Robot or Not?

What makes something a sport, and not an exercise or a game? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Exploring Jason’s favorite food, what a “favorite food” even is, and the hazy dividing line between condiments and other edibles. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What’s science fiction? And more importantly, is Star Wars science fiction, fantasy, or something else? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Is everything a computer chip? Is nothing a computer chip? Jason thinks this is gonna be good. John thinks it’s obvious. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What is the canon of bagels? Why are some ingredients allowed in an Everything Bagel but not any other bagel style? What makes raisins an acceptable ingredient, yet bars blueberries? Mr. Siracusa, native of the great state of New York, educates Mr. Snell, one of those California hippie types, about what a real bagel is. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What toppings are allowed on pizza? And what about using a knife and fork to eat pizza? There are many rules. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

John weighs in on what makes something a pizza, including the horror of the Turkey Dinner Pizza. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Exploring what makes a sandwich, while also discussing the history of food, sandwiches as satire, and the difference between llamas and camels. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

John helps Jason figure out the precise moment when a villain becomes a supervillain. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Your hosts return to where it all began and then prepare to set out for new horizons. (Robot or Not will return in two weeks with a new series of episodes.) <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Are John and Jason robots? All will be revealed! <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Could it be? Are we all robots? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What does a robot do when it gets to a web page with a checkbox that says “I’m not a robot”? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

The gate at Jabba’s palace in “Return of the Jedi” talks to droids, or has something inside it that talks to droids. So is it a robot? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

They roam the ocean, scanning for important data and relaying their information home. There are no humans on board. Are these lonely sea voyagers robots? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

The robotic guardian of the Beams. He looks like a bear but has a satellite dish on his head. He’s a thousand years old. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Game controller, robot, or total embarrassment? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

ˈrōˌbät or ˈrōbət? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

An unadorned iPhone can be a Naked Robotic Core, but is it a robot? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Look who was under the tree! It’s a giant mechanical monster!

Among the fiercest creatures in the machine kingdom are the Battlebots. They’re designed for fighting! But are they really robots, or is that just a clever marketing name?

High school students carry them around and learn what it’s like to be a parent. Or you learn how to revive them by pressing their chest and breathing into their mouths. But are these learning tools also educational robots?

It patrols the mall. Sometimes it knocks over small children.

The HBO series “Westworld” makes us contemplate whether its central characters, the Hosts, are robots or not. (We recorded this episode after the first seven episodes of season one had aired; forgive us if it was revealed later that “To Serve Man” was actually a cookbook.)

A robot slowly turns himself human. When does he stop being a robot?

Sometimes Mario is metallic. Does that make him a robot?

They are boats with paddles. What else are they?

Straight out of “Star Trek” come these technological villains. Also, we discuss larger issues including AIs and hive minds.

It just keeps going, and going, and going….

Little cute robots from “Ghost in the Shell.”

Self-guided rockets and drone barges.

They’re sure tasty, and it’s meat between bread, but are hot dogs sandwiches?

They sure look like robots. But who’s under the masks?

The owl and the snake from “Blade Runner” raise some interesting questions.

A little metal owl from “Clash of the Titans.” Crafted by the gods, can he possibly be a robot?

The robot from “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, plus a long digression into Star Trek androids.

Is all animation “cartoons”?

Two beloved metal creatures from animation.

That “Robo” prefix is sure interesting, and he’s probably a cop, but…

Bender, Calculon, and Hedonismbot.

He fights for the users inside a computer. Can software people be robots?

A fancy “robot arm” from Canada. But when is a robot arm just an arm, and when is it a robot?

Part animal, part machine. But is it a robot?

Please obey robot.

It’s Wimbledon time, and so our discussion turns to tennis, and Serena Williams—who is not a robot, despite her perhaps wishing she was.

Karel Capek’s play that made this podcast possible.

The Country Bears, Chuck E. Cheese, and the things from Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Live from RelayCon WWDC 2016, it’s a special live edition of Robot or Not.

He’s a droid with a cough. So what’s the deal?

They go up, they go down. They might even go sideways from time to time. And they can be smart. But are they robots?