Hello, and welcome to today’s episode. We’re stepping into what Dan Sinker calls the “Who Cares Era,” where AI has become a “mediocrity machine” churning out content no one really reads. Recently, two major newspapers printed an AI-made supplement full of made-up facts and experts—nobody noticed for days. It’s a perfect example of disposable, shoddy work that people mostly ignore.

Sinker argues that if you don’t care, AI’s illusion is “miraculous,” but if you do, it falls apart fast. Even big ideas—like a limited podcast about the multiverse—get dumbed down into generic chatter, lost in the rush to produce more of the same. Poet Hanif Abdurraqib reminds us that deep, thoughtful projects simply aren’t funded anymore.

But there’s hope. Sinker watched real human stories glow with “delight and joy and sadness” in contrast to AI’s Mad-Libs answers. In this age, the most radical thing you can do is care. Make something imperfect. Make something human. Care.
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