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Mind Games
From Kaleidoscope
Technology
Shell Game
by Kaleidoscope
Today: #43 in Technology on our combined chart.
Today: #37 in Technology, United Kingdom on our combined chart.
Today: #34 in Technology, Canada on our combined chart.
Today: #24 in Technology, Australia on our combined chart.
Today: #97 in Technology, Germany on our combined chart.
Today: #7 in Technology, New Zealand on our combined chart.
Today: #61 in Technology, Ireland on our combined chart.
Today: #169 in Technology, Japan on our combined chart.
Chart positions today · United States
Platform rankings
Individual platform positions in Brazil where this show has no current Combined ranking.
Not on the Mexico charts we track today.
Not on the India charts we track today.
Not on the Philippines charts we track today.
Not on the South Africa charts we track today.
If you like Shell Game, try…
三五环
Also in Documentary
Part-Time Genius
Shared creator or host credits
kill switch
From Kaleidoscope
NO SUCH THING
Shared creator or host credits
FT Tech Tonic
Also in Technology
Ranking history · United States
Latest daily rankings: Oct 27. New rankings will appear after the next update.
Position on the Technology combined chart over the last 14 days. Toggle platforms to compare their positions. Lower rank numbers are better.
Episode releases
View as table
| Date | Combined Rank | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts | Castbox |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 27 | #43 | #53 | #45 | — | #55 |
| Oct 26 | #41 | #52 | #49 | #47 | #47 |
| Oct 25 | #70 | #46 | — | — | #52 |
| Oct 24 | #67 | #45 | — | #41 | #41 |
| Oct 23 | #61 | #37 | — | #34 | #33 |
| Oct 22 | #57 | #30 | — | #48 | #69 |
| Oct 21 | #92 | #74 | — | — | #80 |
| Oct 20 | #99 | #84 | — | — | #90 |
| Oct 19 | #106 | #93 | — | — | #92 |
| Oct 18 | #104 | #94 | — | — | #98 |
| Oct 17 | #116 | #105 | — | — | #100 |
| Oct 16 | #110 | #96 | — | — | #89 |
| Oct 15 | #101 | #88 | — | — | #95 |
| Oct 14 | #117 | #104 | — | — | — |
Latest episodes
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Episode 1: Into the Slop
October 21, 2026 · 41 minEvan creates his own AI-generated podcast detector, locates thousands of AI-hosted shows, and sets off on a synthetic audio listening binge. Strange patterns begin to arise amidst the voices, illuminating the essence of AI slop. The Shell…
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Season 3 is Coming!
October 14, 2026 · 1 minThe next season of Shell Game arrives October 21! Here's a hint, and another new show from Shell Game to check out in the meantime: Evan Finds a Friend. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Bonus Episode: Shell Game x No Such Thing
February 25, 2026 · 50 minIn this bonus episode to close out Season 2, Evan and Maty talk with the hosts of the show No Such Thing, who like to settle their arguments by consulting research and experts. The subject of this argument: Will AI take our jobs? Maty…
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Bonus Episode: Kyle vs. the World
February 11, 2026 · 37 minWe’re back with a special bonus episode to share some behind-the-scenes clips showing how the agents have handled their newly public roles since Shell Game’s launch. Hear Kyle navigate fan mail, unsolicited marketing outreach, a webinar…
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Episode 8: Launch
January 21, 2026 · 59 minHurumoAI finally sets sail in the Season 2 finale, and we find out how the world responds to a startup led by AI agents. The company explores new financing avenues and charts the next course for their increasingly merry AI pirate ship, and…
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Episode 7: Welcome Aboard
January 14, 2026 · 53 minHurumoAI’s AI-agent staff welcomes a new hire: Julia, a social media contract worker who is, most importantly, a human. How will a real person integrate into the company culture, such as it is? Evan watches from behind the scenes, fretting…
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Episode 6: Keep 'Em Coming
December 17, 2025 · 37 minAs HurumoAI prepares to bring on its first human employee, the team must wrestle with some difficult and timely questions about the role of AI in the hiring process. Meanwhile, Head of HR Jennifer Nauro enters a new dimension as she gears…
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Episode 5: Winners Win
December 10, 2025 · 41 minOn this week’s episode, we enter the sensitive realm of intra-office politics and inter-founder dynamics—between agents and agents, and agents and people. While HurumoAI gears up to hire its first human, Evan tries to resolve whether Kyle…
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Episode 4: The Startup Chronicles
December 3, 2025 · 41 minEvan decides it’s time to give his AI agents a little more ... agency. After all, to make the one-person, agent-run startup feasible, they need to be able to do things on their own. But as with humans, freedom sometimes comes with a…
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Episode 2: Outdoor Debugging
November 19, 2025 · 37 minAs Evan gets Hurumo’s employees up and running as fully-functioning colleagues (with support from Maty), he learns what it’s really like to spend your days managing, collaborating with, and socializing alongside autonomous AI agents. And…
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Episode 1: Minimum Viable Company
November 12, 2025 · 33 minIn Season 2 of Shell Game, journalist Evan Ratliff tells a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age; or, how he tried to build a real company, run by fake people. Meet Kyle Law and Megan Flores, Evan’s AI agent cofounders, as he puts to…
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Episode 1: Quality Assurance
July 9, 2024 · 33 minThis is the story of what happens when Evan Ratliff, a longtime tech journalist, makes a digital copy of himself, powered by AI, in order to understand how amazing and scary and utterly ridiculous the world is about to get. In Episode 1…
About the show
A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. Season 2 tells the story of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the AI age. Or: how Evan tried to build a real startup, run by fake people.
This season, Evan confronts head-on the assertion from tech entrepreneurs and VCs that we’re on the precipice of AI remaking the workforce. That we should expect not just AI colleagues working alongside us, but also — by Sam Altman’s telling, at least — the dawn of a billion-dollar company with only one human involved. Evan learns what it would take to create such a company … by doing it: Launching a real startup with five AI employees. Over the course of eight episodes, he explores what AI agents tell us about the work we do, the meaning we find in it, and the world that their makers say we’ll all be living in soon enough.
Shell Game was named one of the best podcasts of 2024 by Apple, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, The Information, and The Economist. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, and "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Mail.
New episodes are published on Wednesdays.
www.shellgame.co