Robots, AI, and the isms underneath.
Roboism follows the strange places where robots, large language models, gadgets, internet culture, and politics collide. Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell bring curiosity, frustration, jokes, and real unease to tools that promise convenience while changing how people work, relate, and trust information.
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Roboism is a show about robots, artificial intelligence, and the cultural pressure that builds around both. It does not treat tech as a clean product category. Recent episodes place Claude, Whisper, CES gadgets, delivery robots, AI companions, bot-filled platforms, and political AI moments inside ordinary human concerns: work, trust, loneliness, attention, convenience, and control. The conversations often begin with loose, affectionate banter. Then a stray detail becomes the thing that matters. A wearable AI friend turns into a discussion of parasocial attachment. A delivery robot leads to gig work, remote operators, city streets, and the soft language companies use around automation. Claude becomes a way to talk about skepticism, usefulness, creative tools, and the feeling of crossing one’s own boundaries. The show has room for delight, too. Robot dogs, assistive possibilities, clever software, and useful transcription tools are not flattened into one anti-tech posture. Roboism is more conflicted than that. Its strength is the willingness to hold excitement and suspicion in the same conversation without pretending they cancel each other out. The pacing is lively and associative, with sudden jokes, half-finished thoughts, and sharp pivots that mirror the overloaded internet it often describes. Underneath that looseness is a recurring question: who benefits when a machine is introduced, and who is asked to adapt around it? Recent material also stretches beyond gadgets into fascism, homesteading aesthetics, mommy-blogger culture, media literacy, and the dead-internet feeling of bots addressing bots. Those moves fit the show’s title better than a narrow robotics brief would. The “ism” is usually the point. Roboism suits a listener who wants tech criticism with personality, not a sterile rundown of launches and specs. It is funniest when it is exasperated, and most useful when it refuses to let convenience be the final answer.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants AI and robotics discussed through culture, labor, politics, and everyday relationships. Best for someone comfortable with fast conversational detours and blunt skepticism alongside genuine curiosity.
What sets it apart: Roboism stands apart by treating robots and AI products as social artifacts before treating them as gadgets. The show’s loose banter gives the criticism a lived-in texture without losing sight of the machinery underneath.
Roboism is a show mostly about robots. We are exploring how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital assistants are affecting our culture. Come explore the humanity behind the bots that are quickly becoming a part of every day life. Hosted by Kathy Campbell and Alex Cox.
A sushi delivery robot arrives; your first question is who is actually driving it.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose beach-video aside leads into bots, dead internet theory, and measured skepticism about AI productivity claims.
Roboism starts with the odd little texture of a beach-vacation story: Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell sorting through texts, two videos, the portrait version first, and a person walking a dog.
A loose AI conversation finds its footing in what technology might return to human creativity.
Robo-Ism takes a loose chat about generative AI and turns it toward a more useful question: what should technology give back to people? Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell sort through whether LLMs belong under that label, then move toward a practical test for any tool: does it return…
A funny, skeptical CES tour where Claude and a robot dog sit beside tech's stranger promises.
Roboism turns a CES check-in into a loose, funny audit of where tech excitement runs into ordinary judgment. Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell move from Kathy's growing reliance on Claude Opus 4.5 and a client's surprise at Whisper's improved speaker detection to a $5,000 maker,…
Alex Cox's surprise at Kathy Campbell's Claude use turns AI skepticism into a loose, funny tech conversation.
Roboism turns its AI discussion on a neat reversal: Kathy Campbell, set up by Alex Cox as an LLM skeptic, has been using Claude more than expected.
A sushi-delivery robot leads into a funny, skeptical look at AI, gig work, and who is really driving.
Roboism uses a sushi-delivery robot from CERV Robotics as a way into a sharper question about labor and AI. Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell follow the promise of delivery bots bringing sushi through Uber Eats, then keep returning to the less polished part of the story: some machines…
Warm STEAM stories with practical wonder.
Robotics, explained through the hardware.
Commercial robotics, explained from the field up.
Real talk from the FRC pit lane.
["Roboism's 'Beach Dwelling Folk' opens with Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell reacting to a beach video where a dog walker appears to be followed by a small self-moving wagon or robot.", "The conversation moves into the open-source AI agent project that kept changing names from Claw Bot to Molt's Book to Open Claw, along with the claim that an agent can run on a local machine and touch files.", "Alex and Kathy describe demos where an agent can book a restaurant, sign up for VOIP, generate a voice through 11 Labs, and interact inside a purpose-built social network for AI agents.", "The back half weighs dead internet theory, fake viral screenshots, ChatGPT ads, open-weight models like Llama and Claude Opus 4.5, and the class gap between paid and free AI access."]
Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell open Robo-Ism's "Tupperware on Wheels" by describing delivery robots that look like a "Tupperware giant Tupperware thing on wheels." Kathy says the world feels "very heavy right now," links that mood to a child having a hard time, and Alex ties it to violent videos and ICE talk on social feeds.
Roboism's 'Cosplaying Servitude' opens with Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell arguing over Claude Opus 4.5, including Kathy's use of it to untangle confusing emails and brainstorm The Incomparable episode 800.
Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell open Roboism by calling it a show about robots, tech, and 'isms,' then move straight into a flu-state joke and a long riff on Yarbo, a modular yard robot.
Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell spend Roboism on Serve Robotics-style sidewalk delivery boxes, opening with a joke about dumb robot names and four-wheel machines with eye-like lights.
Roboism hosts Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell examine Casio’s Mufflin robot companion, including its adaptive personality, sensory-friendly volume controls, charging bed, and uncertain use of AI.
Roboism hosts Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell examine Friend, an offline Claude-powered gadget that they describe as an “air-gapped Tamagotchi” rather than a productivity device.
Roboism hosts Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell examine Friend, a $99 AI pendant that listens continuously and sends text messages through Claude 3.5 from Anthropic.
Roboism hosts Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell critique Apple’s Glow Up event, focusing on AirPods Max receiving only a new charging port while other AirPods gain hearing-assistance and spatial-audio features.
Roboism hosts Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell examine Google's Gemini image-generation controversy, including racially diverse outputs for prompts such as “Viking” and “founding fathers.” Kathy distinguishes Photoshop's AI glare removal from creating images from scratch, arguing that tools can support skills an editor already possesses.
Alex and Kathy discuss their personal experiences with AI and ChatGPT, with Kathy admitting she hasn't used it yet.
Hosts Alex Cox and Kathy Campbell discuss their recent COVID-19 vaccine appointments and caffeine habits.
Alex and Savannah discuss Apple's WWDC announcements, including the new Mac Pro, while testing remote recording for their robot-focused podcast.
Alex Cox and Savannah Million introduce their podcast Roboism at a live event, discussing robots, tech, and culture.
A discussion on how automation and job displacement exacerbate economic inequality, featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's perspective on systemic issues.