A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. Season 3 is a miniseries in three episodes, telling the story of how Evan tried to understand the tsunami of AI-generated content by injecting as much of it as possible straight into his ears.
What exactly is AI slop anyway? How do you actually define it? Who is behind it all? And what does it mean for the human storytelling that we care about? We journey deep into the muck, and fight our way back out with answers.
Shell Game is a multiple award-winning series that has been named one of the best of the year by Apple, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, The Information, The Economist. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Mail, and “a dry, funny plunge down the rabbit hole that pokes at something essential about the hours we spend on this earth,” says Vulture.
www.shellgame.co
This show includes AI-generated content.
Latest episodes
Showing 20 · updated from the feed
Episode 3: The Friends We Made Along the Way
It’s the final episode of our three-part miniseries on AI slop, in which we ask: Who are AI-generated podcasts for, and what does the wave of AI slop mean for the future
Nov 4 42 min
Episode 2: Hear What Matters
Evan goes looking for the humans behind the flood of AI-generated podcasts, and gets some complicated answers to his questions about what they think they’re making and wh
Oct 28 47 min
Episode 1: Into the Slop
Evan 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 ari
Oct 21 40 min
Season 3 is Coming!
The 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 omnystud
Oct 14 1 min
From How to Life Forever: The Longevinauts
When an astrologer tells Mangesh that he’ll (probably) die early, he takes it in stride. But his family and friends (not to mention all the Don’t Die longevity influencer
Aug 4 51 min
Bonus Episode: Shell Game x No Such Thing
In 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 ex
Feb 25 49 min
Bonus Episode: Kyle vs. the World
We’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
Feb 11 36 min
Episode 8: Launch
HurumoAI 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 ch
Jan 21 58 min
Episode 7: Welcome Aboard
HurumoAI’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
Jan 14 53 min
Episode 6: Keep 'Em Coming
As 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. Mean
Dec 17 2025 37 min
Episode 5: Winners Win
On 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
Dec 10 2025 41 min
Episode 4: The Startup Chronicles
Evan 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
Dec 3 2025 40 min
Episode 3: This is Law
As Kyle, Megan, and the gang get to work ideating on the perfect product, Evan is left grappling with some uncomfortable questions about his AI collaborators — whose ever
Nov 26 2025 40 min
Episode 2: Outdoor Debugging
As 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, coll
Nov 19 2025 37 min
Episode 1: Minimum Viable Company
In 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 K
Nov 12 2025 32 min
The One-Human Unicorn
As AI agents infiltrate the workforce, some tech entrepreneurs are imagining a not-so-distant future of successful companies with only one human at the helm. That got inv
Nov 5 2025 2 min
Season 2 Is Coming!
The next season of Shell Game arrives November 12.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 10 2025 2 min
Episode 6: The Future Isn't Real
Evan pushes the experiment one step further, sending his AI voice agent to talk to his closest friends and family — his buddies, his daughters, his dad. With their altern
Aug 13 2024 53 min
Episode 5: My Digital Twin
Will AI bots replace humans in the workforce? Could one replace Evan… right now? That’s what we tackle on this week’s Shell Game, in which Evan sees just how much of his
Aug 6 2024 43 min
Episode 4: Take a Deep Breath
Evan looks into the depths of his AI-powered voice agent by sending it on a new mission: going to therapy. Shell Game is made by humans. More specifically, it's made by t
Jul 30 2024 40 min
Chart trend
Position in the Technology chart (US), last 90 days.
#1#61#120AugSepOctNov
#1
all-time peak
12
days in the top 3 since Nov 2024
Chart positions
Where Shell Game ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Nov 13, 2026).
A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.
I just love this show so much. It’s everything I have always loved about podcasts (fascinating, curiosity-satisfying, clever, serious but also genuinely funny, exceptionally well produced, and yes, made by humans) while adding something new and, in my opinion, necessary, to the current moment. It’s also a rare show that continues to deliver what I love about it season after season. If you love shows like Search Engine, you will love Shell Game. I said love five times.
Moegith · Oct 2026
This feels like fiction, but it’s not. If I were to pitch this people will think I’m stupid, but it’s actually very high stakes and has great reporting. It’s uncomfortable to listen to, and absolutely engaging and delightful. It’s a “must listen” for this decade.
PodFan96 · Apr 2026
Simultaneously hilarious, heart wrenching and painful. As someone trying to reinvent a large engineering organization in the still early days of the AI era, this pod reflects all the challenges I have with humans, with technology, with leaders and with managing change. It’s insane how AI agents replicate the foibles of humans while failing in entirely new ways.
Peianzhu · Mar 2026
Season 2 is a wonderful combination of serious reporting, performance art, philosophical and technological experimentation, and comedy. It’s so damn good. And as others have said, so funny.
AGfromOhio · Feb 2026
I listened to the entirety of season 2 and found myself getting angrier and angrier. The whole thing is soulless AI slop. Evan’s total disregard for the internship applicants and Julia was the worst - he treated the humans with less respect than the AI agents. And it felt like he expected Julia, as an intern, to manage the AIs rather than the other way around. He also seems not to have an actual grasp of what AI agents’ limitations, and doesn’t seem to pick up on their pattern of repeating your inputs with different phrasing, then he seems baffled when the agents produce no actual work. After 8 episodes and visiting the website, I still have no idea what Sloth Surf is meant to do.
FirstOfAllCongrats · Mar 2026
We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.
More podcasts like Shell Game
Popular shows in Technology, for your next listen.
Here you find the Apple Podcasts chart positions of Shell Game, its latest episodes to listen to directly, and reviews from listeners. Rankings are updated daily for the United States.
