747: Why We Sigh
Grumpy Old Geeks
Jason DeFillippo & Brian Schulmeister with Dave Bittner
4.9 • 6.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
FOLLOW UP: This week, it seems America believes every complicated social problem can be fixed by asking, “Have you tried turning the internet off for the children?” Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation quietly notes that the science behind social media bans might not be as clear-cut as cable-news dads screaming about dopamine loops claim. Turns out, teen anxiety may also be linked to pandemics, school shootings, climate dread, and an economy that feels like a Fallout side quest. Meanwhile, Snap Inc. and YouTube settled another lawsuit accusing their apps of turning kids into doomscrolling goblins, Meta continues to insist social media addiction isn’t real while losing money in court, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed at a graduation speech after telling graduates to hop on the AI rocket ship without asking questions — exactly what a billionaire says when he already owns the rocket.
In the news, Elon Musk lost another OpenAI lawsuit because apparently even juries have limits. SpaceX’s IPO revealed Musk plans to power AI with enough gas turbines to recreate 1890s London smog, and Grok officially became a disclosure liability after the whole “MechaHitler” incident. Tesla robotaxis still clip fences and occasionally require humans to remotely drive the “self-driving” cars. Trump Mobile somehow shipped a gold phone that actually works — a stunning upset — before immediately leaking customer data. LinkedIn finally admitted the platform has become an AI-generated motivational swamp filled with “it’s not about X, it’s about Y” sludge from people named Brayden. Spotify is handing out podcast verification badges so listeners can tell real creators from algorithmic nightmare fuel. Meta laid off thousands more workers while reportedly using employee surveillance to train AI replacements. And OpenAI is giving everyone in Malta a free year of ChatGPT Plus if they complete an AI literacy course, which honestly makes Malta sound more technologically responsible than Silicon Valley.
APPS & DOODADS reflect classic Gen-X paranoia, as Backblaze highlights California's constant threat of wildfires and the idea that local backups are optimistic. YouTube introduced AI deepfake detection tools, allowing creators to finally see which scam ads are using their faces to promote crypto vitamins, while X limited free users to 50 posts a day unless they pay for a blue check — proving once again that the true free speech was the subscriptions we sold along the way. Retrocodex arrived with a strong “everything your teachers confidently told you in 1987 was wrong” vibe.
MEDIA CANDY opens with the eternal cry of “FUCK THE FIRETV!!!!” before Jason taps out of Good Omens after ten minutes while Brian takes the bullet for the audience. There’s also chatter about Mortal Kombat 2, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Billy Corgan talking goth history with David J, and more existential dread courtesy of Dan Carlin’s Common Sense.
THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE welcomes back Dave Bittner for a Mando & Grogu review, Darth Maul, and a stunning but absurdly expensive LEGO Disneyland set. There’s also a guy who built a full-size Millennium Falcon “with his wife’s permission,” a fan-made Star Tours film, and the Federal Trade Commission discovering that those creepy “your phone is listening to you” ad-tech companies mainly just had PowerPoint decks and confidence. Also: mechanical keyboard simulators now exist, because apparently even fake typing has become a lifestyle brand.
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Show notes at https://gog.show/747
Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/eX5jVfewasw
FOLLOW UP
Snap and YouTube have reportedly settled another major social media addiction lawsuit
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Fails to Read Room on AI, Gets Booed into Oblivion
IN THE NEWS
Elon Musk took too long to sue OpenAI, jury unanimously agrees
SpaceX IPO Filing Reveals Nearly $3 Billion Investment in Gas Turbines for AI Data Centers
‘MechaHitler’ Is SpaceX’s Problem Now
Trump Mobile Phone Beats Expectations by Actually Existing
New crash data highlights the slow progress of Tesla's robotaxis
If You Used Insider Knowledge to Score Big on Polymarket, You May Now Be in Huge Trouble
Minnesota passes prediction markets ban
LinkedIn doesn't want your AI slop anymore
Spotify is launching verification badges for podcasts to help listeners avoid AI slop
OpenAI is offering ChatGPT Plus to citizens of Malta for a year
Massive Crypto ATM Company Bitcoin Depot Is Shutting Down as the Whole Industry Collapses
‘Smoke Weed and Earn Bitcoin’ With This Vape Pen in Our Increasingly Dystopian Nightmare
‘Unstoppable’ Crypto Exchange Halts Trading After $10 Million Theft
Iran Doubles Down on Bitcoin for Ships Passing Through the Straight of Hormuz
Trump-Linked Crypto Company Notes 'Substantial Doubt' It Can Survive Another 12 Months
APPS & DOODADS
YouTube's AI deepfake detection tool is now available to all creators 18 and older
X accounts are limited to 50 posts and 200 replies a day unless they pay for a blue checkmark
MEDIA CANDY
Good Omens Season 3 - The Finale
The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan - David J of Bauhaus & Love & Rockets
Common Sense 326 – The Water in Which We Swim
THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE
Not Even Baby Yoda Can Save ‘Star Wars’
Colorado man creates replica Millenium Falcon
Someone made a Star Tours fan film.
Bring Disneyland Home With This Gorgeous New Lego Set
‘Creepy’ Listening Tool for Targeted Ads Didn’t Actually Work, FTC Says
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show where we discuss the finer points of what went wrong on the internet and who's to blame. |
| 0:09.2 | I'm Jason DeFillipo. |
| 0:10.7 | And I'm Ryan Schomeister. |
| 0:12.6 | Ryan, we're just laughing because I had to do, I had to sigh before we start the show because I'm like, here we go again. |
| 0:19.9 | Yeah. |
| 0:22.0 | My kid has picked up on the fact that I sigh a lot and he's actually started calling me out on it. |
| 0:27.5 | And I was just like, he's like, dad, why you're always sighing? |
| 0:30.8 | Why are you always sighing? |
| 0:31.7 | And I kind of just go, look around. |
| 0:34.6 | The desperation of the universe. |
| 0:36.5 | Oh, wait. |
| 0:37.1 | No, I hide you. I hide the news from you. Yeah. You are protected, my son, my little Padawan. You do not get to see this shit that we have to do so you can have food on the table. Well, at least that your mom has to do to get food on the table. Brian, just not so much. I just do this podcast and sigh a lot because I read all |
| 0:55.1 | this awful news. Yeah, I know. I know. Oh. Yeah. It's kind of it. It's a, it is a strange thing. I enjoy |
| 1:05.8 | my time sitting here and talking with you, Jason. I absolutely loathe prep and I feel dirty. |
| 1:12.9 | Everything except what we do right now for the next 90 minutes sucks. |
| 1:18.1 | Yeah. |
| 1:18.9 | Prep for the show, post-processing the show, posting show, making the shorts, talking on socials, all that. |
| 1:24.7 | I do like my time on Discord, though, because I like all our Discord fans. |
| 1:27.4 | I have fun there. I actually do have that. Don't forget living in the universe |
| 1:31.7 | in which we discuss. That's the other problem. Yeah, we have to live in the world on all the |
| 1:37.8 | stories that we talk about. And I was thinking about this this morning. Like, we're on episode 747, |
| 1:43.5 | and things have changed so much |
... |
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