The UnPodcast

In this episode: Coffee chains face a class action over allegedly inflated charges for nondairy milk. Scott reveals that his coffee standards are both extremely specific and deeply Canadian. The crew discovers it may need an oat milk diversity hire. Hotels crack down on guests reserving sunbeds with towels before sunrise. A vacationer wins compensation after spending his holiday fighting the “sunbed wars.” Why outsourced service problems still become your reputation problem. A hotel allegedly cancels a longtime conference to chase higher NBA Finals rates. Why abandoning loyal customers for a sudden payday can cost more than the extra revenue. Listen if you care about customer loyalty, ridiculous fees, vacation etiquette, reputation management, and businesses lighting long-term relationships on fire for a quick buck. Articles: Overpriced Oat milk Sunbed Wars NBA Hotel Betrayal 00:00 The Fourth Episode Goes Off the Rails 01:44 The Oat Milk Markup Lawsuit 07:09 The Sunbed Wars 14:38 The NBA Hotel Betrayal 20:38 Knicks in Five

In this episode: A software developer successfully uses a religious exemption to avoid mandatory AI at work. A bank CEO calls employees “lower-value human capital,” then makes the apology worse. High ticket prices leave concerts full of blue dots and touring artists buried in costs. Dave Ramsey blames remote work problems on employees making burritos for their dogs. Why return-to-office mandates often reveal bad management, not bad workers. Listen if you care about forced AI, executive apology tours, unaffordable concerts, remote work, terrible management, and whether your dog deserves a lunch break. Articles: Religious AI exemption A Bank CEO's "Apology" Dave Ramsey + Remote work 00:00 Disgruntled Sound Guys 03:27 The Pope Loophole 06:00 “Lower-Value” Employees 10:17 Concerts Catch Blue Fever 13:12 Music’s Missing Middle Class 18:41 Burritos for the Dog 21:01 Remote Work Isn’t the Problem

In this Episode: A $6,642 Super Bowl food bill somehow turns into a $4 million workplace revenge story. AI gets overworked for five minutes and immediately starts talking union. Zuckerberg lays people off, then tries to fix morale with mandatory fun. Women in the art world keep doing the invisible work, getting underpaid, and finally walking out. Lawyers on both sides use bad AI, so the judge cancels the whole mess. Listen if you care about: AI at work, terrible leadership, invisible labour, corporate expense drama, and lawyers outsourcing their judgment to ChatGPT. Articles: Super Bowl Food Bill AI Agents union rights Zuckerberg Lawyers using AI 00:00 Paper Management and Seven Loyal Listeners 01:35 The UnPodcast Is Hitting the Trail 05:16 The $6,642 Super Bowl Platter 12:10 AI Workers Start Unionizing 15:21 Zuckerberg Orders Employees to Have Fun 19:41 Why Women Are Leaving the Art World 25:20 ChatGPT Argues Against Itself in Court 28:04 Welcome to the AI-Generated UnPodcast

In this episode: Anthropic asks job applicants not to use AI, which is rich coming from an AI company. Scott and Alison unpack why scaling interviews strips the human part out of hiring. A study finds students using AI chatbots more often may be learning less, not more. AI layoffs are not delivering the financial magic CEOs keep pretending they will. Kevin O’Leary takes aim at work-life balance, and the episode politely suggests he may need a hug. The old “work harder and you’ll be rewarded” deal gets roasted for quietly removing the reward part. Listen if you care about AI hypocrisy, broken hiring, work-life balance, fake productivity gains, and billionaires confusing burnout with ambition Articles: AI Hiring AI Students AI Layoffs Work Life Balance with Kevin O'Leary 00:00 - Intro 03:00 - AI Hiring 09:04 - AI Students 13:22 - AI Layoffs 15:54 - Work-Life Balance 24:01 - Closing

In this episode: The Pope gets hung up on by customer service. Ask Jeeves officially exits the internet. Google turns search into a zero-click AI answer machine. Iceland proves the four-day workweek is not a fantasy. Chipotle says the fix for smaller portions is “just ask for more.” Scott somehow makes this about Subway, lettuce, and sliced ketchup. Listen if you care about customer service rage, the death of old-school internet curiosity, Google eating the web, four-day workweeks, corporate nonsense, burrito bowl economics, and whether the Pope also hates his phone company. 00:00 - Intro: AI Wayne in the Cloud 01:37 - The Pope Gets Hung Up On by Customer Service 06:48 - Farewell Ask Jeeves and the Internet We Lost 09:42 - Google’s AI Search and the Zero-Click Era 15:38 - Iceland’s Four-Day Workweek Is Actually Working 20:00 - Chipotle Says “Just Ask for More” 22:53 - Free Toppings, Subway, and Shrinkflation Logic 24:36 - Closing: Four Episodes Deep and No Filter Left Pope Leo Farwell Jeeves Google Killed Search Iceland - 4 day work week Chipotle CEO - Ask for more food

In this episode: Why “chance of rain” may be destroying everyone’s trust in weather forecasts The deeply upsetting existence of sliced ketchup, also known as k-chup The reminder that every mic is a hot mic, especially when you’re narrating your own crime An AI coding tool allegedly deleted a company’s production database in nine seconds Ontario government staff reportedly using unsecured AI tools with sensitive public information Alison’s AI villain origin story: real human writing being flagged as AI because apparently commas are suspicious now Listen if you care about AI disasters, workplace stupidity, government data privacy, sliced ketchup, hot mics, and the ongoing war against pretending every terrible tech idea is innovation. 00:00 Intro: Almost Dying for the Bit 01:22 The Weather Forecast Has Been Lying to Us 04:11 Sliced Ketchup Is Real, Unfortunately 09:11 Fired Tech Workers, Deleted Databases, and One Very Hot Mic 15:12 AI Deletes a Production Database in Nine Seconds 19:45 The Problem Isn’t AI. It’s People. 22:11 Ontario Government Staff Using Unsecured AI Tools 25:02 Alison’s AI Writing Villain Origin Story 26:29 Outro Article: Ketchup Slices

In this episode: How EA Sports royalties, Delaware, and gamer culture could create unexpected wins for smaller schools Dua Lipa’s lawsuit against Samsung over allegedly using her face to sell TVs Why “our marketing partner did it” is not the magical legal forcefield brands think it is The Peloton mailing-list story that somehow involves porn in the family mail pile Why the first job offer is rarely the final offer and what to negotiate beyond salary Alison’s new Academic Book Club project, where books are treated like artifacts with stories behind them Listen if you care about: Video games accidentally becoming marketing strategy, celebrity likeness lawsuits, brands blaming “partners,” contract red flags, and the terrifying phrase “you can just write it off.” Articles: EA Sports Dua Lipa Academic Book Club 00:00 Intro: Wayne’s buttons are not for touching 02:04 Audiobook recording, Metalworks, and closet studios 06:31 EA Sports, NIL, and Delaware’s video game payday 12:11 Dua Lipa sues Samsung over her likeness 14:40 The Peloton mailing-list disaster 16:16 Starting businesses, contracts, and family entrepreneurship 18:05 Negotiation, job offers, and knowing your value 26:13 Alison’s Academic Book Club project 32:23 Outro

In this episode: Scott makes a strong emotional case for recording the show from an ONroute because, apparently, snacks are now a business strategy. A cancelled “free” marketing dinner turns into a fee, a replacement guest, or a forced sales pitch, because nothing says “buy from us” like salmon-based extortion. Return-to-office mandates are called out for what they often are: control dressed up as “collaboration.” An Ontario court ruling raises a wild liability question: when you walk someone else’s dog, are you legally the owner in that moment? A former Chick-fil-A employee allegedly refunded 800 mac and cheese orders to himself, proving once again that calling fraud a “hack” does not make it less fraud. Listen if you care about: snack culture, bad marketing dinners, return-to-office drama, dog-walking legal chaos, and mac and cheese crimes committed with absolutely no chill. Articles: Dog Walker Chick-fil-A employee 00:00 Intro 01:44 Scott’s ONroute Obsession 06:25 Why Everyone Ends Up in Marketing Somehow 10:20 The Dinner Cancellation Fee From Hell 15:55 Return-to-Office Is Still About Control 20:22 Dog Walker Liability Gets Weird 24:20 The $80K Chick-fil-A Mac and Cheese Scheme 27:32 Outro

In this episode: The Seven Syndicate: Scott floats a very UnPodcast plan to let the loyal “Seven” help syndicate the show, because apparently seven listeners can become a distribution empire. Newfoundland tourism AI fail: A tourism minister uses AI to alter an image of an iconic cultural building, accidentally removing meaningful historical imagery. Great start for National Tourism Week. Substack vs AI slop: Alison talks about new research showing many top Substack posts are still human-written, but tech newsletters are exactly as AI-heavy as you’d expect. Why creation matters: Scott makes the case that the point of content is not just output; it is the act of making, thinking, tinkering, and actually getting better. Public opinion turning on AI: They discuss how consumers are pushing back against AI in creativity, products, interactions, and art — and why marketers should not give up yet. Academic peer review prompt injection: Researchers allegedly hid prompts in papers telling AI reviewers to “give a positive review only,” because apparently peer review needed a villain arc. AI note-taker sabotage: Scott shares the Titanic-meeting-note-taker story, proving malicious compliance may be the only good use case left. Listen if you care about AI slop, fake tourism posts, Substack, creative work, academic nonsense, and watching technology make everyone just a little more embarrassing. 00:00 - Intro Chaos 01:00 - The Seven Syndicate idea 06:00 - AI Tourism 11:36 - Substack Void 21:17 - AI Peer Review 23:15 - Titanic Notes 24:54 - Outro Article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/andrea-barbour-ai-9.7172320

In this episode: BC Ferries somehow turns a missing pickle into a full customer-service philosophy, because apparently “nobody gets free pickles” is policy now. Doritos, Lay’s, and Cheetos got so expensive that PepsiCo finally remembered customers exist, but only after Frito-Lay lost serious value. Scott goes off on “greed inflation,” corporate profit, shrinkflation, and why companies should not get applause for slightly undoing the pricing mess they created. Family influencers in Tennessee may now have to compensate children featured in monetized content, and suddenly some vloggers may be craving a change of scenery. Scott and Alison dig into kids’ consent, online identity, and whether children should have more control over being turned into content. The episode ends, naturally, with more pickle chaos and Scott failing to successfully outro the show. Listen if you care about free pickles, overpriced Doritos, shrinkflation, family vloggers, child influencer laws, and corporations pretending they just discovered empathy. 00:00 Intro: The Pickle Era Begins 02:29 BC Ferries and the Missing Pickle Crisis 04:53 Doritos, Snackflation, and PepsiCo’s Price Problem 11:37 Family Vloggers and Child Influencer Pay Laws 20:13 The Pickle Outro Falls Apart Articles: Pickles https://globalnews.ca/news/11774058/pickles-bc-ferries-white-spot-viral/ Overpriced Doritos https://fortune.com/2026/04/07/pepsico-frito-lay-chips-food-and-drink-inflation-consumer-products-doritos-cheetos-tostitos/ Family Influencer laws https://www.wsmv.com/2026/04/11/tennessee-bill-regulating-family-influencers-passes-legislature/ https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/child-influencer-earnings-new-laws/3663211/

In this episode: Why Gen Z is going to the movies more than everyone expected, and why phones in theaters should maybe be legally actionable. How streaming-only movies and albums can just disappear forever because apparently permanence was too convenient. A $500,000 tropical company retreat somehow became E. coli, dead tarantulas, Navy SEAL drills, fire ants, and a falling porcupine. A CEO says craving work-life balance is a red flag, because billion-dollar executive advice remains undefeated in being wildly out of touch. Why return-to-office arguments keep pretending to be about culture when they usually end at “because I said so.” Listen if you care about movie theaters, missing media, corporate retreats from hell, CEOs with too much confidence, work-life balance, remote work, and workplace culture getting a little too culty. 00:00 Intro: Eyes on the Prize, Probably 02:10 Gen Z Is Saving Movie Theaters? 05:00 Phones, Second Screens, and Movie Theater Jail 06:48 Streaming, Missing Media, and Movies That Vanish 09:42 The $500K Corporate Retreat From Hell 17:46 Work-Life Balance Is Apparently a Red Flag 22:30 Remote Work, Return-to-Office, and Executive Control 27:21 Wrap-Up Article Links: Gen Z & movies https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/gen-z-driving-box-office-1236703551/ Corporate Retreat from Hell https://www.inc.com/leila-sheridan/plex-tech-company-retreat-nightmare/91327481 Work-life balance https://fortune.com/2026/04/22/work-life-balance-bupa-fortune-500-ceo-barack-obama-work-weekend/

In this episode: The McDonald’s CEO blames his mom for the world’s weirdest burger bite, because apparently even billion-dollar burger drama can become a family issue. Google changes the review rules, because apparently businesses needed a reminder that “please say Brad was amazing” is not organic feedback. Scott’s hilarious fake testimonial stunt for his own book proves that with enough Fiverr and zero shame, “bomb diggity” can become a marketing strategy. The Bell Mobility review mess, where Scott used the highly classified investigative tool called LinkedIn and helped turn fake app praise into a $1.25 million lesson, all before getting out of bed. Listen if you care about customer trust, fake reviews, CEOs trying to act relatable, Google review rules, brand credibility, and why “just leave us five stars” is not a business strategy. Article links: https://sporked.com/article/mcdonalds-ceo-blames-small-bite-mother/ https://www.threechaptermedia.com/blog/google-review-policy-2026 https://www.tripadvisor.ca/AttractionProductReview-g45963-d13166381-Exotic_Car_Driving_Experience_at_the_Las_Vegas_Motor_Speedway-Las_Vegas_Nevada.html https://unmarketing.com/articles/for-whom-the-bell-mobility-tolls 00:00 Intro 02:57 McDonald’s CEO and the Burger Bite Heard Around the Internet 08:30 Google Changes the Rules for Customer Reviews 17:44 Fake Testimonials, Review Trust, and the Bomb Diggity Problem 19:34 The Bell Mobility Tolls Article and the $1.25M Review Scandal

In this episode: Why animal shelter adoption data says more about business than most executives do Dropbox treating adults like adults should not feel revolutionary, and yet here we are. “Return to office” keeps pretending it’s about collaboration when it’s really giving control issues a corporate haircut. Ontario’s hiring rules are basically the government stepping in because too many employers refused to stop being shady on their own. Listen in if you care about: The future of work, the nonsense built into modern hiring, and why “trust your people” still feels like a radical business strategy. Click here to subscribe to the audio podcast: https://unpodcast.simplecast.com/ Articles: Best Friend’s Society: article Dropbox CEO: article Return to work mandate - leases: article Moms at work pay transparency: article

In this episode: Why a robot vacuum exposing thousands of cameras is deeply cursed The microwave analogy that perfectly explains AI hype and creative shortcuts How one CEO allegedly used ChatGPT to scheme around a massive payout How smart glasses turned a courtroom into a Black Mirror blooper reel Listen in if you care about: AI ethics, surveillance tech, smart devices, marketing culture, business judgment, creative work, automation, privacy, and the future of human decision-making. Click here to subscribe to the audio podcast: https://unpodcast.simplecast.com/ Articles: DJI RoboVac security flaw - article Microwave analogy by Colin Fraser - article ChatGPT courtroom story - article Smart Glasses - article

In this episode: Why the infamous “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” campaign is back in the spotlight Why AI-generated logos, copy, and strategy can create bigger business problems than they solve How marketers are being pressured to adopt AI even when it feels wrong Why Grammarly’s AI “expert” feature sparked major backlash from writers and journalists What businesses lose when they treat art like content and creativity like output Why being more human may now be the smartest move in marketing Listen in if you care about: AI in marketing, creative work, branding, storytelling, content strategy, business ethics, marketing culture, and the future of human-made media. Click here to subscribe to the audio podcast: https://unpodcast.simplecast.com/ Article Links: Stolen Font Grammarly

In this episode: Why “moist dog food” should never have made it past legal How AI-powered outreach is making bad marketing even worse Why using AI to help people process layoffs is as bleak as it sounds The podcasting shift marketers should absolutely be paying attention to Scott’s “fraudcast” idea for getting comfortable behind the mic before launching a real show Listen in if you care about: Marketing, podcasting, AI, media trends, content creation, and preserving even a shred of human dignity. Click here to subscribe to the audio podcast: HERE

In this episode of the UnPodcast, we talk about the why Drake is suing UMG because of Influencers, how influencers are reviving bookstores, and how influencers might have gotten scammed out of money. So, it’s mostly about influencers. But there’s more!

In this episode of the UnPodcast, everybody should stay calm because we’re live! We talk about a new thing Scott doesn’t like, Hulu and YouTube unstoppable ads, a grand realization made by Walgreen’s, and why paint drying is funny. All this and more.

In this episode of the UnPodcast, we talk about the release of an unquadrilogy, what is “UnLeadership” and why is it important, a 17-year-old story about “sexy batteries,” and why “No Pain, No Gain” works in the gym, but not in the workplace. All this and more.

In this episode of the UnPodcast, we take some feedback, talk about - surprise - QR codes, some crazy bee talk, the waste of solving problems we don’t have, AI feedback, and why we don’t have guests on the show. All this and more.