Episode 101: Welcome to The Glitch!

This is the first episode of our new monthly sub-series called 404: Sense of Humor Not Found. We’re here to make tech talk human, funny, and relatable because let’s face it, digital life is full of glitches.

What’s inside:

00:00 Intro: Surviving the chaos of tech

01:00 Meet the hosts: Kenya, Italy, and a rolling pin

04:00 Why this podcast exists (and why you’ll love it)

06:00 Segments explained: Hot Take, Facts or Phish, Tech Confessions

07:00 Tech Confession #1: Ponzi scheme gone wrong

11:00 Tech Confession #2: WhatsApp phishing fail

13:00 Tech Confession #3: Almost installing a scam

16:00 Wrap-up: Share your fails + closing bite

💡 Expect laughs, lessons, and a little chaos every month. Got a tech fail? Send it our way. We might feature it next time!

#TheGlitchPodcast #TechFails #DigitalCulture #OnlineSafety #AIHumor #404SenseOfHumorNotFound #PodcastLife

The Glitch - audio version

Welcome to the Glitch, and if you're hearing this, it means you're alive. Both of our WiFIs worked. We're at recording number two 'cause it didn't work the first time. And your browser has not crashed like mine just did. So congratulations. We made it. Oh. Or you're just. Here because your uncle forwarded this podcast link on WhatsApp, and now you are trapped either way.

Sometimes you always funny because you try sometimes because you're just terrible. But hey, if you laugh, we consider it a success. Exactly. So why, why don't we tell this, these people who are listening, who we are. Hosea, go ahead. Con Con Kong, because it's Christmas time, I'll introduce myself with a pan.

I also work at Eveminet Communication Solutions as a education and training manager.

I'm Angeline Corvaglia. I am an American, as you can see from the size of the bottle that I have always next to me, but. But I'm located in Italy and I'm the executive director of Shield a nonprofit. We're focused on online safety and ethical ai. Personally, have a big passion for, uh, Africans, everything, Africa.

So I'm very excited to be doing this podcast with you, Jane and Hosea. Thank you. And together. Yes. And we're here to be funny. You're here to be funny. Exactly. How many times do we laugh when we're talking about online safety and, and ai? That's usually not very funny. So at least we can (Yeah, true) bring that.

And by the way, we want to make as African and as as human as possible. Yes, AI is not human, but we'll make it as human as possible. Exactly, and sometimes he laugh unintentionally. So welcome to,

That makes us shake our heads and kind of wonder what is going on? And you are going to make it relatable, laughable, and share your experiences sometimes. Most of the times you'll make sure that it is educational without making you feel bad. You're going back to class and taking the notes, so it'll give you real time experiences and real time scenarios.

You just endured about a pan because you're not intending pans today. Then we do a hot take of the month, something trending or ridiculous online, and then next is the main discussion. Sometimes with the guest, sometimes just the three of us losing [00:06:00] our minds more or less. By the way, we have a recurring segment called Facts or Phish where you guess if a story is real.

A fake. So spoiler is usually not real. I have, I have one. I know this is not the, I have one to see for you. Is this real or fake? There are people in Kenya, mm-hmm. Who sit in front of the computer all day and have multiple conversations pretending to be various AI chatbot companions. True or fake. Very true.

We read them like we are narrating a tragic comedy, and we'll wrap up with a short, funny, but meaningful closing bite. A tiny takeaway that just might save your sanity or at least make you giggle. So let's kick off. Let's give an example of our tech confessions and. Hosea, I think you should go first.

Of course not me, because I'm emergency and I want quick money. Yes, that would sustain me until I get the next formal job. So I had my savings. I tried with $10 and then by good luck it multiplied, and within a month it had almost doubled to 100 USD. So I saw it as a good deal and I decided to invest more.

So. It multiplied. It multiplied, and when I saw that the amount has reached where I can buy a certain car here in Kenya, the one which is so comfortable, then I decided to withdraw a little amount. So I withdrew 1000 and then it came the next time I tried to withdraw. Now hold and behold. I could not believe my eyes.

Please, uh, make a one 50 USD deposit. So anytime you do a one 50 USD deposit, they're trying to. To steal from you. So I learned the hard way and uh, from that day I've learned to do my background search, especially on online jobs that we are doing. And yes, here I am. I can't say that I'm broke. Yeah. But you can see from the explosion of, from the look of my face,

So, uh, then I saw this link, these links where they send you, uh, you sent to maybe five groups. You get, you stand a chance to win this particular phone. So I, I got curious maybe, and maybe I was, uh, a little bit naive, so I was like, uh, what's the worst that can happen? So I sent the link to five WhatsApp groups and, and then I waited, and then I was like, when am I supposed to win this?

So like. Maybe a day or two days later, I was reading about these, uh, phishing, phishing things. I was like, oh my God. Uh, I, I'm just a victim of it. Uh, safe to say, I have never done that again. Even if, even if it is for research purposes mm-hmm. Count me out out of that because, eh, the anticipation of wanting to win this thing, eh, cannot endure.

And I said, no, I'm not. And, uh, they said, oh, well someone is trying to do it. Someone is trying to steal your PayPal. And I immediately panicked 'cause I thought they're gonna like take all my money. So I was like, oh my God, tell me what I have to do. And I got really worried. And they said, they said, okay, you need to install something on your computer.

They said, go to your computer. I went to my computer. I started, I started typing. And like, you see that you don't need to install it. And then there was this little voice in the back of my mind. That reminded me that anytime someone calls you and says that something really urgent, that you need to stop them.

And she really got convinced that something was wrong with her, her child. And she managed to give a, like $50,000 in cash in a box, in a parking lot. And she told the story of how that happened. And so I remember this woman, I said, okay, wait, wait. I need to, uh, I need to check. So I immediately like, uh, Googled the, the name of this thing that I was gonna download, and there was this red, like, this is a scam.

I, I remember, I need to check something. And this guy got really mad. I said, no, we have to solve this right now, or they're gonna take your money. And I said, yeah, well, I, I need to, I need to go and, well, your money's gone. And he, he hung up the phone. So it was really like they would've taken over my computer and who knows what they could've found there.

Stolen from me. So yeah, that's my tech confession. Like in the last, in last moment. And I'll, I'll find the link to the story of the woman 'cause it's really interesting and we can put it in the show notes and you can hear that this confession, her ultimate confession. That was crazy. Yeah, it's so, yeah.

As you said, we can read them next time,

and that's actually all for today. So thanks for joining our introductory glitch. Remember if your zoom freezes. If your wifi dies or your chat bot starts to insult you, you are normal and so are we.

Give us your weird experience and we might read it during our next episode. So can I ask you this, this chapati, I haven't heard of it just before. I think we'll put it in the, in the, in the, yes. We'll send a picture. Yeah. The picture of a chapati. It's so sweet. Can I, can I ask a chat bot to, to give me the recipe for the chapati?

And you see now the. Transport the fare has really, really increased. So they're trying to move from city to the countryside, and most of us are usually eating fast foods. So it's time they're going to chat g PT and trying to find the recipe of, uh, cooking chapati, sweet chapati. And then so church deputy will.

We really, really have a lot of work to do. During this Christmas holiday, we had to buy a pan. Well, I'm going to do one. I'm gonna ask, according to the instructions on chat with you, please. We, we already have one. And see, I'll send you a picture. You can tell me if it looks like it's supposed to look. Okay.