Hello, note to self listener. It is your host, Manouche. And the reason you're hearing this is because I'm working on a special project for you.

Which means that what you're about to hear is an encore episode of Note to Self, a nice way of saying it's a repeat.

But hey, we only re-release our absolute favorites. So please enjoy this episode again, or maybe enjoy it for the very first time if you're new to the show.

Before we get to that though, let's talk about you. Yes, you listener. The Note to Self team and I want to make sure that our show helps you rather than overwhelms you.

So in the name of information overload, I have a favor to ask. Please take our three minute survey online to help us understand how you listen so we can make shows about topics that you truly care about and make it in ways that work for you.

So they work for your schedule for your habits. Seriously, that is our mission here. Go to NoteToSelfRadio.org. I promise it takes just a few minutes. And I also can't tell you how much your feedback informs how we make Note to Self.

And while you're here, please subscribe to Note to Self. Because we'll be back with something brand new really soon.

From WNYC, I'm Anouche Summerodi and this is Note to Self.

Everything we do throughout the day is track, right? And we know it and we're okay with it.

It's really hard to surprise me anymore. I feel like the inter-nancy sensitized me. The tech show about being human.

Okay, today a question from a listener in upstate New York named Michael Grant. Now, just so you know, Michael has a town car business. So he spends a lot of time driving people around. Here we go.

Hi Note to Self. I get out of the shower and I'm getting dressed. And of course my dog is over there on his Shaz. And I'm looking at him and I'm feeling all sad that I'm about to go off to work for a couple hours.

And I'm humming to myself a song and I start singing my poor dog is tortured by this. But I start singing a song every time we say goodbye. I cry a little.

Or I die a little. You know that song every time we say goodbye. Which I haven't heard in I don't know forever.

Then I hop in the car. I put on the iPhone music. I have 6157 songs. I hit shuffle randomly. And the first song to play is the song that I was just humming.

Now I know you're thinking, well, you probably just heard it, you know, from a reason playlist. And it's like, no, I haven't heard that song in forever. The very song I'm humming is the first song to play. And I'm like, okay, that's weird.

But then something else happened. Michael was driving someone to the airport and he asks his passenger, what airline are you flying?

And he says, I'm on Virgin. I said, great, you know which terminal. And he says, oh, I don't know. And I'm like, okay, it doesn't really matter because we're going to, you know, it will be on a sign and we'll find it.

Just to make sure he's going the right way to avoid traffic, Michael turns on his navigation app, which uses voice recognition. And he asks, how do I get to JFK from here?

And that's all I said, just JFK. And she says, JFK terminal 4, here's how you get there.

Now, I never said terminal 4. I never said Virgin. I just said JFK, but it turns out terminal 4 is where Virgin is.

This is my question. With the song and with Virgin being the destination without my saying Virgin, are our phones listening to us?

...