Summary: WIRED’s Uncanny Valley closes a chapter with Michael Calore and Lauren Goode hosting their final episode in the old format. They sit poolside, reflect on 2025, and hand over the mic to Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer, and Leah Feiger for 2026. The episode lays out WIRED’s “WIRED and TIRED” rubric: Calore bets on silent, ambient AI assistance as the future and calls voice-first hardware tired; Goode calls 2026 IPOs wired and tech CEOs tired. The show threads practical reporting, skepticism, and honest appraisal of what Silicon Valley is becoming. This post expands those points, explains why they matter, and asks how we should respond as listeners, users, journalists, and policy-makers.
Interrupt and Engage — poolside, plain talk
Interrupt: two hosts, a pool, a year wrapped up. Engage: clear picks, clear warnings. That’s the upfront pattern Calore and Goode used — short, honest, and hard to ignore. Reinforcing that pattern, they called it “WIRED and TIRED.” They repeated “WIRED and TIRED” as a frame, and that framing matters: it forces classification. What gets to stay, and what should be left behind? What do you think stays, and what do you think goes?
Why the final episode matters
This is more than an end-of-season wrap. It’s a handoff. WIRED keeps its platform; the hosts change. The show’s tone — skeptical, curious, mildly bemused — is part of its brand credibility. When seasoned reporters close a chapter publicly, they do two things: they tidy up lessons learned, and they set expectations for what comes next. WIRED promises continued reporting and analysis from new hosts. That promise carries social proof: WIRED’s history, its roster, and its reach. It also creates commitment: listeners will watch if the new hosts stay consistent with the podcast’s standards. How do listeners hold new hosts to that standard without being hostile? Where do we draw the line between fair testing and unrealistic demands?
Calore’s picks: voice-first hardware is tired; silent assistance is wired
Calore calls talking to your watch, pendant, ring, or glasses tired. He repeated that premise: voice-first hardware is tired. He contrasted it with “silent AI assistance” — ambient computing that acts without wake words, taps, or visible prompts. The logic is simple and technical: voice is noisy, intrusive, and often inefficient for short, contextual tasks. Ambient systems use sensors, location awareness, and behavioral signals to reduce friction. That’s a substantial shift: from explicit commands to implicit context.
Mechanically, ambient systems need three things: low-latency sensing, reliable local inference or secure edge-cloud split, and careful UX that avoids false positives. Projects like OpenAI’s rumored Jony Ive collaboration and Meta’s hiring of top Apple designers are signals. They show design and hardware talent being reallocated toward quieter forms of assistance. Are these hires proof of direction — or PR theater? When we repeat signals like that, what else should we ask about?
The downside is privacy. Calore acknowledged it plainly: silent assistance looks useful until it records patterns of life. Sensors and persistent context create surveillance risk. We must weigh convenience against data exposure. What regulations, standards, or architectures would make ambient help acceptable? Will companies build privacy by default, or will convenience win until harms appear loudly? Say “No” to half-measures: insist on meaningful controls now, not after the breach.
Goode’s picks: IPOs wired; tech CEOs tired
Goode called 2026 IPOs wired. She named Stripe, OpenAI, Anthropic, Notion, Databricks, and SpaceX as likely major liquidity events. That’s social and financial tectonics. These companies raised huge capital, built high valuations, and now face public scrutiny. Once quarterly reports arrive, markets force behavior: revenue focus, predictable growth, and clearer governance. Public markets will create many new millionaires in and around Silicon Valley. That changes local economics, politics, and culture. How will that influx reshape incentives for risk, philanthropy, and regulation?
Her second pick — tech CEOs are tired — is a corrective. She repeated the phrase: tech CEOs are tired. She argued CEOs were never moral lodestars. They sell products, acquire users, and gain influence. Journalists should stop looking to CEOs for ethical leadership. That’s a useful mirror: when we exalt CEOs, we outsource values. What happens when journalists stop asking CEOs to be prophets and instead report on the structures around them? Will accountability improve if we shift focus to boards, investors, and regulatory frameworks?
The privacy-money-power triangle
Put Calore and Goode together and you get a triangle: ambient AI (convenience), IPOs (capital), and CEOs (power). Ambient AI promises value; IPOs hand out liquidity; CEOs lead execution. All three stress-test privacy and public interest. We should ask practical questions: who holds the data, who can audit models, and who enforces limits? Are governance structures ready for corporations with public shareholders and private datasets? If not, which steps make the most sense first: auditability, liability rules, or data portability?
Meet the new hosts: Schiffer, Barrett, Feiger
Zoë Schiffer: director of business and industry at WIRED, author of Extremely Hardcore, and a reporter who traced Elon Musk’s chaotic management at Twitter. Zoë’s main observation — mirrored in her reporting — is about feedback loops. She repeated “rapid feedback loops” as a core difference: at private companies, Musk gets speedy signals and pivots fast; in government, feedback is slow, and consequences surface later. That explains how the same temperament produces different outcomes in different institutions. How will Zoë’s business beat change the show’s angle on corporate power?
Brian Barrett: WIRED’s executive editor, ex–Gizmodo editor-in-chief, and a fast writer with a business reporting background at the Yomiuri Shimbun. Barrett’s strength is clear analysis and quick news delivery. WIRED gains an editor who can break news and hold complex threads together. What does a newsroom gain when editing speed and editorial rigor align?
Leah Feiger: named as a co-host for 2026. Her role adds a fresh voice and continuity. The trio promises reporting variety: business scrutiny, tech analysis, and newsroom craft. What should listeners expect from a three-host format? More depth, broader coverage, or a different tone? Which do you want?
Personal picks and culture notes — human touches that matter
Personal recommendations make a podcast feel human. Zoë recommended a New York Times Magazine photo essay about people who fell in love with AI chatbots. She praised its empathy and refusal to mock. That mirrors a humane approach to tech coverage: report the facts, and show the people behind them.
Brian recommended Twin Dimensions, a psychedelic post-punk band. There’s a small twist: Michael Calore performs under the name Trans Lunar. That’s a social proof moment: journalists are people with side projects. It humanizes the newsroom and softens the line between reporter and subject.
Goode recommends secondhand shopping apps like Lucky Sweater and buy-nothing groups to support circular economy behavior, and she encourages making a podcast with a close friend. She mirrored gratitude for her time co-hosting with Calore, praising the steady influence he provided through tough weeks. That empathy — acknowledging tough reporting weeks — is what builds trust with listeners.
Calore recommends the redesigned American Giant zipper hoodie: softer, looser fit, same durable features. It’s a small consumer note with a large symbolic touch: durable goods, made to last, tracked by public commentary and sales of over one million units. Why mention that? Because culture is a set of small, visible choices. Durable goods signal restraint and utility—values that contrast with hype.
What listeners and reporters should do next
Reciprocity starts here: WIRED gave us honest classification. Listeners can return value by engaging critically. Ask open questions, voice concerns, and demand audits. Commit to consistency: track how new hosts handle the same beats over time. Use social proof: cite episodes, quotes, and reporting when debating policy or product design. Who will audit silent AI? Who will hold companies accountable post-IPO? Which accountability mechanisms make sense to you?
Practical policy and tech steps
If silent assistance is the future, then privacy-first architectures must follow. Here are pragmatic moves that balance convenience and protection:
- Local-first inference: keep sensitive sensor data on-device where possible.
- Clear opt-in tiers: explicit choices for ambient features with simple toggles.
- Auditable models: standard logging that allows third-party review without exposing raw user data.
- Regulatory sandboxes: let companies test ambient features under supervised conditions to spot harms early.
Which of these steps do you think should come first? Would you trade some convenience for stronger default protections?
The newsroom’s role going forward
Goode’s charge to stop treating CEOs as moral arbiters is a journalist’s reset. Reporters should probe governance, incentives, and structural flaws, not craft CEO profiles that humanize without accountability. WIRED’s new hosts can model this by: focusing on systems, asking hard follow-ups, and refusing feel-good framing when the data doesn’t support it. That’s authority without cheerleading—precisely the kind of credibility listeners expect.
Final reflection and a short pause
Calore and Goode closed one format and opened a question: can reporting stay honest while podcasts scale and hosts change? They left listeners with picks, critiques, and invitations. They mirrored hope with skepticism. They echoed “WIRED and TIRED” so listeners could classify trends for themselves.
Now I’ll leave space for thought. What pick from the episode do you agree with? Which one do you reject? How should WIRED’s new hosts balance urgency with depth? Say “No” if you prefer shallow coverage — and say why.
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Featured Image courtesy of Unsplash and Markus Winkler (TlQTJpqbZM8)
