Adam Curry Just Gave Podcasters a Gift: Inside the Currycaster 2
This episode of Unrelenting was recorded as the show’s “maiden voyage” on Currycaster 2 — Adam Curry’s own podcasting software, built by the hosts’ account, almost entirely through AI-assisted (“vibe coded”) development. Darren and Gene spent a good chunk of the episode just talking about how much it does, and it’s a genuinely impressive list for something that didn’t exist as a packaged product before: it’s a native app (not something that runs in a browser tab like Zencaster), it records in multi-track, it’s got a built-in cart wall for jingles and clips, and — this is the detail Darren specifically asked Adam to add — once a clip gets played during a show, it visually dims or marks itself in the list, so hosts running an unscripted show with a stack of twenty-plus clips queued up can tell at a glance what’s already aired and what hasn’t. Each show even gets its own saved interface layout, so Unrelenting looks different from Planet Rage the moment you open it.
The audio side holds up too: Currycaster runs on the same Opus codec as CleanFeed and Zencaster, and the call quality on this episode was genuinely clean — 0% packet loss, around 100ms round-trip, no complaints from either host. Under the hood, it uses Adam’s own server as a kind of switchboard, which is what lets him skip relying on a third-party service entirely. And the beta-testing loop is almost absurdly fast: Darren said that when he tells Adam about a bug or a feature he’d like, the fix shows up in a new build within about 46 seconds. There’s apparently more coming too — the hosts were curious on-air whether Currycaster would end up auto-generating chapter markers via AI by the time this very episode finished recording.
The best part, as both hosts pointed out more than once: it’s free. Nobody’s figured out quite how Adam intends to make money on it yet (there was some joking speculation about money laundering), but for now it’s just a genuinely useful tool, built by someone who’s spent decades making podcasts, given back to the community that grew up around his other work. As Darren put it, half-joking but clearly meaning it: it fills a need that wasn’t being met anywhere else. Thanks, Adam.
[Unrelenting #211 0:10] [Unrelenting #211 0:23] [Unrelenting #211 10:32] [Unrelenting #211 11:11] [Unrelenting #211 30:15] [Unrelenting #211 41:18]
Darren Used Grok to Negotiate His Own Internet Bill Down
This is a different, firsthand story from the GrokBot mention already in the archive (a secondhand Dallas-mom testimonial relayed on No Agenda) — Darren actually ran the experiment himself. After Comcast/Xfinity bumped his gigabit plan from $100 to $131 a month, and after hearing Dana Brunetti rave about Grok on a recent No Agenda episode, Darren opened Grok, explained his situation in a short paragraph (current price, target price, and a fallback of dropping a tier if it saved at least $25/month), and let it go. Grok logged into his Xfinity account, landed in Comcast’s retention chat — Darren still isn’t sure whether a human or a bot was on the other end — and came back with an offer: the same plan locked at $100/month for a year. He accepted inside the chat and had a confirmation email within minutes. “The bot did everything,” as Larry put it. Darren’s own caveat is worth keeping in mind: he wouldn’t hand an AI agent something like banking access, but for a scripted negotiation like a retention call, it worked cleanly. Worth noting this runs on a paid Grok tier, not a free feature.
Try it: grok.com.[Planet Rage #242 2:01:55] [Planet Rage #242 2:02:57] [Planet Rage #242 2:04:19]
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Darren brought this one up almost as an aside while making a point about political polling psychology, but the recommendation itself stands on its own two feet: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, written by behavioral economist Dan Ariely (an MIT-affiliated professor when the book came out in 2008, now at Duke). Darren’s pitch — “if you’re interested at all in how people think and why they do what they do, it is a great book” — came with two specific examples he still remembers years later: The Economist’s old three-tier pricing page (print for $95, web-only for a different price, or print-plus-web for the same $95 as print alone), a deliberately absurd option that exists purely to make the print-plus-web bundle look like the obvious deal; and the classic restaurant-menu trick where the second-most-expensive dish, not the priciest one, is usually the one making the house the most money, because diners steer themselves there to avoid looking extravagant. Darren says he’s gone back and skimmed the book “a few different times” — not a one-time read, a keeper.
You can get this book on Amazon.
[Planet Rage #242 8:57] [Planet Rage #242 9:23]
Planet Rage’s Halloween Homage Ruffled a Few Feathers — But It Sounds Like Everyone’s Good Now
Planet Rage’s Halloween special — episode 241, slipped in between the show’s regular numbering as a one-off — was built as a parody séance, done in the style of a recurring bit from host Larry Blydner’s long-running “That Larry Show” (closing in on a full decade on the air this December). By the hosts’ own account, it was meant as an homage: a spooky, affectionate sendup in the tradition of shows that gently needle their own community’s in-jokes.
Not everyone read it that way at first. Shortly after Darren posted the episode’s promo on X, John S. Dvorak — John C. Dvorak’s son — replied with a specific, understandable objection:
“AI voice of my late father is kind of in bad taste, knock it off.” That’s a fair thing for a son to say about an AI-cloned voice of his recently-passed father, however affectionately the bit was intended. Darren also mentioned the show heard from Jae Dvorak — John C. Dvorak’s daughter, who ran the back-office side of No Agenda during its run — and a follow-up from a Mimi Dvorak that softened things, noting the first message “may have been too harsh.” That’s the kind of back-and-forth that happens when a tribute uses something as sensitive as a loved one’s AI-recreated voice, and by Darren’s account it got sorted out amicably: the episode’s still up, and both sides seem to have landed in a reasonable place.
Darren’s own framing is a fair way to hear his side of it: “nobody’s going to take anything seriously when… it’s a séance… it’s make believe.” Worth holding both things at once, though — a comedy bit built on an AI voice of someone’s late father is always going to land differently for the family than for the audience, and John S. Dvorak’s reply is a reasonable reminder of that, raised directly and without any apparent lasting hard feelings.
It’s also a small, telling data point in the broader post-No Agenda podcast landscape NoAgendaFun has been tracking — Party Line Show and Scanning both launched in recent weeks drawing on No Agenda’s cast and audience, and the Dvorak family remains very much a part of that world’s story.
[Planet Rage #242]
Hamlet (MyHamlet.com): The AI Tool That Makes Every Local Government Meeting Searchable
JC mentioned using MyHamlet.com while digging into a segment about a sport-court-construction trend showing up in city council meetings nationwide — it’s a real research tool, and useful well beyond whatever story someone’s using it for. Hamlet transcribes and indexes video from local government meetings (city councils, county boards, planning commissions) across more than 2,400 U.S. cities and counties, tags who said what, and links every quote back to the original recording, so you can search for a topic instead of sitting through hours of meeting footage. It was built by Sunil Rajaraman, who got the idea in 2022 after losing his own race for city council in Orinda, California. Basic search is free, no account required (the first 40 results per search, full officials directory, top rankings); paid tiers add full transcripts, alerts, and agenda monitoring for people tracking an issue across many jurisdictions — journalists and researchers can request access too.
Not an Amazon product — free web tool with paid tiers. Get it at myhamlet.com.[Party Line Show #1 24:00] [Party Line Show #1 24:52]
Sclazin’ Hot Sauce: The Carolina Reaper Sauce Dana Can’t Stop Recommending
This came in during the donations segment as a donor plug, but Dana’s endorsement went well past reading the note: “I have a bottle in my fridge right now… I’ve gone through 2 bottles,” and he gave one to a hot-sauce-loving friend who immediately asked for more. The sauce is Sclazin’ (sclazin.com) — built around Carolina Reaper peppers but formulated to stay out of the way of whatever you’re pouring it on rather than just bringing raw heat; the brand positions it for Asian, Italian, Mexican, and American dishes alike. Made in small batches, so expect the occasional backorder.
Not an Amazon product — small-batch, direct-to-consumer. Get it at sclazin.com (~$10/bottle).[Party Line Show #1 1:20:30] [Party Line Show #1 1:20:54]
The Last Show: No Agenda Ends After 19 Years and 1,916 Episodes
After 19 years, 1,916 episodes, and zero ads ever run, No Agenda went off the air for good on October 29th. Andrew Horowitz — who co-hosted alongside John Dvorak for almost as long as the show existed — sat in for the entire final episode, calling it “emotionally draining, but at the same time a…
Adam Curry Just Gave Podcasters a Gift: Inside the Currycaster 2
This episode of Unrelenting was recorded as the show’s “maiden voyage” on Currycaster 2 — Adam Curry’s own podcasting software, built by the hosts’ account, almost entirely through AI-assisted (“vibe coded”) development. Darren and Gene spent a good chunk of the episode just talking about how much it does, and it’s a genuinely impressive list…
Darren Used Grok to Negotiate His Own Internet Bill Down
This is a different, firsthand story from the GrokBot mention already in the archive (a secondhand Dallas-mom testimonial relayed on No Agenda) — Darren actually ran the experiment himself. After Comcast/Xfinity bumped his gigabit plan from $100 to $131 a month, and after hearing Dana Brunetti rave about Grok on a recent No Agenda episode,…
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Darren brought this one up almost as an aside while making a point about political polling psychology, but the recommendation itself stands on its own two feet: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, written by behavioral economist Dan Ariely (an MIT-affiliated professor when the book came out in 2008, now at Duke).…
The Last Show: No Agenda Ends After 19 Years and 1,916 Episodes
After 19 years, 1,916 episodes, and zero ads ever run, No Agenda went off the air for good on October 29th. Andrew Horowitz — who co-hosted alongside John Dvorak for almost as long as the show existed — sat in for the entire final episode, calling it “emotionally draining, but at the same time a…
Adam Curry Just Gave Podcasters a Gift: Inside the Currycaster 2
This episode of Unrelenting was recorded as the show’s “maiden voyage” on Currycaster 2 — Adam Curry’s own podcasting software, built by the hosts’ account, almost entirely through AI-assisted (“vibe coded”) development. Darren and Gene spent a good chunk of the episode just talking about how much it does, and it’s a genuinely impressive list…
Darren Used Grok to Negotiate His Own Internet Bill Down
This is a different, firsthand story from the GrokBot mention already in the archive (a secondhand Dallas-mom testimonial relayed on No Agenda) — Darren actually ran the experiment himself. After Comcast/Xfinity bumped his gigabit plan from $100 to $131 a month, and after hearing Dana Brunetti rave about Grok on a recent No Agenda episode,…
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Darren brought this one up almost as an aside while making a point about political polling psychology, but the recommendation itself stands on its own two feet: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, written by behavioral economist Dan Ariely (an MIT-affiliated professor when the book came out in 2008, now at Duke).…