Are Relationships Cooked? - When Your Best Friend Is a Chatbot

Are Relationships Cooked? - When Your Best Friend Is a Chatbot

220 million cumulative downloads of AI companion apps by mid-2025. 88% year-over-year growth. The largest platform, Xiaoice in China, has 660 million users. And 72% of US teens have tried AI companions; a third have chosen AI over humans for serious conversations. Episode 5 of Are We Cooked? closes Season 1 with the most personal question. Three years ago, AI companions were fringe behaviour. Today, it's a movement at unprecedented scale. And nobody is being honest about what it means. Anurag Sharma walks through: - The Sensor Tower H1 2025 + Common Sense Media 2025 numbers that expose the real scale - The optimist case: AI fills loneliness gaps no human could (Kuyda, El-Kaliouby, Perel, Murthy) - The pessimist case: always-agreeable AI rewires us out of real relationships (Turkle, Haidt, Putnam, Kamenetz) - What both sides miss, including the gender question nobody is studying - The split Anurag is watching with friends, colleagues, kids of friends - Three sharper questions about love, friendship, and what intimacy means now Not a hype show. Not a doom show. A thinking show. We don't hand you the answer. We hand you a sharper version of the question. Then we let you decide. Are we? CHAPTERS: [00:00] 220 Million Questions [00:36] Meet Your Host [02:09] Why Relationships, Why Right Now [04:42] The Optimist Case [09:37] The Pessimist Case [10:49] What Both Sides Miss [12:50] Are We? You Decide.

Are Creatives Cooked? - The War Between Art and Algorithms

99% of creative professionals are using generative AI. 88% say it ships faster. 87% say it improved quality. So why is freelance writing income on Upwork down 32% year-over-year, the largest decline of any category? Episode 4 of Are We Cooked? is about anyone who writes, designs, films, photographs, codes, composes, paints, or makes anything. The rules of how creative work gets paid for, distributed, and recognised are being rewritten right now. Adobe's 2025 data and Upwork's 2025 data tell two completely different stories, and both are true. Anurag Sharma walks through: - The Adobe Creators' Toolkit 2025 + Upwork 2025 contradiction at the heart of the creator economy - The optimist case: the barrier to making is gone (Valenzuela, Anadol, Herndon, Neistat). Adopters earn 40-60% more. - The pessimist case: when everyone makes, nothing means anything (Ortiz, Stiefvater, Newton-Rex, Miyazaki). Bottom of market collapsing 32% YoY. - What both sides miss, including the attention economy nobody is talking about - The split Anurag is watching across designers, copywriters, content creators - Three sharper questions for anyone whose career is built on making Not a hype show. Not a doom show. A thinking show. We don't hand you the answer. We hand you a sharper version of the question. Are creatives cooked? You decide. CHAPTERS: [00:00] The 99% No One Talks About [00:31] Meet Your Host [01:56] Why Creatives, Why Right Now [04:07] The Optimist Case [07:28] The Pessimist Case [11:20] What Both Sides Miss [13:13] Are We? You Decide.

Are Kids Cooked? - What AI Is Doing to Children's Brains in 2026

13% of US teens used AI for schoolwork in 2023. 26% in 2024. 54% in 2026. The Pew Research curve that quadrupled in three years. And 72% have tried AI companions. A third have chosen AI over humans for serious conversations (Common Sense Media 2025). Episode 3 of Are We Cooked? is the most important episode of Season 1. The kid question is permanent. The brain finishes wiring at 25. What happens between now and then can't be undone. Anurag Sharma walks through: - The Pew 2026 + Common Sense 2025 stats that should keep parents up at night - The optimist case: AI as the great educational equalizer (Gates Foundation, Bloom's 2-Sigma, Khanmigo data) - The pessimist case: the shortcuts that rewire cognition and the loneliness that AI companions are accelerating (Haidt, Turkle, CMU retention data) - What both sides miss, including the parenting question nobody is answering - The split Anurag is watching with kids he knows, friends' children, the next generation coming into the workforce - Three sharper questions for any parent, educator, or anyone who cares about what humans become Not a hype show. Not a doom show. A thinking show. We don't hand you the answer. We hand you a sharper version of the question. Are kids cooked? You decide. CHAPTERS: [00:00] The Curve That Quadrupled [00:41] Meet Your Host [01:49] Why Kids, Why Right Now [03:41] The Optimist Case [07:41] The Pessimist Case [09:56] What Both Sides Miss [12:09] Are We? You Decide.

Are Jobs Cooked? - Inside the 40% White-Collar Wipeout

16,000 American jobs. Erased by AI. Every single month for the past year. 192,000 jobs in 12 months. Not a forecast. A payroll measurement (Goldman Sachs, April 2026). Episode 2 of Are We Cooked? zooms into the work question. With numbers. With named experts. With the 2026 plot twist nobody saw coming, including Klarna's reversal: replaced 700 jobs with AI in 2024, then quietly hired humans back in 2025-2026 because AI failed on quality. Anurag Sharma walks through: - The Goldman April 2026 hook stat that breaks the labor market - Stanford AI Index 2026: entry-level software dev jobs down 20% since 2024 - The optimist case: jobs evolve, they don't end (Brynjolfsson, Madgavkar, Autor, Hoffman) - The pessimist case: the career ladder is breaking (Acemoglu, Korinek, Susskind, Klotz) - What both sides miss, including the Klarna reversal and the India-specific question nobody is asking - The split Anurag is watching on his own team: who's adapting, who's quietly drowning - Three sharper questions for anyone trying to figure out their next 3 years Not a hype show. Not a doom show. A thinking show. We don't hand you the answer. We hand you a sharper version of the question. Are jobs cooked? You decide. CHAPTERS: [00:00] The 40% No One Is Talking About [00:30] Meet Your Host [01:38] Why Jobs, Why Right Now [02:34] The Optimist Case [07:55] The Pessimist Case [09:40] What Both Sides Miss [12:07] Are We? You Decide.

Are We Cooked? - The Question Every Adult Is Avoiding

300 million jobs globally exposed to AI. 192,000 American jobs already erased in 12 months (Goldman April 2026). And nobody is being honest about what it actually means. Episode 1 of Are We Cooked? sits with the question that named the show. Not as a verdict. As an investigation. Half the world says AI will save us. Productivity, abundance, freedom from the boring grind. The other half says we're cooked. Jobs gone, meaning gone, identity gone. Both can't be right. In 17 minutes, Anurag Sharma walks through: - The hook stat that started this podcast, and the April 2026 Goldman update that made it real - The optimist case (Andreessen, Hoffman, Altman, Autor) backed by Stanford AI Index 2026 productivity data - The pessimist case (Harari, Acemoglu, Marcus, Turkle) plus Stanford's finding: entry-level dev jobs down 20% since 2024 - What both sides are missing, including the conversation nobody is having - The pattern Anurag is watching on his own 30-person marketing team - Three sharper questions to take into your week Not a hype show. Not a doom show. A thinking show. We don't hand you the answer. We hand you a sharper version of the question. Then we let you decide. Are we? CHAPTERS: [00:00] The Question Every Thinking Adult Is Avoiding [00:42] Meet Your Host [02:00] Why This Question, Right Now [03:23] The Optimist Case [07:00] The Pessimist Case [09:09] What Both Sides Miss [11:51] Are We? You Decide.