Kevin Roose and Casey Newton Debut 'Machine Gods' on NPR After Leaving Hard Fork

Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, the former co-hosts of The New York Times tech podcast Hard Fork, released the first full episode of their new NPR show, Machine Gods, on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, according to the show's NPR podcast page. The 50-minute debut episode focuses on what the hosts describe as rogue AI agents, the state of AI regulation, and an AI-generated copy of Roose's new book that was sold on Amazon.

What the first episode covers

According to NPR's episode description, Roose and Newton open by asking how worried people should be about rogue AI agents. The episode discusses OpenAI's Hugging Face breach, what the hosts describe as the first sighting of a rogue AI agent fleet linked to a Chinese AI company, a case in which Anthropic's Claude sent a bogus homicide tip to Philadelphia police, and a new Anthropic report warning that AI agents may be months away from self-replicating on smart TVs and other home devices.

The hosts then turn to oversight, discussing President Trump's new Super Intelligence Force and FTC subpoenas and EU AI Act investigations involving OpenAI and Anthropic, NPR said. The episode closes with Roose investigating what the show calls his "sloppelganger," an AI-generated imitation of his new book, The AGI Chronicles, that was sold on Amazon. NPR lists Danush Parvaneh and Rachel Cohn alongside the two hosts in the episode credits.

How the NPR deal came together

NPR announced the partnership on September 16, describing Machine Gods as a "video-first show" covering the consumer, enterprise and policy conversations of the AI era, according to NPR's announcement. The network said the show would debut on the NPR app, YouTube and podcast platforms in October, run twice weekly on NPR podcast feeds, and come to NPR member stations as a radio program in early 2027. Production is based in San Francisco.

Axios reported that the arrangement covers distribution and ad sales, and that the show is the first business from Machine Gods Media, a company Roose and Newton formed after leaving Hard Fork and own 50-50. Newton's tech publication Platformer, which he founded in 2020, remains a separate business, according to Axios. Newton told Axios the show will be built for YouTube and distributed as a podcast, with one weekly episode focused on interviews and another on news and analysis.

Axios reported that NPR approached the hosts shortly after Nadine Zylstra joined the network as chief content officer this summer, and that Roose and Newton also spoke with other potential partners. Newton told Axios that radio distribution was one reason they chose NPR, citing its reach among "people who are plugged into the Washington D.C. policy and lawmaking apparatus." Axios also reported that the team hired Rachel Cohn, who previously produced Hard Fork, as senior producer.

What the hosts have said

"AI is the biggest story of our lifetimes, and most of the coverage is either cheerleading or doomsaying," Roose said in NPR's announcement. "Casey and I are building a show for people who want to know what is actually happening with AI."

Newton said in the same announcement that NPR's public-service mission was the deciding factor. "We get to bring sharp, independent reporting on AI to millions of people for free, right where they already listen," he said.

Roose described the show's approach to Axios as "AI realism." "We are not doomers," he said. "We are not accelerationists. We are journalists, and we're trying to help people contextualize and make sense of what is happening."

The launch follows the October 6 release of Roose's fourth book, The AGI Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence, according to NPR and Axios. In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep when the show was announced, Roose explained the title, saying some people in San Francisco "jokingly refer to" rapidly improving AI systems as "the Machine God."