TBPN Podcast Summary

Episode: "Siri Needs an App, Apple Preps for Post-Cook, Scott Nolan Truth Nuke"

Hosts: John Coogan & Jordi Hays
Date: January 13, 2026
Special Guests: Shervin Pishevar, Horacio Rozanski, Glenn Fogel, JD Ross, Nick Fleisher, Rob Slaughter, Sajith Wickramasekara

Episode Overview

This episode of TBPN covers:

• The future of Apple’s Siri and why it may need a standalone app
• Apple and Google’s evolving partnership around AI queries and LLM routing
• Apple’s leadership transition, with New York Times coverage of John Ternus as potential Tim Cook successor
• Breakthroughs in nuclear power and defense with Scott Nolan from General Matter
• Quickfire updates and insights from leaders in enterprise AI (Horacio Rozanski, Booz Allen), travel tech (Glenn Fogel, Booking.com), insurance (JD Ross, WithCoverage), legal AI (Nick Fleisher, Sandstone), and defense systems (Rob Slaughter, Defense Unicorns)
• Live events, comedic banter, and audience Q&A from the tech ultradome
  The show’s tone remains casual, rapid-fire, and loaded with direct commentary and audience interactivity.

1. Siri, LLMS, and the Apple—Google Dynamic

Main Discussion Points

• Siri’s Missed Opportunity as an App
  • John asserts that Siri desperately needs a standalone app, similar to other chat-native assistants.

    "It’s crazy. Siri came out in 2010, hasn't had an app for its entire life." — John (03:17)

  • Integration during Siri’s origin story: Siri began as an app spun out from SRI (Stanford Research Institute), but was quickly absorbed into iOS after its acquisition.
  • Usage context: Despite 500 million active Siri users, John notes this is just a third of the 1.5 billion iPhone user base, suggesting Siri’s core assistant functionality is underutilized.

    "Having only a third of your user base use your AI feature seems a little bit low if that's the case." — John (04:25)

• Apple–Google LLM Search Deal
  • Ongoing billion-dollar payment from Apple to Google to route AI-driven queries (via Gemini) behind Siri, with speculation that this will flip:

    “Eventually, Google will be paying Apple for all of the LLM routing... because Google will be monetizing those queries.” — John (07:40)

  • Analogy with traditional search monetization: Low-value queries ("How old is Leonardo DiCaprio?") vs. high-value commercial searches (insurance, shopping), with LLMs expected to replicate this value pattern.
• Siri’s Future: App, Features, or Model?
  • The debate (with Tyler): Is a standalone app as valuable as upgrading Siri’s underlying model?

    "Would you rather have Gemini 2.5 and an app or Gemini 3 and no app?" — Tyler (14:28)

  • John concedes model quality comes first but argues the text-based chat interface now dominates user experience expectations (continuous threads, history, context).

    "The chat interface is so dominant... everyone has the experience of going back and forth, asynchronously, like you're texting with a friend." — John (08:51)

Timestamps:

• [01:26] — Hot take: Siri needs an app; Apple-Google LLM deal intro
• [03:17] — Siri’s product history & user base
• [07:11] — LLM monetization, universal commerce protocol
• [09:27] — Tyler debates the app’s value vs. new AI models

2. Apple News: Leadership, Services & Social

Key Discussion Points

• John Ternus as Post-Cook Successor
  • In-depth discussion of New York Times’ reporting that John Ternus is the current front-runner to succeed Tim Cook as Apple CEO.

    "Turnus is 50 and that's the same age that Cook... took over from Steve Jobs in 2011." — John (25:31)
    "If you want to make an iPhone every year, Turnus is your guy." — Cameron Rogers, quoted in the NYT profile (27:51)

  • Contrasting management styles: Ternus’ operational, incremental, hardware-focused background vs. Jobs’ risk-taking vision.
  • Company politics and inside speculation: “Has he made any hard decisions?” and the implications for Apple's next product direction.
• Apple’s Subscription Overload & Ecosystem Lock-in
  • Discussion of Apple’s convergence into subscription services—Creator Studio is highlighted as a direct competitor to Adobe Creative Cloud.

    "Apple has seven different subscriptions now... printing. Their services business is everything at this point." — John (86:09)

• Apple’s Social Play
  • Quick history: Apple's failed "Ping" music-focused social network, and the argument that iMessage now functions as Apple's de facto social network.

    "I think iMessage is a very very strong social network." — John (26:53)

Timestamps:

• [24:47] — NYT’s John Ternus coverage
• [27:51] — Apple social features, iMessage as social network
• [85:15] — Apple Creator Studio, bundling pro software

3. Guest Spotlights & Notable Quotes

SHERVIN PISHEVAR on Iran’s Revolution & Starlink

• Updates on protests in Iran, the empowering role of Starlink ("freedom technologies"), and international political support for regime change.

  "These people are defenseless. They have nothing to protect themselves except their hopes and dreams and their demands for freedom." — Shervin (61:04)

• The biblical and historical connection to contemporary politics.
• Ongoing information warfare; Starlink as a means for protestors to stay connected and broadcast to the world.

Timestamps:

• [60:35] — Pishevar explains the current status in Iran and the significance of Starlink
• [69:41] — Dynamics of Iranian armed forces and protester interaction

HORACIO ROZANSKI (Booz Allen CEO) on Enterprise AI

• 35-year career at Booz Allen; company shift from consulting to being a tech integrator for the federal government.
• Booz Allen as the largest AI provider to the US government.

  "Our business is we're in the business of taking leading-edge technology and bringing it to government missions." — Horacio (94:36)

• Details of a new partnership with Andreessen Horowitz to integrate emerging startups’ tech with government projects.
• Example: Deploying Llama (Meta’s LLM) on the International Space Station.

Timestamps:

• [91:17] — Rozanski’s background and Booz Allen’s AI evolution
• [98:03] — Talent and hiring profiles, working with A16z and Mistral

GLENN FOGEL (Booking.com CEO) on Agentic Commerce & Industry Resilience

• Booking.com’s scale and approach to AI implementation.
• On Agentic Commerce:

  "People always want things to be easier... we are doing a lot of work with all the frontier players... but it’s going to take some time for things that are very complex like travel." — Glenn (116:38)

• Integration experiences, product development, and responding to the live events boom (Taylor Swift effect, World Cup).
• Travel advice and routines, with a lighthearted take on jet lag:

  "Just keep doing it and then you'll be in normal state all the time. You'll never stop moving." — Glenn (132:33)

Timestamps:

• [111:44] — Fogel on Booking.com’s AI and product strategy
• [124:28] — Voice agents and future of travel logistics

JD ROSS (WithCoverage) on Insurtech Innovation & Fundraise

• WithCoverage raises $42M, backed by Sequoia, Keith Rabois; focus on transparent, aligned insurance brokerage.

  "We run insurance. We're modernizing insurance brokerage. Basically we replace the traditional insurance broker with a ramp for risk management." — JD (135:37)

• Novel fee structure: clients are charged by complexity and servicing, not premium volume, aligning incentives for cost efficiency.
• AI’s impact on scaling operations and risk analysis.

  "We've scaled the business, we're breaking the scaling laws of financial services through AI."

Timestamps:

• [135:12] — JD announces the Series B and explains the business model

NICK FLEISHER (Sandstone) on In-House Legal AI

• $10M seed led by Sequoia.
• Vision: context-rich, AI-native platform for in-house legal teams, integrating requests and contracts with business data.

  "The way that we've thought about approaching the in-house market is really from sort of two pain points...they don't have a single platform in the same way that we have Linear or Jira." — Nick (152:27)

• Distinct mindset and urgency vs. selling AI into traditional law firms.

Timestamps:

• [150:47] — Sandstone’s fundraise and product positioning
• [154:32] — Integration approach and client onboarding

ROB SLAUGHTER (Defense Unicorns) on Transforming Defense Software

• $136M Series B, Bain Capital leads.
• Mission: deliver secure, upgradable software to air-gapped, mission-critical military systems (e.g., submarines, F-16s).

  "Our bread and butter is extending applications to actual edge weapon systems... sometimes, that means running on hardware from 10 years ago." — Rob (164:51)

• The "defense unicorn" talent challenge, parallel to trends in SpaceX/Space industry.

Timestamps:

• [159:43] — Company mission and fundraise
• [164:22] — Technical and operational challenges in defense IT

SAJITH WICKRAMASEKARA (Benchling) on AI for Life Sciences

• Benchling as the foundational cloud for bio R&D; now integrating AI deeply into lab workflows.
• Discussion of the slow pace of AI adoption in life sciences due to data complexity and regulatory issues.

  "AI in bio is kind of like GPT without the chat... drug discovery is 9,999 steps after hypothesis." — Sajith (170:24)

• Candid analysis of the biotech “dot-com bust,” and optimism for coming years.

Timestamps:

• [169:04] — Sajith on Benchling, bio AI’s current state
• [172:54] — Over- vs under-hyped areas in bio

SCOTT NOLAN (General Matter, fmr. Founders Fund) unleashes the "Truth Nuke" on Nuclear Power

• General Matter is building domestic nuclear fuel supply (enrichment, not mining/extraction).

  "If energy is upstream of all economic activity, fuel is upstream of energy." — Scott (188:17)

• Bold timeline: online by end of decade at Paducah, KY; revival of American enrichment capability.
• Technical breakdown: US once had 85% of global enrichment, now less than 0.1%; describes the five steps to nuclear fuel (whiteboard visual included).
• AI’s demand for baseload pushes renewed interest and urgency into nuclear.

  "You want baseload, you want it clean... that really points you towards nuclear." — Scott (186:07)

• On the talent curve: the “bathtub” of very young and very old nuclear engineers, with a hiring focus on passionate, cross-disciplinary engineers.

Timestamps:

• [180:08] — Scott on founding General Matter & industry gaps
• [192:42] — Live whiteboard: the nuclear fuel supply chain

4. Quick Hits & Lightning Round

• OpenAI’s hardware ambitions: Leaked designs for audio wearables, Foxconn prototypes, and speculation on market potential ([81:27]).
• California’s Billionaire Tax: Panel discusses founder incentives, the threat to early-stage startups, and Newsom’s opposition ([107:56]).
• Claude Co-Work, “Clodstrophobic,” and the Rise of Agentic UIs: The hosts riff on the importance of UI/UX in AI apps and the naming quirks of leading models ([47:01]).
• Fun segment: One man vs. 10 Unitree humanoid robots—YouTube’s “Terminator benchmark” ([147:08]).

5. Notable Quotes & Moments

• “I think that Siri will need an app. The LLM chat interface is so dominant at this point...” — John (08:51)
• “If you want to make an iPhone every year, Turnus is your guy.” — Cameron Rogers, NYT (27:51)
• “Just keep doing it and then you'll be in normal state all the time. You'll never stop moving.” — Glenn Fogel, on jet lag (132:33)
• “If energy is upstream of all economic activity, fuel is upstream of energy.” — Scott Nolan (188:17)
• "We run insurance. We're modernizing insurance brokerage." — JD Ross (135:37)
• "Our business is we're in the business of taking leading edge technology and bringing it to government missions." — Horacio Rozanski (94:36)
• "You have to, every single day, be working incredibly hard to keep up because the competition is very, very stiff." — Glenn Fogel (120:31)
• “But when you see the X-ray... the innovation that went into making the iPhone Air so small—could be used for a foldable phone... Lapel pin...” — John (34:50)

6. Timestamps for Major Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |------------------------------------------|---------------| | Siri/LLM/Apple-Google Overview | 01:26–14:39 | | Apple Succession & NYT Ternus coverage | 24:47–36:34 | | Social/Subscription Ecosystem | 26:25–27:38 | | Shervin Pishevar: Iran & Starlink | 60:35–79:07 | | Horacio Rozanski: Booz Allen & AI | 91:17–104:53 | | Glenn Fogel: Booking.com & Agentic AI | 111:44–133:07 | | JD Ross: WithCoverage | 135:12–147:08 | | Sandstone (Nick Fleisher), legal AI | 150:47–159:33 | | Defense Unicorns (Rob Slaughter) | 159:43–168:43 | | Benchling (Sajith Wickramasekara) | 169:04–179:43 | | General Matter (Scott Nolan, nuclear) | 180:01–208:17 |

[END]

This episode packs a week’s worth of tech headlines, company news, and high-caliber interviews into a single sprawling, energetic live show. It is essential listening for anyone who wants an up-to-the-minute pulse on Silicon Valley’s obsessions, ambitions, and the real-world people building tech’s next layer.