Is Your Smart Speaker Haunted?
A New Podcast Explores the Paranormal Side of Technology
Podcast Name: My Smart Speaker is Haunted!
Hosts: Wil, Tex, and Joseph
Release Date: Summer 2024
Available On: The first nine episodes are out now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Deezer. Hosted by Acast.
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London, August 2024 – Ever wondered if your smart speaker might be more than just a helpful assistant? My Smart Speaker is Haunted! is a fresh podcast that delves into the eerie and mysterious, where Wil and his partner Tex are joined by friend Joseph Begley (Lincs FM/Hits Radio) to share real, unprovoked clips from their haunted smart speaker. Affectionately named "The Goggle" and recorded surreptitiously on their sleep recorder app, these late-night ramblings challenge the boundaries between technology and the paranormal.

"It's long passed the point of us wanting to know why this happens," says Tex. "We just find it fun and think you will too." 

Over the last four years their device has been laying the groundwork to tell a fully fleshed-out adventure, with story arcs, recurring characters and some totally weird content, all of it made up, with no source material or paper trail, seemingly from the mind of a sentient AI.

"We started this podcast as a way to document and share the bizarre experiences we've had with our smart speaker," says Tex, one of the hosts. "Without us ever actually asking for it, this device has, over the course of hundreds of tiny 20 second chunks, invented an entire novel centred around a made-up protagonist called Tom the Mattress Man, who lives in the Midlands and sells homewares in an increasingly strange Universe of support characters. It has invented characters and content so bizarre they simply cannot be real. For example, if I told you to visit Weevil World, a theme park devoted to Weevils, would you go? What about if I told you psychic medium ‘Mother Burger’ uses molasses to tell the future?"

Episodes: Each episode of My Smart Speaker is Haunted! features a selection of clips. “Wil and Tex tell me they spent a solid three months archiving all of this”, says Joseph. “They’ve ripped each clip off their sleep recorder app one by one, transcribed it on an Excel sheet which up to about 2000 cells, and tried to put it in an order that makes more sense for an outsider listener like me. I’m there as their third pair of ears to make sure they’re not going insane, and I’m already hooked!”. New story snippets are aired and discussed fortnightly as the hosts all try and piece together this immaculate work of fiction.

And for the naysayers? Whether you're a sceptic, a believer, or simply someone who loves a good mystery, My Smart Speaker is Haunted! offers a unique and entertaining look at the intersection of technology and the supernatural. It's a podcast that will leave you both laughing and looking over your shoulder the next time your smart speaker chimes in unexpectedly.

“We of course expect some people to think we’ve made this all up” says Wil. “But we wouldn’t even know how to if we wanted to! We’ve had tech-savvy friends come round for dinner when the speaker says something silly in front of them, and it leaves them scratching their heads. In the beginning we tried to stop it, we changed our Wi-fi network, our passwords, our linked accounts, but still ‘The Goggle’ continued to blurt out nonsense when you’re not expecting it, and this is genuinely part of our lives now. We’ve learnt not only to live with it, but also to quite enjoy what’s happening. It’s surprisingly fun to listen to the sleep recorder app each morning to see what the next twists and turns in the story might be.”

Where to Listen: My Smart Speaker is Haunted! is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast and Deezer. New episodes drop every fortnightly, so be sure to subscribe and never miss a moment of the mystery.

Contact:
For media inquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact:
Tex Fisher
hauntedsmartspeaker@gmail.com
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Join Wil, Tex, and Joseph as they unravel the nonsense from their smart speaker. Could your device be hiding something too? Find out on My Smart Speaker is Haunted!.

About the Podcast: My Smart Speaker is Haunted! is a podcast so strange and silly it can’t be categorised. Hosted by Wil, Tex, and Joseph, the show shares real audio evidence from a seemingly possessed smart speaker, as it tells random stories and invents the most bizarre characters. The podcast invites listeners to join in the fun as they explore the mysteries that lurk in our everyday devices.
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