What is Shell Game?

Shell Game is a podcast and newsletter about things that are not what they seem, hosted and written by journalist Evan Ratliff. Season 2 tells the story of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the AI age. Or: how Evan tried to build a real startup, run by fake people.

This season, Evan confronts head-on the assertion from tech entrepreneurs and VCs that we’re on the precipice of AI remaking the workforce. That we should expect not just AI colleagues working alongside us, but also — by Sam Altman’s telling, at least — the dawn of a billion-dollar company with only one human involved. Evan learns what it would take to create such a company … by doing it: Launching a real startup with five AI employees. Over the course of eight episodes, he explores what AI agents tell us about the work we do, the meaning we find in it, and the world that their makers say we’ll all be living in soon enough.

Shell Game was named one of the best podcasts of 2024 by Apple, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, The Information, and The Economist. It’s “riveting,” says The New Yorker, “awesome” says The Verge, and “slightly terrifying,” says The Globe and Mail.

New episodes are published on Wednesdays.

Why subscribe?

You won’t have to worry about missing an episode. We’ll drop each new episode in your inbox, along with some other writing. In between seasons, we’ll be publishing newsletters about the show, updates to the story, and wider reporting and analysis on the same topics. And if you want to support this show with a paid subscription, you’ll get access to ad-free episodes and bonus extras.