AwesomeCast 774: Artemis II Moon Mission, AI Chatbot Risks, Apple TikTok & LEGO Zelda
This week’s AwesomeCast brought together one of those classic mixes that makes the show so much fun: real tech questions, weird internet discoveries, nostalgic gaming talk, and a strong dose of Pittsburgh personality.
Sorg, Katie, and Dave Podnar kick things off with their Awesome Things of the Week, and the lineup is wonderfully varied. Dave looks ahead to Artemis II, the upcoming crewed moon mission that will send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit for the first time in decades. The conversation covers how the mission works, why the far side of the moon still creates communication challenges, and why “just rebuilding Apollo” is not nearly as simple as some people assume.
Katie’s pick is much closer to home, at least for Pittsburghers: Heinz Verified. The new site helps users find restaurants that serve Heinz ketchup, making it both practical and hilarious for anyone who has ever been personally offended by mystery catsup in a diner bottle. The crew immediately starts checking cities they’ll be traveling to and appreciates that users can nominate restaurants for inclusion.
Sorg’s pick highlights Chachi’s 3D-printing Etsy shop, Plastic Fun Time. From the now-famous bag of Fs to the Rock Lobster and other fun prints, it’s a cool look at somebody taking a maker hobby and turning it into a real side business. It also turns into a broader appreciation for creative small-scale production and clever product design.
The middle of the episode gets more serious with a discussion around a Stanford study on AI chatbot advice. Katie explains how researchers tested large language models against stories from the “Am I the Asshole?” subreddit and found that chatbots often validated problematic behavior more than humans did. That opens the door to a bigger conversation about AI agreeability, emotional dependency, digital literacy, and what it means when people begin treating chatbots like close confidants instead of tools.
The AI thread continues with What’s Up With That, a browser extension built to help readers analyze articles, pull out new signals, simplify jargon, and better connect ideas across sources. For anyone doing research-heavy work, the crew sees real promise in the concept.
On the creative side, Dave shares Adobe Illustrator’s Project Turntable, which can rotate 2D vector art in 3D space. That sparks a discussion about animation workflows, creative accessibility, and the kinds of production bottlenecks tools like this might reduce.
The episode also finds time for ChannelSurfer.tv, a retro-TV style interface for YouTube, plus a look at Apple’s TikTok presence, where the company seems to be leaning into a Finder-inspired mascot to help explain macOS features in a more playful way.
Dave also wraps up Women’s History Month by spotlighting several women who shaped space science, leading to a thoughtful discussion about visibility, representation, and why stories like these matter.
And then, in true AwesomeCast fashion, the crew ends up hyped about LEGO Zelda sets, including Ocarina of Time: The Final Battle and the Great Deku Tree, prompting nostalgia, sticker shock, and renewed debate over whether Sorg finally needs to properly play Ocarina of Time.
If you like your tech podcasts with equal parts curiosity, commentary, and chaos, this is a great episode.
Links from this episode
Chachi’s Etsy shop / Plastic Fun Time
https://www.etsy.com/shop/plasticfuntime/?etsrc=sdtHeinz Verified
https://www.heinz.com/heinzverifiedArtemis II launch article
https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-countdown-how-and-when-to-watch-the-launch-of-the-manned-mission-to-the-moon/Women who shaped our understanding of space
https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/five-women-who-shaped-our-understanding-spaceChannel Surfer
https://channelsurfer.tv/?ch=14What’s Up With That
https://whatsupwiththat.app/practice/Adobe Illustrator Project Turntable article
https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/30/adobe-illustrator-now-lets-you-rotate-2d-vectors-in-3d-space/Apple on TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@apple?_r=1&_t=ZP-959iBFWcaSNLEGO Ocarina of Time: The Final Battle
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/ocarina-of-time-the-final-battle-77093LEGO Great Deku Tree 2-in-1
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/great-deku-tree-2-in-1-77092
