Breaking Change

Hosted by Justin Searls

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Mar 2026

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About the show

A show in which Justin Searls talks with you from time to time. Programmer things. Apple stuff. Gaming news. Dispatches from Disney World. Each episode also entitles the listener to one (1) exclusive pun, care of of Aaron Patterson (aka @tenderlove). Submit questions and comments to podcast@searls.co

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60 recent

March 20, 2026Episode 603 hr 5 min

v53 - Pod Freeze

The promise of Breaking Change is that with every major version (this being the 60th episode of the program, but only the 53rd such release), I will break something. Well, I finally did it. I think I broke the show. Find out how by listening for yourself! Want to be my friend? Drop me a line at justin@searls.co. Want to file a complaint with my supervisor? Forward your concerns to podcast@searls.co. These links may rot, but alas—death comes for us all: Tonal (without a subscription) Better with Becky My appearance on the freeCodeCamp podcast Dual-loop BDD is the new Red-green TDD Models are commodities, harnesses are differentiators Aaron's puns, ranked United Airlines can now boot passengers who refuse to use headphones with their devices (News+) Your Meta glasses are watching you pee (9to5mac's summary) Tuna for Mac by friend of the show, Mikkel Malmberg MacBook Neo MacBook Neo offers more single-core performance than any mobile processor from AMD, Intel or Qualcomm Apple + Nvidia's CloudXR & Foveated streaming partnership: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Xbox's Project Helix Microsoft's 'Xbox mode' is coming to every Windows 11 PC (News+) Windows: Announcing new tools and platform updates for Windows PC game developers Sony is testing dynamic pricing in the PlayStation Store DLSS 5 should make you excited and/or outraged: video, backlash Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don't rewrite an Iran missile story South Korean Police Lose Seized Crypto By Posting Password Online China mobilizes "one-person company" AI startups Scrubs is back! Mickey 17 is not about a cartoon mouse The Expanse Marathon - and how sickos like me can't stop thinking about it

March 7, 2026Episode 592 hr 12 min

v52.0.1 - Len Testa: Bring back the Starcruiser

Today, we're joined by a very special guest, Len Testa! You might know him from The Disney Dish podcast or from his excellent theme park travel planning app Touring Plans. Or you might not know him at all! No wrong answers. This episode is all about Disney's ill-fated Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser live action role-playing hotel—which we both had the opportunity to experience right when it first launched. It was a life-changing experience for both of us, so why did it fail? Is it true that the top Disney brass learned all the wrong lessons from that failure? And will the CEO-in-waiting Josh D'Amaro ever have the courage to attempt something so ambitious again? Listen to this episode, in which we speak with an unearned confidence that suggests we have all of these answers! You can reach out to Len at len@touringplans.com and you can write into the show at podcast@searls.co. He'll read your e-mail and reply to it, but I may only skim it.

March 1, 2026Episode 582 hr 6 min

v52 - Skynet any%

Sure feels like some combination of AI, the US military, and the AI military could bring an end to the world any day now, so I figured I'd better record one last show for posterity. Welcome me on this version's speedrun to the apocalypse! So long as the EMP blasts don't nuke all our ham radios, write in to podcast@searls.co and I'll read it on the next release of the program. Over. Be sure to click all these links while the clickin's good: Ninja Creami Deluxe prove_it Agents are ushering in the Antisocial Era Brace for the Fuckening Citrini Research fanfic Would you like your AI singularity benign or extinction-level? Original post by the Dallas Fed Anthropic's Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth OpenAI's agreement with the Department of War U.S. Strikes in Middle East Use Anthropic, Hours After Trump Ban Human brain cells on a chip learned to play Doom in a week Apple introduces a new video podcast experience on Apple Podcasts Foveated Streaming for Apple Vision Pro Huge Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer retiring, Sarah Bond resigns, Microsoft AI boss becomes new Microsoft Gaming CEO XCOM's Jake Solomon announces his new studio is closing, reveals now-cancelled AI-driven narrative game Fan group makes Unreal Tournament 2004 available to play for free and in 4K Video Games Are Losing a Brain Rot Race to Gambling and Porn (News+) Netflix walks away from its deal to buy Warner Bros. after Paramount came back with a better offer (News+) Why Netflix Actually Won Even Though It Lost Warner Deal (News+) Aaron's puns, ranked Your Friends & Neighbors Rental Family Halt and Catch Fire (again) Paradise: Season 2 Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown xcbeautify turbocommit The double loop model for agentic coding

February 16, 2026Episode 572 hr 13 min

v51 - Praise-bomb

I feel like I'm getting saltier, and it's concerning. If you want me to tone it down and/or up, let me know. It'll go a lot better if you just write to podcast@searls.co instead of yelling at your phone. As usual, I brought the goods. Now here are the receipts: prove_it is doing its job, mostly Aaron's puns, ranked Starsand Island studio confused by alleged 'praise-bombing' attack Sony is considering holding back PlayStation 6 until 2028 or 2029 Southwest changes are infuriating fans (News+) NYT: All the news that's fit to manspread Gurman: Tesla CarPlay Held Back by Need for Wider Adoption of Apple's iOS 26 (Archive) YouTube on Vision Pro (News+) Apple Announces Special Event in New York, London, and Shanghai on March 4 Filed my first SwiftUI bug as feedback. It's FB21962656 Thoughtworks concludes TDD is good and billable juniors valuable Ugh, Anthropic CEO was right about the timing of AI writing all the code Peter Steinberger Chose OpenAI. The Code Was Never the Point Eternity Starfleet Academy Your Friends & Neighbors

February 5, 2026Episode 562 hr 25 min

v50 - SpaceXXX

Elon has combined 3 of his 4 businesses and everything makes sense. Also, I went to Japan and all I came back with was another weird story about animal sperm. Other stuff happened too, but let's be honest, it's the typical AI schlock you've come to expect from this decade. Write in with your own takes to podcast@searls.co. Please. Really! Do it. Citations needed? 白子揚げ = 🐟🍆💦🍟 scrapple scrapes Apple docs for agents prove_it forces Claude to verify his shit works Aaron's puns, ranked A sane but extremely bull case on Clawdbot / OpenClaw US Insurer 'Lemonade' Cuts Rates 50% for Drivers Using Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' Software Elon Musk's SpaceX acquiring AI startup xAI ahead of potential IPO Amazon commingling practices will end effective March 31, 2026 UPS to cut additional 30,000 jobs in Amazon unwind, turnaround plan Microsoft is experimenting with a top menu bar for Windows 11 (News+) How DoorDash and Other Food Delivery Apps Are Reshaping Mealtime in the U.S. Apple debuts 'Apple Creator Studio' subscription, here's what you get Apple Sued by App Developer Over its Continuity Camera Halide cofounder Sebastiaan de With joins Apple's design team Inside Apple's AI Shake-Up, AI Safari and Plans for New Siri in iOS 26.4, iOS 27 (Archive) Apple introduces new AirTag with expanded range and improved findability Xcode 26.3 unlocks the power of agentic coding Josh D'Amaro Named Next Chief Executive Officer of Disney Everyone is stealing TV (News+) Google's AI helped me make bad Nintendo knockoffs (News+) Deepmind Genie The sizzle reel Angry gamers are forcing studios to scrap or rethink new releases (News+) Xbox Developer Direct - Fable looks like they did the thing , Forza Horizon 6 is set in Japan Valve confirms Steam Machine price and release details have been delayed by exploding component prices Slow Horses Hijack Posturr - posture-correcting screen blurring app Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes Absolum Blippo+

January 9, 2026Episode 552 hr 0 min

v49 - Saving Face Oil

I'm about to get on a plane and will be gone for a couple weeks, but didn't want to leave you Breaking Changeless so I did the thing where I stand up in front of a microphone and talked at you. Again. Like I do. Fun fact: this is the first and only time I've taken a phone call live, on-air! I was just too lazy to edit that out gracefully. Whenever I go to Japan solo, I experience moments of loneliness, so I'd really appreciate it if you sent me some praise or complaints or ideas to podcast@searls.co and I'll feel comforted by the knowledge that you exist. Your engagement sustains me. Lotta weird and dumb links this go-round: Eric Doggett is a great friend/artist Fortune Feimster isn't spelled how I would've guessed Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer (Gen 2) is the best gift anyone's given me in a while POSSE Party's tutorial videos are just enough to convince you to either bother or not bother Reddit's r/selfhosted is at least a little self-aware I'm giving myself some grace when it comes to the newsletter EDID Emulators are a hardware product that exist only because Windows is bad Looking forward to trying Happy for remote Claude Code / Codex CLI work Aaron's puns, ranked Pebble Index 01 Google's / XReal Putting It All on Glasses Next Year XReal is partnering with Asus ROG, too Google and Apple partner on better Android-iPhone switching NYT profiles John Ternus AirPods Pro with IR cameras (instead of stem clicks?!) JPMorgan Chase Reaches a Deal to Take Over the Apple Credit Card (News+) The Clicks Power Keyboard looks rad Expedition 33's Game Awards sweep has me asking, who will be the first to VEGOT? Valve still sending this guy chocolates every Christmas The post-GeForce era: What if Nvidia abandons PC gaming? The 5090 could cost $5090 by the end of 2026 Nvidia plans heavy cuts to GPU supply in early 2026 Racks of AI chips are too damn heavy (News+) Vera Rubin is probably even heavier GPT Image 1.5 is better but not good enough PSA: make ChatGPT less warm, enthusiastic, and emoji-tastic (News+) You can (supposedly) buy your Instacart groceries without leaving ChatGPT The massive year-end Ed Zitron newsletter. Podcasts are AI now (News+) Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry A Stanford degree wont save you (News+) 'Godfather of SaaS' Says He Replaced Most of His Sales Team With AI Agents NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks Swearing Actually Seems to Make Humans Physically Stronger Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Shut Down After 58 Years Due to Trump Eliminating Funding Grok Is Generating Sexual Content Far More Graphic Than What's on X (News+) Outer Worlds 2 Ball X Pit Stranger Things Season 5 Reddit's terrific r/RealOrAI sub The RayNeo Air 3s are the display glasses I'd recommend if you can find them for $199 Murderbot UDCast universal subtitling (and the movie I wanted to watch) Beckygram.com

December 30, 2025Episode 541 hr 40 min

v48.1 - 2nd Annual Punsort

During the end-of-year podcasting doldrums, I'm pleased to bring you this Feature Release, in which I eschew my tradition of eschewing traditions and present a second annual sorting of the puns. As 2025 (a.k.a. Season 2) of Breaking Change comes to a close, Aaron Patterson once again joins the show to execute our latest iteration of the punsort algorithm. Following along at home? Here's a spoiler-free link to the original Season 2 rankings. Ready to be spoiled? Visit /puns for the final pun rankings of 2025. If you agree, disagree, or are indifferent about where things landed, feel free to get it off your chest at podcast@searls.co.

December 6, 2025Episode 532 hr 25 min

v48 - Coil Whine

I'm experiencing what breathing out of my nose properly feels like for the first time. Everything is new and wondrous and I've never felt so optimistic. This sensation lasted for two days and now I'm used to it and existence is once again pain. Share your existential musings at podcast@searls.co and I'll nod and sigh along. I might even nod and sigh performatively for you on the show! Important ground covered in this episode: My new gaming PC's final parts list This nifty Wake-on-LAN app for iOS The POSSE Party has STARTED! Aaron's puns, ranked Polymarket Builds In-House Trading Team as It Re-Enters the US (Archive) Amazon explores cutting ties with USPS, building its own delivery network (News+) The RAM Shortage Comes for Us All (Another good take) Kirby Air Riders tops the Japanese physical charts as Switch and Switch 2 games sweep the top 15 Meta confirms cuts for Metaverse Efforts (Archive) Alan Dye is leaving apple (Archive) Ben Thompson on Nvidia and OpenAI Everyone in Seattle Hates AI Gemini 3 Pro: the frontier of vision AI Pluribus Star Trek: Enterprise Section 31 Lower Decks Soulframe Outer Worlds 2

November 22, 2025Episode 522 hr 36 min

v47 - Turbinately Ill

Had a little pep in my step this time. Maybe it's because I decided to start recording after 7 AM for once. Maybe it's because I can finally fucking breathe out of my nose holes. Tell me about what you do while you continue to draw breath at podcast@searls.co. Things you can read if you're bored: Beckygram.com Aaron's puns, ranked Steam Frame and Steam Machine Xbox reportedly warning of yet another potential price increase InKonbini retro convenience store simulator Pipboy 3000 replica for $300 Apple introduces Digital ID, a new way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet Google Antigravity kinda sucks I think I might regret watching The Bear Nano Banana Pro made this episode's social image GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is the best coding model I've used yet Adversarial Poetry is a great way to jailbreak LLMs (Comment thread) Cryptographers Cancel Election Results After Losing Decryption Key Outer Worlds 2 ⚡️ Death by Lightning really slaps (claps?) Wicked: For Good is Very, Very Bad (News+) The guy from Pomplamoose is the CEO of Patreon??! "Pixar: The Early Days" interview with Steve Jobs NotebookLM

November 8, 2025Episode 512 hr 23 min

v46 - Adjusted Gross Intelligence

I'm back and I'm angry. My power went out, which caused my Internet to go down, which broke my favorite mug. And that's just the shit that happened before 7 AM. By 9 AM my doorbell was continuously chiming for no fucking reason. Join me in the struggle. We shall persevere. Tell me how your morning went by writing in to: podcast@searls.co. Here 4 U: Kudos to Adam Mcrea and Judoscale for solving my Heroku issue Kudos to me for separately solving my Heroku issue with Straight-to-Video ALVR for streaming SteamVR games Streaming flat games with Sunshine and Moonlight Aaron's puns, ranked AI's Dial-Up Era (and my take) Sandwich made the world's first immersive ad spot Coinbase CEO Stunt Exposes Prediction Market Vulnerability OpenAI and Microsoft resolve their issue without resolving their issue Amazon v. Perplexity BioWare reassures fans Mass Effect 5 is still coming The Outer Worlds 2 Eddy Burback - ChatGPT Made me Delusional