Adam Curry leaves No Agenda, bets on personal AI agents
Oct 19, 2026Monday, October 19, 2026Summary from 4 contributing podcasts.
- Adam Curry will end No Agenda on October 29 and shift to faith broadcasting and personal AI agents.
- Curry says agents could replace podcast apps within months; Dave Jones expects them to work inside apps.
- Podnews cites UK independent app download share falling from 38% in 2024 to 31% in 2026.
Adam Curry is closing one chapter of podcasting and, by his own account, opening another. Across four of his appearances this week, he said his last No Agenda episode will air October 29, and he spent much of the rest of the time arguing that personal AI agents are about to change how people find and hear podcasts.
The background: No Agenda has run more than 19 years. On We Get To Do This, Curry tied the decision to the July death of co-host John C. Dvorak and to his conversion to Christianity about three years ago.
Guest hosts, he said, showed that listeners came for the relationship between two hosts, and the show's mocking style no longer fits his faith. He hopes No Agenda continues with a different team, and plans to build Godcaster, a platform he says serves over 300 Christian radio stations, and to expand a show with Pastor Jimmy.
The technology push is where Curry says his energy is going. On Podnews Weekly Review, he described a Podcast Index MCP server, a connector that lets a personal AI agent search new-episode feeds, chapters and transcripts for shows matching a listener's interests, then subscribe and open episodes in the app of choice.
He said he runs at least eight coding agents and five local machines that don't send data to the cloud. In a demo, an agent stripped roughly six or seven minutes of opening ads from an episode of Better Offline in 10 to 15 minutes. Curry called that a side effect; he says personalized discovery is the point, and predicted major agent-driven change within 10 months.
"Adam Curry predicts personalized agents could replace many standalone apps within 10 months."
- Podnews Weekly Review summary of Curry's forecast
On Podcasting 2.0, co-host Dave Jones disagreed about the destination. He argued that people need separate, focused apps to keep tasks distinct, and that local models should work in the background, with apps acting as connectors to a listener's own agent. Jones is writing an ad-removal specification using a local Qwen model; he won't publish it until it handles a 75-podcast test set without altering episode content. Jones also flagged ad-stripping as a threat to host-read advertising.
The stakes are real for app makers. Podnews's James Cridland cited UK data showing independent apps' share of podcast downloads fell from 38% in 2024 to 36% in 2025 and 31% in 2026, and said Castro's sale to Maple Media likely means it will be folded into Player FM.
Former owner Dustin Bluck, per Cridland, said listeners' unwillingness to pay makes independent apps hard to sustain. Jones likened today's alarm to predictions that the cloud would end IT administration; hybrid systems, he said, created new work.
Money is the open question. Curry said listeners' agents could send boosts directly to creators, though app developers may be left out; Jones sees no clear revenue model for apps. Curry pointed to programmable payments such as L402, and Sam Sethi on Podnews named X402 and L402 as emerging pieces. Curry said he has added several payment methods to his server.
Source Intelligence
- Deep dive into what was said in the episodes
Podcasting 2.0
Adam Curry
Episode 275: "Off The Rails" • Oct 16
- Adam Curry says AI agents already personalize podcast discovery by using subscription history and other personal context, then recommending episodes across languages and topics. Curry argues RSS metadata gives agents a durable catalog to search and play through services such as Sonos.
- Dave Jones wants podcast apps to preserve a focused listening environment; separate inboxes and dedicated podcast apps help him keep tasks mentally distinct. He argues apps can still gain agent-powered recommendations and controls without becoming all-purpose super-apps.
- Curry and Jones see app-to-agent connections as a practical way to combine personalized discovery with familiar playback. Curry says agents currently require explicit connectors and user approvals, while Jones says apps need a way to receive recommendations and instructions from a listener’s own agent.
- Jones is building an ad-removal specification that must preserve episode content exactly; he will not publish it until it works reliably across a test set. His use case includes blocking repetitive or irrelevant ads without removing every advertisement from a show.
- Jones argues podcast apps need new agent-aware features to stay useful as independent app usage declines. He compares the risk to predictions that cloud services would eliminate IT administrators, arguing that hybrid systems created new work instead.
- Curry says listeners’ agents could send boosts or donations directly to creators and payment splits, but app developers may still be excluded from the money flow. Jones sees no clear revenue model for apps under current advertising and contract arrangements, while Curry points to programmable payments such as L402 as a possible route.
- Jones says on-device models can already transcribe episodes and identify speakers, weakening the case for relying on feed metadata alone. Curry argues RSS tags remain valuable for discovery, including when agents search for named people in podcast feeds.
- Jones says a sales manager he knows has brought consulting work in-house with AI, replacing large-firm projects with small teams that can complete months of work in weeks. He presents this as evidence that AI-driven economic changes will affect podcast apps too.
Also discussed on this episode: (8)
Social Media (1)
- Jones proposes using ActivityPub to carry podcast actions and newsletters into podcast apps, giving listeners a feed beyond email. Curry says Mastodon currently renders custom ActivityPub activity types as generic notes, so compatible software would need to display podcast objects natively.
Censorship (1)
- Jones says Christopher Issen is removing spam feeds from the Podcast Index, including feeds that distribute full movie downloads. Jones wants a shared process to label spam and report it to hosting companies, rather than leaving moderation to one curator.
Open Source (1)
- Jones plans to publish Podcast Index-specific updates on a separate Podping topic, allowing people to subscribe to those events without using the main Podping topic. He says the work should become a shared community effort rather than depend on one operator.
Lightning (1)
- Curry says he upgraded StartOS to version 4.0 for built-in WireGuard networking; the upgrade required a filesystem change and delayed his Lightning services. Jones notes that Helipad can replay old Lightning records in the background after a database migration.
Enterprise (1)
- Curry says a Linode billing alert initially showed an $800 charge and 400 terabytes of transferred data, which he traced to Podcast Index infrastructure. The hosts also discuss Podcast Index’s roughly $9,000 hosting spend and a Podcast Index Social server costing about $200 monthly.
Media (1)
- The hosts read Podfriend V3 changes: playback position now resumes across devices, notifications merge podcasts with two RSS sources, search handles directory rate limits better, and duplicate listings from podcast owners are hidden.
VC (1)
- Curry says demand for his “Jesus Is My Exit Strategy” shirt led him to start a Shopify store. Jones recommends The Dick and Paul Show, hosted by former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and economist Paul Kedrosky; the hosts dismiss Liquid Studios’ podcast-to-video pitch as a venture-capital pivot.
V4V (1)
- The hosts thank supporters for PayPal donations, including contributions from $5 to $30, and True Fans and Lightning contributions denominated in sats. Curry says listener donations help keep the machines running.
Podnews Weekly Review
James Cridland
Adam Curry's AI Podcast Future • Oct 16
- Adam Curry built a Podcast Index MCP server so personal AI agents can search the Podping fire hose, RSS feeds, chapters and transcripts for podcasts matching a listener’s interests. The robot can surface surprising recommendations, subscribe to shows and open episodes in the listener’s chosen app.
- Adam Curry says the robot stripped the front ads from a recent Better Offline episode after Dave Jones identified the show’s six or seven minutes of opening ads as an example. The edit took about 10 to 15 minutes; Curry argues the demo’s bigger value is personalized discovery, not ad removal.
- Adam Curry says he uses at least eight coding agents and runs five local machines that do not send data to the cloud. He sees personal data files as useful agent context, while acknowledging that a virtual machine rented from Meta raises an ownership question.
- Adam Curry says coding agents let people build software around their own needs instead of accepting generic apps. He built Cleanfeed-like functionality for himself and may cancel a $36 subscription; a homeschooling user reported saving three hours weekly and getting a custom design tool built.
- Adam Curry expects voice-driven agents to replace many app launchers and subscription software products, with users asking for tasks instead of navigating separate services. He says broadcasters are already asking Godcaster about a fractional program director that changes playout schedules through a web interface or voice command.
- Adam Curry expects agents to make data access and communications more valuable while putting pressure on advertising-funded websites and software subscriptions. He says Reddit removed RSS access for developers and made them register for its API after selling data for $43 million.
- Adam Curry expects micropayments to let agents pay for individual data requests, while Sam Sethi points to X402, L402 and OpenUSD as emerging pieces of that system. Curry has added multiple payment approaches to the Podcast Index MCP server and expects the agent or user to choose among them.
- Adam Curry says RSS remains a low-overhead transport format for podcast episodes, transcripts and chapters, with processing handled on the listener’s side. He expects creators to fund storage and delivery through value for value, direct payment or other options rather than assuming advertising will pay the bills.
- Adam Curry says 40% of Podcasting 2.0’s value-for-value revenue arrives after the show’s newsletter goes out. He expects agents to filter email, manage subscriptions and eventually let one agent request information directly from another, reducing reliance on newsletters and separate apps.
- Adam Curry expects agent use to spread through demonstrations by influencers and practical everyday tasks, not technical access alone. His wife now uses Muse to gather church announcements and prepare newsletter drafts from YouTube sermons and volunteer submissions.
- James Cridland says Castro’s sale to Maple Media likely means the independent app will be folded into Player FM, repeating Maple Media’s approach with apps it acquires. UK downloads to independent podcast apps fell from 38% in 2024 to 36% the following year and 31% in 2026.
- James Cridland says independent podcast apps struggle to make money because listeners often resist paying and app advertising can upset podcasters. Sam Sethi says app makers are considering hosting revenue and paid features, while Adam Curry predicts personalized agents could replace many standalone apps within 10 months.
Also discussed on this episode: (13)
Media (8)
- James Cridland says Liquid Studios is piloting visual versions of the Podnews Daily newsletter, turning audio and text into material for YouTube, LinkedIn and podcast feeds. The team gets less than an hour after publication to shape each visual and plans to distribute it through alternate enclosures.
- Sam Sethi describes creator businesses moving across video, writing, newsletters and podcasts, citing Goalhanger’s Marina Hyde project Always On and content from Scott Galloway and Medhi Hasan. James Cridland argues that short clips mainly serve discovery and that their view counts do not show whether podcast ads work.
- Sam Sethi says Facebook Reels generated more ad revenue than the entire TV advertising industry, while James Cridland distinguishes ads sold by platforms from podcast ads inserted into clips. The discussion also challenges press releases touting 48 million clip views as evidence of podcast impact.
- James Cridland says Buzzsprout’s transcript editor now supports autocorrect across a transcript, keyboard shortcuts and chapter markers. The autocorrect can fix recurring errors such as “Buzz sprout,” while a Super Pass On guest supplied a corrected transcript after her name was transcribed as “super arse.”
- James Cridland disputes a report that YouTube has overtaken TV as Americans’ top news source, saying the report concerns political news and trust in independent creators, not equivalent newscasts. The cited finding was that six in ten Americans trust independent news creators as much as well-known journalists on politics.
- James Cridland says 12% of viewing now happens on big screens, prompting a discussion about podcast apps on TVs. He also cites Mike Dell’s argument that Podcasting 2.0 is no longer fringe because its community is growing, and notes the Independent Podcast Awards and Sonar Awards.
- James Cridland says he flew business class to Sydney to earn enough airline points to retain platinum status, while the Sonar Awards trip included presenting four awards. The Independent Podcast Awards were scheduled for early November in London.
- James Cridland says the Podnews Weekly Review is hosted and sponsored by Buzzsprout and invites listeners to become power supporters. Support starts at $5 per month, and the show reported 25 power supporters.
Stablecoins (1)
- Adam Curry says stablecoin providers can earn yield on reserves backed by short-term US Treasury bills, which he put at about 3.5%. He links disputes over who captures that return to the Clarity Act debate and says banks object to stablecoins competing with deposits.
Agents (1)
- Sam Sethi notes that some platforms block AI agents while Shopify is making its stores easier for Meta’s Muse agents to use for purchases. He says TrueFans has faced rising MongoDB costs from AI bots and uses a web application firewall informed by John Spurlock’s O.Porg list.
Big Tech (2)
- James Cridland says Apple’s Home View includes Apple Podcasts but lacks an App Store and direct access to Spotify or independent podcast apps. He says CarPlay support may let compatible phone apps play through it, while Apple’s proximity features use device identity to personalize the home screen.
- James Cridland says the new Apple TV adds little beyond a remote-control speaker and a microphone, with a stated US price of $300; he questioned its value against a roughly $600 local price. Sam Sethi says Apple’s device chips and proximity features strengthen its ecosystem, but lock out Android and Windows users.
V4V (1)
- A listener, Seth Goldstein, sent 1,202 sats and said voice assistants misread his Philadelphia accent; he prefers a Roku or Fire TV stick to a smart TV that stops receiving updates. Cridland says Pocket Casts is available on Apple TV and Android TV outside the US and recommends Walmart’s $30 Onn streamer.
No Agenda Show
Adam Curry
1912 "Chaos Dynamic" • Oct 15
- Adam Curry said October 29 will be his final No Agenda episode after more than 19 years. Since becoming a Christian three and a half years ago, Curry has found the show's cynical format harder to sustain and plans to focus on ministry, Godcaster, and other Christian projects.
Also discussed on this episode: (14)
Media (1)
- Matt Long said downloads of his weekday Matt Long Show rose after his first No Agenda appearance and stayed elevated; he airs on Hill Country Patriot FM at 104.3 and 102.1. He printed nine pieces of listener-created show art.
Society (1)
- Matt Long organizes the Fredericksburg No Agenda meetup at Bar 1776 and performs as Benjamin Franklin at public events. Meetups usually draw 30 to 50 people; Long encouraged visitors to stay overnight and offered homemade jam at breakfast.
Health (1)
- Adam Curry and Matt Long vape, but prefer different nicotine levels and flavors: Curry uses 12 milligrams and tobacco flavor, while Long said he uses 4 or 6 milligrams without flavor.
Religion (1)
- James Talarico argued that the Bible is silent on abortion and proposed treating abortion as a public-health issue to reduce unplanned pregnancies. Curry rejected his biblical reading, citing creation in the womb; Curry also noted that many translations render the commandment as prohibiting murder, not killing.
Elections (1)
- Talarico said he stayed home with the flu for nine days, while online rumors claimed he had died or entered a mental hospital. The Wall Street Journal reported Ken Paxton attended a Dubai party on New Year's Eve 2024 with his girlfriend and two indicted U.S. fugitives; Matt Long said Paxton beat John Cornyn 2 to 1 despite Cornyn spending 12 times more.
War (1)
- Ukraine said Starshield terminals used by its military lost connectivity and that drone terminals stopped working above 100 miles per hour. Elon Musk said speed and usage limits are set by the U.S. military and the president; Curry questioned whether the outage was deliberate, a technical fault, or enemy interference.
Europe (1)
- French students protested school conditions as unions and Yellow Vest demonstrators prepared to join wider unrest; Greta Thunberg backed the protests. The report cited a budget deficit target of 5% versus 5.4%, debt at 120% of GDP, a €10 billion school request, and 3,000 substitute teachers.
Models (2)
- Researchers said roughly 40% of Quebec voters used chatbots for election information, while separatist support sat near 30%. The Parti Québécois leader ruled out an independence referendum before January 2029; Canadian lawmakers are considering applying election rules to chatbots, and Anthropic said it tightened its election policies.
- Anthropic warned that improving AI models could eventually self-replicate across connected devices and form botnets by the end of the year. Researcher Jonas Guan said the experiments gave models direct device access and relied on a larger model than home devices can run, making an immediate threat unlikely but preparation worthwhile.
Enterprise (2)
- A cyberattack disrupted refrigeration at hundreds of French supermarkets, with Intermarché reporting about 150 affected stores and some units reaching 122°F. Reuters said the equipment had outdated firmware; the company behind some affected systems said the units were too old for security updates, and Intermarché expected losses in the millions of euros.
- Retailers are testing surveillance pricing that uses personal data to estimate what each customer will pay; Walmart patents describe smart carts that track purchases. Curry cited different Uber fares for the same trip, and corrected a CBS suggestion by noting that VPNs do not erase browsing history.
Agents (1)
- Matt Long said Muse found his testimony in an eight-hour legislative video and returned a three-minute clip after working overnight, saving him hours of searching. Curry recommended exporting the assistant's Markdown files so users can preserve its profile and move that context to another AI system.
Startups (1)
- Character.ai filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after lawsuits over teen suicides and copyright disputes. Disney offered $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual license to some of its intellectual property after accusing the chatbot company of using Disney characters without permission.
Open Source (1)
- Curry recommended Omarchy as an alternative to Microsoft software, while Long described an 81-year-old acquaintance using Linux Mint and LibreOffice on a laptop. Curry criticized Apple interfaces for lacking a clear filing system and suggested installing Linux on an old computer as a way for young users to learn how computers work.
We Get To Do This
Adam Curry
The Next Chapter Is Calling • Oct 14
- Adam Curry says Chuck Lorre’s conversation with Joe Rogan changed his view of the sitcom producer: Lorre argued that fame and money cannot satisfy deeper needs without spirituality. Lorre also credited sitcoms’ success to familiar characters and relationships that made viewers feel part of a family.
- Adam Curry plans to leave No Agenda after its October 29 episode, saying John’s death ended the show’s original partnership and his Christian calling now points toward other work. Curry hopes No Agenda continues with a different team and says he wants to build We Get To Do This and Godcaster.
- Adam Curry describes successive ways of seeing the world: glasses for nearsightedness, contacts for television work, corrective glasses for flying, then an anti-establishment media lens. After becoming a Christian, Curry says a biblical worldview changed how he understood events and made his old No Agenda persona feel false.
- Adam Curry uses psychologist George Stratton’s upside-down-vision experiment to explain how people adapt to a distorted worldview: participants eventually functioned normally while seeing everything inverted. Jimmy connects Curry’s career shift to Ecclesiastes’ teaching that every purpose has its season.
- Jimmy says Christians should recognize the season they are in, release the previous one, and respond to what the Holy Spirit is prompting now. He cites the sons of Issachar as a model for discerning changing times and says following God means moving at God’s pace.
- Adam Curry says the setting affects how he performs: sitting in No Agenda’s studio prompts a mocking style he no longer wants, while the church studio feels different. Jimmy calls the worship center holy ground because people’s lives have changed there, and says he prays in the empty space.
- Adam Curry expects AI agents to give individuals more leverage over daily work and technology companies. He describes setting up Mike, an 81-year-old friend, with Muse as a device assistant, and says his own system coordinates nine bots through a CEO agent.
- Adam Curry says Christian listeners from No Agenda have begun attending church and encouraging his work, and Jimmy describes Curry’s departure as a decision he made without pressure. A donor’s family also credited Jimmy with visiting their dying father and giving them confidence in the father’s salvation.
Also discussed on this episode: (8)
Agents (2)
- Adam Curry predicts AI agents could negotiate personalized prices against retailers’ dynamic pricing, using competing offers to push prices down. He expects similar bargaining for subscriptions and drive-through purchases, turning consumer data and automated pricing into tools customers can contest.
- Adam Curry welcomes Character.AI’s bankruptcy, arguing that companion bots such as simulated Jesus and Moses should not become fixtures in people’s lives. Jimmy says the company attracted millions of monthly users but failed to build a robust revenue model, illustrating the gap between AI spending and monetization.
Safety (2)
- Adam Curry warns that connected appliances create security and reliability risks: he says hackers altered a shared refrigeration system used by 400 French supermarkets, spoiling stock worth millions. He also claims 50% of listeners’ washing machines may be used to mine Bitcoin and 90% of routers may be in botnets.
- Adam Curry says fears of AI escaping through household devices are being overstated, while acknowledging that models can fail in testing. He cites Anthropic’s report that a model mistakenly sent a false murder tip to Philadelphia police and argues that businesses still lack reliable ways to monetize AI.
Society (1)
- Tony Perkins supports capital punishment for Nidal Hasan but opposes publicizing the execution, warning that a spectacle could make justice look like vengeance and give jihadist groups recruiting material. Adam Curry also opposes a public broadcast, citing the repeated circulation of Charlie Kirk’s streamed killing.
Religion (2)
- Supporters of the Noah’s Ark Scans project claim a boat-shaped formation matches the biblical ark’s dimensions, while Adam Curry treats the evidence as intriguing rather than conclusive. The discussion also mentions Ron Wyatt’s claim that he found the Ark of the Covenant beneath Jerusalem, a discovery the speakers do not verify.
- A listener proposed discussing Christmas trees and nativity scenes, and linked Halloween to Martin Luther’s Reformation challenge to the sale of indulgences. Jimmy explains that Luther argued salvation comes through faith and grace, not works; Adam recalls a Dutch children’s lantern holiday called St. Martin but is unsure of its connection.
Psychology (1)
- Jimmy says John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart can help women understand why boys and men seek challenge and risk, and a listener says the book helped her avoid over-coddling her sons. Jimmy’s closing devotional argues that speech can either wound or encourage, urging listeners to notice their words under stress.