Robot or Not?

Oh, Listener Sean wants to know about catchphrases! Well, isn’t that special? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

In a rare timely episode, John and Jason discuss a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that Apple is designing a series of robots, including a “robot” that sits on a table and moves its display around, and a “robot” that follows you around your house folding laundry, reminding you of your mortality, and possibly running a viral campaign for Apple TV+ shows. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Daniel would like John’s blessing for his practice of putting two spaces after every sentence he types. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Arne received a severe weather alert for a fire. Fires are very bad, but are they weather? Are some natural disasters weather, and others not? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Is “truffle mushroom tea” just a soup? Did a fancy New York restaurant play a trick on Listener David and his wife? And what is tea, really? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Are Hawaiian shirts just fun to wear, or are they cultural appropriation? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Erik sent us this video of self-navigating wheelchairs in the Miami Airport. Does the Roomba Rule apply? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Friend of the show Frank is seeking to delineate when something is a “vending machine” and when it’s just a machine that vends. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Thanks to Friend of the Show Casey, we’re talking about weird cars and car classes again. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Ivan sent in a link to an autonomous excavator that assembled a six-foot wall out of rocks. Is it the Roomba of construction materials?! <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

A tale of dishwashers and large sinks. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

We follow up on some feedback about our theme songs, and theme songs in general, while taking on whether we use the Skip Intro button when we should be listening to TV theme songs. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

It’s baseball’s Opening Day, so here’s our discussion of automated balls and strikes, also known as “Robot Umps,” how they relate to automated Hawk-Eye tennis calls, and why we won’t ever know how good human umpires could actually be. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Fresh out of the oven for Pi Day, here’s a discussion of who exactly thinks pizza is a pie. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Do you have to leave the airport or get out of the car to claim you’ve been somewhere? (And are you under oath?) <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Kent is building actual killer robots. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What makes a hat a hat? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

I want to run, I want to hide, I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside. Sometimes the streets have no name, but other times they are named roads, or avenues, or boulevards, or drives. What does it all mean? Does Jason live on a road or a drive? When we go there, we go there with you. It’s all we can do. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Spatulas, scrapers, flippers, and home economics. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

A question about cold brew coffee makes us question everything about coffee. Is everything coffee? Probably not. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

A perfectly normal discussion of Italian Ice takes a left turn and goes into outer space, where other ices are available. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

When is someone a musician? Are DJs musicians? And more importantly, are John and Jason musicians? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Some timely news regarding a university warning its community members to “avoid all robots.” <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

On John’s other podcast, Casey Liss often says he lied when he means he made a mistake. So what is a lie? (Trust us, we totally answer this one.) <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Nick wonders what John’s policy on spoilers is. (Spoilers for “Romeo and Juliet” and “Citizen Kane.”) <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Hold on, John, Jason’s got this one. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Live from the Relay FM Podcastathon, Jason and special guest Stephen Hackett ask John a bunch of questions from the Robot Or Not question list. Topics include: Toast, Roadkill, Sandwich Order of Operations, Garage, and Cereal Soup. Please donate to St. Jude and help move us one step closer to the day where no child dies from cancer. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell with Stephen Hackett.</p>

Listener Jamie wonders whether his dog is really sighing. We discuss noises dogs make. Also, after posting our previous episode we realized we got the numbering of the podcast out of order. Sigh. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Andrew is worried that things we say are “the worst” are really just bad. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Magnus is concerned that his favorite podcast is on hiatus. When is something on hiatus and when is it cancelled? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Finally we talk about robots again. If a robot controls a camera, is it a camera robot? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

☹️ <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

If it’s never meant to make a cookie, is it still cookie dough? (Also: Peanut Butter Spread, Cheese Food, and other food labeling we have known.) <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

This time we’re throwing shade. But do sunglasses? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

If any device can open a door, is every device a key? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

A chair is not a house and house is not a home, but is a house a building? And what about gazebos? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Jason’s trip to his mother’s house makes him rethink his definition of what a dish is. Also, he gets some upsetting news about the long-term relationship between the fork and the spoon. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Don’t anthromorphize ports. They hate that. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Where do beaches exist? And what materials do they need to be comprised of? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

The difference between islands and continents, and also why Pluto can be a planet if you want to lower your standards. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Sometimes they’re wicked, sometimes not. Can an adult call a parent’s new wife a stepmom? Bonus: Can you be too old to be an orphan? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Chris clues us into an important ice safety campaign. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Shoes, socks, sandals, boots. Footwear is complicated. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What makes a university? Is it the buildings, or the people, or the big hole you throw money into? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Rob and Listener Reiner, who are not Director Rob Reiner, want to know if they are Friends of the Show. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Are we too late to say it? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Some deeper questions about whether certain Roomba behavior makes it more or less of a robot. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Blaine is a pain, and that is the truth. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

For the very first time, we do some housekeeping about holes, Russian robots, salad, genocide, Voltron, and available sales leads. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Is garlic a vegetable, an herb, a spice, or what? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>