Shell Game

Episode 1: Quality Assurance

This is the story of what happens when Evan Ratliff, a longtime tech journalist, makes a digital copy of himself, powered by AI, in order to understand how amazing and scary and utterly ridiculous the world is about to get. In Episode 1, Evan clones his voice, hooks it up to a chat bot and his phone line, and sends it off to tangle with customer service representatives.Shell Game is made by humans. More specifically, it's produced and edited by Sophie Bridges, and written and hosted by Evan Ratliff. Samantha Henig is our executive producer. Visit <a href="http://shellgame.co" target="_blank">shellgame.co</a> to find out more and support the show. New episodes drop on Tuesdays. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.shellgame.co/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=CTA_2">www.shellgame.co/subscribe</a>

A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. In Season One, that thing is Evan’s voice. By creating a voice clone and hooking it up to an AI chatbot, Evan set out to discover what happens when you try to take control of the very technology that threatens to replace you. 

Shell Game was named one of the the best podcasts of 2024 by New York Magazine, a top 10 podcast of 2024 by The Economist, one of the five most insightful podcasts of the summer by The Week, and one of the five best tech and business podcasts of the year by The Information. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, and "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Mail.

Over the course of six episodes, Evan’s voice agents talk to spammers and scammers, to Evan’s friends and family, to colleagues and sources, to other AIs, and even to a therapist—all to better understand what AI voice is able to do, what it can't yet do, and what to expect from a future in which more and more of the people we encounter in the world aren’t real.

Visit shellgame.co to find out more and support the show. <a href="https://www.shellgame.co?utm_medium=podcast">www.shellgame.co</a>