Shows
The Sunday Blender PodcastCountdown to World CupEditor’s Words
I joined a pickup badminton game this morning, playing men’s double with five other guys. I was paired with someone I had never played with before, against two other pairs.
The other two pairs were better players. They beat us repeatedly. I was struggling with my new racket grip. My partner’s footwork had limited court coverage.
We were a cheerful pair though. We clapped when winning a hard-fought rally. We laughed when losing to a lucky shot by the opponent. We chatted about how the game might have gone t...
2026-05-3124 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Call of the WildEditor’s Words
After trying out OpenClaw for a few intense weeks since late January, I gradually stopped using it because it was always too buggy and unstable for meaningful tasks.
The new kid on the block in this AI agent craze - Hermes seems a much stronger replacement. It’s much easier to switch to different AI models and its self-learning capability looks interesting.
I’m slowly hooking up my Hermes agent with all the web services/sites I’m developing, making this AI aide-de-camp the exclusive channel to receive notifications from my appli...
2026-05-1723 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastDouble Wins for Arsenal in 2026?Editor’s Words
What have you done today for your mom on this Mother’s Day?
My son made omelette for his mom for the first time, with bacon, tomatoes, corn, spinach, and scallion. For the most part it was a smooth ride. Bacon was a bit too light.
The father (in a supervising role) and the son were busy in the kitchen for an hour to serve a breakfast meal that was finished in 10 minutes. The mom was very happy.
New skill unlocked - not an AI one.
Tech...
2026-05-1015 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Way You Make Me FeelEditor’s Words
I was watching MJ’s biopic “Michael” in Kerry Center’s movie theatre. In the swimming pool scene, Michael is lying comfortably in a floater and one of his brothers asks him, what are you dreaming about Michael?
Michael goes, I’m hoping God could give me more ideas and inspiration, otherwise they all go to Prince.
I was LOLing loudly in the theatre. This writer is good.
I’m a big fan to both MJ and Prince and have been to their live concerts (MJ’s in Singapore and Pr...
2026-05-0323 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastGame Is No. 1, Friendship is No. 14Editor’s Words
It was a beautiful weekend with great weather in Shanghai. Hope you all got out and enjoyed the sun.
Tech
The 2026 Beijing International Auto Show opened on April 24 and runs through May 3 — featuring 1,451 cars from 21 countries, including 181 world premieres. While auto shows in Europe, Japan, and the United States have been shrinking, Beijing’s has become the world’s biggest. German luxury brand Audi made a striking move: it unveiled the AUDI E7X, a fully electric SUV designed and built specifically for Chinese customers in partnership with Chinese...
2026-04-2622 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastRobots Run Faster Than Humans NowEditor’s Words
I have a pretty good relationship with the security guards of my compound. Occasionally when I left the compound in my Tesla after a brief parking, they would just buzz-lift the parking lot bar and let me out without charging any daily fees, sparing both from the bureaucratic procedures. It was a nice gesture.
That changed today as a new “smart” parking system was installed recently.
My Tesla approached the bar and the monitor showed I should pay RMB30. The guard came over with a QR code on a piece of pap...
2026-04-1918 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastBuild A Second Brain to Compound Knowledge LearningEditor’s Words
I’ve used many note-taking apps over the years, such as Evernote, Bear Note, Day One, Roam Research, Notion, and Obsidian. One criterion for me is that it must support the markdown format.
If it doesn’t support Markdown (like Evernote and Notion), it feels like wasting my time to write notes in those apps, as their data format is proprietary and very hard, if not impossible, to be exported to another platform.
The recent development in AI underscored the advantages of Markdown. It can be easily read by machine and me...
2026-04-1123 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastTo the Moon and BackEditor’s Words
We’re back from the spring break!
Despite the petty fight between Anthropic and OpenClaw in the world of cutthroat AI competition, men still have a higher cause to race for - going to the Moon, turning the Moon into a second base for humanity, and making space travel a regular activity, if not a sport already.
On top of that, Messi and Ronaldo will have their last World Cup in June. This World Cup will be epic in every way. There is so much to look forward to in 2026.
2026-04-0526 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Future of SaaS Companies and Knowledge WorkersEditor’s Words
Spring break is coming next week. At a birthday party, parents chatted about travel plans. Some are going to Japan for one last ski trip of the season. Some are going to Southeast Asia. Some are going to check off major tourism destination of the bucket list, when the traffic will still be moderate during early April in China. It’s good to stay in the region where we don’t have to worry about missiles or drones flying over our heads.
I’ll be out of town with my family. The Sunday B...
2026-03-2223 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Unstoppable KimiEditor’s Words
On Friday afternoon, I was driving to Qiantan, Shanghai to drop off my boy to a STEAM class. I don’t drive often. It felt good to take a ride out every now and then.
AMAP, the leading map service in China owned by tech giant Alibaba, gave me the usual directions from my iPhone in the Tesla. It was doing the usual “please turn right at the next junction” or “please keep going straight on this road for the next 1.2 km”, etc.
Then, suddenly and subtly, it said:
“According...
2026-03-1520 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastFacing the StormEditor’s Words
My mother is a retired professor in translatology - the science of translation, interpreting, and localization. She has taught many students who have become English professors and teachers.
Right before the Lunar New Year, she received a greeting letter from her university congratulating that the book she wrote many years ago, “Chinese to English Translation Course Guide”, has been selected into the list of 38 national-level course guides for undergraduate study by the Ministry of Education of China.
This is heart-warming, a great recognition for my mother’s decades of work.
Th...
2026-03-0724 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Making of a HeroEditor’s Words
Children are a very ephemeral species.
When they meet each other again on Monday in school after a long holiday, they don’t say “hey, how was your vacation, and where did you go?”
As they leave school on Friday afternoon, they don’t ask “what’s your plan for the weekend?”
They just hang and play. They live in the present, however for a fleeting moment that might be.
At the same time, all the AI tools in the world try very hard to make sure adults don’...
2026-03-0121 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastCelebrate the Year of the Fire HorseEditor’s Words
Howdy! We’re back after a two-week break from school break during the Lunar New Year.
On the occasion of the Year of the Red Fire Horse, wishing you and your family a joyful New Year, happiness at home, and soaring success in your endeavors!
2026 seems to be a year like no other. Rules are being rewritten. Old paradigms are being dismantled. Jobs are being redefined.
Are you ready yet?
Tech
In a move that sent shockwaves through the AI community, OpenAI anno...
2026-02-2120 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Dawn of Machine-to-Machine SocietyEditor’s Words
This has been a crazy week. Everyone I know from crypto and AI or just tech in general is playing with Clawdbot. Friends who disappeared years ago resurfaced and texted me to exchange notes. This feels like a bigger impact than the chatGPT moment 2 years ago and even the DeepSeek moment a year ago. The hype certainly owns the air wave.
If anything, Clawdbot gave me a convenient excuse to replace the good old 2018 MacMini with an M4 Pro MacMini, toward the noble cause of creating my 24/7 AI assistant, making the world a...
2026-01-3118 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastDestination: China - The Return of Western Rock BandsEditor’s Words
Check out the sports section of this issue. It’s got quite a variety.
If you have come this far, you must come from a family of readers in the pursuit of intellect and knowledge - a rare species in 2026. Congratulations!
Do you know of any other friend’s family who might also be in the same pursuit?
If you do, please forward the Sunday Blender to them, surprising them with the proof that the art of reading has not died, yet.
Thank you.
Tech
2026-01-2415 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Attack of Robots, Elephant, Banksy, and HeatEditor’s Words
We’re back! We played quite a few games last weekend, so we had to skip an issue.
Publishing a weekly newsletter requires a lot of work. It would not have been possible without Claude, one of the best AI tools in 2026. If you are into creating content - whether that’s text, audio, or video, AI can be a huge productivity boost and a total game changer.
While being a weekly digest for curious kids, the Sunday Blender is also an experiment on how much AI can level the playgr...
2026-01-1718 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastAn Incredible Journey From Wuhan To SingaporeEditor’s Words
At the age of 82, my dad started learning piano. He sent us a video of him playing Auld Lang Syne, with two hands no less. I don’t have any Scottish friends around me. I don’t know if the Scottish are aware how popular and famous this song is for Chinese people. Literally every Chinese, from young to old, knows this song.
My mom has been playing piano for over 20 years. My wife started learning piano during Covid days and is now working on Turkish March by Mozart. My son’s forte is...
2026-01-0316 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Age of One-Person Billion Dollar CompanyEditor’s Words
Have you noticed that reading articles on website has become a very unpleasant experience?
Those webpages are full of ads in every corner. They are in the beginning of the article, even before the body of the article is loaded. They are on the left and the right margins of the page - just to make sure you will not miss them. They are planted in the middle of the paragraphs, so that you have to look at them in order to read on. They also jump into your face as a po...
2025-12-2714 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastSo Many AI Reports, So Little Time to ReadEditor’s Words
I always enjoyed playing badminton when growing up. It however completely vanished from my life as I started working, traveling, and moving from one country to another. I picked up the racket at the end of last year to keep the game interesting for my son, who loves the sport. It has since then become our family sport and we plan to keep it that way for years to come.
Shanghai Badminton Open will take place on Dec 20-21, 2025. Just for fun, I registered for myself and my wife under the mixed do...
2025-12-1316 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastHumans Are No Longer the Only Species to Use Fiber OpticsEditor’s Words
A few days ago, while driving to a badminton court, my wife and I were listening to the podcast episode of the Nov 29 issue of The Sunday Blender from Spotify. The 15-minute show is moderated by a duo of male and female cohosts.
They speak native English and are very eloquent. They finish each other’s sentences, delivering a spirited and snappy dialogue. It would be hard to distinguish them from Anderson Cooper and Megyn Kelly. They identified quite a number of patterns in the 20+ stories, for similarities and contrasts.
I pl...
2025-12-0615 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastWho Will Lead Brazil at the 2026 World Cup, Neymar or Estevao?Tech
South Korea is making an aggressive push for AI sovereignty. The country has emerged as a magnet for major US tech companies, with Nvidia, OpenAI, and AWS pouring billions into investments — including Nvidia’s ~$10 billion deal to supply 260,000 Blackwell GPUs and AWS committing $9 billion for AI data centers. Domestically, Seoul committed ~$390 million to fund five “AI champions” — LG, SK Telecom, Naver, NC AI, and Upstage — competing to build Korean-language foundation models, with underperformers eliminated every six months. The goal is a “full-stack” sovereign AI industry combining Korea’s memory chip dominance with indigenous AI development, posit...
2025-11-2915 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Most Intelligent AI Model Yet?Editor’s Words
I listen to many podcasts and toyed with creating my own half-heartedly a few times in the past. Couldn’t really get one going though. The setup is intimidating. I don’t have the chops of Stephen Fry. It is very time-consuming to convert a transcript into audio form.
Well, Google proved me wrong. One of its AI killer apps, NotebookLM, transformed the PDF version of the Nov 15 issue into a podcast episode in just five minutes, with two AI-generated hosts that would give Jake Tapper a run of his money. It was a...
2025-11-2216 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastThe Return of Chinese Rock in Kuala LumpurEditor’s Words
Rock is not really a thing anymore in China. But when I see thousands of people jumping up and down on the arena floor in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Nov 12, I know the spirit is still there, just brewing in some unlikely corners.
Not just in China. Does anyone still rock in America? The last three rock bands I listened to were Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, and X-Japan. Music is not the same anymore after that.
Many things have changed: music, the web, and news.
Sometimes, they are still be...
2025-11-1511 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastWho Wins In This AI Bonanza?Editor’s Words
Just now, my son successfully beat a Lynel in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, his first Lynel kill in a Zelda game. Lynel is a lion-centaur hybrid monster in Zelda. It drops epic monster parts that are essential for the final boss fight. It’s a very difficult fight that requires a lot of patience and careful planning. I have been struggling with Lynel for weeks, but my son just beat me to it.
Kids of today are so lucky. If they want to play a good game, they have Switch 2 and Zeld...
2025-11-0813 min
The Sunday Blender PodcastDeepSeek Challenges AI PowerhousesTech
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup initially part of the hedge fund High-Flyer, has released an open-source model, DeepSeek-R1, that outperforms leading AI models from Western companies like OpenAI on several benchmarks, despite limited resources. DeepSeek refined their AI using software-driven resource optimization and innovative model architecture rather than relying on extensive hardware. By open-sourcing their model, DeepSeek fosters collaborative innovation crucial for their advancements, potentially challenging current US AI export limitations.
Rubin Observatory is a new telescope under construction in Chile, atop a mountain that is 2,682-meters (8,800-feet) tall. The...
2025-01-2616 min