Google Glass Half Empty with Leah Rudick and Rod Thill | 18

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Back in 2013, Google’s top secret lab, Google X attempted to change the world with a computer you could wear on your face. The strange looking spectacles, Google Glass, promised a seamless way to experience the real and digital world in harmony. The product generated substantial buzz and adorned the famous faces of Oprah and King Charles, but safety and privacy concerns hounded the specs as they quickly became a symbol of Silicon Valley elitism - and gifting us with the iconic term “Glass holes”. Suffice it to say, not everyone viewed “Glass” as rose-colored, and it nearly tanked a division of Google.

Comedian Leah Rudick (Spiraling, High Maintenance) and TikTok star Rod Thill join Misha to ask who's the real Glasshole in this story?

Listen to The Big Flop on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-big-flop/ now.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the Big Flop early and ad-free.
0:05.3	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:20.0	On a mild Saturday, at a lively bar in San Francisco, a woman walks in, hoping to get noticed for what she's wearing.
0:29.4	Now, that's not unusual for a young person on a weekend in a bustling city.
0:35.1	What's unusual is that she's wearing what appears to be a spy camera on her face.
0:42.2	The mood shifts. The vibe dims. All eyes are on Sarah Slocum, age 34, a Google Glass Explorer.
0:52.6	She's one of a handful of folks who've earned the privilege of paying
0:57.2	more than $1,000 to beta test the controversial spectacles slash wearable computers. But this is a
1:06.0	bar, not a tech demo, and the locals aren't just rowdy.
1:12.4	They now feel violated.
1:15.6	They feel their privacy is being infringed.
1:18.0	Patrons begin yelling at her.
1:21.7	Sarah stands her ground and starts recording.
1:26.9	She captures a first-person perspective of her flipping people off. A man tries to grab her Google Glass
1:30.4	off of her face. Profanities fly around like bullets in an old-timey saloon. The media can't get
1:39.1	enough of this futuristic bar fight. Sarah becomes the emblematic glasshole, the rabid tech enthusiast
1:48.0	pushing progress on a society unprepared. Because while Google Glass had once been a symbol of a
1:56.2	glittery tech utopia, its future was in fact a glitchy pile of electronic scrap.
2:03.6	Google coming out with a new type of glasses. They will be streaming live information in front of your eyeballs. So now while you're
2:18.8	driving, you can be checking your Twitter feed. I mean, as if Americans need another reason to be
2:24.1	distracted. The person thought to be the first driver to get a ticket for wearing Google Glass
2:29.0	has pleaded not guilty. Her defense, there is nothing illegal about simply wearing Google Glass while it is not
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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