In this Thanksgiving-week episode of aiGED, Ginny Deerin takes listeners on a thoughtful (and humorous) tour of how AI is reshaping everything from holiday cooking to outer-space infrastructure — and how it can make writing a whole lot easier.

We start with a wonderful New York Times piece on Joan Didion’s legendary Thanksgiving dinners and the meticulous planning behind them. Then we take a sharp turn skyward to Google’s ambitious “Project Suncatcher,” an early plan to build AI data centers in space. Yes, space.

The main feature of the episode dives into how AI can help with the writing tasks most of us struggle with: thank-you notes, hard-to-write letters, family stories we’ve never written down, and even toasts and eulogies. Ginny shares practical tips, personal examples, and her own dry humor (with a pun or two).

Plus — two recommendations, including a true story about a wallet, a car dealership, and the reminder that not every unknown number is a scammer.

Show Notes

AI in the News

• Joan Didion’s Thanksgiving: Dinner for 75, Reams of Notes — New York Times article by Patrick Farrell, Nov. 18, 2025.

A look inside the newly opened Didion archive at the New York Public Library, revealing the meticulous planning behind her legendary Thanksgiving gatherings.

• Google’s Project Suncatcher — Google Research report (Nov. 4, 2025) outlining early-stage work on solar-powered satellite clusters designed to run AI computing in space.

aiGED: AI for the 65+ crowd

In this episode, Ginny Deerin breaks down one of the most common questions she gets: How do I create my own Bitsy? Whether you want to name your AI, give it a personality, or simply make it more helpful, this episode shows you exactly how to do it — step by step and in plain English.

Ginny also covers the four main ways to use ChatGPT (web, phone app, iPad app, and desktop app), explains the difference between the free version and paid plans, and shares a simple walkthrough for setting up your own AI “person.”

Plus: two AI-in-the-news stories — one from The Washington Post’s analysis of 47,000 public ChatGPT conversations, and another about a Waymo driverless car that struck a beloved neighborhood cat in San Francisco — both of which reveal a lot about how AI is showing up in our lives today.

Ginny ends with recommendations, a bit of homework, and a reminder that AI can be both helpful and hazardous… and that learning how to use it well is absolutely within reach for all of us.

SHOW NOTES

AI in the News

1. The Washington Post story

How people use ChatGPT, according to 47,000 of its conversations

By Gerrit De Vynck and Jeremy B. Merrill

A look into real conversations and why so many people use ChatGPT for emotional support.

2. The San Francisco Waymo incident

A Waymo driverless car struck and killed a beloved neighborhood cat.

A small incident, but one that raises big questions about trust, safety, and accountability as autonomous vehicles spread.

Recommendations

• Google DeepMind Podcast — Episode: Waymo: The future of autonomous driving with Vincent Vanhoucke.

A thoughtful, balanced conversation about safety, reliability, and the timeline for autonomous cars.

• Try creating a bit of whimsy with ChatGPT’s image-generation tools.

Ginny shares how she created an adorable pencil sketch of freshly baked muffins for a family photo book.

Homework

• Rename one chat in ChatGPT (helps keep things organized).

• Choose a voice for your AI in one of the apps and try living with that “person” for a bit.

Call to Action

If you love aiGED, please leave a rating or review and share it with someone in the 65+ crowd who might enjoy learning right along with us.

aiGED: AI for the 65+ crowd

This episode is all about love, fear, and food.

First up, we’ll look at how AI is shaking up the world of dating — including a new app that claims it can find your perfect match (no swiping required). Then we’ll dig into a new Pew Research study showing that while most Americans are fine with AI predicting the weather or helping doctors, we’d rather it stay out of our hearts — and our kitchens.

And finally, the main event: I hand over my Thanksgiving meal planning to Bitsy, my AI sidekick. From grocery lists to freezer plans to pie crust timing, I find out whether AI can really help take the stress out of holiday cooking — or if it just adds a new kind of chaos. Spoiler alert: mostly helpful.

Whether you’re cooking, commuting, or folding laundry, this episode is about what happens when we let AI step into the most human parts of life — love, fear, and the joy of feeding people you love.

SHOW NOTES

AI in the News

1. You Don’t Need to Swipe Right. A.I. Is Transforming Dating Apps — by Eli Tan, The New York Times, November 3, 2025
2. Americans Want AI to Stay Out of Their Personal Lives — by Terrence O’Brien, The Verge, September 17, 2025

Recommendations

NYT Cooking — A fantastic resource for recipes, planning tools, and now even a bit of AI assistance. You can subscribe to NYT Cooking directly on The New York Times website. Here’s how: Go to cooking.nytimes.com; click the red “Subscribe” button in the upper-right corner; you’ll see subscription options

Recipe Adjuster (my GPT!) — It’s free. Easily scale recipes up or down or convert to grams for precision cooking. https://chatgpt.com/g/g-673e79ea484c81919b3d69df455977d6-recipe-adjuster

Spotify DJ — Tell Spotify’s AI DJ what you’re in the mood for and let it mix the perfect soundtrack for your kitchen adventures. Go to your Spotify Home screen. Click on DJ. Look to lower left corner for green circle – click it – and speak to the DJ. Tell him/her what you’re in the mood for.

aiGED: AI for the 65+ crowd