday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”).
To get in touch with the team: [email protected]
The Interface is a BBC Studios production.
Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

Walmart’s digital price tags. The retail giant is rolling out shelf labels that allow prices to be updated instantly across stores. This isn’t a new trend. Airlines and hotels constantly adjust pricing based on demand. But if grocery prices can change in real time, what will this mean for your bill? And will pricing ever be adjusted using customer data or behavioural signals to maximise profit? Nicky launches the Great Interface Banana Pricing Study to monitor digital price tags in your local store.
Also this week:
Houston we have a problem… with our Microsoft Outlook. Artemis II’s crew on the way to the moon reported issues with their email inbox. While the glitch was eventually fixed, it raised eyebrows on earth and questions about the popularity of Microsoft Products. Microsoft still has a massive user base. Windows remains dominant in PC gaming. But the real backbone is enterprise: businesses are already deeply embedded in Microsoft’s ecosystem, and switching is costly and disruptive. What would the future look like if Windows was dethroned?
Microsoft responded to our request for comment after our recording. A spokesperson said: “At Microsoft, we deliver broad access to technology that works across price points, devices, and environments. We design products like Windows and Microsoft 365 for the people who use them every day, while ensuring organizations get the security, performance, and manageability they need at scale.”
Is being techy an old person’s game now? Friction Maxxing is the Gen Z term for deliberately making life less convenient. Instead of removing obstacles, it embraces difficulty, tension, and emotional resistance. Karen asks why are some people taking this approach to regain control and focus? Is the next trend in tech…less tech? In Tom’s case, this means listening to cassettes on his boombox.
The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and our world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain, Karen Hao, and Nicky Woolf, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the stories that matter — whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.
New episodes every Thursday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”).
To get in touch with the team: [email protected]
The Interface is a BBC Studios production.
Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

Infidelity in the fruit bowl; why are so many people watching AI generated fruit fall in and out of love? In a week of contrasting fortunes — Fruit Love Island, the TikTok synthetic‑reality hit, goes viral while OpenAI’s text‑to‑video tool Sora shuts down - Tom and Nicky ask what our love/hate relationship with “AI slop” says about taste, humour and, yes, misogyny. And who actually earns money when the content pipeline is bots all the way?
Also this week:
After the Meta verdict: Is the Meta verdict Big Tech's Big Tobacco moment? In the first verdict of its kind, a US jury found Meta and YouTube liable for designing products that harmed a young user - potentially a huge moment for the social media industry. Nicky and Tom unpack what it actually means for the rest of us: what counts as “addictive” design; why plaintiffs are targeting features like infinite scroll, autoplay and algorithmic nudges rather than user‑posted content; and how legal appeals, copycat cases and potential product changes could reshape the social platforms we use every day.
The FCC has barred new consumer routers made abroad unless they win a security exemption - you can keep existing kit, but future models must be US‑made or cleared. We test the security claims, ask whether US firms have the capacity to build the hardware, and examine the unintended risks of centralising control - from market power to the spectre of a White House “kill switch”.
The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and our world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain, Karen Hao, and Nicky Woolf, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the stories that matter — whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.
New episodes every Thursday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”).
To get in touch with the team: [email protected]
The Interface is a BBC Studios production.
Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

"Am I really real?"
Tom runs a simple test, involving his dear Aunt Eleanor, with far‑reaching consequences: can a real human prove they’re not a machine? The experiment was sparked by two viral moments; Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambling to show he was alive after a suspected fake image, and a too‑perfect “MAGA dream girl” who convinced millions she was real. We explore the “liar’s dividend”, where the flood of AI‑made images and videos lets anyone dismiss inconvenient truths as fakes. And if “seeing is believing” no longer holds, what should replace it?
Also this week:
Tech and the brain; what is a brain implant (a brain‑computer interface), and what can it actually do today? China has cleared a device called NEO for wider use beyond clinical trials, a huge milestone. We set that against Elon Musk’s Neuralink, decades of research, and new advances decoding speech and complex thoughts for people with paralysis or neurodegenerative illness. It’s life‑changing medicine - but what if funding dries up and implants no longer work? Would you want a chip in your head that someone else controls? We explore the benefits and risks — and why mass‑market “mind tech” is still a long way off.
AI’s supply chain under fire; how the war in Iran exposes the fragility of artificial intelligence. The Strait of Hormuz matters for more than oil: training models and running data centres are energy‑hungry and rely on liquefied natural gas and global supply line. A ceasefire won’t rebuild damaged infrastructure quickly, and many AI companies are already laden with debt. With trillions bet on AI, could AI failures sink the wider economy quicker than an oil crisis?
The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and our world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain, Karen Hao, and Nicky Woolf, each episode unpacks, week by week, the unfolding story of how technology is shaping all of our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the tech stories that matter — whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.
New episodes drop every Thursday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”).
To get in touch with the team: [email protected]
The Interface is a BBC Studios production.
Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars