Hard to Swallow News (and the Market That Broke It)

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/ [https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/667-ask-your-doctor-about/] * FDA Draft Guidance, Consumer-Directed Broadcast Advertisements, August 1997 (Federal Register): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1997-08-12/html/97-21291.htm [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 [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/ [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 [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 [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/ [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/ [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/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/] * Ed Bennett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbennett/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbennett/] * Chris Boyer website: http://www.christopherboyer.com [http://www.christopherboyer.com] * Ed Bennett on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social] Chris Boyer on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social]

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

A meme is the most efficient way to move an idea. It is also the least accountable. Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer trace what memes actually do: compress complicated thinking, strip the citations, outrun every fact check. From the Marilyn Monroe line she never said to the Einstein insanity quote he never wrote to the Voltaire defense Voltaire didn't author, the accuracy was stripped out by design. Then the format gets eaten by the same companies it was making fun of. KC Green's "this is fine" dog sells as a Funko Pop. Most of the brands using the image have paid him nothing. The SNAT Book Club opens its next read: The AI Con by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna, published May 2025. Synthetic text extruding machines, p(doom) theater at the Schumer AI Insight Forum, plus the real harms happening right now while policymakers argue about extinction. In the AI Test, four models attempt Rick Polito-style movie summaries. Some had teeth. Claude played it safe. Memes. Misattribution. Hype as misdirection. Allegory all the way down. Mentions from the Show:  * "Distracted Boyfriend", Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distracted_boyfriend [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distracted_boyfriend]  * "This Is Fine" / KC Green's Gunshow, Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunshow_(webcomic) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunshow_(webcomic)]  * A decade on, the creator of "This is fine" wants to put the famous dog to rest, NPR - https://www.npr.org/2023/01/16/1149232763/this-is-fine-meme-anniversary-gunshow-web-comic [https://www.npr.org/2023/01/16/1149232763/this-is-fine-meme-anniversary-gunshow-web-comic] * "Insanity quote" misattributed to Einstein, Quote Investigator - https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/ [https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/]   * The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want, Harper / Penguin Random House - https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-ai-con-emily-m-benderalex-hanna [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-ai-con-emily-m-benderalex-hanna] \ * "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots", Bender, Gebru, McMillan-Major, Mitchell (2021) - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922 [https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922]  * Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) - https://www.dair-institute.org/ [https://www.dair-institute.org/]  * Chris Boyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/]  * Ed Bennett on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbennett/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbennett/]

Prediction: The House Always Wins

Every decade, the same behavioral design gets a new name and a fresh regulatory fight. Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer trace the structural lineage connecting online gambling, gamified stock trading, and prediction markets — three industries that borrowed the same dopamine playbook from the same design handbook. From the UIGEA's last-minute insertion into a port security bill to Robinhood's confetti to Kalshi's "this is not gambling" documentation, the pattern is consistent. The terminology changes with each iteration. The house edge doesn't. Ed recommends using Claude as a reading companion for dense books, demonstrated with Blindsight by Peter Watts — a live annotation layer that drills down until the concept clicks. In the AI test, Chris ran a live experiment in what the hosts call black hat AEO: a fabricated blog post linking three healthcare digital leaders named Chris to a St. Paul curling competition. Gemini and ChatGPT surfaced it as an authenticated fact. Claude returned nothing. Forecasting. Gambling. Confetti by any other name. The house always wins. Surprise — it's not a toaster. * 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 of BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social] * Chris Boyer on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social]

Hard to Swallow News (and the Market That Broke It)

Getting real news shouldn’t feel like decoding a puzzle designed by someone who doesn’t want you to solve it. This week, Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer take on the modern news machine - from broadcast consolidation and partisan drift to the clickbait headline race and the increasingly buried links that pass for journalism on social platforms. If it feels harder to find verified, trustworthy information, that’s not paranoia. It’s structural. Then it’s Part 4 of the Enshitification book series: What Broke the Market (and Why It Stayed Broken). The hosts dig into anti-monopoly history, regulatory capture, app store toll booths, and how “innovation” quietly became code for consolidation. In the AI Test, they put artificial intelligence to work in a very real-world scenario: creating a commercial from scratch using only AI. Streaming is fragmented. News is noisy. Platforms are entrenched. Surprise - it's not a toaster. Mentions from the Show:  * 6 companies own 90% of American media [https://homesteadcreative.org/blog/6-companies-own-90-percent-of-american-media?utm_source=chatgpt.com] * Online headlines shift from concise to click-worthy [https://phys.org/news/2025-05-online-headlines-shift-concise-click.html] * Majority of Influencers Share Unverified Information, Study Reveals [https://news.disinformationcommission.com/fake-information/majority-of-influencers-share-unverified-information-study-reveals/] * Enshitification book [https://bookshop.org/p/books/enshittification-why-everything-suddenly-got-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it-cory-doctorow/d3f8483b158906ce?ean=9780374619329&next=t&utm_source=google%2Cgoogle&utm_medium=pmax%2Cpmax&utm_campaign=16243454879%2Cbs_bestsellers&utm_content=%2C6605595657___&utm_term=%7Bsearchterm%7D&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16235479093&gbraid=0AAAAACfld43dcb4eR-0An0mTaChijzsmv&gclid=CjwKCAiAlfvIBhA6EiwAcErpyRmAEhRt3Yg_JaXs6TLUfrGgMfHRtm7S3jez5qDoVYnis0AEmB5GFhoCQWwQAvD_BwE] * 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 of BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social] * Chris Boyer on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social]

Someone Updated Your Book While You Were Reading It

The book you downloaded is not the book the author wrote. It might have been quietly sensitivity-edited. It might now contain brand references the author never put there. Or, in the case of Pretty Little Liars, it just started mentioning TikTok in a scene from 2006. Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer dig into the silent modification of digital books - retroactive sensitivity edits, undisclosed product placement, and authors finding out through their fans that someone rewrote their work without asking. Bowdlerization isn't new, but it used to require effort. Now it takes about thirty seconds and nobody has to tell you. * Then it's the fifth and final installment of the Enshitification series: Cory Doctorow's argument that this is a policy problem, not a technology problem, and that we have actually solved versions of it before. * Tech rec: vibe coding, and what Ed built with Claude Code in two hours without writing a single line of code himself. * In the AI test, Chris debuts "Surprise - It's Not a Post" - a social media translator that degrades any thought into its most stereotypically obnoxious platform version. Ed's dog walk provided the source material. * Bowdlerized. Monetized. Enshitified. Surprise - It's Not a Toaster. Mentions from the Show:  * Pretty Little Liars fans notice updated pop culture references on Kindle: https://dailydot.com/pretty-little-liars-updated-pop-culture-references [https://dailydot.com/pretty-little-liars-updated-pop-culture-references] * I won't buy another Kindle book until this shady practice ends: https://www.pocket-lint.com/kindle-problem-story-changes/ [https://www.pocket-lint.com/kindle-problem-story-changes/] * Roald Dahl revision controversy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl_revision_controversy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl_revision_controversy] * Roald Dahl: a brief history of sensitivity edits to children's literature: https://theconversation.com/roald-dahl-a-brief-history-of-sensitivity-edits-to-childrens-literature-200500 [https://theconversation.com/roald-dahl-a-brief-history-of-sensitivity-edits-to-childrens-literature-200500] * The Bowdlers wanted to clean up Shakespeare, not become a byword for censorship: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bowdlers-wanted-clean-shakespeare-not-become-byword-censorship-180963945/ [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bowdlers-wanted-clean-shakespeare-not-become-byword-censorship-180963945/] * Bowdlerize (definition): https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bowdlerize [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bowdlerize] * Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3341-enshittification [https://www.versobooks.com/products/3341-enshittification] * Enshittification (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification] * 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 of BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social] * Chris Boyer on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social]