Episode
The life-changing magic of touching stuff
- Podcast
- The Vergecast
- Published
- Jul 7, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2059
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-vergecast/episodes/the-life-changing-magic-of-touching-stuff/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-vergecast/the-life-changing-magic-of-touching-stuff.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
We have all become desensitized. Every place is like every other place, every experience is happening at a remove and on a screen. And Ian Bogost, a Washington University professor and a writer at The Atlantic, argues that this "dematerialization" is making our life worse. Ian joins David to explain how to once again commune with the world. He tells us of the magic of paper tickets, why he's kind of obsessed with the rubber on his water bottle, and why you don't need to throw phone into the ocean — but you should probably watch more ASMR videos. The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life The Cult of Delayed Gratification Is a Lie 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