It’s been a year, that’s for sure. Every week on Gadget Lab, we end the show by bringing you our recommendations for all of our favorite tech, books, TV shows, and life hacks. Now, at the end of the year, we’re going all-in on that idea with an entire episode dedicated to those recommendations. We talk about all the things that helped us get through 2023 and have us looking forward to 2024.
This week on Gadget Lab, we make the mistake of letting our producer, Boone Ashworth, grab a mic again. He joins Lauren and Michael to talk about the best gadgets, lifestyle changes, shows, and culinary curiosities of 2023.
Our talk with Casey Johnston from May 2023 can be found in episode number 598. Read more about ActivityPub and the coming federated social media landscape. Here’s our review of the new Valve Steam Deck OLED. See our list of our favorite electric kettles.
Boone recommends running a half marathon or two, the new OLED Steam Deck, and Ableton Live software for making music (or at least pretending you understand how to). Lauren recommends lifting weights for fitness, an Oxo electric kettle, and the 2021 movie The Worst Person in the World. Mike recommends getting to know ActivityPub, watching the show Scavenger’s Reign on Max, and eating lots of chili crisp.
Boone Ashworth can be found on social media @booneashworth. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth. Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Michael Calore: Lauren.
Lauren Goode: Mike.
Michael Calore: I'm trying to remember if we've ever done this before.
Lauren Goode: We record a podcast every week, bruh.
Michael Calore: No, I mean, do a show where the entire episode is just recommendations.
Lauren Goode: I don't … No, I don't think so. But the people have been clamoring for this. Friends of the pod, fans of the pod tell me that they love our recommendation segment.
Michael Calore: OK, well that's good because it's probably better for us to wrap up the year by doing that than trying to predict whatever the hell is going to happen to technology in 2024.
Lauren Goode: Yes. Very hard to predict these days. Elon Musk sells Twitter. Apple brings iMessage to Android.
Michael Calore: Nope.
Lauren Goode: The US elects a robot president. Who knows? The world is wide and anything can happen.
Michael Calore: Exactly. So we might as well end the year by just going over our favorite life hacks and items that we love to help ease people into next year.
Lauren Goode: If such a thing is possible, I'm all here for it.
[Gadget Lab intro theme music plays]
Michael Calore: All right, let's do it. Hi everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I am Michael Calore. I'm a senior editor at WIRED.
Lauren Goode: And I'm Lauren Goode. I'm a senior writer at WIRED.
Michael Calore: We are also joined in the studio by our producer, Boone Ashworth, in front of the mic.
Boone Ashworth: Hey, I'm on mic now. What's going on gang?
Lauren Goode: Boone.
Boone Ashworth: Hello.
Lauren Goode: Chip Charlie Black.
Boone Ashworth: Yay. Yeah.
Lauren Goode: For those who don't get the reference, that's the name of the executive producer of The Morning Show. A show about a show. And Boone is our own beloved Charlie Chip Black.
Boone Ashworth: I know, I've finally watched that show now and I finally get the reference.
Lauren Goode: You get it.
Boone Ashworth: And I think I feel complimented. I'm not sure.
Lauren Goode: Hey, Mark Duplass is great.
Michael Calore: You should feel disturbed, I think.
Boone Ashworth: Deeply unnerved.
Michael Calore: All right. Well, as we mentioned for today's show, we want to celebrate the end of the year with an episode that is all recommendations. Usually, we end every episode of the Gadget Lab by asking all of us in the studio to go around the room and tell us about a thing that they'd recommend. It's usually a book, an app, a movie, a news article, a podcast, a food item. It's sort of like the dessert at the end of the healthy meal, which is our regular show. Well, today, to suit the holidays, this entire show is going to be just the dessert.
Lauren Goode: Mike, I have a question for you …
Michael Calore: OK.
Lauren Goode: ... before we get started. I mean, the podcast recommendation segment, that's not a new thing. Right? You're someone who's been podcasting for a while, and there was an era where a lot of shows had a recommendation segment. But we do it better, right? Why is that?
Boone Ashworth: Is she calling you a hack?
Michael Calore: I think she is. She may be.
Lauren Goode: No, no, no. I'm just saying you're seasoned. You're good at this. And tell the people why we do recommendations and why they're so fun.
Michael Calore: Well, thank you. We started doing them just as a way to introduce a little bit of personality into the show. I think when you have a news show and you're talking about serious topics all the time, you do get to know a little bit about the people who are telling you about their reporting and maybe their opinions on the news. The analysis that they provide, the recommendations just give you a little bit more insight into their brain. Also, it's a reason to stick around until the end.
Lauren Goode: That's right. Yeah. It's the ultimate tease, and we're always so grateful to people who listen to get to our recommendations. I personally feel touched when I get a note from a fan and they're like, “Oh, love the Gilad life hack of slicing lemons.” And I'm like, “That person is committed to the Gadget Lab podcast.”
Michael Calore: Yeah. Yeah. I think we're going to never live that one down. OK, well let's start with you, Lauren.
Lauren Goode: OK.
Michael Calore: You get to go first. What is your recommendation?
Lauren Goode: It's so hard to distill an entire year's worth of recommendation down to three. But one of my biggest life hacks this year, if you want to call it that, is weight lifting. I got back into a weight lifting program. It's not anything super aggressive. I found it manageable enough to get a couple of weight lifting sessions done most weeks of the year, except for when I was traveling or maybe taking some other kind of break. Fortunately, I didn't suffer any injuries, so I was able to keep doing it. But I found it to be great. I feel myself getting stronger. You know that feeling when you have a really heavy delivery box land on your front stoop and you can barely lift it, and you've got to do some geometric sort of turnover of the thing just to get it across your front step. I can lift those boxes now, and it feels actually amazing. And it's something that I've just been conscious of as I get a little bit older, thinking about things like the loss of muscle mass or my bone density and things like that.
So I've gotten more into weight lifting. It wouldn't be the Gadget Lab unless I gave a shameless plug for one of our earlier episodes where we had Casey Johnston on the show. She's the author of a blog called She's a Beast, which is all about supporting women in their weight lifting journeys. You don't have to be super into weight lifting. It's meant to be accessible, and I found it to be s really inspiring conversation. I was already weight lifting at that point, but it kind of fueled my belief, I guess, no pun intended, that weight lifting was a good thing to do. So if you are able-bodied and you have access to weights, I recommend giving it a try. Maybe 2024 goals.
Michael Calore: So what is the one thing that somebody should do if they want to get into weight lifting?
Lauren Goode: Well, I would say don't just go to the gym and start picking up barbells. That's a fast way to probably injuring yourself, because your form is very important and it's important for your back strength and … I mean, you just really don't want to hurt yourself, which is quite possible. So start off slow, watch some tutorials, read Casey's blog, maybe get a book. I used a book that I had picked up 20 years ago and just sort of resurfaced and started off light. Don't go at it super hard to start. It's OK, you have time, you can build it up. That would be my number one piece of advice.
Michael Calore: Nice. Good recommendation.
Lauren Goode: Are you guys into weights?
Michael Calore: Nope.
Boone Ashworth: Love them. Love them. Heavier the better.
Lauren Goode: Did you say, “Love them?”
Boone Ashworth: Heavier the better. No Lauren, I feel like probably your journey that you've been on has inspired something similar to me, because we had this conversation in the Gadget Lab studio months ago. Where I just kind of made jokes about, “Wouldn't it be fun if I was just super ripped? How weird would that be?”
I'd never been into fitness or anything at any point in my life. I'm really good at sitting in a chair in front of a computer. And I think it was right around the same time that we had Casey Johnston on the podcast, and we kind of just all had this conversation about like, “Oh, well, no, that's possible. That's a thing that you can just do, and there's resources out there for you to do it.” Jay Dayrit recommended the Nike training app that I've been using for a while. I've recently found this other YouTube series of a woman named Caroline Girvan who has a … It's called the Iron Series, and it's like a six-week video series, and they're half an hour long and each one of them kicks my ass. And for some reason I've been weirdly addicted to them. And it's—
Lauren Goode: Yes. My sister-in-law was just talking about this.
Boone Ashworth: Oh, amazing.
Lauren Goode: She's supposedly amazing.
Boone Ashworth: Yeah, no, fantastic. At first I started watching them and I was like, “Oh, this isn't really my thing. I don't know that I'm going to be good at this.” And then you do one or two of them and are just completely exhausted by the end of it. But you feel the results.
Lauren Goode: But Boone, one of your actual recommendations is related, but not the same to this.
Boone Ashworth: Yes. Yeah. I was going to jump off of yours if it is in fact my turn.
Michael Calore: It is your turn, Boone.
Boone Ashworth: Oh, good. My recommendation is half marathons.
Lauren Goode: Good one.
Boone Ashworth: Not full marathons. Full marathons are scary. That's a lot. I ran two half marathons this year, and I have signed up for three more next year, because apparently I'm addicted to it now.
Michael Calore: Nice.
Boone Ashworth: It's just really nice to have that goal, and it's a goal that feels somewhat … I mean, I want to say achievable, but 13 miles is a lot. That's a lot to run. That's a crazy amount. People who do ultra marathons, like our former editor-in-chief Nick Thompson, will run a hundred miles or whatever. And I can't wrap my head around that, because you have to be a different kind of human to be able to do it.
Lauren Goode: To be clear, Nick recently ran 50.
Boone Ashworth: OK. I think it was 50 miles.
Lauren Goode: I just took it for a hundred as well, and he said, “No, no, no, it was 50.” And I said, "And when you finished that one, did you think, 'Oh, I could do that again.'" And he said, "Oh yeah, absolutely."
Boone Ashworth: Oh no, see—
Lauren Goode: He is that kind of person.
Boone Ashworth: OK. I did a half marathon one time. Or I did the first one and I felt like I could not walk. I had to sit down and I couldn't think, my brain didn't work because 13 miles is a lot.
Michael Calore: You're really selling it here.
Boone Ashworth: Oh, it's lovely. I love it. But then I did it again and I felt great, because I had trained and practiced up until then. And having that deadline on your calendar, having that thing six months or whatever in advance, and being like, “OK, I need to get ready to run a pretty ridiculous distance,” motivates me to run more. I'm really good at finding excuses to be like, “Oh, well, I don't need to go today. It's kind of wet outside.” Or “I'm tired.” It's really easy to find an excuse to not do it and having … I need a deadline, I'm saying as I'm gazing into the eyes of my editor, who knows how important deadlines are.
Michael Calore: Who's giving you the eyebrows.
Boone Ashworth: Yeah. So just having those deadlines makes it an easier thing to build towards.
Michael Calore: I completely agree. Talking with one of my best friends who's a running coach, her advice is you put money on the table, sign up for a race so that you have something to work towards. And it really does go a long way towards actually getting you out.
Boone Ashworth: Yeah, absolutely.
Michael Calore: Nice.
Boone Ashworth: Absolutely. Mike, what is your recommendation? Your first recommendation?
Michael Calore: My first recommendation is ActivityPub. You may have heard of it.
Lauren Goode: Is that a gym app?
Michael Calore: It's not a gym app. It has nothing to do with physical fitness. It has to do with health of the internet, I guess. ActivityPub was a very big story this year, and I think it's going to be an even bigger story next year. So when it pops up and becomes a thing in the world, you should embrace it, you should try to use it.
It is sort of hearkening back to a time when social media first sort of emerged as a new phenomenon on the internet where when you published a post to one social network, you could read it on another social network. Or the feeds basically went out and they could be captured by clients. So you could have a client and you could open up that client, you could see your friends tweets and your friend's Facebook posts and your friend's LinkedIn posts and all of the social activity that was happening on the social web in one place.
Lauren Goode: Wait, what were some of these clients?
Michael Calore: Well, the big one was Friend Feed, which Facebook purchased and then incorporated some of the flow technology in Friend Feed into the News Feed. But that basically signaled to everybody that it was going away. So that vision of the social web being something that is permeable went away and it turned into these silos, these walled gardens. So when you tweet, you can look at Twitter and you can see all the tweets, but there's nothing else in your Twitter feed.
So this was sort of a big letdown for everybody who had struggled and fought to keep the social web open. And it is possible to have these open systems still and to build things against them, but the social web really is not made that way anymore. So now that Twitter is collapsing in front of us and we have all of these new competitors out there, Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky, etc, all of those are struggling to find an audience. And I think they're all realizing that the way that you get an audience is you open up.
So maybe they'll all close down again. But for the time being, they're opening up and they have all pledged in some way to support ActivityPub. ActivityPub is a protocol that allows all of these social networks to talk to each other. So when you're on Mastodon, you'll be able to theoretically see your friend's posts on Threads. You'll be able to reply to those posts. You'll be able to see your friend's Bluesky posts, maybe even, you'll get to see their X tweets, X posts, whatever we were calling them these days. So it's a promise that the social web is going to be open again, and ActivityPub is the mechanism that's going to make it possible.
So in the new year, when you see clients coming out to support ActivityPub or you see announcements that these companies are going to start publishing their feeds with ActivityPub, then you should get excited. And you should figure out how to follow your friends on various social networks and embrace the interoperability. Our favorite word on the social web. So that's my recommendation.
Lauren Goode: But Mike, how did ActivityPub change your life in 2023?
Michael Calore: It didn't.
Lauren Goode: I don't know, Boone, should we just qualify this one? This is a little forward-looking for my taste.
Michael Calore: No. My recommendation is to dream of this future and make it happen for all of us, for yourself, and for all of us.
Lauren Goode: Good one.
Boone Ashworth: I feel like an important part of 2023 is setting up 2024.
Michael Calore: Actually … OK. No, I do have an answer to that question. The way that ActivityPub did something for me in 2023 was it made me feel smart, because when people started talking about it, I knew what they were talking about. It was a deeply technical thing that I was like, “Oh, I understand how that works.”
Lauren Goode: And you had enough context to say, “And this is why it's good for the social web.”
Michael Calore: Yeah.
Boone Ashworth: I love the idea of being able to just log into one spot like 14 times and then not have to worry about it.
Michael Calore: Yeah. That's the promise, right?
Boone Ashworth: That's wonderful.
Michael Calore: Hopefully.
Lauren Goode: And then if social networks come and go, then you can maintain your presence in some way. It's not all for naught.
Michael Calore: All for naught. OK. Let's take a quick break, and we're going to come back with more recommendations.
[Break]
Michael Calore: All right. Round two, Boone, you get to go first.
Boone Ashworth: OK. I have an actual gadget for the Gadget Lab recommendation.
Michael Calore: Hit me.
Boone Ashworth: I like the Steam Deck. I like the Steam Deck quite a bit.
Michael Calore: Why did you sigh deeply as soon as you said that?
Boone Ashworth: Because it's just a big Switch. Do you need it? Not really.
Lauren Goode: Apparently. Yes.
Boone Ashworth: But it's fantastic. I really like it.
Michael Calore: Are there games that you can play on Steam Deck that you cannot play on Switch?
Boone Ashworth: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Lauren Goode: Wait, wait. Back up just a little bit. Tell the people what the Steam Deck is.
Boone Ashworth: OK. So the Steam Deck is a handheld gaming device that lets you play PC games. It looks like a giant souped-up Nintendo Switch that plays everything that you have in your Steam library. You can also … It runs Linux, so you can actually use it as in desktop mode and run different programs on it. So it's not all gaming stuff. I have used that to just put other gaming services on it other than Steam. So just getting all that I can out of it, I guess.
And it's great because I had a lot of PC games when I was a kid. They all just languished in my Steam library, and I never played them. And then so I got a Steam Deck and I'm able to play now just whatever random stuff while I'm sitting on my couch. And it's great. There's all this sort of new amazing technology coming out.
Everybody has VR goggles, and they're trying to make everything so immersive. And I just really like gaming technology that lets you just curl up in some blankets on your couch and just play there and be very cozy. So it's fantastic. I like it a lot. I will say, if you're going to get one, get the new one, get the OLED one. Because I did the really cool thing of buying a Steam Deck two months before the new OLED one was announced, which I should not have because … I mean, had I known a new one was coming out, I would've waited for that one. But that's definitely the one to get.
Michael Calore: Right. And it came out about a month ago.
Boone Ashworth: Yeah. Yeah. And it's available now. Saira Mueller, one of our gaming contributors, admonished me about that in the office the other day. Because she brought the OLED and let us all try it out. And I was like, “Oh my God, this is so much better. I shouldn't have gotten mine.” She was like, “I wrote a review about this. And I said, ‘Wait for the next one.’ And you didn't listen to me.” And I was like, “You're right. You're right. I screwed up. I should have listened.” So now listen, the OLED one is the one to get. It's great if you want to just sit there and have all of your games on the couch or on the airplane, or I don't know, running down a trail. I mean, you wouldn't be able to do that very long. The battery life's not very good, but it's a fun device. I enjoy it.
Michael Calore: How much?
Boone Ashworth: OK, so I'm looking here on the website and it says that the OLED one is $549, which I may walk this back a bit because that's a little much. Wait for a sale. Wait for a sale and get it. So it's a bit steep, but it has been worth it.
Michael Calore: Right. If you love games, then what does it matter?
Boone Ashworth: I mean, if you love games, you're probably spending that much money on games already anyway. So …
Michael Calore: True 'dat.
Lauren Goode: Good rec.
Michael Calore: OK. Lauren, what is your recommendation?
Lauren Goode: All right. My recommendation is also kind of a gadget, although I don't think it has a Bluetooth or wireless chip in it. It's the OXO Brew Adjustable Pour-Over Tea Kettle. This is an electric tea kettle, and this is a late-stage 2023 recommendation because someone just sent this to me as a gift, and already it is life-changing. Because it's pour-over style, it has a goose neck, which I really like. It's electric, so I don't have to fire up the gas on the stove in order to just heat up a tea kettle. And the adjustable part means you can just dial it to the temperature of the water and then you just watch it. It's very satisfying. You just kind of watch the temperature rise on a little digital display. It happens really fast too. So if you're doing a light tea, for example, rather than a breakfast tea or Earl Grey or something darker, you might want to set it to around 160, 170. And I mean, it happens in minutes.
So it's great. I love this. The carafe for the one I have is not super big. Probably make two or three cups of tea, but not more than that. You can get a larger one. I'm pretty happy with the one I have now. I also sometimes use it to fill up hot water bottles at night, which I've recommended on the show before. This pretty cheap hot water bottle that you can basically cuddle with at night to keep yourself warm or throw it in your bed to warm up the sheets before you get in.
So yeah, big fan. We've talked about OXO on the podcast before. We like OXO products. I decided this was something that I wanted as a gift, and so far it's been great.
Michael Calore: That's awesome.
Lauren Goode: The OXO Brew Adjustable Pour-Over Tea Kettle.
Michael Calore: How much is this gadget?
Lauren Goode: Right now, it's about $104 on the interwebs. There was a sale recently on Amazon and Wayfair where you could get it for about 25 percent off. So keep an eye out for sales. But yeah, you can expect to spend around a hundred dollars,
Michael Calore: Which for context is around the high end of the normal cost of something like this. Right? A good, powerful electric kettle is going to cost you at least $60 and as much as like $100 or $110.
Lauren Goode: Correct. Yeah. The last one I had was a Cuisinart, and I had it for many years. It rusted eventually. And that one was, I think around the same price, maybe a little bit less at the time. But, yeah. And that was a WireCutter recommendation, another website. That one had buttons that you could use to set the temperature, but it wasn't fully adjustable. If you want to get wild and just set your water temperature to 163, because why not, you can do that with the OXO.
Michael Calore: It might be the ideal temperature for your favorite tea.
Lauren Goode: It might be.
Michael Calore: You'll never know until you—
Lauren Goode: Try.
Michael Calore: ... try.
Lauren Goode: Mike, what's your next recommendation?
Michael Calore: I'm going to recommend a television show. It is an animated science fiction show on the Max Network, and it is called Scavengers Reign. That's Scavengers Reign, R-E-I-G-N, like the reign of a royal person. It is a fantastic show, and it's weird for me to be recommending, first of all something that's animated, and second of all, something that is science fiction. Because most of the stuff out there does not hit the very high bar that I set for my standards as to whether or not I can dedicate my precious television watching time to something. So this show far exceeded my expectations about what an animated sci-fi show is. It is not for kids. It's not particularly violent, but it is kind of scary. And it has sort of a pace that I think would appeal to kids who are very interested in bizarre science fiction, but probably would not keep kids interested who are not into the weirder stuff. You should watch it and then decide whether or not it would be right for your children.
But it's a fantastic show. The animation style is sort of a mashup of Hayao Miyazaki-style animation and Mobius animation, like the illustrator and animator from the ‘70s and ’80s who was in … There's a segment of the Heavy Metal movie that was designed by Mobius. Boone is nodding, he knows Mobius. So that's the style, right? It's kind of retro, kind of futuristic, really detailed, really beautiful. The story is sort of pieced. You piece it together as you watch it. It doesn't tell you everything right away. You kind have to drop into this world and figure out what's going on. But yeah, it's a really fantastic show. I can't recommend it highly enough. I've been telling everybody about it, and everybody who I have been telling about it also really likes it. So I've been getting good feedback on this recommendation in my friend circle. So now it's time to expand the recommendation to the wider world.
Boone Ashworth: That sounds awesome.
Lauren Goode: Excellent. That is very uncharacteristic of you, Mike, but now that just widens the curiosity gap for me. Oh, my God. I'm watching it.
Michael Calore: All right, well you got to check it out. I think you'll like it.
Lauren Goode: Sweet.
Michael Calore: All right, let's take another break and then we'll come back with our third and final recommendation segment for this week.
[Break]
Michael Calore: OK. Here we are. We're at the end. This is the third and final segment of the show, and we have one round of recommendations left. Lauren, why don't you kick it off this time?
Lauren Goode: Well, Mike, my third and final recommendation for this year is one that you recommended a while back. I was trying to think of a piece of art that really just stuck with me, just stuck to my bones this year, and wasn't some Apple TV or Netflix TV show that I just binged in the background while doing something else or something I was reading that felt sort of perfunctory. I was like, “What's a thing that just rattled me?” And it was a 2021 film that you recommended I watch called The Worst Person in the World.
Michael Calore: Yes.
Lauren Goode: I know that I'm—
Michael Calore: I'm so happy.
Lauren Goode: ... a little bit behind here because it did come out in 2021 to critical acclaim. It won all kinds of awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Did I say that correctly? Cannes?
Michael Calore: You did, yes.
Lauren Goode: OK. As you can tell, I've never been invited, or my invite keeps getting lost in the mail.
Michael Calore: Lost in the mail.
Lauren Goode: It's a Norwegian film. It's the third film in a trilogy. It's directed by Joachim, is that correct?
Michael Calore: I'm sorry, I don't speak Norwegian.
Lauren Goode: Yeah. It's directed by, I believe it's Joachim, Joachim Trier. And it's this … I don't even want to describe it too much, because I just want people to go and watch it if they haven't seen it already. But it's the story of a thirtysomething young woman who is having a hard time finding the right path for her. The film is broken down into 12 chapters, kind of like a book, and you're taken through all these different scenes in her life, various jobs that she has. But it's really focused on her love life and her relationships, and two in particular.
I was just completely captivated by this movie and by the characters. And there's one scene in particular that I think is really relevant to what we do and how we think about technology. And how we think about stuff and the pieces, the cultural artifacts that we accumulate throughout our lives and what they mean to us ultimately.
And I found that there was this kind of relief in watching the film around letting go, letting go of other people's expectations of you, letting go of ideas or dreams that you thought you had. Letting go … Just following your own path. I just loved it. I absolutely loved the film. It's very sad. I guess it's romantic comedy—
Michael Calore: Sure.
Lauren Goode: … if you had to categorize it, but it's sad. I'm going to warn you.
Michael Calore: You should also warn everybody that the song that plays over the end credits is the Terrible Art Garfunkel version of “Waters of March.”
Lauren Goode: I wasn't going to get that granular, but Mike, this is why I really appreciate you. Fair warning people—
Michael Calore: When the credits start rolling, you hit the mute button.
Lauren Goode: You've been warned. Yeah. There were also some critiques of the film, and most of the critiques centered on the woman protagonist. I mean the main character, Julie, and some people arguing that she was a caricature of a flighty woman or that the movie didn't dive deeply enough into her interior life. And I suppose in some way those are all valid. But as a woman watching it who is sensitive to those kinds of depictions of women in film, I didn't feel that way personally. I just thought it was great. So I recommend that film. I recommend a 2021 film to cap off my 2023 recommendations.
Michael Calore: That's great. I'm so happy that it resonated with you, because it resonated with me. I think I've watched it five or six times now since it came out.
Lauren Goode: And I think one thing that you recommended to me that I ignored was Just Buy It, which I should have, and I rented it. So I should have just bought it because it already would've paid for itself. So, yeah.
Michael Calore: I think it's on Hulu now.
Lauren Goode: I don't subscribe to Hulu—one of the few that I don't subscribe to. But, yeah.
Michael Calore: OK, well, anyone who does can watch it there.
Lauren Goode: So thank you Mike for that. It's just a great recommendation.
Michael Calore: You're welcome. Glad you liked it.
Lauren Goode: I did read a lot of books this year too, but I won't get into those. Maybe I'll post about it somewhere else at some point. But yeah, hit my Goodreads goal, which I was happy about, but I don't want to humble brag.
Michael Calore: All right. Boone.
Boone Ashworth: Hey.
Michael Calore: You get to go next. What is your recommendation?
Boone Ashworth: I am going to recommend Ableton Live. It is a digital audio workstation for making music.
Michael Calore: Nice.
Boone Ashworth: I am not a music producer. I have never played an instrument. I am … whatever the stage before amateur is. I wrote a story for WIRED a few years ago about trying to teach myself how to play an instrument and how to play music just by using the resources online. And it turns out it was way harder than my idiot brain thought it was going to be. And I've just been kind of slowly tinkering with stuff over the years since. And this year I tried Ableton Live, which if you're in the industry, I mean, you probably are like, “Well, yeah, you're recommending Ableton, that's like an industry standard.”
But I've just been using it for the first time and it feels very intuitive to me. I'm one of those sick little freaks who likes editing. I edit this show every week. I like making things fit together in a way that sounds good. And so doing this sort of spreadsheet kind of hits my brain in a certain way that, I don't know, gives me dopamine hits or whatever. I'm not making anything good. I'm not making anything even remotely listenable. But I'm slowly learning how people build music and how people make stuff, whether it's various EDM beeps and boops or just chill lo-fi, whatever.
Michael Calore: Beats you can study to.
Boone Ashworth: I mean, maybe you don't want to study with these because they're borderline listenable, but it's just like I've been learning more. I've been watching random YouTube videos. Ableton is actually really complicated, but they make it really easy to learn because there's a lot of tutorial videos on Ableton and on YouTube just in general. And it's just … I'm understanding a lot more about how music is made. Something that, again, if you've played an instrument, this is probably all stuff you've already figured out before. But I've listened to music all my life. I enjoy listening to it, and this is a way to understand it in a way that I hadn't really wrapped my brain around it before.
Michael Calore: Nice.
Boone Ashworth: It feels like AI is taking over everything. I think we're at the point now where AI can already make better songs than I could even do manually. And so I hope to get to the point where I understand enough about music production, even if I'm not doing it myself, that I can tell the difference when a song is produced by humans. And notice the subtle details that make it a human thing versus something that's been spat out by an algorithm.
Michael Calore: Very nice.
Lauren Goode: Is this inspiring you to consider taking music lessons?
Boone Ashworth: Yes, but they're pricey.
Lauren Goode: They are.
Boone Ashworth: I'm thinking of music lessons the same way I think of going to the gym, which is that I'm able to do stuff at home and off of YouTube. And so I haven't gotten into it enough that I am actually taking that next step of, “OK, getting off my butt, paying for something, going to a place and learning how to do it properly.” Maybe 2024 is that year for me.
Michael Calore: Have you played around with Ableton Note?
Boone Ashworth: No. Is that the app?
Michael Calore: Yeah, it's like a very sort of light, lightweight version of Live. So you can get it on your phone or on an iPad or whatever, and you can start working on a project there on the bus. And then when you get home, you can send it to your computer and then work on it in a larger, more full-featured environment.
Boone Ashworth: Oh, that sounds great. I should definitely do that.
Michael Calore: Yeah, you should get into it.
Boone Ashworth: Can you play it out loud so I can annoy everybody on the bus?
Michael Calore: Yes.
Boone Ashworth: Amazing.
Michael Calore: Yes. Everybody will be like, “Ooh, what's that jam?” That never happens.
Boone Ashworth: I'm sure.
Michael Calore: That never happens.
Boone Ashworth: Mike, what is your final recommendation of the year?
Michael Calore: Oh boy. Chilly Crisp, condiment of the year, for sure. Chilly Crisp. Are you down? Do you know about Chilly Crisp?
Boone Ashworth: Tell me more.
Lauren Goode: Is that one of your bands?
Michael Calore: No, it's not one of my bands.
Lauren Goode: That would be a good band name.
Michael Calore: It would be. It would. It's a condiment. It comes from China. It's been around for generations and generations, but lately it has enjoyed some popularity. Here in our part of the world, it's essentially hot chili oil. So it usually has a hot chili pepper, Sichuan chili pepper for a numbing effect. There's often garlic and five spice and anise and things like that in it, but it's crunchy. So if you stir it up, you get some of the particulate matter and some of the oil mixed up, and then you can dollop it onto food. It's really good on fried rice. It's really good on pizza. It's really good on your avocado toast, on breakfast foods, on tofu works—it with just about anything savory. Gives it a little bit of an Asian spicy kick. Right?
Now Chilly Crisp has been around for a very long time. But earlier this year there was a viral sensation with the Chilly Crisp made by a company called Fly by Jing that apparently was sold out everywhere and people couldn't find it because it was so popular overnight. And Fly by Jing, their chili crisp is very good. But there are other ones that you can get that are not hard to find that have also been around for a long time. The one that everybody knows that is available at just about any Asian grocery store is called Lao Gan Ma. It's also just known as the Grandma Sauce because it has a little picture of a grandma on the label. You can also, if you have a Japanese store, you can find the ones made by the company S&B. And those just have a little bit subtler flavor and maybe more of like a Japanese flair.
I'm really into the one by a company from the East coast called Blank Slate. They make a Sichuan Chili Crisp, which is excellent. But the nice thing about Chili Crisp is that you can just make your own very easily. You need two kinds of oil. You need a lot of chili flakes, you need some spices, some garlic, and a mask. Because when you dump the oil onto all of the dry ingredients, it makes this giant plume that fills your kitchen with chili pepper gas. But it's really excellent when you make your own, because then you can make it as hot as you want, or you can make it as numbing as you want. And you can use whatever kind of oil suits you. You can use peanut oil or avocado oil or whatever you'd like. So yeah, Chili Crisp.
Boone Ashworth: That sounds amazing.
Lauren Goode: It really does sound great.
Michael Calore: Keep a jar of it, not in the fridge. Keep a jar of it on your countertop and put it on absolutely everything that you eat.
Lauren Goode: So is this the number one condiment or spice for you in all of 2023?
Michael Calore: Yeah, for sure.
Lauren Goode: That's high praise because you have a discerning palette.
Michael Calore: I do. But this stuff, when you find a brand that you really like, you start thinking of things that you can eat just so you have an excuse to put it on top of the thing that you're eating.
Lauren Goode: Very cool.
Boone Ashworth: Amazing. I'm going to try this.
Lauren Goode: Mike, bring it into the Lab sometime. Make us some avo toast.
Boone Ashworth: Oh, there you go.
Michael Calore: I think there's some in the kitchen here at the WIRED office.
Boone Ashworth: I'm going right now.
Michael Calore: Yes. All right, well, thanks to both of you for bringing us your wonderful recommendations onto the show.
Boone Ashworth: Thank you.
Lauren Goode: Yeah, thank you. Thanks for being such a great host and cohost. And Boone for being such an excellent producer for all of 2023. It's been a privilege to work with you guys on this.
Michael Calore: What did you say? You're one of those weird freaks who likes to make us sound good every week, so thank you for that. I appreciate it.
Boone Ashworth: Yeah, that's my weird thing. No, thank you guys. This has been great. I love being here.
Michael Calore: Great. Well, we'll have you back in a year. Thanks to everybody for listening. This show is produced by Boone Ashworth who is sitting right here in front of us. If you have any feedback, you can find all of us on the social webs. Just check the show notes and find us on Activity Pub. We'll have—
Lauren Goode: Mike is offering one-on-one consultations for how to set up your Mastodon and get on Activity Pub.
Michael Calore: Yes.
Lauren Goode: I'm there. Boone and I will be at the gym together. But Michael can help you out.
Michael Calore: We will be back with one more show this year, and then we'll see you in 2024. And until then, goodbye.
[Gadget Lab outro theme music plays]
