Bezos is back in startup mode, Amazon gets weird again, and the great old-car tech retrofit debate

GeekWire

Technology, Tech News, News

4.4 • 116 Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week: Jeff Bezos is back in startup mode (sort of) with Project Prometheus — a $6.2 billion AI-for-the-physical-world venture that instantly became one of the most talked-about new companies in tech. We dig into what his return to the CEO title really means, why the company’s location is still a mystery, and how this echoes the era when Bezos was regularly launching big bets from Seattle.

Then we look at Amazon’s latest real-world experiment: package-return kiosks popping up inside Goodwill stores around the Seattle region. It’s a small pilot, but it brings back memories of the early days when Amazon’s oddball experiments seemed to appear out of nowhere.

And finally…Todd makes the case for upgrading his 2007 Toyota Camry with CarPlay, Android Auto, and a backup camera — while John questions the logic of sinking thousands into a beloved older car.

All that, plus a mystery Microsoft shirt, a little Seattle nostalgia, and a look ahead to next week’s podcast collaboration with Me, Myself and AI from MIT Sloan Management Review.

With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I don't know if Jeff Bezos will ever step foot in Seattle again.
0:04.4	I mean,
0:04.9	he does because he comes back,
0:06.9	and this is what I was looking for.
0:08.0	Does he come back for board meetings?
0:09.5	He's executive chairman.
0:10.9	Yeah,
0:11.5	well,
0:11.7	I guess does he have to come back to Seattle for those board meetings?
0:14.7	I don't know.
0:15.4	That's a good question.
0:16.0	I guess the only time he might come back is when he buys the Seattle Seahawks.
0:25.9	Yeah. he might come back as when he buys the Seattle Seahawks. Hi and welcome to Geekwire. I'm Geekwire co-founder Todd Bishop. And I'm Geekwire
0:29.9	co-founder John Cook. We are coming to you from Seattle, where we get to report each day on what's
0:33.8	happening around us in business, technology, and innovation. What happens here
0:37.8	matters everywhere and every week on this show. We get to talk about some of the most interesting
0:42.1	and important stories and trends in the news. John, coming up, I want to talk about Jeff Bezos
0:47.7	becoming a startup CEO again. Yeah, excited to talk about that and excited to talk about your car. Okay, this is good. In the third segment, my car will now become the running gag on the show. Let's not tease it more than that. It's just going to be exciting. And, well, let's just say you're going to try and convince me not to spend money on something that you don't think I should buy. Correct. Okay. All that's coming up this week on the show. Hey, just one more reminder here. We're heading into the Thanksgiving holiday soon, which means the Geekwire Gala is going to be coming up soon. December 11th at the Showbox Soto. This is our big holiday party. And the pitch that I think we should have made last time which we
1:27.8	didn't John is this is really an opportunity for cheap startups startups that don't have
1:34.3	frifty frugal well managed and efficient startups to make our event your holiday party that That's really the pitch for the gala.
1:46.1	It's super fun. You don't have to plan your own party. We've got an entire team doing it for you.
1:51.0	That's right. If you're a small startup of five or ten folks or even a large company or just an
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 7 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from GeekWire, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of GeekWire and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.