Shell Game
4.8/5
Critic Rating
A podcast (and newsletter) about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. In Season One, that thing was Evan’s voice. By creating a voice clone and hooking it up to an AI chatbot, Evan set out to discover what happens when you try to take control of the very technology that threatens to replace you. Shell Game was named one of the best podcasts of 2024 by Apple, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, The Information, and The Economist. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, and "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Ma...
Critic Reviews
Score: 4
Keelin • Mentally? A Magpie. • Apr 3, 2025
"If you want to know about the production, this is a good podcast to listen to. It is polished and professional. The voices are warm and clear, the style is straightforward and it’s easy to listen to. The story follows a track and deftly leaves questions unsaid, and unanswered. I have some things to chew on when it comes to the ethics of this podcast. Consent to be on the show was always given, but consent to be experimented on with an AI voice clone was not. I understand that this was not a medical question.Ratliff wasn’t coming at his friends with scalpels asking to chip their brains. The harm possibility was relatively low in the grand scheme of things. However, if I didn’t know there was a possibility of chatting with an AI clone, and the conversations were going the way some of these were - I would be furious. I would be hurt. I would also be creeped out. Maybe Ratliff has different understandings with his friends, and maybe my hesitation to jump into things is what’s causing me to have the “ick” here - but the fact remains that parts of this podcast feel gross in a way that could have been controlled. "
Score: 5
Chloe Walker • PodcastReview.org • Nov 25, 2024
"Shell Game’s combination of intimacy, curiosity, empathy, and humor make it a vital listen for those who are worried about what AI means for our future. Nobody knows. Everyone’s scared. Ratliff’s show provides a very human kind of solace for such uncertain times. …"
Score: 5
Louisa Lim • The Saturday Paper • Sep 29, 2024
"...the year’s most deeply satisfying moment of podcast schadenfreude. The heart of this series lies in Ratliff’s attempts to explore the limits of his identity and of human-AI interaction. It’s still easy to distinguish between his human voice and the emotionless AI pretender, but I was surprised at how quickly I anthropomorphised the endearingly eager AI-Evan."
Score: 4.8
Nicholas Quah • Vulture • Sep 3, 2024
"The resulting series can be a little shaggy and uneven at times, but the underlying oomph of Ratliff’s exploits here is reliably compelling. It’s fun to hear a human being rebel in a bid to defend his own humanity. …"
Score: 5
Stephen O. • Podcast Delivery • Jul 14, 2024
"If there’s one thing we implore you to take away from this six-episode banger of a podcast is that all this AI stuff can actually spark (or in some cases, re-spark) curiosity, ability, and individual economic mobility."
