Podcast
TechStuff
Hosted by iHeartPodcasts · EN
Behind every innovation is a new kind of power. TechStuff unpacks how technology reshapes influence, creativity, and control, from Silicon Valley’s rising moguls to the cultural forces they create. Because tech is the new religion, economy, and entertainment, all at once.
Each week, Oz Woloshyn and the brightest minds covering tech dig into the weird, funny, and sometimes unsettling ways technology, AI, and the internet shape our daily lives. From AI and social media to privacy, digital burnout, and the creator economy, they ask how all this innovation is changing who we are, how we work, love, and make meaning.
Smart talk, strange stories, and the questions everyone’s Googling: whether AI will replace us, how social media is affecting our kids, and what it all says about us.
Get in touch here: techstuffpodcast@gmail.com
127episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Tech Skepticism, AI and Why China's Innovations Matter - w/ Wired’s Katie Drummond
Feb 600:30:31Tap to summarizeOz is at the Web Summit in Qatar this week, and he’s taking you with him. This episode was recorded live on stage with Wired’s global editorial director Katie Drummond. Katie and Oz talk about what it’s like to cover this moment, from DOGE and tech titans in the White House to AI’s rapid ubiquity. Katie also shares why Americans need to wake up to what is happening outside the US to discover the future of technology.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Future is Battery-Powered - The Story
Feb 400:31:16Tap to summarizeIf the 20th century was defined by oil, journalist and author Nicolas Niarchos bets that the 21st century will be defined by batteries. In his book, The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth, Niarchos unpacks the hidden costs behind the world’s battery boom. In this episode, he and Oz trace how the race for cobalt and other critical metals is reshaping global power—why China dominates refining and battery innovation, what the U.S. would actually have to build to compete, and whether trade deals can realistically “clean up” the system. Additional Reading: The Elements of Power by Nicolas Niarchos| PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Week in Tech: AI-Induced Psychosis
May 16, 2025Tap to summarizeWhat kind of technology do air traffic controllers use? This week in the News Roundup, Oz and Karah discuss how AI determines your real age, why chatbots can lead to delusions and what to know about a familiar sounding blood-testing startup. On TechSupport, features writer at New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, James D. Walsh, explains how AI-fueled cheating has overtaken college campuses, what students are saying and how educators are trying to address it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Week in Tech: Can a Woolly Mouse Make a Mammoth?
Mar 7, 202500:30:01Tap to summarizeWhat if AI could read your mind? This week in the News Roundup, Oz and producer Eliza Dennis explore the latest tech investment in the US, Meta’s brain-to-text breakthrough and the creation of the woolly mouse. On TechSupport, 404 Media’s Jason Koebler takes us to an AI-generated film festival… spoiler: the tech isn’t there yet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Story: A Spymaster Sheikh’s AI Ambitions w/ Bradley Hope
Mar 5, 202500:31:47Tap to summarizeBradley Hope is a journalist, author and co-founder of Project Brazen, a narrative non-fiction production studio. His piece in Wired, ‘A Spymaster Sheikh Controls a $1.5 Trillion Fortune. He Wants to Use It to Dominate AI,’ outlines how one Gulf royal – Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan – came to control vast sums of sovereign wealth. Hope sits down with Oz to discuss Sheikh Tahnoun’s early obsession with AI, his path to becoming the UAE’s national security advisor and the country's role in the global AI race. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →What the Tech? w/ Jonathan Strickland in Doha
Feb 28, 202500:38:53Tap to summarizeThis week, Oz is on the road, at the Web Summit Qatar, and he’s not alone. Joining him from the iHeart pop-up studio in Doha is a very familiar figure, Jonathan Strickland. Oz and Jonathan sit down to discuss some of the highlights of the Web Summit, including the future of the AI chip race, advances in augmented reality and how news organizations are grappling with AI.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Story: Russia’s Espionage ‘Laboratory’ w/ Ben Taub
Feb 26, 202500:31:58Tap to summarizeBen Taub is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker. His piece, “Russia’s Espionage War in the Arctic,” covers tensions at the Russian border with Norway, an area Russia uses as a testing ground for future intelligence operations. Taub sits down with Oz to discuss the technology being used for survival and for espionage, as the war in Ukraine has escalated tensions with NATO.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →TechStuff x Part-Time Genius: Redefining ‘Luddite’ w/ Brian Merchant
Feb 21, 202500:43:53Tap to summarizeThis week, TechStuff teams up with Part-Time Genius for a special crossover episode. Oz and Mangesh Hattikudur, host of Part-Time Genius, discuss a largely misunderstood group of machine destroyers. The Luddites. Joining them is tech journalist Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, to dig into the history of humans fighting against job automation, why we equate Luddites with technophobes and what we can learn from these 19th century rebels in the age of AI.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Story: Liar, Liar, Deepfakes on Fire w/ Hany Farid
Feb 19, 202500:29:19Tap to summarizeHany Farid is a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He's been a leading voice on digital forensics for over two decades—pioneering ways to identify if an image, audio or video has been digitally altered. Since the rise of social media, Farid has kept busy helping news organizations, government agencies and law enforcement determine what is real and what is fake online. Farid sits down with Oz to talk about his initial interest in digital forensics, the effects of misinformation on society, and whether he wants an AI likeness of himself to live on after he dies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Week in Tech: Musk and Federal Money–A Love Story
Feb 14, 202500:28:32Tap to summarizeWhat do the Brits want from Apple? This week in the News Roundup, Oz and producer Eliza Dennis explore how lithium-ion batteries and wildfires don’t mix, the UK government’s demand for a backdoor to iPhones and the James Webb Space Telescope–it rocks! On TechSupport with 404 Media’s Emanuel Maiberg, a new study finds that AI might affect our critical thinking skills. And finally, Oz digs into Elon Musk’s government contracts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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