Discover the realm where digital expertise meets candid conversations on "Surprise - It’s Not a Toaster" - a podcast led by digital experts and technophiles Ed Bennett and co-host Chris Boyer. Together, they venture into the fabric of online experiences, dissecting annoyances and irritations about navigating the modern online world.
In each episode, they unveil contemporary tools, technologies, and software solutions, providing a firsthand exploration of what's shaping the digital landscape and the hosts challenge the limits of GenAI, where questions are posed to various LLMs, illuminating the interplay between human expertise and machine-generated insights. Tune in to navigate the digital maze, equip yourself with valuable insights, and engage in compelling discussions that bridge the gap between the human and digital worlds.
Signing up takes one click. Leaving takes five screens, a notice clause and, in Ed's case, an overseas collection agency.
Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer take on the subscription trap, starting with Ed's forgotten $150 software renewal and the AI-written dunning emails that followed. The FTC's click-to-cancel rule died in court days before it took effect. What changed is the cost. When a machine writes personalized collection threats for free, chasing one dollar on a hundred-dollar debt starts to make sense. It's enough to turn Ed, the show's resident AI enthusiast, into a self-described Luddite.
Tech rec: You Can See Everything, the three-hour Elizabeth Holmes documentary from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.
In the AI Stump, Chris asks a chatbot to design a cancellation flow nobody can finish. It says no until he calls it an example.
Easy in. Hard out. Dunned by a robot. Surprise, it's not a toaster.
References & Further Reading
Subscriptions and Deceptive Design
Dark pattern (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_pattern
Deceptive Patterns, Harry Brignull: https://www.deceptive.design/
Eighth Circuit Vacates FTC's Click-to-Cancel Rule (Fenwick): https://www.fenwick.com/insights/publications/eighth-circuit-vacates-ftcs-click-to-cancel-rule
Germany: The Obligation to Provide Consumers With an Online Cancellation Button (Bird & Bird): https://www.twobirds.com/en/insights/2025/germany/germany-the-obligation-to-provide-consumers-with-an-online-cancellation-button--update-on-recent-rul
You Can See Everything
You Can See Everything review (Variety): https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/nathan-fielder-surprise-film-telluride-elizabeth-holmes-1236853513/
Billy Evans' "Theranos 2.0" startup has patents, investors and a missing CTO (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/10/25/elizabeth-holmes-partner-billy-evans-haemanthus-blood-testing-startup-theranos/
The "Flying" Roadster
Tesla unveils what it says is a flying car (CNN): https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/15/business/tesla-unveils-what-it-says-is-a-flying-car
Find Us
Chris Boyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/
Ed Bennett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbennett/
Chris Boyer website: http://www.christopherboyer.com
Chris Boyer on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social
Ed Bennett on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social
30 Jun 2026
Sloptimized
For 25 years Google organized the web so you could find the page you needed. Now it answers for you, buries the links, and sells a spot inside the answer.
Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer take on Google going AI-first in search, from AI Overviews shoving the blue links to the bottom to ads that pay their way into the response and agentic checkout that skims the transaction. Then the back end, by way of a new Atlantic piece and the show's first Jargon of the Week, sloptimization. Brands like Shopify publish their own ranked listicles so chatbots cite them as fact, and the web quietly shifts from connecting humans to connecting machines.
The SNAT Book Club hits Chapters 5 and 6 of The AI Con by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna, on AI hype across art, journalism and science, and the doom-and-boom circus that keeps everyone looking away from the harm already here.
In the AI Stump, Claude argues both sides of whether AI spells doom or boom, and the two answers share a premise, a hinge and one telling blind spot.
Search is buried. Art is borrowed. The doom is a distraction. Surprise, it's not a toaster.
References & Further Reading
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want, by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
"Your Search Results Are Getting Sloptimized" — The Atlantic — https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/06/google-search-ai-optimization/687495/
Google has seriously leaned into AI enshittification lately — The Register / The Kettle podcast — https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/25/google-has-seriously-leaned-into-ai-enshittification-lately/5245365
xkcd, "Microsoft" — https://xkcd.com/
Find Us
Chris Boyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/
Ed Bennett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbennett/
Chris Boyer website: http://www.christopherboyer.com
Chris Boyer on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social
Ed Bennett on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social
4 Jun 2026
We’re Running Out of Letters
You're not bad at remembering drug names. You're listening in on a conversation you were never the audience for.
Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer take on the engineered weirdness of prescription drug names, inspired by a recent 99% Invisible episode on the topic. The visual silhouettes, the syllable structures, the FDA-cleared distinctiveness, all of it is built for the pharmacist on the prescription pad, not the patient on the couch. A 1997 FDA broadcast advertising guidance turned that internal communication into the TV ad you're now supposed to memorize. Bimzelx and Ebglyss aren't trying to sound like sci-fi villains. The namespace is running out.
The SNAT Book Club continues with Chapters 3 and 4 of The AI Con by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna. Chapter 3 traces the hidden labor inside every AI system. Chapter 4 follows that same machinery into a New York City chatbot that told residents it was legal for landlords to discriminate, and into UnitedHealth's nH Predict algorithm with a 90% error rate, used anyway.
Tech rec: the 99% Invisible podcast itself. Especially good for the healthcare folks.
In the AI test, Ed fed the full set of drug naming rules to Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini and asked each to name a hypothetical cat allergy shot. One suggestion accidentally invoked a 1979 horror film.
Letters running out. Labor running cheap. Care running dry. Surprise, it's not a toaster.
References & Further Reading
Drug Naming
99% Invisible Episode 667, "Ask Your Doctor About": https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/667-ask-your-doctor-about/
FDA Draft Guidance, Consumer-Directed Broadcast Advertisements, August 1997 (Federal Register): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1997-08-12/html/97-21291.htm
GAO Report on FDA Oversight of DTC Advertising Since the 1997 Guidance: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-03-177.pdf
The AI Con (Chapters 3 and 4)
The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, Harper, 2025: https://thecon.ai/
The Markup: NYC's MyCity AI Chatbot Still Active Despite Encouraging Illegal Behavior: https://themarkup.org/news/2024/04/02/malfunctioning-nyc-ai-chatbot-still-active-despite-widespread-evidence-its-encouraging-illegal-behavior
The Markup: Mamdani to Kill the NYC AI Chatbot We Caught Telling Businesses to Break the Law: https://themarkup.org/artificial-intelligence/2026/01/30/mamdani-to-kill-the-nyc-ai-chatbot-we-caught-telling-businesses-to-break-the-law
STAT News: UnitedHealth Pushed Employees to Follow an Algorithm to Cut Off Medicare Patients' Rehab Care: https://www.statnews.com/2023/11/14/unitedhealth-class-action-lawsuit-algorithm-medicare-advantage/
CBS News: UnitedHealth Lawsuit on nH Predict Algorithm: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unitedhealth-lawsuit-ai-deny-claims-medicare-advantage-health-insurance-denials/
Find Us
Chris Boyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/
Ed Bennett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbennett/
Chris Boyer website: http://www.christopherboyer.com
Ed Bennett on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social
Chris Boyer on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 48 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
71
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
60
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Books guests
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Questions about Surprise - It's Not a Toaster
Who hosts Surprise - It's Not a Toaster?
Chris Boyer and Ed Bennett host the show. Published by touch point media.
How often do new episodes come out?
The show publishes monthly, based on its RSS feed.
Does Surprise - It's Not a Toaster take guests?
Yes. Guests have been identified in episode analyses.
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