Up this week: robots who want to be your friend — or with whom you’d like to be friends — and what this tells us about humanity. Also, we run down the week in geek, including Jill Scott’s upcoming Fringe oracle-ness, a new TV series from X-Files creator Chris Carter, our recommendations for games to […]

Audra’s unfortunately absent, having been pulled away to an impromptu work meeting, so Chuck and Juan take the time to catch up. There’s more discussion of skinny jeans and pants in general, Juan reveals his disturbing habit of watching “Mayday” in the weeks leading up to a flight, and Chuck finally gives us his review […]

This week we Eff on a temporary YouTube channel since UStream took a big UDump. And in “guess-which-is-true” trivia, we dig into the weirdest parts of Audra’s childhood, including her crush on pre-scary Kirk Cameron, the first rap she ever learned and performed at age eight — with the lyrics “lookin’ at the girl on […]

I attended this panel on Friday, July 13th, with moderator Annalee Newitz (io9), Cyriaque Lamar (io9), Charlie Jane Anders (io9), Phil Plait (writer/scientist, Bad Astronomy), Deric A. Hughes (producer/writer, Warehouse 13), and Sarah Kuhn (writer, One Con Glory). There was another person onstage whose name I did not catch and who is not in the […]

Colin Ferguson joins us for an upbeat and thought-provoking discussion about Life, Eureka, and Everything. We enjoy discussion of Ferguson’s days as a standup comic and improv artist, the importance of listening skills and supporting fellow players, and confirmation that one can, indeed, make it as an actor while still being a Nice Guy. We […]

We review our favorite parts of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, including bronies, ubiquitous butt cheeks, Sean’s awesome art acquisition, and hanging out with the small press peeps; and we feature a segment recorded live with a band of GWCers at the con! And we run down the Week in Geek, reviewing some newly-announced Emmy […]

We give love to the table-top games we grew up with and appreciate their role in a world before widespread video games. Audra talks about early digging on Trivial Pursuit, her meticulous Mouse Trap setup, and getting stuck being the thimble in Monopoly. Chuck and Sean take a serious look at competition, conflict, and friendship […]

We discuss Google’s announcements at the I/O conference last week, including the Nexus 7, Android 4.1 update, and the Nexus Q media center set-top box. We talk not only about the Q’s specs, but also its design, such as how it stacks up on the Dieter Rams 10 principles of good design.

We sympathize with Carter’s sweet-but-crappy honeymoon plans to renovate a dilapidated love shack/death trap and explore the questions sci-fi raises about humanity with the separation of a person’s “essence” from a corporeal state. We discuss the show’s interestingly humanist view that existing in some physical form really does make you more whole, marvel at Felicia […]

We explore some heady questions, like what qualities make a person valuable in Eureka, whether intelligence is really inversely proportionate to “heart,” and why the town as a whole should develop a broader appreciation of human traits (instead of just the “genius gene”). We appreciate the humor (as always), riffing on Deputy Andy and S.A.R.A.H. […]

Juan and Chuck catch up by taking some listener calls including questions about selecting an HDTV to use as a large computer monitor and how to read Amazon and other online reviews critically.

We wrap up our growing up geek arc this week with some mixed discussion of how our various media selections fit together to make us who we are today. Also, we run down the week in geek, including Ray Bradbury’s death (and how Fahrenheit 451’s message still applies in today’s digital book market), the new […]