(Preview) Meta and Its Messaging Problem, The XBOX Reset, Q&A on Token Costs, American Soccer, Starlink in Nature

On today’s show Andrew and Ben begin with a look at the state of Meta. Topics include: Mark Zuckerberg’s sins of commission vs. omission as a messenger, Meta’s AI opportunity, directionally correct investments, the problems with Meta as a cloud provider, and the absence of religion in Menlo Park. From there: Why Microsoft should move on from the XBOX era, and the shift in gaming habits that doomed Game Pass from the outset. At the end: OpenAI introduces GPT-Live, a question about the cost of Ben’s vibe coding adventure spawns a digression on future token costs, the cost of youth sports, American soccer and learning Chinese, tech weirdos and the future of normie app building, and Ben gets castigated for bringing a Starlink on vacation.

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A Script for Mark Zuckerberg — Stratechery (stratechery.com/2026/a-script-for-mark-zuckerb…)

Meta’s AI Abundance — Stratechery (stratechery.com/2024/metas-ai-abundance)

XBOX Cuts; Bundling and the Internet Solvent; Transaction, Coordination, and Sunk Costs — Stratechery Update (stratechery.com/2026/xbox-cuts-bundling-and-th…)

An Interview with Matthew Ball About Gaming and the Fight for Attention — Stratechery Interview (stratechery.com/2026/an-interview-with-matthew…)

Introducing GPT-Live, a new generation of voice models for natural human-AI interaction. — X:@OpenAI (x.com/OpenAI/status/2074907025537224840/video/1)

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard — Pinyin (pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html)

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