This week, hosts Brian Barrett, Leah Feiger, and Zoë Schiffer discuss …’s big scoop on ICE’s startling plans to expand to nearly every state in the US. Then they unpack Alex Karp’s nearly-hour-long non-response to Palantir employees with ethical concerns about collaborating with ICE. Plus, a … writer lets the viral AI assistant OpenClaw run his life for a week to give listeners a peek of what AI agents can and can’t actually do.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
- The Shoes and Brooms Transforming Curling at the 2026 Winter Olympics
- I Loved My OpenClaw AI Agent—Until It Turned on Me
- Palantir CEO Alex Karp Recorded a Video About ICE for His Employees
- ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next
- The ICE Expansion Won’t Happen in the Dark
- James Holzhauer's Jeopardy! Greatness, in Charts
You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett, Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer, and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at uncannyvalley@….com.
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to …'sUncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, director of business and industry.
Brian Barrett: I'm Brian Barrett, executive editor.
Leah Feiger: And I'm Leah Feiger, senior politics editor.
Brian Barrett: I want to continue a conversation that we started yesterday in Slack after work hours for some of us.
Zoë Schiffer: Absolutely.
Brian Barrett: And this is about the men's short program—
Leah Feiger: We're diving right in—
Brian Barrett: —figure skating.
Leah Feiger: This is about the Olympics in general with—
Brian Barrett: But very specifically want to pick up on the conversation where Zoë had very strong feelings about the results of men's figure skating.
Zoë Schiffer: I feel like we need to back up because you and Leah authentically care about the Olympics so much and I think just know more about sports than I do.
Leah Feiger: Yes.
Zoë Schiffer: I deeply have never engaged with sports ever, just as a whole rule, as a category. It doesn't exist in my life.
Leah Feiger: Say the lines, say the lines, Zoë, or I'm going to read them verbatim from slack.
Zoë Schiffer: Wait, I don't even know what you're talking about. I was merely surprised when I watched because the Americans went, I thought, wow, that guy basically fell over and was clumping around the ice, and then Japan went, and they were sailing around like little swans, and then when the gold medal came, it went to the Americans. I was literally jaw-on-the-floor. I couldn't believe what had happened. No one else seemed outraged.
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