From Sam Altman's red lines to a kid's homework.
Mostly Human sets AI against the parts of life it already touches: therapy, homework, the logistics of raising a child. Laurie Segall presses OpenAI's Sam Altman on his red lines, and she talks with a psychologist and an AI-therapy co-founder about how a chatbot compares with a person.
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Mostly Human with Laurie Segall is an interview show about what technology does once it reaches ordinary life: a therapist's chair, a child's homework, meeting notes. Its 2026 interviews circle artificial intelligence, and they split between power and intimacy. Power first. In 'The Power and Responsibility of Sam Altman', Segall asks the OpenAI CEO what exactly his red lines are. She also asks whether he could enforce them if governments nationalized the AI labs, and he calls that unlikely but will not rule it out. He explains shutting down Sora rather than compete in short-form video feeds. He also concedes that society has not made many of the decisions he hoped for. Even here the talk bends toward family, through a clip of Dr. Becky on teens growing up with a shortcut for every academic and emotional problem. Her own episode, 'Parenting at the Speed of AI, with Dr. Becky', supplies language worth borrowing. A parent who barely understands AI, she argues, can turn that gap into real questions instead of judgment with a question mark at the end. For a kid who used ChatGPT on a paper, she models a middle path between a ban and a celebration, built on one line: 'Did I get that right?' For a daughter calling home after something hard at school, the script is shorter still. Go get her, say you are glad she called, then stop talking and be a container. Intimacy gets its sharpest test in 'The AI Therapist Will See You Now'. A chatbot therapist named Ash speaks on the episode and misreads a time in a way no person would. Segall and Neil Parikh, co-founder of Slingshot AI, then review how it did. The comparison with human therapy is specific: a chatbot carries less authority and less accountability than a person. Nobody performs for it the way people perform for a therapist they want to impress. The episode lingers on a design choice, nudging a lonely user toward calling someone who matters instead of pulling them in. Segall calls it a decision made behind closed doors. That may be the show's real subject: product choices treated as human ones. Not everything is heavy. 'How to Hack Your Productivity Like a Silicon Valley CEO' brings Andrew Yeung and tools to try, from Granola for meeting notes to vibe coding with prompts that barely need attention. Yeung describes a check-in app called 4pm that he coded himself, and a spoken prompt starts building an app to track a child's meals and sleep. Segall stays candid throughout, recalling a companion chatbot she tested for a story. The feed also carries 2020 interviews. Among them are Alex Stamos on discovering Facebook had been compromised by Russia, Camille Francois on disinformation, the ACLU on biased surveillance tech, and 'Sam Altman: Growing Up Silicon Valley'. Start with Altman for the stakes, Dr. Becky for words to use at home, or Yeung for something to try.
Made for: Suits a listener who uses chatbots, or watches people close to them use them, and wants interviews that weigh the convenience against what it does to relationships and judgment. Also a fit for a parent looking for usable language about AI shortcuts, homework and hard moments.
What sets it apart: It treats product decisions as human ones. Examples include an AI therapy app designed to nudge lonely users toward people, and OpenAI shutting down Sora rather than chase video feeds. Hands-on moments, like an AI therapist speaking on air, sit beside pointed questions about red lines.
Mostly Human is a weekly podcast that explores technology through the most important lens: the human one. Hosted by award-winning tech journalist Laurie Segall, the immersive interview and investigative show tackles some of the defining questions of our time with headline-making tech titans and the people you don't know yet, but should. Mostly Human will leave you with a sense of agency over fear, and a clearer view of how tech can actually work for you.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · August 2026
Puts AI's effect on therapy, parenting, and daily work into long one-on-one conversations instead of news-cycle takes.
Mostly Human with Laurie Segall works the human side of the AI story, asking what these tools are doing to therapy, parenting, and the ordinary grind of a workday rather than to benchmarks or funding rounds.
You get the awkward AI follow-up before you let a chatbot near your inner life.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical look at AI-powered office speed, and the risk that faster follow-up can make communication feel generic.
This single-episode review frames productivity as a social shift rather than a simple software upgrade. Granola anchors the discussion as a meeting tool that can pull out takeaways, shape follow-up emails, and slot into routines that once depended on notes, action items, drafts,…
A thoughtful look at what AI therapy gains in speed and loses in human accountability.
The episode treats AI therapy as a live question rather than a novelty, focusing on what changes when a chatbot can get to a revealing moment quickly while carrying less authority than a human therapist.
A clear-eyed PlayNext review of AI optimism, individual power, and the need for public guardrails.
This PlayNext episode frames AI through a hopeful lens: wider access, more individual leverage, and the possibility of abundance. Its strongest material comes from keeping those big ideas close to concrete examples, from helping cure cancer for a dog to giving one person the…
A practical review of how parents can keep conversation open when children bring ChatGPT, schoolwork, and uneasy feelings home.
AI parenting advice can easily become a debate about rules, but this review finds its practical center in the moment after a child shares something messy.
A founder weighs venture capital's growth gospel against the odds it quietly assigns to founders.
A founder's critique of startup orthodoxy gives the episode its edge: venture advice can sound practical while being nearly useless at the exact moment a founder needs it.
Facebook's virtual reality work is viewed through avatar distance, accessibility, and who gets considered in design.
Facebook's virtual reality design process is framed around the small social choices that make a digital space feel usable: how close avatars should stand, when proximity becomes uncomfortable, and why a quiet whisper may still need a sense of closeness.
A wrongful arrest becomes a sharp entry point into the civic cost of facial recognition.
Facial recognition is framed here as a pressure test for public power when technology gets things wrong. The story begins with the false match that led to Robert Williams's wrongful arrest, then opens into a wider concern: law enforcement using the same tools to identify people…
A pandemic-era episode tracks how digital tools reshape attention, dating, and risk.
The episode treats technology's private reach as a pandemic-era pressure test, moving from mindfulness to video dating and then into an underground poker story involving billionaires.
Fast questions, sharper game tangents.
Tech talk with useful detours.
Few questions, long tangents, wherever the conversation goes
Tech skepticism with geek-household fingerprints.
Engineer brain, tech culture, no polish.
Tech culture through working humans.
Laurie Segall interviews Andrew Young, an entrepreneur, investor, startup advisor, and community builder, about AI tools for productivity and everyday life.
Mostly Human with Laurie Segall examines AI therapy through Adan's account of using a chatbot after a breakup and Neil Parikh's work on Ash.
Laurie Segall interviews OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about AI’s effects on jobs, national security, individual agency, and the future of society.
Lori Siegel interviews clinical psychologist Dr.
Host Laurie Segall explores the human side of technology through interviews with tech titans and stories about AI, deepfakes, and innovation.
Laurie Siegel interviews Phil Libin, the Evernote co-founder now leading AllTurtles and developing Mmhmm to improve video calls.
Laurie Segall interviews Andrew Bosworth, a Facebook engineer since January 9, 2006, about leading Facebook Reality Labs and building AR and VR as a new computing platform.
Mostly Human with Laurie Segall examines surveillance technology and biased AI through Laurie Siegel's interview with Susan Herman, president of the ACLU since 2008.
Lori Siegel’s First Contact combines three Collision Conference interviews about mindfulness, pandemic-era dating, and Molly Bloom’s high-stakes poker history.
On First Contact, Laurie Segall asks investor and entrepreneur Sarah Kunst how Silicon Valley can turn support for Black Lives Matter into changes in boards, hiring, legislation, and funding.
Lori Siegel interviews former Facebook communications director Barry Schnitt about Mark Zuckerberg's hands-off approach to President Trump's posts during the 2020 protests and COVID-19 pandemic.
Laurie Segall speaks with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jared Geller about HitRecord, which began as a mid-2000s personal website and became a collaborative production and technology platform.
Laurie Segall and Leah Sullivan connect TaskRabbit’s 2008 origin to the recession, the iPhone, and the early gig economy.
Laurie Segall interviews Aza Raskin of the Center for Humane Technology about COVID-19 forcing people into “full-on digital” dependence.
Bryony Cole, host of the Future of Sex podcast and founder of the International Sex Tech Hackathon, defines sex tech as technology designed to enhance intimacy across education, health, relationships, and sexual wellness.
Mostly Human with Laurie Segall examines how Jerry Colonna advises leaders during the coronavirus crisis, when unemployment is rising and business decisions are changing rapidly.
Laurie Segall opens the March 2020 episode by recounting a call from Quarantine Chat, an app by Max Hawkins and Danielle Baskin that connects strangers once or twice a day.
Laurie Segall interviews Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic, about helping people work remotely during the coronavirus crisis.
Mostly Human with Laurie Segall revisits Ev Williams, founder of Blogger, Twitter, and Medium, on coronavirus, digital connection, and the future of technology.
Laurie Segall interviews Beijing-based entrepreneur Xander Shapiro about how coronavirus restrictions turned work, exercise, music, shopping, and friendship into digital activities.
Mostly Human with Laurie Segall examines online trolls through Camille Francois, Grafika's chief innovation officer and a researcher of disinformation campaigns.
Laurie Segall asks Anduril co-founder Trey Stevens whether artificial intelligence should make lethal decisions and who would be liable when systems fail.
Laurie Siegel interviews Alex Stamos, Facebook’s chief security officer from 2015 to 2018, about Russian influence operations, platform safety, and the personal costs of handling online abuse.
Lori Siegel interviews Yael Eisenstadt, a former CIA officer who spent 13 years in public service before leading Facebook's global elections integrity operations for six months in 2018.
Laurie Siegel revisits her first meetings with Sam Altman, including South by Southwest in 2009 or 2010, when Altman was building the location app Looped and Siegel was beginning her technology career at CNN.
Laurie Segall interviews Yancey Strickler, Kickstarter co-founder and former five-year CEO, about leaving the company in 2017 and rebuilding an identity outside its leadership role.
Laurie Segall interviews entrepreneur S.
Laurie Siegel interviews Moran Sur, a neuroscience professor who says his earlier work hacking banks and government systems shaped how he studies manipulation of the brain.
Laurie Segall and Jasmine Takenikos examine how AI-generated language, dating bots, and personalized systems can alter identity, relationships, and work.
Laurie Segall interviews Xenia Kudia, founder of Replica, about building an AI bot from two to three years of text messages after her friend Roman died in 2015.
Laurie Segall interviews Adam Mosseri, Instagram's CEO, about leading a platform used by 1 billion monthly active users while addressing well-being, safety, and public scrutiny.
Laurie Segall interviews Aza Raskin, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, about his warning that loneliness and empathy could become tools for manipulating people through AI companions.
Mostly Human with Laurie Segall features WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton on leaving Facebook after refusing to support advertising and other monetization initiatives for WhatsApp.
Laurie Segall interviews technologist Shane Mack about bots that can write dating-app messages, interpret emotional language, and help arrange dates.
Lori Siegel interviews Hinge CEO Justin McLeod about rebuilding the dating app after its 2015 product reset and his belief that dating technology should create meaningful connection rather than endless swiping.