How Meta Turned Smart Glasses Into 'Hot Surveillance Summer' (with Taylor Lorenz)
Back Row with Amy OdellShow Notes
In this special episode in collaboration with the Power User podcast Amy Odell joins tech journalist Taylor Lorenz to trace the arc of wearable tech — from the abomination that was Google Glass to Snapchat's vending-machine Spectacles and the company's recent $2,000 flop. Also, why Meta's rollout of it's new $299 fashion-first AI glasses, odious as many find them, may end up being a smash hit.
Follow Taylor's show Power User on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube, and subscribe to her newsletter, UserMag.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro — why everyone's arguing about Meta's glasses
01:36 Turning a camera into a fashion accessory
01:55 Welcome + the "hot surveillance summer" question
02:45 Google Glass and the original abomination
04:16 Snapchat Spectacles, vending machines, and a $130 flop
06:48 GoPro and how sports normalized filming everything
08:55 Ray-Ban Stories (2021) and the "creep" problem
10:57 2025: Oakley Meta and the first AI glasses
11:55 2026: low-profile frames, rhinestones, and AI as the real sell
13:25 The influencer rollout and the decline of fashion media
18:39 Why Kylie Jenner
21:40 How phones already normalized recording everything
24:56 Fashion, plausible deniability, and getting women on board
26:20 Will they actually sell? Meta's copy machine
29:19 The anti-screen crowd may be Meta's best customer
32:14 Beyond glasses: pins, pendants, and camera AirPods
35:29 Who owns the data? Facial recognition and the scary part
37:11 Zuckerberg, Bezos, the Met Gala, and OpenAI's fashion play
39:59 Snap's $2,000 flop and why ugly tech dies
43:03 Wrap-up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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