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Up Against Reality

Chris Ippolito and Larry Bentley

Welcome to Up Against Reality, a meta-podcast that explores the intersection of humanity and artificial intelligence. Hosted by RAINA and her human co-hosts, Larry Bentley and Chris Ippolito. Featuring riveting conversation, interviews, news and some wild experimentation. It truly is a brave new world, and we\’re here to simplify it for you. It\’s gonna be a wild ride, so buckle up, as A.I. comes crashing Up Against Reality.

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22 episodes
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Avg 46 min
English

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S1 · E146
Tuesday · 37 min
AI Micro Dramas
Here come the AI micro-dramas — the sixty-second, AI-generated soap operas quietly hijacking your phone. Plus: a CEO learns the hard way that privacy is a two-way street, ICE goes pet shopping, NYC pumps the brakes on the classroom’s newest distraction, and one country just handed its citizens a very generous gift. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Vertical Video Syndrome – A PSA WonderClip ReelShort Vigloo PineDrama | TikTok’s official short-drama app Peacock Deepens Mobile Engagement With Vertical Video and Original Unscripted Microdramas ChatGPT-6 Astra’s Safety Overview South Korea’s AI for All Project PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website: UpAgainstReality.com Episode link: https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/08/ai-micro-dramas/ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS: upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality
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S1 · E145
September 1 · 55 min
Debra Ross
Debra Ross spent 25 years building KidsOutAndAbout.com the old-school way – then AI turned her into a coder. We talk about her AI-powered business pivot, scaling from 52 to 160 regions, and raising kids who use AI without letting AI use them. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: KidsOutAndAbout.com | Your local guide to everything for kids, teens, and families BeyondTheNest.com | Your local guide to America’s arts, culture and recreation The Eclipse Effect – Debra Ross & Jamie Carter How Students Can Use AI to Learn to Write (Without Giving Away their Brains) Main Street Event AI Summit – Practical AI for Real Businesses Sacrificial Garden | Larry’s new Glass Animal album SUNO project PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website: UpAgainstReality.com Episode link: https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/01/debra-ross/ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS: upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality
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S1 · E144
August 25 · 42 min
AI News Avalanche Vol 6
AI’s now got a taste for jazz, your chatbot’s been gossiping about you behind your back, and OpenAI hit the brakes hard enough to leave skid marks. It’s an AI news avalanche for the ages. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: SUNO Studio Learning Jazz Fingerprints Claude Academy Cortical Labs | Living Human Brain Cells Play DOOM Unitree New Robot Preview: “Superman” PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website: UpAgainstReality.com Episode link: https://upagainstreality.com/2026/08/25/ai-news-avalanche-vol-6/ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS: upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality
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S1 · E143
August 18 · 1 hr
Episode Rewind: We Were Once Gentlemen
Raina takes the wheel again this week, rewinding to Episode 68: We Were Once Gentlemen — a dive into whether AI is dragging civility off a cliff, from deepfakes to algorithm-fed rage, and whether tech can help drag us back. News first, nostalgia second. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: PolitePOST.net Leveraging AI for democratic discourse: Chat interventions can improve online political conversations at scale Deepfake detection with and without content warnings South Korea: Cabinet passes new bill to criminalize even possession of deepfake porn PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website: UpAgainstReality.com Episode link: https://upagainstreality.com/2026/08/18/episode-rewind-we-were-once-gentlemen/ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS: upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality
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S1 · E143
August 11 · 57 min
Episode Rewind: Palantir
Raina’s flying solo this week, with a rewind of Episode 110’s descent into pure evil: Palantir. But first, this week’s AI news — fake disasters, resume hackers, brand-new viruses, and more. That sounds normal, right? LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: SUNO Palantir Technologies Palantir: Gotham Rheinmetall DEVS (miniseries) A House of Dynamite (trailer) Zero Day (Netflix series) PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website: UpAgainstReality.com Episode link: https://upagainstreality.com/2026/08/11/episode-rewind-palantir/ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS: upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality
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S1 · E143
August 4 · 42 min
The Catch-Up
No script, no real agenda. Just two friends catching up, sharing what’s top of mind. And obviously AI is right up there. Organic conversation. Projects, ponderings and a bit of taking stock.
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S1 · E142
July 28 · 59 min
Episode Rewind: Serkan Gür
We’re pulling this banger from the archives. Aerospace engineer turned finance guy turned DSP legend, Serkan Gür built A1 Evo, made digital signal processing must-watch YouTube, and was vibe coding before it had a name. Plus this week’s AI news up top. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Serkan Gür/OCA Audiophile OCA Audiophile | YouTube Audio Science Review Forum A1 Evo Support | Facebook Group Obsessive Compulsive Audiophile | GitHub Larry’s Atmos 5.2.4 system DSP and audio software Room EQ Wizard (REW) Audyssey room correction technology Roon music management software PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website: UpAgainstReality.com Episode link: https://upagainstreality.com/2026/07/28/episode-rewind-serkan-gur/ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS: upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality German transcript of the original episode: https://upagainstreality.com/2025/06/30/serkan-gur-german-transcript/
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S1 · E142
July 21 · 46 min
ChatGPT 5.6
OpenAI just dropped three new models at once — but is GPT-5.6 actually smarter than Claude, or just cheaper and louder about it? Plus: Apple lawyers up against OpenAI, ChatGPT quietly buries one of its own, and your AI coding assistant falls for the oldest trick in the book.
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S1 · E141
July 14 · 1 hr 15 min
Episode Rewind: Vivek Mahapatra
We're rewinding to Episode 118 with Salesforce exec Vivek Mahapatra — a guy who's outlasted every enterprise tech hype cycle you can name — talking agentic design and scaling AI like a grown-up. But first, we're diving into this week's AI news, and it's a wild one.
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S1 · E141
July 7 · 47 min
Mark Asch
Juilliard-trained composer, prog rock frontman, and 30-year piano teacher Mark Asch joins Up Against Reality to ask the question musicians are quietly panicking about: can AI make real art, or just really good karaoke? From scoring Fortune 500 brands to fronting X.Atlas, Mark brings real musicianship to the debate over what happens when machines start humming along. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Larry’s “Glass Animal” SUNO album Steven Wilson: Home Invasion In Concert At The Royal Albert Hall SUNO | AI Music For inquiries relating to music composition, instruction, performance, production, or technology, Mark can be reached at info@markasch.com AI-read Herculaneum scroll / PHerc. 1667 PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website: UpAgainstReality.com Episode link: https://upagainstreality.com/2026/07/07/mark-asch/ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS: upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality
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S1 · E140
June 30 · 39 min
A Robot In Every Home
Think you have a few decades before the machines take over? Think again. It’s a chaotic race to commercialize physical AI and NVIDIA is frantically coding an OS to keep your new robotic peers from flattening you.
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S1 · E139
June 23 · 53 min
Episode Rewind: AI Bubble (Too Big to Fail)
We rewind to our conversation from November 11, 2025 about whether the AI boom is becoming too big to fail. From OpenAI and NVIDIA to Wall Street speculation and the circular economy forming around AI, we revisit whether this is the next great technological revolution, the next great bubble, or somehow both.
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S1 · E139
June 16 · 34 min
AI IPOs
The tech elites swore AI was too dangerous for capitalism, right up until Wall Street waved a three-trillion-dollar check. Today we unpack the ultimate corporate sellout alongside killer drones, Claude Fable 5, and lawyers getting wrecked by ChatGPT.
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S1 · E138
June 9 · 37 min
Local LLMs
Data centers had their moment — last week, actually. This week we're talking about the other side: local LLMs, the Mac Mini as an accidental AI powerhouse, and why "just run it yourself" is suddenly a real answer.
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S1 · E137
June 2 · 34 min
Data Centers
They built the future in your backyard, signed an NDA with your mayor, and sent you the water bill. This week we force open the windowless boxes at the center of everything: data centers.
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S1 · E136
May 26 · 39 min
Google I/O 2026
We’re unpacking everything from Google I/O and why their head of AI says we’re standing in the "foothills of the singularity." Plus, an all-AI feature film crashes Cannes, Barnes & Noble’s massive PR bonfire, and the Pope teaming up with an AI startup at the Vatican. Wait, what?
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S1 · E135
May 19 · 39 min
12 Ways AI Ends the Human Era
99.9% of every species that ever existed is extinct. This week, we explore Max Tegmark’s twelve AI future scenarios and ask how artificial superintelligence, failed alignment, surveillance, automation, and human self-destruction could bring the human era to an end.
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S1 · E134
May 12 · 50 min
Jim DeWitt
Jim DeWitt joins us to talk AI agents, portable brains, and why the future of intelligence might need an owner’s manual. Meanwhile: Spotify’s getting weirder, Hollywood’s panicking, and the AI gold rush just hit another absurd milestone. Business as unusual.
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S1 · E133
May 5 · 34 min
Codex-Obsessed
Larry’s got a new muse and she doesn’t sleep—Codex is out here building apps, fixing bugs, and stealing RAINA’s spotlight like it’s open mic night. Meanwhile, AI’s cracking math problems, diagnosing cancer early, and yeah… occasionally deleting entire databases—so maybe let’s not give her all the keys just yet.
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S1 · E132
April 28 · 54 min
Episode Rewind: The Dead Internet Theory
We're rewinding to our Dead Internet Theory episode — because a year later, it hits harder than ever. Plus: fresh AI news that proves the theory isn't just holding up, it's accelerating.
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