The Vergecast

All around the internet, groups of media fans are hunting for and curating some of the best movie, music, and TV collections anywhere. And they're doing it all via BitTorrent. Verge contributor and Lowpass writer Janko Roettgers takes us into the world of private torrent trackers, where some people are saving culture and some people are just in it for the flicks.Torrent Underground We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11. 0:00 Torrents Return01:20 Private Trackers Explained04:04 Rules Ratios And Leechers05:56 The Prestige Ladder10:00 Bounties And Salinger12:55 Piracy Ethics Today17:16 Streaming Backlash19:45 What Private Really Means22:12 Anti Piracy Crackdowns25:44 Why People Do It27:14 Is BitTorrent Growing28:45 Curation Beats Algorithms31:51 Enough Phone Kickstarter33:50 Phone Prices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 2026 midterm elections in the US ended in a sweeping win for Democrats — and several dozen sweeping losses for the AI industry. Nilay and David dig into what the results will mean for data centers, Big Tech, and even the future of X. Then, they try to figure out whether anyone's making any money in AI — not so much, it turns out — and whether the touchscreen MacBook is worth the price. Further reading: ⁠The fight for tech accountability starts now ⁠ ⁠Tech is about to get hammered in Congress⁠ Forbes: ⁠Elon Musk Deletes Midterm Posts After Stunning Election Losses⁠ ⁠Data centers lost the midterms ⁠ ⁠Democrats leaned into Big Tech and AI opposition this cycle. ⁠ ⁠Not even $200 million could help Elon Musk buy Texas ⁠ ⁠OpenAI says ChatGPT is catching up to Google in search ⁠ ⁠Google hasn’t figured out how to make AI pay like its search engine ⁠ ⁠Uber only fulfilled 4 rides from AI agents last quarter ⁠⁠ ⁠DoorDash's CEO: Don't be 'delusional' after just a few hundred AI agent orders⁠ ⁠Apple is reportedly lowering AI usage budgets.⁠ ⁠Brendan Carr plans to let prisons jam cellphone signals⁠ ⁠SpaceX could buy Boost Mobile as part of its big mobile carrier plans ⁠ ⁠Apple MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display review: a touchscreen winner⁠ ⁠Sam Altman addresses RAM comments: People should ‘put as much as they want in their computers⁠ ⁠⁠Sam Altman says it’s better for RAM to be in a data center than on your desk ⁠⁠ Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11. 0:00 Bezos Hair Transplant Hoax 01:15 Midterms Shockwave Begins 02:00 Corruption And Data Center Backlash 06:53 AI Products Not Worth It 09:26 What Democrats Can Do Now 11:15 Congress Investigations Lawyer Up 13:15 Hype Reels Take Over Politics 15:42 X Bubble Versus Real Life 22:47 Microblogging Decline And AI Regulation 23:56 Ossoff Speech And AI Doomerism 27:35 Google Then Versus OpenAI Now 33:35 Back From Break 33:42 OpenAI Search Claims 35:19 Google Moat Erodes 38:02 Monetizing AI Overviews 42:52 Ads Break Trust 45:49 Google Zero Spiral 47:43 Agents Reality Check 50:41 Token Spending Pullback 52:50 Muse Novelty Wears Off 01:00:16 Brendan Carr is a Dummy 01:02:00 FCC Heat On Carr 01:07:04 MacBook Pro Touchscreen 01:09:09 Touchscreen Love Hate 01:10:25 Dynamic Island Reality Check 01:11:17 Best Touch Use Cases 01:11:58 App Support And Optimization 01:14:10 MacBook Pro Verdict 01:14:27 Speakers And Trade Ins 01:15:42 Sales And Upgrade Timing 01:17:11 SpaceX Boost Mobile Drama 01:22:05 Ram Altman Cloud Take 01:29:31 AI Photo Editing Panic 01:37:13 Wrap Up And Plugs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Morgann Book reads a lot of books. And, as a literary creator and podcaster, makes a lot of content about books. She joins the show to explain why BookTok loves all things romance and romantasy, why physical books are an important balance to digital life, and why she's not worried at all about the future of reading. Further reading: Bookish Media Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Film director and camera nerd Rian Johnson sits down with Vergecast guest host and camera nerd David Imel for an unapologetically nerdy conversation about cameras. They chat about cinematography, Rian's viral Chromagraph Camera app, and check out David's vast collection of quirky equipment. (As of recording, Rian is still waiting for his to be delivered.) Further reading: ⁠Rian Johnson explains why he had to build his own iPhone camera app⁠ Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Election Day in the United States, and data centers have become a core issue in some of the country's most important midterm races. The Verge's Adi Robertson explains why people are uniting against data centers, why they've become a proxy for all kinds of other fights, and how this year's results might change the AI industry going forward. Further reading: Apple is all in on AI — its own and everyone else’s | The Verge OpenAI is quietly renaming data centers ‘compute campuses’ | The Verge GTA VI’s download will need up to 212GB of hard drive space | The Verge Midterm elections 2026: all the news The Verge's investigative series: The Center Will Not Hold The 2026 iPad Mini is a terrific tiny tablet — for a big price Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices