Grumpy Old Geeks

Grumpy Old Geeks

We dissect the tech news train wrecks of the week, calling out what went wrong and who’s to blame. Think of this podcast as if Kurt Cobain threw down with Tom from MySpace, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg in a back alley brawl. No mercy, no filter—if tech had a walk of shame, this would be it.

Episodes

August 22, 2025 77 mins

Remember all that "AI is gonna change everything" nonsense the kids were screaming about just a few months ago? Yeah, about that. It turns out 95% of corporate generative AI pilots are, to use a technical term, completely shitting the bed, according to a report from MIT. This shocking revelation has sent Wall Street into a tizzy, wiping trillions off the market as investors suddenly realize they've been sold another bill o...

Well, strap in, because this week the tech world decided to set itself on fire just for kicks. First up, Elon Musk’s much-hyped Tesla Diner in Los Angeles is already a culinary disaster, slashing its menu faster than you can say “over-promise and under-deliver.” Speaking of rolling garbage fires, the Cybertruck now apparently sounds like Fred Sanford’s junk pickup rattling down the street, a fitting soundtrack for the ongo...

August 8, 2025 68 mins

Alright, buckle up, buttercups, because this week's "Spicy Mode" episode of Grumpy Old Geeks proves that while things change, they mostly stay the same—just with more AI and less common sense. First up in FOLLOW UP, some poor schmoe automaker actually got a federal exemption for automated vehicles. Because what could possibly go wrong when we let robots drive?

Then we dive headfirst into IN THE NEWS, a veritable dumpster fi...

Mark as Played
August 1, 2025 43 mins

While Brian frolics somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, Jason brings in cyber-sleuth Dave Bittner for a jam-packed episode covering everything from Gen X’s slow descent into obscurity to furries, feds, and face-scanning your way into porn. The guys start with a salute to the late, great Tom Lehrer—a math nerd with a piano and zero tolerance for BS—before diving into the avalanche of cyber screwups plaguing today’s digital ...

July 25, 2025 67 mins

This week, we're drowning in the genius of our tech overlords as Elon Musk opens his Tesla diner, complete with $17 hotdogs and a blocked apartment view, while his $9 billion Neuralink startup claims it’s a "disadvantaged" business. Not to be outdone, SpaceX is mad about other people's space junk, France is criminally probing X for algorithm manipulation, and Meta is giving the EU's AI code of practice a hard pass. Amid wa...

Mark as Played
July 18, 2025 82 mins

Kicking things off, Jack Dorsey—a man with too much time on his hands—has vibe-coded his beard into an insecure messaging app that the company admits you shouldn't trust... yet. Meanwhile, if you want a piece of a legendary disaster, the Fyre Festival brand sold for a mere $245k after some shady bidding that might be a "shitty agentic AI" at work.

In the world of our future robot overlords, Nvidia's CEO calmly admitted "som...

July 11, 2025 82 mins

Apparently, you can’t keep a good grifter down, as Billy McFarland’s seven-figure Fyre Fest deal collapsed, so he’s hawking the brand on eBay like a box of junk. Meanwhile, Indeed and Glassdoor are laying off over 1,000 workers, probably to pay for the AI that’s jacking up our electric bills. Speaking of AI, a Tesla robotaxi crashed itself while Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot went full Nazi, which is of course being installed in...

Mark as Played
June 27, 2025 76 mins

This week, we saddle up for another bumpy ride through the dystopian tech clown show. We kick off with the surveillance state’s greatest hits: ICE raids sweeping L.A., a website literally called FuckLAPD.com that lets you ID cops by their mug shots, and a Norwegian tourist who learned the hard way that having a JD Vance chipmunk meme on your phone is now grounds for deportation. Pro tip: if you’re traveling to the U.S., yo...

June 20, 2025 84 mins

In this week’s episode, Trump delays the TikTok ban for the third time—because procrastination is the new policy—and Twitter’s old sign finds new purpose as desert firewood. Tesla continues its streak of “hold my beer” engineering by blowing past a school bus in FSD tests, then mysteriously dumps Cybertrucks in Jersey parking lots while prepping a July 4th factory nap. Meanwhile, Elon’s xAI is incinerating a billion bucks ...

Mark as Played
June 13, 2025 78 mins

This week, we light a candle for lost legends and torch a few bad takes. In Follow Up, Molly White reminds us that giving a damn still matters—despite the rising tide of apathy (and flaming robotaxis in downtown L.A.). Protesters across the country chant “No Kings!” while Elon does his best impression of a bootlicker groveling back to Trump. Meanwhile, we take a moment to reflect on 2025’s greatest hits: riots, rollbacks, ...

June 6, 2025 79 mins

On this week’s episode of Grumpy Old Geeks, we kick things off with the glorious meltdown of two of our least favorite Bond villains: Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Not only is their public pissing match tanking Tesla’s market cap, but now Trump’s launching a crypto wallet to… fund freedom? Or at least funnel it straight to his latest shell game. Meanwhile, someone at DOGE admitted the U.S. government wasn’t entirely incompet...

Mark as Played
May 30, 2025 77 mins

In this week’s “we told you so” edition, we kick things off with the latest AI faceplant—go ahead, Google “Is it 2025?” and try not to spit coffee on your keyboard. Meanwhile, over at Meta, Zuckerberg’s brilliant idea to loosen content moderation has, shocker, led to more harassment and violent content. Elsewhere in tech dystopia: Texas is trying to ground all minors off social media, Germany wants to slap a 10% tax on Sil...

May 23, 2025 80 mins

This week, we kick things off with the return of Space Karen’s meltdown tour: Elon Musk got flustered in an interview, sputtered out one-word answers, and called the journalist an “NPC,” which is rich coming from the guy whose only real upgrade since PayPal is yelling “freedom” in meme fonts. Meanwhile, 23andMe sold your DNA to Regeneron at a bankruptcy auction, proving once and for all that your spit is more valuable than...

Mark as Played
May 16, 2025 77 mins

This week on Grumpy Old Geeks: FOLLOW UP kicks off with Manus madness, a $2 million ticket to Trump’s crypto cash-grab, and Elon’s Boring Company worming its way into an $8 billion Amtrak boondoggle. Meanwhile, CryptoPunks gets handed off to a nonprofit like an expired Groupon—proof the NFT hype cycle ends with a 501(c)(3) and a shrug.

IN THE NEWS, Microsoft trims another 3% of its workforce while a former Metaverse enginee...

Mark as Played
May 9, 2025 85 mins

In this episode of Grumpy Old Geeks, we’re serving up a buffet of dystopia with a side of snark. First, Kuwait has finally realized crypto bros are an energy drain, not a feature. Celsius Network’s founder gets 12 years for running a “safe investment” Ponzi scheme. And in Lopez v. Apple, we find yet another reason to question Cupertino’s moral compass.

Then it’s time for a trip through the tech trash fire. DoorDash gobbles ...

Mark as Played
May 2, 2025 70 mins

In this episode of Grumpy Old GeeksMad Hatter edition—we kick things off with a refresher on Staingate and the joys of delamination (spoiler: it’s not a spa treatment). Then we dive into the U.S. government’s latest tech innovation: buying up domains that sound like QAnon Mad Libs in support of Trump’s meme coin. Meanwhile, DOGE decided to hand the steering wheel of housing regulations to a college kid and an AI. What cou...

Mark as Played
April 25, 2025 83 mins

This week on Grumpy Old Geeks, Fyre Festival rises from the ashes yet again—but not as a festival, because even Billy McFarland finally figured out he’s better at selling pipe dreams than tents. Meanwhile, Amazon and Microsoft are tapping the brakes on their AI data center dreams, Google’s AI keeps confidently explaining made-up nonsense like it’s gospel, and Kevin Roose once again tries to convince us to have empathy for ...

Mark as Played
April 18, 2025 83 mins

This week, we blast off with a tale as old as grift: Fyre Fest 2 has been postponed—again—proving that you really can fail upward if you squint hard enough and wear enough white linen. Over at Automattic, employees discovered secret watermarks in their internal comms, because what workplace isn’t better with a sprinkle of corporate surveillance cosplay? Meanwhile, Katy Perry took a joyride to the upper atmosphere with Gayl...

Mark as Played
April 11, 2025 86 mins

This week, the boys kick things off with some serious déjà vu as Fyre Fest’s favorite grifter promises he’s totally throwing another festival — because nothing says “I’ve changed” like doubling down on the same scam. Meanwhile, the IRS decided to become ICE’s BFF by casually sharing migrant tax data, and their commissioner moonwalks out right after. Also: Microsoft’s long game of “let OpenAI set the money on fire while we ...

This week, the Geeks wade into a swamp of tech meltdowns, governmental facepalms, and the usual Elon-flavored absurdity. Kicking things off, protesters take their beef with Tesla to the streets while Proud Boys decide this is the hill to vroom and die on. Meanwhile, Elon’s privacy prayers have finally been answered—thanks to new FAA rules, he and Tay-Tay can jet around untracked like it’s 1999. Oh, and while Earth dodges a...

Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

    NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

    Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    The Breakfast Club

    The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.