Podbit · This Week in Tech (Audio)
Ring announced facial recognition for its cameras. Flock Safety's nationwide license plate database was allegedly accessed by ICE through local police partnerships. The Super Bowl ad showing radar-like rings emanating from neighborhood cameras triggered mass backlash — because it told the truth about what these systems can do.
Where this was said
At 1:57:00 · chapter starts 1:54:00
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy tells the story of Level Lock — founded by former Apple engineers, it created a genuinely elegant solution to the ugly-smart-lock problem by hiding all the electronics inside the deadbolt mechanism itself, making it look completely normal from both sides of the door. After being acquired by Assa Abloy — the Swedish multinational that also owns Yale and August — the company was developing ultra-wideband hands-free unlocking technology before the entire 80-person team, including the founders, was laid off. Assa Abloy said the company is staying in business, but the engineering team is gone. Jennifer draws a direct line to the broader smart home survivability problem: cloud-dependent devices become useless when the company behind them disappears or pivots. The Level Lock's recent Matter upgrade means its basic functions would survive a server shutdown, which is exactly why Matter matters. She also notes that August Smart Lock, another Assa Abloy acquisition, has not seen a new product in six or seven years and likely never will.
Matter 1.6's Joint Fabric feature means you'll have one smart home network that multiple ecosystems can access but none can own. It sounds like a small change but it required Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung to genuinely relinquish control — something that has never happened before in the smart home industry.
Level Lock built a revolutionary smart lock that hid all its electronics inside the deadbolt mechanism, making it look like a normal lock. Then Assa Abloy bought it, laid off all 80 employees including the founders, and said don't worry. The startup that was about to launch ultra-wideband hands-free unlocking may never ship it.
Erin Brockovich describes data center expansion as 'a full-on assault' hitting communities across water, electricity, noise, air pollution, and land loss. She calls it the biggest bipartisan conversation she's seen in her 30-year career — and warns that tech companies didn't see the coming backlash.
Demanding an emergency fund balance on a first date is the wrong approach. What you're really looking for is someone with character, maturity, and a direction — not a perfect financial snapshot. You can build a budget in 20 minutes; you can't build character that fast.
The fear of not being financially ready to have children is almost always a failure to run the real budget. On $110K a year, you can afford a child. What you can't afford is the fantasy nursery, the bigger car, and staying home on one income without a plan.
You've already said enough. The enabling, the financial dysfunction, the fear it'll land in your lap — if you can't say yes with full confidence, the answer is no. Tell Mom to rent a cheap one-bedroom, sell her house, and buy a condo near the grandkids instead.
Bobby watching a father hold his baby triggered an existential moment: he and Andrew might be missing fatherhood. They priced out adoption ($40K–$70K private, $0–$2K foster care) and briefly considered adopting a child to timeshare like a condo.
In 1950, 60% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today it's roughly 1 in 10. Capitalism and economic growth did that — nothing else has ever worked at scale. The challenge now isn't generating enough wealth; it's building the political will to distribute it.
The manosphere begins with genuinely useful advice — get fit, be ambitious, find a partner. But it rapidly devolves into dominance, misogyny, and crypto university grifts. The most famous manosphere figures are running $50-a-month Ponzi schemes, exploiting the very loneliness they pretend to cure.
Throughout human history, only 40% of men have ever reproduced. Romantic success has never been guaranteed — it has always required effort, self-development, and resilience. The incel movement's core lie is telling men they're owed something that no man has ever been owed.
The most common word Scott Galloway has heard in his life is no. That's not a failure — it's the mechanism through which great yeses are earned. For shy young men, the path forward is simple: approach people, accept rejection, repeat. Resilience to discomfort is the only real competitive advantage.
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