I Refuse to Share my Location, AITA?

Summary

Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast — "I Refuse to Share my Location, AITA?" (Feb 24, 2026)

Hosts: Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), Andrew Manganelli, Ellis Roven, Adam Molina, David Pierce

Summary by request. All timestamps in MM:SS format. Ads, intros, and outros skipped.

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Episode Overview

This bonus episode of Waveform features the crew playing a tech-infused version of the popular Reddit game "Am I the Asshole?" (AITA). Each scenario centers on tech-related social dilemmas – from location sharing with partners to group chat drama and etiquette for device use in public and private life. The conversation is raw and uncensored, with the crew’s candid takes on modern tech behaviors, social norms, and personal boundaries.

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Main Themes & Structure

• Tech-Related AITA Scenarios: The team reviews hypothetical and real situations submitted by themselves, colleagues, or inspired by Reddit posts.
• Debate & Discussion: Each prompt is openly debated, with strong views, jokes, and the weighing of intent, etiquette, and principle.
• Reflections on Modern Tech Etiquette: Group explores how tech disrupts older social conventions and creates new gray areas.
• Relationship & Privacy Nuances: Special focus on privacy, boundaries, and interpersonal tech use—especially regarding location sharing, device usage, and information sharing.

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Detailed Episode Breakdown

1. "Am I the Asshole?" Game Introduction

[01:09-03:30]

• The hosts frame AITA as a judgment game where scenarios are posed, and everyone weighs in.
• Only tech-centric situations allowed for this episode.

2. Social Networks & Platform Nostalgia

"Ellis Roven, am I the asshole for still using Twitter instead of Blue Sky?"

[04:10-09:03]

• No, not the asshole, says Marques — Twitter remains the biggest, most relevant text-based platform, despite being a "mess".
• David Pierce: Blue Sky and Threads lack Twitter's monoculture and speed for current events.
• Ellis: "There's just no good social media anymore. All of it's bad now." [05:28]
• Andrew: “I’m just way happier not using Twitter.” [08:26]
• Group agrees nostalgia for old Twitter is real, but sticking with it doesn’t make you an asshole.

3. Breaking Up the iOS Group Chat

"Am I the asshole for switching to Android in an iOS family/friend group?"

[09:30-12:32]

• Responses nuanced: “Depends” (Marques). If the group depends on iMessage for family communication/facetimes, it's more disruptive.
• Ellis: Argues Apple is at fault for locking users in and fostering guilt around switching platforms.
  "It's Apple's fault. Apple's the asshole." [11:18]
• Andrew: Never experienced issues, but others say subtle exclusion/bullying can happen.
• Adam: Shares real story—his family actually renamed their group chat “Adam no longer has an iPhone” after his switch.
• Consensus: Switch isn’t inherently asshole behavior, but constant switching or knowingly breaking up communication can create issues.

4. The iCloud Storage Dilemma

"Am I the asshole for asking my family to delete photos/videos to free up iCloud space?"

[12:43-13:57]

• Not the asshole. If you’re paying, you’re justified in asking others to clean up their storage or chip in for more space.
• Andrew: “This is me, like, I got dinner tonight and then your mom’s like ‘A5 Wagyu!’ Chill mom, you’re getting a roasted chicken at best. No drink.” [13:14]

5. Gaming Honeymoon Scenarios

"Am I the asshole for bringing my Xbox on my honeymoon?"

[13:57-17:02]

• Immediate laughs and “Divorce!” jokes, but group tries to find a charitable scenario (e.g., insomnia, couple both gaming).
• Marques: “I think you gotta be able to find a way to — how about communication? Let’s start there.” [16:12]
• Ultimately, probably the asshole unless gaming is something the couple shares or has discussed.

6. Swallowed AirPod: Tech Prank or Safety Fail?

"Am I the asshole for connecting to an AirPod my 3-year-old niece swallowed to see if it would play in her stomach?"

[17:11-21:10]

• Group mostly agrees: asshole-adjacent, but more in poor taste than truly bad.
• Ellis: “You just don’t know what it’s going to do if you play music through it while someone has it in their stomach… especially a young kid.” [18:10]
• Andrew: “If you’re trying to lighten the mood … you can just pretend you heard music.” [18:21]
• Marques points out a utility argument if it helps confirm the AirPod’s location, but most agree it’s a bad move.

7. Pedantry in Tech Conversations

"Am I the asshole for correcting someone who says their phone has 256GB of RAM?"

[21:16-25:18]

• In the studio: not an asshole; elsewhere: possibly a 'well-actually' guy.
• Andrew: “I’m the asshole because I don’t care enough to correct them.” [22:31]
• Marques: “As long as you didn’t say it like an asshole.” [21:33]
• If it helps prevent a costly mistake, correction is justified; otherwise, don’t nitpick out in the wild.

8. Killing the “Magic” with Instant Google Facts

"Am I the asshole for Googling every random conversational question immediately?"

[26:02-31:04]

• Marques admits habitually looking up facts during casual chat, wonders if it’s ruining fun.
• Andrew (joking): “I feel like Marques is arguing for us to call him an asshole right now.” [30:35]
• Mixed responses: On one hand, it can shift conversation to facts-based; on the other, it kills fun speculation. Awareness and context are key.

9. Location Sharing and Privacy in Relationships

"Am I the asshole for refusing to share my location with my partner, even though they want me to?"

[56:26-63:12]

• Heated debate.
• Marques: “The simple question is why? Why do they want it so badly?” [56:50]
• Ellis: Feels it’s about principle and not wanting to surrender anonymity.
  “I just don’t think anyone has the right to have my location ever. Just as a principle thing.” [57:02]
• Adam notes safety reasons are especially cited by women.
• Andrew: After having a child, sharing location with spouse became pragmatic and common.
• David: If your reason is only “it’s a principle,” you’re “probably the asshole” [59:24], but hosts concede you can be “right” and still be “the asshole” for not adapting to societal norms.

10. "Nice to e-meet you" and Other Tech/Email Etiquette

[36:26–39:25]

• Whole group loathes this email phrase; “Just say meet” or “good to see you” preferred.
• Ellis: “If I see the email and it says (e-meet you), I delete it immediately.” [36:43]
• Joking on worse variants like “Thank you for gracing my digital sanctum.”

11. Phone Use During Movie Night

"Am I the asshole for checking my phone during a movie at home with someone?"

[39:28-41:47]

• David: Unyielding — “I don’t think you can pull your phone out even for one second, even for one frame of a movie and still say you watched the movie.” [40:46]
• Others are gentler, advocating for awareness of situation, but group consensus sides with try not to do it out of respect for shared experience.

12. Mechanical Keyboards in the Studio

"Am I the asshole for using a mechanical keyboard in a shared workspace?"

[50:41–52:23]

• Not really, since everyone now has one; it’s become the accepted office background noise.
• Marques analogizes to hobbies that annoy others (like loud cars): “If all your neighbors had loud cars, you’d all be chill.” [52:37]

13. Device Use and “Screen Divides”

VR Headsets, Smart Glasses, and Social Isolation

[43:41–45:52]

• Use of VR/AR headsets for “bed scroll” with a partner crosses into asshole territory;
  • Marques: “You have to take the headset off. You can’t share that with them.” [45:24]
  • Only exception is if the headset use is more courteous (e.g. solo viewing so as not to wake sleeping partner).

14. Reels, Messages, & Group Etiquette

"Am I the asshole for confronting a friend for sending too many reels?"

[66:48–70:43]

• Group says “probably not,” as long as the confrontation is tactful.
• Andrew: “If they keep sending them and don’t get responses back and they keep sending them, they obviously don’t care.” [70:10]
• Not engaging/reacting hurts less than constant pestering for replies.

15. Birthday Cards Written by ChatGPT

"Am I the asshole for using ChatGPT to write a birthday card?"

[72:07-78:09]

• Marques: “Writing someone a birthday card is already very high effort ... I think you’re trying to take it to the next level with some AI assistance.” [73:03]
• If it’s impersonal or a way to “mail in” a relationship, yes; but a clever, personalized use could actually up the effort.

16. Cold Calling Friends

"Am I the asshole if I just cold call a friend out of the blue?"

[78:44–80:43]

• Andrew: “Especially because we all have caller id…and if the person doesn’t want to pick up, you don’t have to pick up.” [79:09]
• Marques/Adam: Think it can be a little anxiety-inducing or off-putting, prefer a text first unless it’s truly urgent (e.g. birthday call).
• Consensus: Not an asshole if it’s a true connection, but in the modern era, giving someone a heads-up is preferred.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Twitter’s decline:
  “When they say that place has turned into like a Nazi porn bar… and sometimes I’ll watch it, I’ll click on a video… next one, and it’s just straight porn.” —Ellis, [05:28]
• “Are online people correcting us assholes? Not really, because you expect us to get it right and it’s important, but if it’s just a random person out there… not that important.” —Marques, [24:21]
• “Would it be fun if your phone just lit up blue every time someone looked at your location?” —Marques, [62:38]
• “Every hobby has this. It’s like people who like loud cars. Well, all your neighbors hate you, but if all your neighbors had loud cars, you’d all be chill.” —Marques, [52:37]

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• AITA Game Introduction: [01:09–03:30]
• Twitter vs. Blue Sky: [04:10–09:03]
• iOS Group Chat/Android Switch: [09:30–12:32]
• iCloud Storage Drama: [12:43–13:57]
• Xbox on Honeymoon: [13:57–17:02]
• Swallowed AirPod: [17:11–21:10]
• Pedantry & Corrections: [21:16–25:18]
• Googling in Conversation: [26:02–31:04]
• Location Sharing Debate: [56:26–63:12]
• E-Meet You Email Etiquette: [36:26–39:25]
• Phone Use During Movie: [39:28–41:47]
• Mechanical Keyboards: [50:41–52:23]
• Cold Calling Friends: [78:44–80:43]

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Tone & Takeaways

• Candid and irreverent, liberally mixing humor and real takes.
• Hosts generally advocate for good intent, communication, and situational awareness over rigid rules.
• Being “the asshole” is often about context, awareness, and tone — not just the act itself.

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Suggestion to Listeners

• The hosts invite listeners to submit more tech-related “Am I the Asshole?” scenarios for a possible Part 2.

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Final Note

Waveform’s AITA episode showcases both the absurdity and subtlety of navigating tech etiquette in modern life. Their bottom line: be thoughtful, considerate, and if you’re paying for the iCloud — yeah, you can tell everyone to delete their photos.

Transcript

[Marques Brownlee]

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[Adam Molina]

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[David Pierce]

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[Marques Brownlee]

Yo, what's up people of the Internet? Welcome back to another episode of the Waveform Podcast.

[Adam Molina]

We're your hosts.

[Marques Brownlee]

I'm Marques.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm Andrew.

[Ellis Roven]

And I'm David.

[Marques Brownlee]

And don't adjust your calendars. It's not actually Friday. This is a bonus episode of the Waveform Podcast. That's how you know it's not Friday is cause you hear that not a regularly scheduled episode disclaimer. But this is a fun one. We've got a bit of a not a game, but a fun thing we want to try and there's too much going on in the regular episode so we're just going to do this as a bonus. So take it away, Ellis.

[David Pierce]

Yeah, so before we get into it, we got to drop a quick disclaimer because normally week in, week out, the Waveform production team works hard to make sure this is a family friendly show with no curses. However, due to the nature of this game a I T h, we will be saying the word a lot. So get ready. This is the first uncensored episode of the Waveform Podcast. All serious maybe, I don't know.

[Marques Brownlee]

Can I test that right now? I'm not gonna test that.

[David Pierce]

We may end up bleeping everywhere. That's not asked. Anyway, moral story is if you have a child, listen to the music. If you have a child in the car, if you have a child in the room, if you have a child anywhere in the vicinity of this playing, plug their ears cause it's about to get wild.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm now wondering if you should bleep that first one because you said the word before you said tell Your child to close their ears.

[Ellis Roven]

Maybe you should just spell it out.

[Marques Brownlee]

From this point forward.

[David Pierce]

From this point forward, no kids. No kids.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, I do get emails sometimes about, I was listening with my kids. I'm like, oh, good to know.

[Andrew Manganelli]

We warned you.

[David Pierce]

We warned you.

[Marques Brownlee]

When I.

[Ellis Roven]

When I came out of the womb, I said, from this point forward, no kids. Wow. And so I still don't have kids.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Staying true to your word.

[Ellis Roven]

Could change. Could change.

[David Pierce]

So what's the segment for those unfamiliar Am I the asshole? Is something that I would assume was started on Reddit. Maybe it was started suburb Reddit.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

On 4chan or something else. But essentially it's this acronym where you say, am I the asshole? If. And then you tell a story and then everyone on Reddit goes, hey, you should probably get a divorce.

[Ellis Roven]

Well, you didn't laugh when I made

[Andrew Manganelli]

that joke earlier today. Holy.

[David Pierce]

That joke was brought to you by David Amell.

[Andrew Manganelli]

God damn it.

[Ellis Roven]

I tweeted that six years ago, dude.

[David Pierce]

All right, so yeah, the way we're gonna do this is we're just gonna. Adam and I are gonna throw am I the assholes? At our hosts.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Tech related ones.

[David Pierce]

They needed to be tech related.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Well, I'm just making the audience understand.

[Ellis Roven]

As long as you say the word tech ones, we're still a tech podcast.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

Nintendo Switch 2.

[Marques Brownlee]

We're locked in.

[David Pierce]

Some of these will be pulled directly from Reddit. Some of these will be just influenced or inspired by Reddit posts we saw. And some of them were made up by Adam and I and some of them were made up by other co workers. And for the ones that were made up by other co workers, I will probably end up asking you, which one of your co workers do you think said it? It will not be for points. This is completely exhibition.

[Marques Brownlee]

I'm going to try really hard, though.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I will win this exhibition.

[David Pierce]

This first one I think many people have thoughts on it comes directly from me and my own lived experience. Am I Ellis Roven, the asshole for still using Twitter instead of Blue Sky?

[Marques Brownlee]

No. No, I don't think so.

[Adam Molina]

Why not?

[Marques Brownlee]

What, just by sheer numbers? I mean, unless you're calling everyone who still uses Twitter an asshole.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yes.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. Oh, interesting.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Oh, I'm just kidding.

[Marques Brownlee]

I mean, I would like a good justification for it, but I would say that Twitter is still the biggest text only social media platform.

[Andrew Manganelli]

It's funny because Twitter would probably hate that you call them a text only social media platform because they're really trying to be video and paying for everything.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, they're trying to be everything. But it's like I guess in the different zones of the social media universe, I feel like there's Twitter threads, Blue sky, all the other text first.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I think he's saying that as proof how nostalgic you still are for Twitter.

[Marques Brownlee]

Really?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Like old Twitter.

[Marques Brownlee]

I mean that's, that's what it originally was. It's just like 140 character SMS text only.

[Adam Molina]

I missed old Twitter.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, that was, that was pretty original. No Blue Sky. If it's. If you have to be on Blue sky to not be an then I guess that's the criteria.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I want David's response.

[Ellis Roven]

There's plenty of assholes on Blue sky too.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Oh yeah, sure.

[Ellis Roven]

I think the, the real answer is that just, there's just no good social media anymore. Well, all of it's bad now. I don't know. It's hard to, it's hard to be anywhere, post anywhere without like if I go on Twitter because there are links that we send through Slack and whatever and there's like news updates and stuff. So I have to read that and I have to read the comments and all this stuff. And like man, when they say that that place has turned into like a Nazi porn bar. That's what a lot of it is. And sometimes I'll watch it, I'll like click on a video on Twitter and it auto plays the next one and it's just straight porn.

[Marques Brownlee]

So here's what I'll say about Twitter.

[David Pierce]

Why not gay porn?

[Marques Brownlee]

This is really the first uncensored episode. Here's what I'll say about Twitter. I mean I've kept using, I still use Twitter threads. I don't really. We post on Facebook but I don't really use it very much. But Twitter is still the best and worst at some things. It's still the best at current events happenings right now. When the super bowl is happening, when All Star Weekend was happening, when the blizzard was happening, it's like that was the what's happening place. Threads is trying to be that it's trying. It's not there yet, but that's what Twitter's still the best at. And it is also the worst at like all the worst people are like, if it's the biggest place, like there's assholes everywhere. But all the worst people are also on Twitter. So it's like the easiest for it to be terrible.

[Ellis Roven]

There's a lot of like Karens on Threads though, because they're all from Facebook. That's the thing. They like unloaded a lot of People from Facebook. Yeah, it's hard threads is everyone has too individualized of an algorithm. Like, everyone's experience on threads is completely different. The thing that was so amazing about Twitter in the heyday and still does persist in a way on there, is that there is a monoculture conversation going on where people are all talking about the same thing. When, like, when the open cloth stuff was happening, all you seem to see that at the very tail end, somehow

[Marques Brownlee]

the open claw stuff. Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

It was like my entire timeline for like a week.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

So there. There is more of a mono conversation and I do miss that aspect of a social media platform.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

I think. I think Twitter, like, good tweets have this. This radioactive and succinct quality that Blue sky posts just. I haven't found.

[Ellis Roven]

There are funny people on Blue Sky.

[Adam Molina]

There are.

[David Pierce]

Can I read you a tweet that I saw this morning that is still in my brain?

[Ellis Roven]

Is it a tweet or a skeet?

[David Pierce]

It's a tweet.

[Ellis Roven]

Okay.

[David Pierce]

It's From Rich Decibels SF guy eating a delicious blueberry colon. In 18 months, everything will be blueberries. Like, that's good.

[Ellis Roven]

There's that on blue screen. Also. Twitter is just San Francisco as well. That's the other thing. Everyone that posts on Twitter thinks that the entire world is San Francisco.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's not what it is.

[David Pierce]

I do think we are all in tech Twitter, and so that is the specific, know, monoculture we see. I think if you're not in the tech world, your Twitter looks different.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Tech Twitter is probably way too close to a lot of other Twitters that are really sad. And that's. I don't think you're an for using Twitter. I'm just way happier not using Twitter, like, every time I go on it. Because like David said, we're trying to figure out what to, like, talk about on the pod. I'm 10 minutes and I'm just like, I'm so bummed out right now. And there was maybe one funny tweet like that in there in the process of me getting really bummed.

[David Pierce]

Damn. Well, seems like we have two. Yes, you are the asshole one. No, I'm not the asshole.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You'd be a happier asshole without it.

[David Pierce]

Meaning I am the asshole.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

I do wish Blue sky had that juice. You know what I'm saying?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, we're all just this. Is this the only thing Marquez is nostalgic over? Old Twitter?

[Ellis Roven]

No backyard basil.

[Marques Brownlee]

But, like, backyard basil for sure.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I mean, that's my guess is like, I will negate everything I've ever said in my life for backyard baseball.

[Marques Brownlee]

I know I was on nostalgia for a while, but backyard baseball is where it's at.

[David Pierce]

All right, here's. Here's another sticky one.

[Adam Molina]

Sure.

[David Pierce]

Am I the asshole for switching to Android in an iOS family or friend group? And I feel like those are two separate answers.

[Ellis Roven]

No, no.

[Marques Brownlee]

Everyone depends on. Okay, Depends. Depends.

[Ellis Roven]

Everyone should be using third party messaging platforms anyway.

[Marques Brownlee]

But they're not.

[Ellis Roven]

Well actually the perfect. In a perfect world, RCS would actually work.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

I texted David Pierce this morning who recently switched to an Android phone and it none of them got delivered and it said not delivered and it said RCS next to it cuz I was

[Marques Brownlee]

RCS not delivered those messages.

[Ellis Roven]

And then I messaged him on signal and I said hey, did you get any of that? And he said no. And I said when did you switch to your Android phone? He said a week ago. So the fact that it still hasn't fixed itself like this is the problem and it just keeps bringing you back, but I would say absolutely not. Freedom.

[Marques Brownlee]

So the reason I say it depends is if your family has a family group chat in like if they like actively depend on it and use features from it like facetimes or like iMessage stuff all the time, then that would feel worse. You know what I mean? Like I could still join a FaceTime from my Android phone, but breaking up the, you know, the family and especially

[David Pierce]

now with Apple, the Apple one. Family plans. Friends do not share icloud storage. But families often do now. Yeah, but then I guess you'd also be freeing up icloud storage for your

[Marques Brownlee]

yeah, you'd be on your own Google Photos life.

[Ellis Roven]

Like I have an icloud family plan with people who are just my friends.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, but don't tell the world. Yeah, I guess, I don't know.

[David Pierce]

We're. We're still. We're still siblings or YouTube TV or premium or whatever.

[Ellis Roven]

I would say that the analogy that I would make is shell creating the whole carbon footprint thing to make individuals feel bad about their carbon footprint, whereas Apple is creating the problem to make individuals feel bad about switching to Android bars. So it's Apple's fault. Apple's the asshole, not the one who chooses.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's a great take. Apple is the asshole. I like that take.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I've just never encountered an issue with this ever. Maybe because I've always just been on Android. Maybe because I have a bunch of family who's on Android. I've just never had a person text me and Be like, why? Why are you on Android?

[Adam Molina]

I could do better.

[Andrew Manganelli]

A friend never once.

[Ellis Roven]

It's a one way door and maybe

[Andrew Manganelli]

they're saying it behind my back and they're super nice to me, but I just have such a hard time believing there's all these. This bullying going.

[Marques Brownlee]

If you, like, switch to an iPhone, you'll see like this whole world of group chats that you're never in. Like, whoa.

[Andrew Manganelli]

It's like putting on the colorblind for the first time. I'm like, oh my God, blue.

[Adam Molina]

I switch all the time. And at one point, when I switched from iPhone to Android, Jess had to make a brand new group chat with me and my family and she titled it Adam no longer has an iPhone title of the group.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Hold on.

[Ellis Roven]

It was just.

[Andrew Manganelli]

If you switch once, you switch every three months, you're the asshole. Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

But Adam says. Adam keeps his imessage off though.

[Adam Molina]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

So the expectation is that he's never been on imessage. Really? That's effort. I know that there's all this data that says that imessage is not the only thing that keeps people on there. I'm pretty sure it's imessage.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's the main thing.

[Ellis Roven]

It's the only reason why I'm still on an iPhone.

[Adam Molina]

So while we're talking about Apple stuff, am I the asshole? I pay for the icloud storage for my family and now we keep running out of space. Am I the asshole for telling my family to delete photos and videos? But I don't know.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You're paying for all of it.

[Marques Brownlee]

If you're paying all of it.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I. You're too nice.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

If you're going out to a. If you're going out to a restaurant and you're paying, there's a certain amount that people are allowed to order before they're the.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's such a good point. This is me. Like, I got dinner tonight and then your mom's like a 5 wagyu. Chill mom. You're getting a roasted chicken at best. No drink.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

Adam, you're not an asshole. You're a saint.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. You're paying.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah.

[Adam Molina]

Well, this is hypothetical, but it is an awkward.

[Andrew Manganelli]

It's an awkward conversation to have, though.

[Ellis Roven]

It is.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's. Or like, can everyone toss me a couple bucks for this thing? None of you even really knows is a real thing because photos are just getting saved to it now.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Adam Molina]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

If you are in that specific situation, you have every right to ask the people participating to chip in so that they don't have to delete stuff, but if they're not gonna chip in and you're the one paying, you're not the asshole. You tell them to delete some stuff.

[Ellis Roven]

100%.

[Marques Brownlee]

I agree.

[Ellis Roven]

100%.

[Adam Molina]

Okay, nice. Not the asshole. This one's inspired by a Reddit post. Am I the asshole for bringing my Xbox on my honeymoon?

[Ellis Roven]

Divorce.

[Marques Brownlee]

This is so dependent on the person.

[David Pierce]

I don't want to get into the specifics of this person's relationship that they followed in the post. So just take this as abstract as you can.

[Marques Brownlee]

This is a person that would bring their Xbox on their hunt.

[David Pierce]

They wrote a. They wrote so much stuff.

[Andrew Manganelli]

What game are they playing?

[Ellis Roven]

If you're married to this guy, shouldn't you know how much he likes playing? I don't.

[Marques Brownlee]

I don't know.

[Ellis Roven]

Wait, this is so.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I want to. I want to do this. I want to try and turn this into. How do we make it okay to bring the Xbox on the honeymoon?

[Marques Brownlee]

If you have boundaries on when you're allowed. Yeah, like there's some issue that they will have with the amount of time that will be spent playing the Xbox versus doing other honeymoon.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, just bring your Steam deck, man. Yeah, way easier.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's the portable Xbox, the Rog Ally. You got to get. Get one of those things.

[Andrew Manganelli]

The Rg Ally on the planet Rog. Xbox.

[Ellis Roven]

Ally X. Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah. Is it like, does he not sleep that much? And maybe he's like, oh, I want to play some Xbox while she sleeps a full eight hours and relax and I'm a four hour sleeper.

[Adam Molina]

Sounds like you're speaking from experience here.

[Andrew Manganelli]

No, dude, no. I don't think my honeymoon had a TV in the. The hotel.

[Ellis Roven]

I do play Dota with a guy in Egypt who just had a kid and he plays with me when his wife goes to bed.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's fine. But did anyone see the clip of the guy who brought his Xbox to like the labor and delivery room and he's like, getting handed the baby and he like takes his headset.

[Ellis Roven]

No way.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's not a parody.

[Andrew Manganelli]

It has to be parody. It has to be parody. Right?

[Ellis Roven]

Otherwise that's an addiction.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's crazy.

[Ellis Roven]

That's a problem.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I don't know. How long is your honey? How long is the honeymoon? Some people go on really long, honey.

[Adam Molina]

That's true, that's true.

[Andrew Manganelli]

But I'm trying here because it's so obviously the asshole I'm trying to give him.

[Adam Molina]

What if he has like a weekly meetup with like his brother?

[Ellis Roven]

He's got a Raids.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Your honeymoon.

[Marques Brownlee]

He's got Raids.

[Ellis Roven]

He's playing wow.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That.

[Ellis Roven]

What if he's playing WoW and he's got a.

[Marques Brownlee]

Raids.

[Ellis Roven]

He's the core.

[Andrew Manganelli]

He could be the guild leader. Oh, wait, it's Xbox.

[Ellis Roven]

Everyone changes their mind.

[Marques Brownlee]

I think you gotta be able to find a way to.

[Adam Molina]

Is there.

[Ellis Roven]

How about communication? Let's start there.

[David Pierce]

If you're. If you're marrying anyone other than Princess Peach or Cortana, you don't need. You don't need video games on your honeymoon, I think.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Unless you're both playing, which then you would need to bring two Xbox.

[Marques Brownlee]

Oh yeah, bring a controller. Bring an extra controller.

[Andrew Manganelli]

How many clothes are you leaving behind to pack? That's a lot. Like.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

Which is a lot of. It's the Asus, Rog, Xbox, Ally X.

[Marques Brownlee]

All the Xboxes are pretty big now.

[David Pierce]

The S. The Series S. Xbox.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Series S. But that controller. Power cables, audio. Video cables. Headset. Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

Power adapter.

[David Pierce]

There's a few exceptions, but.

[Adam Molina]

You're the asshole.

[David Pierce]

Probably not the coolest move to bring.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, I wouldn't.

[Ellis Roven]

What if she loves playing the game with you?

[David Pierce]

That's different.

[Marques Brownlee]

I don't think this would be in Reddit if that was clear.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, I guess so.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

No PlayStation. Totally cool.

[Ellis Roven]

Also, I just don't think people on the Internet should just be speculating about each other's relationships.

[David Pierce]

This one is. This one is straight from Reddit and I'm gonna read this one all the way through because this one is. Am I the asshole for connecting to the AirPod? After that, my niece swallowed to see if it would play in her stomach. When my 3 year old niece swallowed my sister's left AirPod, everyone started worrying right away. I was trying to lighten the situation, so I connected the AirPod to my phone and put my ear on her stomach to check if I could hear it. Surprisingly, I actually did hear a little sound coming from inside her, which made the moment a bit funny to me. The people around us did not find it amusing. They all looked at me like I was. I wasn't taking things seriously at all.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I. I mean, I don't think he

[Ellis Roven]

should have done that. Yeah, no, that's really funny. Like, I get the invasive thought, the intrusive thought. I get that completely.

[Marques Brownlee]

But.

[Ellis Roven]

But the problem was already that she swallowed a giant piece of plastic with a battery in it. And like, you just don't know what it's going to do if you play music through it while someone has it in their stomach. Especially a young you.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Also, if you're just trying to lighten the mood for the kid who's potentially scared. You can just pretend you heard music. You can be like, oh, let me

[David Pierce]

see if there's music playing.

[Andrew Manganelli]

And just. You don't have to go through the whole process. Counterpoint, connecting to.

[Ellis Roven]

I understand the invasive thought though.

[Marques Brownlee]

I do counterpoint.

[Ellis Roven]

Okay.

[Marques Brownlee]

This was a purely utility based decision. Someone has to have it in their find. My. Just in case you can't find it.

[David Pierce]

What?

[Andrew Manganelli]

It's.

[Ellis Roven]

It's already. It's the guy's AirPod already. Is Connect.

[Marques Brownlee]

He already.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Well, it's his girlfriend or wife's AirPod already. It doesn't matter.

[David Pierce]

What do you mean? I'm confused.

[Marques Brownlee]

They know she swallowed it or they think she swallowed it.

[David Pierce]

It seems like they know she swallowed it. Seems like they.

[Marques Brownlee]

Was this to confirm that she swallowed it or they're like, she definitely.

[Andrew Manganelli]

They were already worried.

[David Pierce]

It seemed like he was like, you know, it'd be really funny.

[Andrew Manganelli]

While all of them are like, what should we do? He was like, I should play music.

[Marques Brownlee]

I thought it was like, I think she swallowed the airpod. And they were like, oh my God, did she swallow the AirPod? And he connected to it and was like, that's fair. Yeah, totally fair. Definitely there. Or if it was like, did they know already?

[David Pierce]

Have you seen that?

[Marques Brownlee]

Maybe it's not utility anymore.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Do you see?

[David Pierce]

I see that like TikTok Instagram reel short from video thing that was like the music for like Funk for Frogs with all the like.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Nope.

[Ellis Roven]

No.

[David Pierce]

Okay. Someone knows what I'm talking about and they know that that's the only appropriate song to play in someone's stomach.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I've seen Blaine's stomach. I. I feel like if he's has the time to do all of that, they couldn't have all been that worried of the situation or they would have already been driving her to the hospital. No.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. I don't know how. How worried you have to be about are they.

[Andrew Manganelli]

They're probably all searching what to do.

[Adam Molina]

Well, it's like, should we wait for it to come out or do we have to take her?

[Andrew Manganelli]

If lane swallows an AirPod, I'm going to the hospital.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Adam Molina]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

This is a three year old though,

[Marques Brownlee]

so I don't know.

[Andrew Manganelli]

And listen, I understand in America that might automatically mean a bill that's literally like terrifying. So maybe that's different.

[Ellis Roven]

I would go to urgent care and get an opinion.

[Adam Molina]

Okay, that'll be like 5,000.

[Andrew Manganelli]

No, wouldn't. Yeah, I'd probably let the situation I Would confirm everything safe before I start screwing around like that.

[Adam Molina]

How do you even confirm that?

[Andrew Manganelli]

A doctor?

[Adam Molina]

A little.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I would wait till I go to the hospital. Yes.

[Adam Molina]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. I thought you meant like while they're there trying to figure it out, you would confirm.

[Marques Brownlee]

And then the doctor's like, are you sure she swallowed it? And he's like, yeah, listen, listen, listen. Yeah, that's definitely in there. Yeah. All right.

[Andrew Manganelli]

All right.

[David Pierce]

So are we agreeing?

[Adam Molina]

He's probably the.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

At first it was a poor move.

[Ellis Roven]

I. I understand the intrusive thought.

[Marques Brownlee]

I do.

[Adam Molina]

Just in poor taste.

[Ellis Roven]

If it was like a fake scenario with like a fake daughter, then, yeah, I'd do it. But if it was a real daughter.

[Adam Molina]

No.

[Marques Brownlee]

Fair enough.

[Ellis Roven]

Going to be a good guy.

[Adam Molina]

All right, this one comes from someone in the studio. You guys can guess who. After this.

[Ellis Roven]

Mariah.

[Adam Molina]

After this. Am I the asshole for correcting someone who said their phone has 256 gigs of RAM?

[Marques Brownlee]

I would. No, I would.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, this seems targeted. I do it instantaneous. Honestly, in this studio, kind of is

[Marques Brownlee]

RAM though, if the context. Okay, first the am I an asshole? Part. Not really. It's probably harmless that the person doesn't know the difference between storage and ram. As long as you didn't say it like an asshole.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, that's what we really just kind of a.

[Ellis Roven]

Well, actually person. Yeah, nobody really likes.

[Marques Brownlee]

I think it's probably fine.

[Andrew Manganelli]

People probably don't understand that everyone who works here isn't like a megaphone nerd. Like, there are a lot of times who don't do what.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, like they said a ram. They were right there. They're so close.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I think in us telling each other when a mistake like that happens is beneficial. So we don't. I mean, we're a company that talks about tech a lot, so. Yeah, say it nicely. I think everyone in here knows how to say things nicely.

[Marques Brownlee]

Say.

[Ellis Roven]

Well, technically it is like swap memory.

[Adam Molina]

Okay. What if it wasn't here? What if it was just like out and about in life?

[Marques Brownlee]

Oh, and like some random person was like, yeah, my phone I think has 256 gigs of RAM. And you were like, memory.

[Ellis Roven]

I would just be like, storage.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm the asshole because I don't care enough to correct them.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, I don't know.

[David Pierce]

Here's the follow up. Is like, I think you're right. It's like understandable. But what if someone uses the word memory when they mean storage?

[Marques Brownlee]

You know, there is. I was thinking about that. I think. I don't think this computer exists, but I think there at some point was a Mac studio or something where you could genuinely get either 256 gigs of storage or 256 gigs of RAM. Wait, right. Isn't the Mac studio you can get

[Ellis Roven]

like, I think the minimum storage half terabyte maybe.

[Marques Brownlee]

Can't you also get half terabyte of memory?

[Andrew Manganelli]

But it's not.

[Marques Brownlee]

So you could genuinely.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Or.

[Marques Brownlee]

Right, well, you could, you could get both.

[Adam Molina]

Oh, you could get it.

[Marques Brownlee]

But it's like you could say it to the person and they could be like, are you sure you mean memory or storage? And that is the one computer where it actually matters. Yeah. Otherwise it kind of doesn't usually matter.

[Adam Molina]

You would know that.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, it's kind of a random one off situation.

[Andrew Manganelli]

The whole thing of like calling storage memory irks me so much, but I know that's because I'm a turd and like I should not go correcting people like that. But there have been, I've seen Walmart like plaques in front of laptops that say like 256 gigs of memory. And it's like, that's just wrong.

[Marques Brownlee]

So I guess it's a reasonable mistake to make. It's fine.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm. I'm never correcting someone in public.

[Ellis Roven]

Is there like a colloquial tech spec on phones that everyone used to call some. Some spec and then it wasn't technically correct but everyone would get upset.

[Adam Molina]

Is that the XL mark?

[Ellis Roven]

No, it was like there was some

[Marques Brownlee]

spec that we called it like a 1 inch sensor or something. How it's not really 1 inch.

[Ellis Roven]

It wasn't that. It was like, yeah, maybe we should just cut this. I don't remember what it is, but I just remember someone getting mad at me in the Android Authority comments being like, it's not that. And I was like, yeah, but everyone calls it that.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, I was gonna say that. That's the other thing is. Are online people correcting us assholes? Not really. Because you expect us to get it right and it's important, but if it's just a random person out there. Not that important.

[Ellis Roven]

I. Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Okay. Who in the off. Someone in the office corrected someone outside of the office about this came from

[Adam Molina]

someone in the office.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Okay.

[Adam Molina]

They don't specify who they corrected or anything like that. It's just this wasn't a thing that happened and.

[Ellis Roven]

Hypothetical.

[Adam Molina]

Yeah, hypothetically.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

I just kind of think it makes you a. Well, actually kind of person.

[Andrew Manganelli]

The best kind of person.

[Ellis Roven]

Like that person probably doesn't even know what RAM is?

[Adam Molina]

Well, actually, they do know what RAM is.

[Ellis Roven]

Who?

[Adam Molina]

No, I'm joking. It was Miles.

[Ellis Roven]

Miles doesn't know what Ram.

[Marques Brownlee]

He's a.

[Ellis Roven]

He is a Nexus 6P

[Marques Brownlee]

doesn't need Ram.

[Ellis Roven]

Where we're going, we don't need Ram. I'm gonna say kinda.

[Adam Molina]

Kind of.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, kinda for saying it.

[Ellis Roven]

For just.

[Andrew Manganelli]

For. Correct.

[Ellis Roven]

For being the. Well, actually guy that nobody wants to be around.

[Adam Molina]

What if they're telling you, like, I'm about to go buy this thing?

[Ellis Roven]

Then I would correct them.

[Marques Brownlee]

Then I would make sure they know.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's a good point.

[Ellis Roven]

This is like when my sister, like, texted me that she bought a Mac Mini. And I was like, oh, you know, you can buy the higher storage one for the same price for the next week, right? You should return it and bring it back. She's like, nah, I'm good. I was like, what? She's like, what am I gonna use the storage for? She's.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I was like, it doesn't matter.

[Ellis Roven]

I don't know. She's like, I just go on websites. I was like, oh, my God.

[Marques Brownlee]

I guess she's fine. I guess she's fine. I mean, this is also funny because this gets kind of close to my. Am I an asshole? But not exactly.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Well, that's a great segue.

[Marques Brownlee]

Should I just do mine?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, do yours.

[Marques Brownlee]

All right. I brought one. Am I an asshole? Am I the asshole? Tech edition. Okay, so you know how when people are out and, like, hanging around, socializing, just randomly having conversations outside.

[Ellis Roven]

Never done that outside.

[Marques Brownlee]

Sometimes, yeah. They'll touch grass and they'll be like, hey, I wonder, like, why is the grass like this? Or like, you ever wonder this random thing and they'll just bring up a random fact like, you ever know? And then that will be, like, the fodder of the conversation for, like, five minutes. Yeah. Every single time you just look at it, I take out my phone and I look up the answer.

[David Pierce]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

Cause I feel like our conversation should be about the answer instead of just kind of wandering around. And I always wonder, like, am I the asshole for that? Like, no, I know you want to just have a conversation. This is meaningless. You don't care what the answer is. But wouldn't it be better if we had to?

[David Pierce]

This isn't Joe Rogan. We can get straight to the point.

[Ellis Roven]

No, I hear you. You know, I literally have had friends be like, we don't need to look it up. We just need to bathe in the magic of wondering.

[Adam Molina]

I think it depends on the conversation,

[Andrew Manganelli]

but we have unlimited information.

[Marques Brownlee]

We live in 2026. We can just say it into the air, and the answer will appear.

[Ellis Roven]

I understand the value of having this maybe. Maybe conversation. And maybe you can give that, like, two minutes.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I was gonna say you should personally set a timer.

[Ellis Roven]

What if you just go. What does everyone think it is?

[Marques Brownlee]

That's actually usually how it goes. Everyone will go, like, man, how tall do you think that giraffe is? Is that, like, tall for a giraffe? And before you've even finished thinking about it, I've googled the average height of a giraffe. Cause what good is the rest of our conversation if there's no basis in reality? Oh, boy.

[Adam Molina]

Mad dude.

[Marques Brownlee]

You know, am I. You can tell me if I'm the. I. I want to know. I'm giving you an.

[Ellis Roven]

I can't. I don't want to say that you're that. Because I do the exact same thing.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's.

[Ellis Roven]

But I.

[Andrew Manganelli]

It is kind of an. We can both be you.

[Adam Molina]

That's.

[Andrew Manganelli]

The way you describe it is like,

[Ellis Roven]

what is the value in comm.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Continuing to talk when we already know? I'm just imagining Marquez is like, oh, no, that's average for giraffe. And then everyone just sits there quiet and looks at each other. He's like, yeah, we all know.

[Ellis Roven]

This is exactly how the Suno CEO came up with that. People actually like making music. If you could just generate music, wouldn't

[Andrew Manganelli]

you just do that?

[Adam Molina]

Yeah. Musicians famously hate making music.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think people just like having conversations and, like, speculating randomly. Yes. But if there's, like, a real answer, it's about just.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

I don't think it detracts from the conversation. We could just like, pivot the conversation a little.

[Ellis Roven]

You can just stand in the corner with the knowledge and let them kind of do it.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I try.

[Marques Brownlee]

Sometimes. I try.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm imagining Marquez at Bar Trivia. How is anyone getting this wrong? I can type this so easy.

[Marques Brownlee]

I wouldn't do this at Bar Trivia.

[David Pierce]

I. I do like the idea of Marquez looking up the answer and then just keeping it to himself.

[Andrew Manganelli]

They don't know.

[David Pierce]

I already know.

[Marques Brownlee]

Okay. I recently did that, and then I waited till the end of the conversation, and then I just spit out the answer. Nobody cared. It wasn't valuable.

[David Pierce]

Honestly, Marcus, I would that.

[Marques Brownlee]

In case anyone's wondering, I let you

[Andrew Manganelli]

peasants run in your.

[David Pierce]

Your frivolous little circle like, you know.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

You know how they say that the argument's never about the dishes? The conversation's never about the answer.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's exactly right.

[Ellis Roven]

It's just about the. It's about the connection.

[Adam Molina]

It just depends. Also, like, if you're in the middle of a conversation about, I don't know, philosophy or something, and then someone's trying to quote this one philosopher, but they can't quite remember the name, but that's not like important to the point. I think it makes you the. To really quickly Google that philosopher and be like, well, actually to your point, it was this person, blah, blah, blah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

But I.

[Adam Molina]

But continue. Right, yeah, you know, like that. Yeah, it's about the broader conversation, but if it's just like, who is that guy that said this thing? Then yeah, just.

[Marques Brownlee]

It'll usually be a conversation where the conversation is guessing about a fact. Like.

[Adam Molina]

Right.

[Marques Brownlee]

How far away do you think that mountain is? It looks like it's so far away and I'm already on Google Maps. It's not like we were gonna have the conversation of being like, well, it's super tall, but like, usually buildings look really tall when they're like far away, but when looks like the size of the Empire State Building. Like they were gonna have this whole conversation and I sort of just skip

[Ellis Roven]

the whole talking thing.

[Andrew Manganelli]

We could just hit move on, double

[Marques Brownlee]

tapped on the right side of the screen. Y. I just fast forwarded.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I feel like Marques is arguing for us to call him an asshole right now.

[Ellis Roven]

I like this one because it's so nuanced.

[Andrew Manganelli]

This is so good.

[Adam Molina]

The problem is I do this too. So if you guys decide that it's

[Andrew Manganelli]

an asshole thing, I think you're aware enough. That makes you not the asshole.

[Marques Brownlee]

I just can't stop.

[Andrew Manganelli]

It sounds like it's. You're going to search no matter what. You want to know the answer. It sounds like you are aware enough in the conversations to know when to bring it up, which in itself is being polite enough for everybody.

[Marques Brownlee]

Sure. Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

But now anytime we're talking, if I see Marquez just looking like he's gonna like, you know the meme where the guy's like, veins popping out of his head. Yeah, that's Marquez with the answer.

[Ellis Roven]

I have an extension of this that I realized that I'm kind of an asshole for doing. But I want your guys's opinion.

[Marques Brownlee]

Okay.

[Ellis Roven]

Okay. So it's when, like, one of my friends says something and I just don't think it's true, and I immediately look it up and I'm not like, I do this all the time. I'm like, I don't really think that's

[Andrew Manganelli]

I literally did this to you on the podcast this morning when you said I was using Final Cut seven.

[Ellis Roven]

Oh, that's different.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I was, like, trying to be fact. We're trying to be sure that was for trivia.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

We're not. But just proof that misinformation.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, I just did it.

[Ellis Roven]

No. And so, like, I've had. They will mock me now every time. I'm like, Every time. I'm like. They're like, I don't think that's quite right.

[David Pierce]

Complicated.

[Marques Brownlee]

You gotta, like, bring it up tactfully.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You know, I'm like, I'm sorry. It's. You know. But if you don't do it in that moment, then when it's eating away at you later, it's way worse to call them at 9pm and be like, you were wrong about this and just hang the phone up.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's worse.

[David Pierce]

Like, here's. Here's my version of. This is like, when someone, you know, posts something on social media that you know is factually Inaccurate or worse, Ms. Slash Disinformation, I would text them and

[Ellis Roven]

say, this is wrong.

[David Pierce]

Because someone I know did that. And I with. They posted something on their story that was like, so obviously, like, that person did not say that.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You could just tell. And I wasn't like, I haven't posted in a while, so I think I'm okay.

[Adam Molina]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

It wasn't anyone in this room.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Okay.

[David Pierce]

But it was someone who works here.

[Adam Molina]

Oh.

[Andrew Manganelli]

On social media, if I, like, really like them and know it was probably by accident, I'll throw a message. If I know it's probably misinformation, I probably just unfriend them because I'm so tired of that. On social media at this point, I

[Ellis Roven]

would always at least bring it up.

[David Pierce]

I did not. So I guess. I guess that makes. I thought I was not being the asshole by not bringing it up, but it sounds like I was the asshole.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That sounds like there's so much nuance to it.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, there was nuance.

[David Pierce]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

And the relationship with the person. Yeah, it's.

[Ellis Roven]

Do you think that the misquote was like. You don't think it was intentional?

[David Pierce]

I know it wasn't intentional because the commentary about the quote was like, can you believe this person said this? To which I was like, no, they did it. I cannot believe that this. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

I'd bring it up to them.

[Marques Brownlee]

I think facts are important. So, you know, that's why I tend to Google things way too soon.

[Ellis Roven]

I'll stand in the corner. Let people talk.

[David Pierce]

Well, I think on that note, it begs the question, am I the asshole for taking us to a quick ad break and letting everyone know that we'll be right back?

[Ellis Roven]

I'm gonna have to look that up.

[Marques Brownlee]

Okay.

[Ellis Roven]

Nah.

[David Pierce]

Well, while you look that up, here's a word from our sponsors read by us or maybe someone else.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yo, Harvey, Zoey, Group selfie. Ooh, nice. New iPhone 17.

[Adam Molina]

Drew ski.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Let's do a triangle formation.

[David Pierce]

I'm in front with a center stage, front camera.

[Marques Brownlee]

Everyone fits in the shot.

[Andrew Manganelli]

He guided T mobile, but switching takes forever.

[Ellis Roven]

Not anymore.

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[David Pierce]

And right now we'll pay off your

[Ellis Roven]

old phone up to 800 bucks.

[Andrew Manganelli]

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[David Pierce]

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[Andrew Manganelli]

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[Marques Brownlee]

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[Marques Brownlee]

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[Ellis Roven]

Yes, Jono.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I don't think Jono would do that.

[Marques Brownlee]

No.

[Ellis Roven]

I thought that was Eric nice to you.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's my least favorite.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's rich. This person.

[David Pierce]

Sorry, this person is asking if they're the asshole for hating people who say nice.

[Ellis Roven]

Oh, no, no, no, no. I hate everyone who says that.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

If I see the email and it says that, I delete it immediately.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I don't go that far. But I'm. It's immediate sour taste. Like, as I. And I almost assume they do not care about the email. Yeah.

[David Pierce]

Like, who are you?

[Ellis Roven]

Vint Cerf? Like, did you just receive the first email ever?

[Marques Brownlee]

If it's.

[Ellis Roven]

Swear to God.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Is that. Do you guys see it differently as the opening email to you that says it? Or when someone gets added to an email where a conversation has been going on and the other person like feels kind of awkward coming into the conversation. They're like, o, hey, nice to e

[Marques Brownlee]

meet you Just say meet.

[Ellis Roven]

I don't care.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, it's just me.

[Ellis Roven]

I feel like is meet or just like be introduced.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

I had like an in person version of this recently. So fun fact, when we went and shot the Rivian R2, we went up to California, me and Miles, and there was a couple other YouTubers there. Doug DeMiro was there, went up and said, hey, Doug, good to see you. He said, nice to meet you. I said, oh, we haven't met.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You guys have never met in real life.

[Marques Brownlee]

And I in that moment realized we'd never met. And I do this to other people all the time. Where I'll go, hi, good to meet you. And they'll go, good to see you again. And I'll go, shit.

[Adam Molina]

I.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Well, it's because you're the asshole.

[Ellis Roven]

Safest possible thing. So I don't know if you met exactly.

[Marques Brownlee]

So I've just erased nice to meet you. And I never say nice to meet you ever to anyone. I just say good to see you.

[Ellis Roven]

That's because there's strong move.

[Marques Brownlee]

Always a chance.

[Ellis Roven]

It's the power move. Yeah. Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

So nice to e mate you. It's kind of weird.

[Ellis Roven]

I often say it's great to finally meet in real life.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's what. Yeah. Or just nice to finally meet you is like, we like.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm surprised I haven't met you.

[Adam Molina]

What if we met already and you don't remember?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Then I'm an asshole.

[David Pierce]

What if you already e met them but not.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's not the same.

[David Pierce]

Not irl meat.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. Yeah. There's obviously a difference, but you don't have to say e meat. That's my. I'm not mad if someone says it, but I'm not like, I don't like it. Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

Farmersemeat.com I prefer saying thank you for

[David Pierce]

gracing my digital sanctum.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Jesus, that's. Never mind. Say e meat. Please say e meat.

[Marques Brownlee]

What would you rather have?

[Ellis Roven]

No, E meat is awful.

[David Pierce]

Do you want to guess who is so pissed off by the phrase nice to e meat you that they felt the need to.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I would guess at that point it's Jono because he just has the most emails.

[David Pierce]

It's not Jono and it's not Mariah, is it? I don't think Mariah gets that pissed off about anything.

[Marques Brownlee]

Nice to email you. I feel like almost everyone would hate that. Did. Did Eric hate that?

[Andrew Manganelli]

I could see Eric doing the, like, semi Seinfeld joke about it at lunch.

[Ellis Roven]

Is it Vin?

[David Pierce]

Feels very obvious to me, but may think I know the answer. Nope.

[Ellis Roven]

Who gets email?

[Marques Brownlee]

Harper hated that.

[David Pierce]

No.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Wow.

[Marques Brownlee]

Who's left?

[Ellis Roven]

Michael?

[Adam Molina]

No.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I wish it was Marquez saying, tim. Tim.

[Marques Brownlee]

I see you.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I could see that.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

Tim and I get annoyed at the same thing.

[Adam Molina]

Everyone email Tim and just say hi

[Ellis Roven]

just to e Meet you, Tim at mkh.

[Marques Brownlee]

I'm slacking that later.

[David Pierce]

Here's another one from inside the house. That was a bad joke. That was so bad. Would I be the. For checking my phone while watching a movie at home with someone without getting a notification first?

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Adam Molina]

Okay.

[David Pierce]

So you're at home.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. You're at home. You're just checking. Just to see.

[David Pierce]

You're just checking because.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Wait, wait. Phantom limbs. Describe checking. Describe checking.

[Ellis Roven]

Just like unlocking. Locking this person.

[David Pierce]

You are not scrolling.

[Marques Brownlee]

You're just.

[David Pierce]

You are unlocking.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, you're just.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You're unlocking. See? No notifications. Turn it off. Put a face down again.

[David Pierce]

Sure.

[Ellis Roven]

I don't think it makes you an. Because it's. It's like a. We've been accustomed.

[Marques Brownlee]

You're just a modern human.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah. You're checking the extension of your body.

[Adam Molina]

Aren't all modern humans assholes?

[Marques Brownlee]

We're just. You're just alive in 2026.

[Ellis Roven]

I mean, everyone, like, unlocks their phone, unlocks it being like, what the heck am I doing all the time? So I don't think that that makes you an ass.

[David Pierce]

Not during a movie.

[Marques Brownlee]

I think the fact that during a movie, you put the phone down and went, am I an asshole? I think that's enough that you're not an asshole.

[Ellis Roven]

Looking up something.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Awareness is key in a lot of these.

[Ellis Roven]

It feels, I don't know, like just using an app separately from the movie. I think she kind of an.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I think you're not the. But I think if you're thinking about it, you've realized that, like, man, I need to work on my phone behavior.

[David Pierce]

I'm willing to die on this hill. I don't think you can pull your phone out even for one second, even for one frame of a movie and still say you watched the movie. There's not a sing. If you.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I think the movie should be better and I shouldn't want to pull my phone.

[David Pierce]

If you're watching a movie, there's no

[Marques Brownlee]

slow parts of movies.

[David Pierce]

I'm not saying you can't, like, blink. No, but it's. Dude, the amount of times I've been like, yo, I'm really excited to show you this movie.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

And someone puts their phone out for

[Andrew Manganelli]

a second and there's just.

[David Pierce]

There's not a single two seconds that I would say, like, yeah, you could miss those two, you know, so that. Nothing, man.

[Ellis Roven]

It's like when I'm having a conversation with someone and then they just start texting someone and I'm like, damn.

[David Pierce]

Oh, I do that all the time.

[Ellis Roven]

I know.

[Andrew Manganelli]

We're all cooked with these Orion glasses.

[Ellis Roven]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm totally watching this movie. Movie.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. Well, if you tell someone to watch a movie, but they're wearing their meta Orion, that's.

[David Pierce]

Should we do that next? Because that's. That's also. Wait, real quick. So you are an. For pulling your phone out, I'm overriding you.

[Ellis Roven]

Am I an asshole for.

[David Pierce]

For any reason during the movie?

[Ellis Roven]

Am I an asshole for owning meta Display smart?

[Marques Brownlee]

Yes.

[David Pierce]

If we're at your house and we're watching a movie that you wanted to watch, you can pull out your phone and do it all the time. But I'm. If I'm watching a movie, I will

[Andrew Manganelli]

say movie theater, dark tons of other people don't pull your phone out at all. Like, even just the real quick look at it is like a flashbang going off.

[Ellis Roven]

I feel like don't say life hack. Which last time I said life hack, someone put it in a clip and said, david's top productivity apps. Which is insane because I'm not a productive person and it was literally making my bed in the morning. They made turn into a YouTube clip for some reason.

[David Pierce]

Anyway, you were like, feel so much better to have your bed made when

[Ellis Roven]

you get to work. And then someone made a YouTube short.

[David Pierce]

That's actually something that takes more productivity hacks. It's not like.

[Ellis Roven]

Anyway, I think people should be, should use do not disturb way more than they. They do currently. Yeah, I am so liberal with that do not disturb button. As soon as I start watching a movie with a friend. Do not disturb.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, these phones over here, do not disturb.

[Ellis Roven]

Go to dinner. Do not disturb.

[David Pierce]

I saw, I saw a screenshot on Twitter of someone who in their email signature, like the automatically generated email signature, it said I only respond to emails on Tuesdays between 7 and 8 and Thursdays between 7 and 8pm which was

[Marques Brownlee]

like, looks like I'm not emailing that person.

[David Pierce]

That's sick. I could never do that. But that's sick as hell. To just be like, listen, you're gonna

[Ellis Roven]

hear from me, like I'm outside at this time. Outside your house trying to deliver this package. Where are you?

[David Pierce]

Sorry, only just email. Just email.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I like that. Because if you don't, then, you know, okay, I sent this email. Oh, It's Tuesday at nine o'clock now. I ain't getting an email back. You've lost already.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's a, that's a good policy for someone who doesn't get that many emails. I'll say.

[David Pierce]

All right, But Marques, you did bring up a good thing. So I want to talk about VR headset usage because so many of these.

[Andrew Manganelli]

VR.

[David Pierce]

So many of these things got passed through AR xr.

[Marques Brownlee]

I'm talking about the glasses or the headset? Headset.

[David Pierce]

Okay, now someone in the office asked

[Ellis Roven]

Vision Pro on that.

[David Pierce]

Would you be the. Yeah. Would you be the. For end of the day bed scroll with your partner doing it in a vision?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yes, this is. Yes, that's. Yes.

[Ellis Roven]

It's just like the Apple ad where they're just like watching on movie on the Vision Pro together.

[Adam Molina]

Well, is your mouth open or closed?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Hold on.

[Adam Molina]

When you're doing this.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Hey, hey. But you're in the. You're in bed with your partner. You want to watch something, they're asleep inside of it.

[David Pierce]

No, no, that's not the, That's.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You said bed scroll.

[David Pierce]

That's true.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

I think it sort of implies that it's a. That your partner's awake.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's a group activity.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Oh, okay. I was gonna say because there's so many times I'M watching TV while Claire falls asleep. And in that scenario, the TV is on and the whole room is bright because I'm watching the tv. So using a VR headset might be the more polite way of doing it.

[Marques Brownlee]

I've seen that argument.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Unless she wakes up and sees me in a VR headset, and then it scares the ever living piss out of her.

[Marques Brownlee]

I've seen that argument. I've also seen the argument of, well, if you're, like, late night gaming or, like, doing or watching a movie. For example, if you're on your honeymoon, your partner's trying to sleep, but you want to watch a movie, you have the headset on and this and the headphones on so that you're not waking up the person sleeping. That is the opposite of being an asshole. It's very courteous of you to put a headset on.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, but it's still creepy.

[Marques Brownlee]

But. But the. What you're describing, which is the. Which is a group activity. The late about to go to sleep scroll, where you show them something, and they're like, laugh, laugh. Then I think you. You have to take the headset off. You can't share that with them.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

Unless you have. What's the feature where they can see the same thing? Share spaces. Unless you're doing that, then you're really modern.

[Ellis Roven]

I don't think every. I don't think anyone has ever done that outside of the Apple campus.

[Marques Brownlee]

I do once a year. For the briefing. Yeah, for the briefing. And I'm like, well, we can play chess in Vision Pro. And then I'm like,

[Ellis Roven]

yeah, maybe play chess in real life.

[Andrew Manganelli]

A lot of these relationship ones can usually be done with. Just talk to your partner before you do the thing. It's probably way easier.

[Ellis Roven]

Or before you do the thing.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Adam Molina]

I have one that's inspired by our very own Ellis. So, Ellis, you cannot partake in this one. Okay. My packages keep getting stolen from my apartment, so I installed a ring camera. My neighbor then complained that he doesn't feel comfortable because it's pointed right at his front door, but I refused to remove it. Am I the asshole?

[Marques Brownlee]

Yes. No.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Isn't Ellis saying this from the position of his neighbor?

[Adam Molina]

No. I wrote this.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Molina]

I'm saying it's inspired by Ellis's story he told a couple weeks ago.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Okay.

[David Pierce]

What's interesting is, even though this literally happened to me, like, I am literally that guy, was that guy. That neighbor no longer is my neighbor.

[Adam Molina]

But.

[David Pierce]

So none of my current neighbors ever better put up a ring camera, because it'll happen to you, too. You'll also be a former neighbor. But. But I'm not even sure that they're the asshole.

[Marques Brownlee]

You know, I think if the explicit problem was their packages keep getting stolen, then that is a valid attempt at dissuading or solving or getting a. That's, like, the best way to, like,

[Ellis Roven]

get a picture of the person pointed at your door.

[Marques Brownlee]

It happens to. Well, but that's what.

[David Pierce]

Like an apartment in my situation.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's.

[David Pierce]

It's a. Like, where it's. I'm at sort of like the corner of a hallway, and so there's two doors perpendicular to one another.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

So their doorbell being, like, on their door.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Faces right at your door.

[David Pierce]

Faces right at my door.

[Marques Brownlee]

They.

[David Pierce]

I am realizing in this moment, they could have gotten one of the angled holders so it goes across their door perpendicularly, and then we'll look at a wall. So maybe.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, but what's it gonna stop if it looks at a wall?

[Adam Molina]

Yes.

[David Pierce]

What's a ring camera gonna stop or not stop?

[Andrew Manganelli]

You're gonna see who's stealing it.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You know there's a 50% chance they think you're stealing the packages. Right.

[David Pierce]

Look at me. I mean, it does kind of sound like, hey, they take out your ring cap.

[Marques Brownlee]

But.

[David Pierce]

But first of all, I just want to say there's proof at how ridiculous all this is. They still got all of their mail stolen with the radio camera, but now

[Marques Brownlee]

they have a photo of the person.

[David Pierce]

I know the guy was like. Like, no one would ever commit a crime when there's cameras everywhere. A plus, that was my dumb guy accent. Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Sounds very New York.

[Marques Brownlee]

I think that if I was. If I was that in that neighbor's shoes, and I was like, dang, my packages keep getting stolen. And I don't. I'm gonna keep getting packages. What is the most productive thing that I can do in this case? I can't, like, prevent the packages from being stolen if they keep getting delivered, but I can get a literal photo of the person who's stealing the packages and then maybe get that to the police or something. Like, I can do. I can do something here. With a ring camera, I would set a trap.

[Adam Molina]

But then if your neighbor comes, okay, Mark Rober. But then if your neighbor comes and says, like, hey, this bothers me, Then

[Marques Brownlee]

he could be like, hey, neighbor, I understand this bothers you. What's been bothering me is all my packages getting stolen. So maybe we could collaborate here on, like, a solution that works for both of us, man.

[David Pierce]

I know you said, I'm not allowed to chime in. And I. Hopefully that. Because I. No, I. Yeah, it's like

[Marques Brownlee]

you could

[David Pierce]

put a ring camera, you know, facing. Not my. Like, there is a. There is a way.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's a good clap.

[David Pierce]

I should have. I should have. Have proposed that. That was on me also. I live in the same building and I just don't ship stuff there.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I was gonna say everyone has that benefit of being able to, like, get it to their work.

[Ellis Roven]

Not everything depends on what you order.

[David Pierce]

There's ways to figure this out.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If that guy was stealing. That person's.

[Andrew Manganelli]

This guy definitely thinks I was stealing the package.

[David Pierce]

I really hope these neighbors, these former neighbors who were really, really great neighbors don't hear this.

[Andrew Manganelli]

If I. If I had my packages stolen, put up a ring camera, and immediately my neighbor was like, you take that camera down. I would be like, oh, my God, I know who's doing it now.

[Marques Brownlee]

I'm definitely leaving it up. Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'd be like, oh, it's a fake camera. And then it'd be on, and then I'd watch Ellis steal my packages.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's what he's probably hoping. He's probably shocked when it wasn't Ella stealing the package.

[Andrew Manganelli]

It's just tough. I think also in a situation where you're living in, like, an apartment complex or whatever, where doors are so close, it's like, it's tough to figure stuff out like that.

[David Pierce]

But I still wouldn't. I still. Even though I was the one aggrieved by the situation, I still would not say you're the asshole for doing that. I. Maybe it's just because I. I like these people, but I'll backtrack.

[Adam Molina]

Now you're just threatening them 10 minutes ago.

[Marques Brownlee]

We just know that they're not.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Listen, I love them all. Their packages were great.

[David Pierce]

I didn't steal any packages.

[Marques Brownlee]

If it's all about intent, then I would say the intent is. Is not bad. They're not an Ellis.

[Andrew Manganelli]

The asshole. I can throw mine out if we're ready for another one. I had a hard time thinking of mine because I think I'm extremely unconfrontational. So I'd rather just not be the asshole.

[Ellis Roven]

But then not being the asshole makes you the asshole.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Well, probably. I also say I can't think of any, but that doesn't mean that no one else can think of one because Marques thought of one immediately, which is. I don't. I think people in this room will agree with me. I'm not the asshole. But I think the reason they'll agree with me probably makes me more of an asshole. And I'll explain that in a second. Marquez said, well, you do use a mechanical keyboard inside the studio. With other people who work here, you're the asshole. A lot of people online call me the asshole for that. I think the reason you guys might not is because I've probably convinced all of you guys to also use mechanical keyboards in the studio, which makes me a bigger asshole, because now lots of people use mechanical keyboards.

[Adam Molina]

There's no such thing as silence in the studio.

[Ellis Roven]

There's already enough sound pollution all the time that it just kind of fades into the background.

[Marques Brownlee]

There's like a din of the studio now of, like, the H Vacs and the mechanical keyboards and the dog footprints or whatever, the pitter patter. There's kind of, like, always a little bit of none.

[Ellis Roven]

But there were only, like, five of us. It was, like, eerily quiet. Sometimes you'd be like, you know, doing this on your desk, and I'd just be like, typing. I'd be like, nobody's talking. It's super weird. I can't talk to Adam.

[Adam Molina]

Yeah, he would just text me, like, what do you think they're thinking about?

[Andrew Manganelli]

You can know when someone's really in the zone, too, because it's just.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, I'm picturing. What's that Apple TV show Severance? You know, like a workspace like that where it's, like, just stark and, like, one person has a mechanical keyboard. That would be pretty bad. That would feel like you're making too much noise.

[Andrew Manganelli]

So I am not the asshole because I gave you all enough keyboards to make it not solely my fault anymore.

[Ellis Roven]

You.

[Marques Brownlee]

You helped increase the noise floor enough that you didn't. You weren't such an outlier anymore.

[Adam Molina]

So.

[Marques Brownlee]

Okay, yeah, you're not the asshole.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, I have a feeling out of everything we've talked about in the comments, I'm going to get shit on the most right now. People really get. All the studio videos we've made about mechanical keyboards is a lot of people being really mad at me for even thinking about using one in the office.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's very satisfying. That's like the. See, every hobby has this. It's like people who like loud cars. It's like, well, all your neighbors hate you, but if all your neighbors had loud cars, you'd all be chill.

[Adam Molina]

The thing about a loud car, because I am one of those neighbors that hates loud cars, is don't. It's the time of day. If it's 2pm I'm running to the window to see what car it is.

[Marques Brownlee]

Sure.

[Adam Molina]

If it's 2am you're an asshole.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, that's valid. That's valid.

[David Pierce]

Hot take. That's how I feel about people who play music out of speakers on the subway.

[Andrew Manganelli]

They're all.

[David Pierce]

What People are like, oh, like, it's so disruptive. It's so not.

[Marques Brownlee]

If it's.

[David Pierce]

I'm like, yeah, do you hate music? Yeah. Like, what is wrong with you?

[Marques Brownlee]

Is it 100% asshole if you're the music on speakers on a hike guy?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yes, I was right.

[Ellis Roven]

Oh, that's 100.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Especially in, like, a national park. Like, you're probably spending a lot of money to vacation there.

[Ellis Roven]

It's like, if the serene sounds and then there's just Creed playing. I think my, like, in the distance.

[Andrew Manganelli]

You know my, like, favorite part about national parks is how many times you can be in a scenario where, like, I don't think anyone's within miles of me. And then. Yeah, if.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yes. Hits the. The switchback coming up. That's very shitty music.

[David Pierce]

But it's like, it's not like I want to hear the subway, you know?

[Adam Molina]

Like, am I the asshole for interrupting you to take us to another ad break?

[Marques Brownlee]

Oh,

[Andrew Manganelli]

you're writing trivia.

[Ellis Roven]

I don't think that trivia.

[David Pierce]

Misinput.

[Ellis Roven]

Misfire.

[Adam Molina]

We'll be back after these messages. So everyone knows our politics are divided. There's left versus right and dividing lines

[David Pierce]

on age, gender, or race.

[Adam Molina]

But maybe our biggest divide in our politics isn't about identity at all. It's insiders versus outsiders. At least that's what Congressman Ro Khanna would say.

[Andrew Manganelli]

The real issue is two tiers of justice in America.

[David Pierce]

The real issue is people with power and wealth using it to be above the law and escape even investigation or prosecution. And it's only gotten more noticeable in

[Adam Molina]

recent months, as issues like the Epstein files and artificial intelligence have seemed to pit the elites against everybody else. California Congressman Ro Khanna takes on the Epstein class today, explained in your feed every weekday and now on Saturdays, too.

[Marques Brownlee]

After decapitation strikes against Iran's leadership.

[David Pierce]

What can we expect next in the escalating war?

[Ellis Roven]

The big question is, if there is

[Andrew Manganelli]

going to be a next strongman in Iran, what kind of strongman will that person likely be? I don't think that there's going to

[Ellis Roven]

be another powerful cleric.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Supreme leader.

[Marques Brownlee]

I'm John Finer.

[Adam Molina]

And I'm Jake Sullivan, and we're the hosts of the Long Game, a weekly national security podcast.

[Marques Brownlee]

This Week we sit down with Kareem

[David Pierce]

Sajapour to discuss what to expect in

[Marques Brownlee]

this next phase of the war against Iran.

[Adam Molina]

The episode's out now. Now search for and follow the long game wherever you get your podcasts.

[Marques Brownlee]

Hey, guys, it's me, Tuffy, the host of Tuffy Talks.

[Andrew Manganelli]

On this week's episode, we're doing a

[Marques Brownlee]

state of the union but more state of pop culture 2026. From Ozempic to Tradwives Spooky. And why the center of pop culture is in Utah. Now we do a deep dive on Chloe and Lamar. We talk Hilary Duff. You know what? Find us everywhere at Taffy Talks.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Subscribe on YouTube and all the podcast

[Ellis Roven]

platforms and Instagram and TikTok so you

[Andrew Manganelli]

can share with your other work bestie and hopefully everyone you've ever met.

[Ellis Roven]

All right, welcome back. I have one that has plagued people for generations. Probably only one generation, because that's how the technology is. Okay, Location sharing. This is a very widely debated topic. This is if you don't want to share your location with your partner and they really want you to, does that make you an asshole?

[Marques Brownlee]

The simple question is why? That is the only question.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I mean, for me, you're saying, why do you not want to share?

[Adam Molina]

No.

[Marques Brownlee]

Why do they want it so badly?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Interesting.

[Marques Brownlee]

Well, maybe that's just me asking that.

[Ellis Roven]

But here's the crazy thing is, like, the reason I don't like sharing my location really, with anybody is just because I just don't think anyone has the right to have my location ever. Just as a principles thing.

[Adam Molina]

Except daddy Google.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Well, that's what I wanted to ask.

[Ellis Roven]

Is Sergey Brin.

[Andrew Manganelli]

He's nowhere.

[Ellis Roven]

Anytime.

[Marques Brownlee]

Come on.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Sergey is part of.

[Ellis Roven]

Hit me with your drone.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Reasoning is like giving apps the approval to, like, track your look, which I guess they kind of are already.

[Ellis Roven]

I just don't like the idea.

[Adam Molina]

You mean, like, find my.

[Marques Brownlee]

Like find my friends or whatever?

[Ellis Roven]

I don't. Yeah. Because there have been scenarios before where someone. I. I like the plausible deniability, you know?

[Andrew Manganelli]

So don't use that as your reasoning, because that's not my reason.

[Ellis Roven]

Okay. That isn't my reason.

[David Pierce]

But I just wanted to keep the option.

[Ellis Roven]

There isn't my reason. But just imagine. I mean, there's. There's a lot of reasons. Okay. I just don't like anyone being able to just, like, open their phone and be like, oh, David is right here, right now.

[Marques Brownlee]

There's.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, I just don't like that.

[Marques Brownlee]

I'm with you. I. I think there's very much two types of people. And I've observed both types. Type one is like, they open the thing and there's a map and there's 40 dots on there and they're like, let's see who's doing. I'm like, what?

[Andrew Manganelli]

What?

[Marques Brownlee]

And then the other half is like, don't ever look for my dot on a map. That's insane.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Molina]

One thing worth bringing up here though, is that for me personally, I know a lot of women in my life like using location sharing because it's like a safety thing.

[Marques Brownlee]

Absolutely.

[Adam Molina]

So, so in that case, it could be that they're asking for like, because that's how they think about location sharing, you know?

[Marques Brownlee]

So that's a one way.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Can you do it one way?

[Marques Brownlee]

Location? Yes. So that would be. That's one thing that would be like, I would like someone like my friend to know my location for this amount of time or for whatever, for as long as they want. That's cool. It's someone else requesting my location and me not wanting to.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, but see, here's the problem. If it's your partner and your partner says, I want you to have my location all the time, then you're kind of are you an. For being like, but I don't want you to have mine.

[David Pierce]

Where are you trying to go, man?

[Andrew Manganelli]

It doesn't look great. No, I can tell you that.

[Ellis Roven]

I don't know. The forest. I'm just saying, like.

[David Pierce]

I'm just saying, like, what's the big deal here?

[Ellis Roven]

No, because I don't. I just. It's just a principles thing. You know, Generally, I will say it.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's very much like the.

[David Pierce]

Yeah, I think it's safe to say if the answer is if it's ever. It's a principles thing. And this is coming from someone who's a pretty principled person.

[Adam Molina]

If it's ever.

[David Pierce]

It's a principles thing. You're probably the asshole.

[Marques Brownlee]

No, there's.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I think you're right about that.

[Marques Brownlee]

There's another version of this, which is like, I don't want these companies spying on me to give me good ads. And it's very much just like, the only benefit to that is better, more targeted ads for me. But it's a principles thing. I don't want the company to know all this information about me. And it's not shady. And they'll always go, oh, well, what's the worst that could happen? What are you hiding? It's like, I'm not hiding anything. It's just a principle. I don't want you to know anything about me. But now when we flip it, it's like, I don't. It's a principal's thing. It's kind of the same thing. I'm not hiding.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah. You're not wrong for that.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah. Like when. Like on the iPhone, when you log into a new app and it's the ask ads not to trap or track or allow, like, more discreet targeting.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

And it's like if you do not like ask ads not to track, it's really just because of your principles.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, I just hit it by default.

[Adam Molina]

I would say you are the asshole, but you are also right, if that makes sense.

[Marques Brownlee]

Interesting.

[Adam Molina]

Like, you're allowed to be right and be the asshole in this situation.

[Marques Brownlee]

I like that nuance.

[Ellis Roven]

I think it's insane that we have as a society just completely normalized like always. Everyone is like that anonymity is a blessing, and it's insane that we've gotten rid of that. But now, because so many people have bought into it, you become the friction point. If you are the one that's like, you know.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

So Claire and I never did it until we had Lane. And now knowing the other person might be with Lane in a scenario, now we both have location tracking on in case it's like Claire Lane went out to do this and I haven't heard from them in a little while. Double check it in terms of doing it previously, we never asked the only. I would just be really embarrassed by it because Claire would probably log and be like, he's Taco Bell again. Like, God damn it. I was making dinner tonight. But yeah, yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

I will say I used to be a just like, never, never, never person. I have slowly started, like, just giving people access to my location.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I think there's a level to it too. How long have you been with the person? Like, if we're on date two and they're like, let's turn our location track. And I was like, oh, my God. Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

No, I mean, yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

No, no, no, no.

[Adam Molina]

Okay, question for you, because I haven't been on iPhone in a while. Can you set, like, can you give them permission for a certain amount of time?

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, you can.

[Marques Brownlee]

Okay. You can do it for an hour,

[Ellis Roven]

either a certain time or indefinitely.

[Adam Molina]

Because I know you could do it in Google Maps. I'm not sure if you could do

[Ellis Roven]

it one hour, 24 hours or indefinitely.

[David Pierce]

No, it's one hour, end of day indefinitely.

[Marques Brownlee]

So you can't be like, here's my week.

[Adam Molina]

So could you.

[Marques Brownlee]

Oh, you have to turn it on. Every week or turn it off after a week of indefinite.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

Which is. You just look like that.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, exactly.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, you do.

[Marques Brownlee]

Indefinite.

[Ellis Roven]

And then it's just like.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I would say if you're going to ask somebody to turn on their location tracking for you, you should probably have a. Somewhat of a reason why you say it. Like, if you're going to be the person to go out and ask, you should be like, not just keeping your location tracking on. Or like, do you mind if you turn it on? It'd be nice if I saw you were in traffic on the way home and I know not to start. It'd be like, stuff like that. If they can give a legitimate reason, then it's really hard to say no to. And then you look, I just swerving over there.

[Ellis Roven]

Just the thought of sitting in my car and someone looking at my location without me knowing.

[Marques Brownlee]

Would it be fun if your phone just lit up blue every time someone looked at your location? Just like, boom, someone checked your location.

[Ellis Roven]

At least I would know.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

It's like in Japan, how they manage mandate that your phone makes a really loud camera snap noise when you take a photo to stop people from peeping. I wish it did that because I just.

[Andrew Manganelli]

The.

[Ellis Roven]

What I don't like is not knowing that people are looking at me.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. The color of the light is the person who checks your location. So if it's blue every time you're like, oh, that's. That's my spouse. That's totally fine.

[Adam Molina]

Wait, I'm going to get the yellow tonight.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I just thought we were talking about only your, like, significant other, right?

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I don't understand why everyone wants to have all their friends on my.

[David Pierce]

Neither. My girlfriend and I share our locations with each other. And for Valentine's show.

[Adam Molina]

Shut the.

[David Pierce]

And for Valentine's Day, I, like, cooked her this big dinner. That was a surprise. But this funny thing did happen where she was like, she texted me. She was like. Like, I was going to a butcher to go get ribs. Like, really nice.

[Marques Brownlee]

Why are you at a butcher?

[Adam Molina]

Damn. Really nice.

[David Pierce]

Well, no, but it's because it's like I needed them cut a really specific way that I didn't have the tools to. To do myself. So I needed to go to a butcher. That was nice enough where I could be like, listen, I need you to, you know, handle this for me. Sounds.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

Anyway. Anyway, she texted me. She was like, what are you doing tonight? And I was like, oh, I'm just gonna go home and work out. And then she was like, then why are you here?

[Ellis Roven]

I was like,

[Andrew Manganelli]

that's what I'm talking about.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's for a surprise.

[Adam Molina]

That's.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's like, why do you use incognito mode in your browser? I think so I can surprise my spouse.

[David Pierce]

I think it was. I think it's cute. My girlfriend's like, oh, I wonder what else is up to? And then she's like, oh, it's. He's in New Jersey again.

[Ellis Roven]

Like, yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Damn. You came to Jersey?

[David Pierce]

No, Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I don't know.

[David Pierce]

I just come to Jersey like most of every other.

[Ellis Roven]

I'm just saying, like, yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of things, too, that. It's like, if I had a spouse who was to. Who is the kind of person who wants to, like, look through my text or something, I would never give them access to. Well, first of all, I would never date someone who looked through my text.

[Adam Molina]

I also feel like that's a little.

[Ellis Roven]

That's the other thing. Okay, here's the B side of this. Okay, continue, continue. Right. Okay, B side.

[David Pierce]

I have another disclaimer. Never take any. Any at all relationship advice from a technology podcast. I repeat, true. Never take any relationship advice. Oh, ever from a technology podcast.

[Ellis Roven]

Okay, here's another print. Here's another principle.

[David Pierce]

All of your relationship advice from Brian Johnson's Twitter.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's also a technology podcast.

[Ellis Roven]

All right, here's. Here's the B side to. This is the. If your partner asked to look through your phone, even if you had nothing to hide, would you let them do it?

[David Pierce]

Yes.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Claire has all my passwords. Yeah, I get my phone.

[Adam Molina]

I give just all my passwords and everything just in case something happens.

[Marques Brownlee]

There's.

[Andrew Manganelli]

And it's like, no, but, like, delete my history.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's the same thing. I just need a Y.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's all of, like, why.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's like, why do you want my location? If you have a good why, then? Sure. Like, why do you want to look through my phone? If you have a good. Why then?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Sure.

[Adam Molina]

Well, for me, it's. It's less like they've looked through my phone, more like we were driving at one point, and she had to go through my phone to get something.

[Ellis Roven]

Oh, that's.

[Adam Molina]

That's. If I give her the phone, I'm not gonna change the password after you. Yeah, she just has it.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I think David's saying, like, an accusatory like, I need to look through your phone then.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's the point.

[Ellis Roven]

And I know the problem is look worse, but Your prince. It's a principal's thing.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I mean, it does make you look worse. It'll make you look great and then bad when they look through it and the thing they're accusing you of does not happen.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, it makes them look bad. That's true.

[Ellis Roven]

That's true.

[Adam Molina]

If they're excusing, that's tough.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm very thankful I have not gone into any of these scenarios.

[Ellis Roven]

I've also never been in the scenario. I just. It's. It's an interesting mind.

[Adam Molina]

Okay, what about a scenario we've all been in?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Would I be the asshole taking a bath?

[Adam Molina]

Would I be the asshole for confronting my friend for sending me too many reels per day?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Okay, so I'm making this joke, but for a while, I definitely was that asshole to Ellis. I sent him so many reels. I think it was because when I first deleted TikTok, one of the first reels I probably ever sent to Ellis was probably some insane food one. And then Instagram was like, I got you. I'm only gonna send you really weird memes about like, me and cigarettes and like, Creed. And I was like, I have to send every one of these to Ellis.

[Marques Brownlee]

It does.

[Andrew Manganelli]

And then after a while, he stopped responding. And I was like, I should get off Instagram.

[David Pierce]

Physically, I'm 12, but spiritually I am like a divorced dad, you know, like Creed, cigarettes and meat, baby.

[Marques Brownlee]

It does seem like, I don't know if this was in our energy, you with Adam Mossari, but like when he said. He said before that like, the share button is one of the strongest signals in Instagram reels. It really feels like when I share a reel with someone, Instagram goes, I got a lot more of that. And if I sent something, then it starts sending me more of the thing that I sent to someone, hoping that'll send it to more people because it's something I would share. So I think, yeah, probably once you sent that first one, they were like, I got more of that.

[Ellis Roven]

If you flip that on its head, are you the. For never liking the reels that someone just keeps sending you? And just like scene zone, here's me a pretty big.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I would say, like, you gotta. There's a. There's a little give and take on both of these. Like, clearly, if people are sending reels to each other, they. They think it's funny and are genuinely thinking about them. But if you're sending five or six and not getting a response back, maybe you gotta tighten up the parameters of a share worthy reel. And then make them hit home.

[Marques Brownlee]

Maybe you're not there for the 100 engage rate. Maybe you're just there for the open rate.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Quantity over quality. What if they're all totally a real thing? Waveform has 300 episodes. There's probably like seven good ones. We're. We're proof.

[Ellis Roven]

Here's something that's crazy to me is that there are not like, DM group. Like, there's group chats, but there's not like DM lists, right? Where you see a reel, you hit send. You can send it to a list and it individually sends it to all those people, right? And yet I have an acquaintance from college that I had, like, a class with. We have not spoken in a really long time, and he still sends me reels, and I have not answered in six years.

[Andrew Manganelli]

This is payback because you won't be on his fun. My friends.

[Ellis Roven]

I'm just like. So he has to find my name and send it to me.

[Marques Brownlee]

And like.

[Ellis Roven]

Like, we haven't spoken in six years,

[Marques Brownlee]

but every time he sees a reel and he's like, dave's gonna like this one. How.

[Andrew Manganelli]

How do you even know who I am at this point?

[David Pierce]

We're very different people.

[Ellis Roven]

Anyway, it is crazy.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I'm never gonna call the person the asshole for sending all of it because I appreciate thinking of me.

[Marques Brownlee]

I think it's even better.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I start feeling bad when I.

[Adam Molina]

But don't. The question is, are you the asshole for confronting them about it?

[Marques Brownlee]

Oh, you just gotta be like, hey, man, what's confronting?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Is it like, hey, man, stop sending me those reels? Or is it like, I'm sorry, dude, I just don't have time.

[Adam Molina]

Whatever it means to you, whatever it

[Andrew Manganelli]

is in your heart, not the asshole.

[David Pierce]

I think a confrontation in this confrontation seems mean. It is, sort of. But I think I'm. I probably. And I guess this does make it the asshole move, but I feel like in that situation, I probably would be like, dude, that's it.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's the whole conversation.

[David Pierce]

What are you doing?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Here's the thing. If they're. If they keep sending them and don't get responses back and they keep sending them, they don't care. They obviously don't care. So, like, yeah, I'm not hurting anyone. If he. All I have to do is then click red every time.

[Marques Brownlee]

If they sent you a bunch of reels and you didn't respond, and every time they confronted you and were like, hey, man, you didn't answer my reels.

[Ellis Roven]

That's weird.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's the weird one. Yeah. Don't do that.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, but if they keep setting it, even when you don't, when you just scene zone them, then they've eclipsed shame already. They're just going to keep doing it.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, they just want to send you a real. Yeah.

[David Pierce]

I think for most people, the act of consuming reels is so brainless that also, like, sharing them is.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Oh, yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

Like two taps. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[David Pierce]

Which actually, you know, you're right. Mark has, like. It literally is designed to just be like, tap, tap. And then, like, you show the reel. That's funny that that's the most powerful signal on. On Instagram.

[Marques Brownlee]

Like, it's because it's social.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Well, but that's because reels is so little brain power that those two taps is 800 times more engagement than anything else you would do. Scrolling.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, I'll toss a. Like to a random reel. But if I. If I thought it was funny, and specifically that's why they start surfacing more, it's because I. I engaged two layers deep with this reel. I liked it so much that I thought of a person who would also like it, and I sent it to them, and then that person's gonna watch it. That's a pretty good signal. Yeah. So I got 30 more of those reels. Here you go.

[David Pierce]

All right, let's do it. Let's do a few more. Yeah, we can wrap it up. This first one. Am I the asshole for making my friends guess whether a given G Fuel flavor is real or not? More than once, I think.

[Andrew Manganelli]

For us. No. For Vergecast. Yes. Yeah.

[Ellis Roven]

Dan Sievert was not happy with us,

[Andrew Manganelli]

and he still whooped me in it.

[David Pierce]

Okay, guys, Would I be the little. Switching it up. Would I be the. For using Chat GPT to write someone a birthday card?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yes.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yes. No.

[Adam Molina]

Whoa.

[Marques Brownlee]

Not by default. Not by default.

[David Pierce]

Explain, however, how would you make it not an asshole move?

[Marques Brownlee]

So writing someone a birthday card is already a very high effort thing to do. Not a lot of people get birthday cards. So if you're going through the effort to not just, like, text them happy birthday or write on their Facebook wall because Facebook told you it was their birthday, you're mailing them a card that's already eclipsed the threshold of effort to not be an asshole. And if they never know that you used AI assistance in this, then you

[Andrew Manganelli]

just made it more the asshole.

[Marques Brownlee]

Perfectly acceptable.

[David Pierce]

You're not just my best friend, you're my best best friend.

[Marques Brownlee]

I assume you're using AI not because you have zero thoughts on how to write a happy birthday card. You're probably looking for a little extra fun or like a rhyme scheme or for something extra to make it a good card.

[David Pierce]

I know. I feel like you're using AI because it's too much effort.

[Adam Molina]

Effort.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's too much effort. But you're writing and mailing them a card already.

[Adam Molina]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

I think you're trying to take it to the next level with some AI assistance.

[Adam Molina]

Well, my thing is, if you're already doing it, just do it. Like if you're going through the effort to get the letter and mail it out, just write the letter.

[Marques Brownlee]

Then I think it's potentially true that adding AI assistants made it more work and made it better.

[David Pierce]

Okay, here's, here's an asterisk. How much time would you have to spend conversing with this LLM about the nature of your friendship with this person

[Andrew Manganelli]

that's a good for you.

[David Pierce]

No longer to be the impersonal asshole.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, don't. So it's like, what part of the letter are you getting help with? Because I don't know what the letter is. It could like, is the letter like, oh, this person is like my. One of my friends in my fantasy basketball, like, group and like, I'm mailing him a card cause I'm whooping him this week and I thought it'd be hilarious if we got. Help me write something that's like, funny and relates to basketball. Like, you're going the extra mile to mail them a specific card and you're going to.

[Ellis Roven]

What if you used your brain?

[David Pierce]

I would say, let's say not everyone's clever.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Marques's examples don't seem that bad.

[Marques Brownlee]

I just like, I'm just not willing to default 100%. Like the guy in the woods with the speaker.

[Andrew Manganelli]

This is a podcast talking about Reddit. We're supposed to default 100% on something.

[Marques Brownlee]

I think you can use AI to. To help write someone a birthday card and mail it to them in a very high effort way. That does not make you an. So I'm not going to go 100% on that one.

[Ellis Roven]

Are you writing with your hands?

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. You're going through all that mailing effort, but you got, you got chatgpt to give you like a, like a haiku scheme so you could be better at making a haiku or something. I don't know.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, when I was a child, I would get irrationally angry and I would still get irrationally angry at like when some random family member that I never spoke to on my birthday would send me a birthday card. That was literally just the card that they bought at Walgreens.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, that's more.

[Ellis Roven]

I understand there's ever involved here, but you're mailing it in so hard. You're mailing your feelings in. You're distribute.

[Marques Brownlee]

Thank you. Literally mailing it in.

[Ellis Roven]

You were outsourcing your brain and your feelings to some Walgreens writer.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's a great point. What's worse?

[Ellis Roven]

It's not that different.

[Marques Brownlee]

The Walgreens written one. That's definitely impersonal. Or the I used AI to make.

[Ellis Roven]

I think Walgreens is worse. I think a pre written card from Walgreens is worse, to be honest, because it is. It is comp. It's copied.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's generic. You know that other people got the same card too.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, that's what makes it at least for the LLM. You're giving it context.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Yeah, I'm just. Do you guys send cards where you don't write anything else in it?

[Marques Brownlee]

Sometimes I use those.

[Ellis Roven]

I get them. Yeah, I have gotten.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That's crazy. I think those. That's crazy.

[Ellis Roven]

They'll just sign their name.

[David Pierce]

Yeah, this is a principal one. This is like. Yeah, Marquez. You're right. Like maybe. Yeah, I see where you're coming from.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Marquez's thing makes it sound like I'm trying to be creative in a way. I'm not creative. And I want to put the extra effort in which I don't think is the. The like when we're talking about this specific put. Am I the asshole? It's like I don't have. I want to make it look like I have. I want to trick them. You did in one point say, if they don't know it's AI, what's it matter? That was kind of an asshole move.

[Marques Brownlee]

But I guess in the case of the Hallmark card where it's pre written, you know it's pre written. So you know that there is zero effort. In the case of like the handwritten letter, you don't know how much effort there was. Maybe this person's really clever and wrote a clever thing or maybe they had help. I don't know.

[David Pierce]

A central plot point of the movie her is that the titular character. Titular character. The guy.

[Adam Molina]

Her.

[David Pierce]

The main character.

[Marques Brownlee]

The main guy.

[Ellis Roven]

The her guy.

[David Pierce]

The Joaquin Phoenix looking guy.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah, he is a. He is.

[David Pierce]

Literally. Yeah, he's a greeting card writer. That's his job. Is he. He writes greeting cards for rich people who don't have time. I guess you knew a guy.

[Ellis Roven]

Why would he have to do that

[Marques Brownlee]

when they have AI person who. Who sort of moonlight writes for PR statements for like CEOs.

[David Pierce]

Oh, never mind. I thought it was personal writing.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Mr. Deed's also a greeting card writer. Am I the asshole for liking old Adam Sandler? Oh, yes.

[Marques Brownlee]

Oh.

[Adam Molina]

Oh.

[Ellis Roven]

Ultimately, I think the effort ladder, like the effort ladder is you wrote it completely yourself.

[Marques Brownlee]

That's the highest.

[Ellis Roven]

You wrote it with the help of an MLM LLM with all the context of the person right below it. You wrote it just with the ML LLM with no context at all.

[Marques Brownlee]

And didn't edit it at all.

[Ellis Roven]

And didn't edit it all. And then Hallmark card is on the

[Marques Brownlee]

bottom of lowest effort.

[Ellis Roven]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

Even. Even lower. Below that is just a text. I think when you're getting to the point of no texting them something.

[Ellis Roven]

No, but text is not pre written by somebody else, so it's actually higher than Hallmark.

[Marques Brownlee]

Oh, interesting. That's interesting.

[Ellis Roven]

You had to use your own brain to do it.

[Marques Brownlee]

I just think that the threshold of I am buying a card for you to put in an envelope and write your name and address on and mailing it to you to arrive around your birthday is already a lot of effort.

[Ellis Roven]

I know it's effort, but it's like, it's more of a formality. It's like when your mom says, we have to do this, and you say, why? And they said, because we've always done it that way. Like, you're not using any of your own, you know, I think.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Call your home.

[Ellis Roven]

Critical thought.

[Marques Brownlee]

Call your homies.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Call your homies, man. Call them on their birthday.

[Adam Molina]

Just calling.

[Marques Brownlee]

Please never call. Please don't call me.

[Ellis Roven]

I guess I'm calling you on.

[Andrew Manganelli]

We should all.

[Marques Brownlee]

Am I an asshole? Don't ever call me.

[Adam Molina]

Please.

[David Pierce]

There's a. There's a new AI for that, bro. You get open Claude to call your homies on their birthday.

[Ellis Roven]

Twilio.

[Marques Brownlee]

Okay, this is a good one to end it on.

[David Pierce]

Yeah.

[Marques Brownlee]

Okay. Okay. Yes or no, Are you an asshole if you just cold call someone in the middle of the day?

[Adam Molina]

No.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[David Pierce]

No, no, no.

[Marques Brownlee]

It's your birthday. Your homie's calling you for your birthday. 4:30 in the afternoon. They're calling you right now if it's your birthday.

[Adam Molina]

No, no. But if it's a regular Tuesday, don't call me.

[Ellis Roven]

What?

[Andrew Manganelli]

No, I totally disagree. Especially because we all have caller id and if you. The person doesn't want to pick up, y' all don't have to pick up.

[Adam Molina]

No, because if you don't pick up,

[Andrew Manganelli]

if you don't want to Talk to me.

[Adam Molina]

If you never call me, and now you're calling me at 3 o' clock on a Tuesday. I think something's wrong.

[Marques Brownlee]

I'm picking up, freaking out.

[Ellis Roven]

You pick up, you freak out, and then I say, how's it going?

[Marques Brownlee]

That's the asshole.

[Andrew Manganelli]

That specifically is the asshole.

[Marques Brownlee]

What's up? How's it going, man? What? But, like, why'd you call me?

[Ellis Roven]

I like getting called out of the blue by friends that I don't talk to that often.

[Marques Brownlee]

No.

[Ellis Roven]

And if they just want to chat, even if I'm not free, I'm like, oh, sorry, dude, I'm not free right now, but we should catch up. It's just catching up.

[Marques Brownlee]

Give me an out. Send me a text. Hey, can I call you later? Let me say nothing.

[Adam Molina]

I. I need to mentally prepare for a conversation.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah.

[Adam Molina]

I can't just pick up the phone and start talking.

[Andrew Manganelli]

After the last three answers, I'm convinced Marquez is the guy bringing his Xbox to the honeymoon.

[Ellis Roven]

I don't want to talk to you right now. I'd rather stare at a screen.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah, as someone who gets like 300 emails a day, I guess that's fair. Calling me is like, it's got to be a certain urgency level.

[David Pierce]

I just want to say I'm proud of you guys during the course that I called all three of you because I thought it would be really funny. And you guys are all either on airplane or dude on do not disturb.

[Andrew Manganelli]

I don't think I'm in any of those things. Well, I am watching the Olympics. I am watching team USA play quarterfinals right now.

[Marques Brownlee]

Am I the asshole? I'm on a podcast with you, but I'm also watching the game. Is that cool? Is that fine?

[Andrew Manganelli]

Listen, I've been waiting 14 years for this Olympics and the NHL. Sorry, yeah, I've been waiting 14 years

[Ellis Roven]

for my new Street Light manifesto album. If that dropped in the middle of the pod, I'd have my earphones in.

[Marques Brownlee]

Fair enough.

[David Pierce]

Well, guys, you did an excellent job at this. It seems like the only two things you can do and not be an asshole in your eyes are everyone sucks. Are ask your family to take their old photos off of icloud and if you're paying for it, switch to Android.

[Marques Brownlee]

Can we have, like, hey, let us know in the comments if you agree or disagree with any of our. Or maybe present some more and then we'll do another episode because this was actually really fun and I want to know whether situations you guys have that we can agree with or disagree with. So ait AIT A I T A. Yeah.

[David Pierce]

Hit us up and you can officially bring your children back in the room.

[Marques Brownlee]

Yeah. We're back.

[Adam Molina]

We're back.

[Marques Brownlee]

We're gonna censor stuff from here on out. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. See you guys soon.

[Ellis Roven]

Censorship is coming.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Waveform is produced by Adam Molina. Waveform is produced by Adam Molina. Nellis Riffin, our partner in Vox Media podcast network, and our trash music is created by V. So. Bingo.

[David Pierce]

Bingo.

[Andrew Manganelli]

Go.

[Marques Brownlee]

Why do you think there's so many chickens? How do they get here?

[Andrew Manganelli]

I can Google that right now.