A collection of Bob Sullivan’s various podcasts.
Any time a company wants you to go all-in on its ecosystem, watch out. Bundling can seem like a cost-saver — getting your phone, TV, and Internet from one service, for example. But there’s always a cost. Often, that cost means tolerating inferior products, as many cable bundlers know. [Keep reading]
Is texting good or bad for relationships? Sure, it’s lovely to check in with loved ones during the day, send a little digital cheer and some emojis. But instant communication can also really mess things up when sometimes a little space is necessary — say, when there’s a fight between [Keep reading]
You get a free Amazon Echo Dot — a gift from a friend, or a company. Should you plug it in? Or will Alexa listen to your conversations? This is the latest question we received at the So, Bob podcast. Actually, it was a bit more nuanced than that. A [Keep reading]
Is tech hacking your happiness? And can you reverse that — can tech help make you happier? These are the questions Alia and I explore with Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and numerous other best sellers. People pay good money to hear Gretchen dispense her special kind of [Keep reading]
The So, Bob podcast preaches taking control of your tech — rather than letting tech control you. So as software developers might say, we ate our own dog food and took a decent break after season one’s last episode in July. But The So, Bob podcast is back starting on [Keep reading]
This should come as a surprise to no one: Equifax is making hacked consumers wrestle with additional red tape. The firm is asking for more paperwork from consumers who were victimized by the credit bureau’s giant data breach in 2017. The additional red tape seems designed to shrink the ranks [Keep reading]
One of my favorite subjects is the problem of shortened attention spans and the fallacy of multitasking in the digital age. Tech competes for our eyes and ears perhaps thousands of times each day. The average worker only gets a few moments to focus on something without being interrupted. Even [Keep reading]
“Working too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack. You oughta know by now.” It’s the official start of summer, and if you haven’t planned your vacation yet, you aren’t alone. Americans are terrible at taking vacations, terrible at relaxing — terrible at shutting down and rebooting. I think I [Keep reading]
Does your power company know when you get home at night? Does it know how often you use your microwave oven? In this week’s week’s episode of So, Bob, we examine the sometimes controversial topic of smart meters. They have great potential to help cities manage the increasing power demands [Keep reading]
How would you feel if you discovered your smartphone was recording you while you sleep without your knowledge? Last year, co-host Alia Tavakolian came to me when she discovered a sleep app had made dozens of such recordings. Worse yet, to hear what was on the files, she had to [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan