Breaking Change

A wide-ranging tech and life catch-up that jumps from Tesla FSD road-trip tales to cancelling smart-home fitness subscriptions. Conversations touch on AI models versus product harnesses, dual-loop BDD for agent reliability, and Nvidia/Apple cloud XR advances. There are wild news items like leaked crypto seed phrases, betting threats, and Sony testing dynamic game pricing. Pop culture notes include Scrubs, Mickey 17, and The Expanse.

Today, we're joined by a very special guest, Len Testa! You might know him from The Disney Dish podcast or from his excellent theme park travel planning app Touring Plans. Or you might not know him at all! No wrong answers. This episode is all about Disney's ill-fated Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser live action role-playing hotel—which we both had the opportunity to experience right when it first launched. It was a life-changing experience for both of us, so why did it fail? Is it true that the top Disney brass learned all the wrong lessons from that failure? And will the CEO-in-waiting Josh D'Amaro ever have the courage to attempt something so ambitious again? Listen to this episode, in which we speak with an unearned confidence that suggests we have all of these answers! You can reach out to Len at len@touringplans.com and you can write into the show at podcast@searls.co. He'll read your e-mail and reply to it, but I may only skim it.

Sure feels like some combination of AI, the US military, and the AI military could bring an end to the world any day now, so I figured I'd better record one last show for posterity. Welcome me on this version's speedrun to the apocalypse! So long as the EMP blasts don't nuke all our ham radios, write in to podcast@searls.co and I'll read it on the next release of the program. Over. Be sure to click all these links while the clickin's good: Ninja Creami Deluxe prove_it Agents are ushering in the Antisocial Era Brace for the Fuckening Citrini Research fanfic Would you like your AI singularity benign or extinction-level? Original post by the Dallas Fed Anthropic's Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth OpenAI's agreement with the Department of War U.S. Strikes in Middle East Use Anthropic, Hours After Trump Ban Human brain cells on a chip learned to play Doom in a week Apple introduces a new video podcast experience on Apple Podcasts Foveated Streaming for Apple Vision Pro Huge Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer retiring, Sarah Bond resigns, Microsoft AI boss becomes new Microsoft Gaming CEO XCOM's Jake Solomon announces his new studio is closing, reveals now-cancelled AI-driven narrative game Fan group makes Unreal Tournament 2004 available to play for free and in 4K Video Games Are Losing a Brain Rot Race to Gambling and Porn (News+) Netflix walks away from its deal to buy Warner Bros. after Paramount came back with a better offer (News+) Why Netflix Actually Won Even Though It Lost Warner Deal (News+) Aaron's puns, ranked Your Friends & Neighbors Rental Family Halt and Catch Fire (again) Paradise: Season 2 Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown xcbeautify turbocommit The double loop model for agentic coding

I feel like I'm getting saltier, and it's concerning. If you want me to tone it down and/or up, let me know. It'll go a lot better if you just write to podcast@searls.co instead of yelling at your phone. As usual, I brought the goods. Now here are the receipts: prove_it is doing its job, mostly Aaron's puns, ranked Starsand Island studio confused by alleged 'praise-bombing' attack Sony is considering holding back PlayStation 6 until 2028 or 2029 Southwest changes are infuriating fans (News+) NYT: All the news that's fit to manspread Gurman: Tesla CarPlay Held Back by Need for Wider Adoption of Apple's iOS 26 (Archive) YouTube on Vision Pro (News+) Apple Announces Special Event in New York, London, and Shanghai on March 4 Filed my first SwiftUI bug as feedback. It's FB21962656 Thoughtworks concludes TDD is good and billable juniors valuable Ugh, Anthropic CEO was right about the timing of AI writing all the code Peter Steinberger Chose OpenAI. The Code Was Never the Point Eternity Starfleet Academy Your Friends & Neighbors

Elon has combined 3 of his 4 businesses and everything makes sense. Also, I went to Japan and all I came back with was another weird story about animal sperm. Other stuff happened too, but let's be honest, it's the typical AI schlock you've come to expect from this decade. Write in with your own takes to podcast@searls.co. Please. Really! Do it. Citations needed? 白子揚げ = 🐟🍆💦🍟 scrapple scrapes Apple docs for agents prove_it forces Claude to verify his shit works Aaron's puns, ranked A sane but extremely bull case on Clawdbot / OpenClaw US Insurer 'Lemonade' Cuts Rates 50% for Drivers Using Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' Software Elon Musk's SpaceX acquiring AI startup xAI ahead of potential IPO Amazon commingling practices will end effective March 31, 2026 UPS to cut additional 30,000 jobs in Amazon unwind, turnaround plan Microsoft is experimenting with a top menu bar for Windows 11 (News+) How DoorDash and Other Food Delivery Apps Are Reshaping Mealtime in the U.S. Apple debuts 'Apple Creator Studio' subscription, here's what you get Apple Sued by App Developer Over its Continuity Camera Halide cofounder Sebastiaan de With joins Apple's design team Inside Apple's AI Shake-Up, AI Safari and Plans for New Siri in iOS 26.4, iOS 27 (Archive) Apple introduces new AirTag with expanded range and improved findability Xcode 26.3 unlocks the power of agentic coding Josh D'Amaro Named Next Chief Executive Officer of Disney Everyone is stealing TV (News+) Google's AI helped me make bad Nintendo knockoffs (News+) Deepmind Genie The sizzle reel Angry gamers are forcing studios to scrap or rethink new releases (News+) Xbox Developer Direct - Fable looks like they did the thing , Forza Horizon 6 is set in Japan Valve confirms Steam Machine price and release details have been delayed by exploding component prices Slow Horses Hijack Posturr - posture-correcting screen blurring app Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes Absolum Blippo+

Join an entertaining exploration of quirky anecdotes, including an awkward dinner moment about face washing. Discover insights on running Codex CLI agents for iOS apps and the highs and lows of gadget ownership, like the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer glasses. There’s a wild story about a live phone call interruption, along with reflections on AI's impact, including the backlash against AI-generated content. Plus, enjoy some humor with puns, listener feedback, and lively discussions on smart glasses and the evolving landscape of technology.

During the end-of-year podcasting doldrums, I'm pleased to bring you this Feature Release, in which I eschew my tradition of eschewing traditions and present a second annual sorting of the puns. As 2025 (a.k.a. Season 2) of Breaking Change comes to a close, Aaron Patterson once again joins the show to execute our latest iteration of the punsort algorithm. Following along at home? Here's a spoiler-free link to the original Season 2 rankings. Ready to be spoiled? Visit /puns for the final pun rankings of 2025. If you agree, disagree, or are indifferent about where things landed, feel free to get it off your chest at podcast@searls.co.

I'm experiencing what breathing out of my nose properly feels like for the first time. Everything is new and wondrous and I've never felt so optimistic. This sensation lasted for two days and now I'm used to it and existence is once again pain. Share your existential musings at podcast@searls.co and I'll nod and sigh along. I might even nod and sigh performatively for you on the show! Important ground covered in this episode: My new gaming PC's final parts list This nifty Wake-on-LAN app for iOS The POSSE Party has STARTED! Aaron's puns, ranked Polymarket Builds In-House Trading Team as It Re-Enters the US (Archive) Amazon explores cutting ties with USPS, building its own delivery network (News+) The RAM Shortage Comes for Us All (Another good take) Kirby Air Riders tops the Japanese physical charts as Switch and Switch 2 games sweep the top 15 Meta confirms cuts for Metaverse Efforts (Archive) Alan Dye is leaving apple (Archive) Ben Thompson on Nvidia and OpenAI Everyone in Seattle Hates AI Gemini 3 Pro: the frontier of vision AI Pluribus Star Trek: Enterprise Section 31 Lower Decks Soulframe Outer Worlds 2

Had a little pep in my step this time. Maybe it's because I decided to start recording after 7 AM for once. Maybe it's because I can finally fucking breathe out of my nose holes. Tell me about what you do while you continue to draw breath at podcast@searls.co. Things you can read if you're bored: Beckygram.com Aaron's puns, ranked Steam Frame and Steam Machine Xbox reportedly warning of yet another potential price increase InKonbini retro convenience store simulator Pipboy 3000 replica for $300 Apple introduces Digital ID, a new way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet Google Antigravity kinda sucks I think I might regret watching The Bear Nano Banana Pro made this episode's social image GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is the best coding model I've used yet Adversarial Poetry is a great way to jailbreak LLMs (Comment thread) Cryptographers Cancel Election Results After Losing Decryption Key Outer Worlds 2 ⚡️ Death by Lightning really slaps (claps?) Wicked: For Good is Very, Very Bad (News+) The guy from Pomplamoose is the CEO of Patreon??! "Pixar: The Early Days" interview with Steve Jobs NotebookLM

I'm back and I'm angry. My power went out, which caused my Internet to go down, which broke my favorite mug. And that's just the shit that happened before 7 AM. By 9 AM my doorbell was continuously chiming for no fucking reason. Join me in the struggle. We shall persevere. Tell me how your morning went by writing in to: podcast@searls.co. Here 4 U: Kudos to Adam Mcrea and Judoscale for solving my Heroku issue Kudos to me for separately solving my Heroku issue with Straight-to-Video ALVR for streaming SteamVR games Streaming flat games with Sunshine and Moonlight Aaron's puns, ranked AI's Dial-Up Era (and my take) Sandwich made the world's first immersive ad spot Coinbase CEO Stunt Exposes Prediction Market Vulnerability OpenAI and Microsoft resolve their issue without resolving their issue Amazon v. Perplexity BioWare reassures fans Mass Effect 5 is still coming The Outer Worlds 2 Eddy Burback - ChatGPT Made me Delusional