Is This Even Real?

This week on What The Frock?, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod set phasers to “question everything” in a cerebral, hilarious, and occasionally existential exploration of artificial intelligence, authenticity, and accountability. Recorded on Indy 500 Sunday—when fast cars are circling the Brickyard and stray thoughts are circling the cosmos—our fearless frocked duo ask: how do you really know who’s talking to you?

Is it Rabbi Dave, or an AI-trained simulacrum who sounds like Rabbi Dave? And if it is AI, does it matter?

Starting with a salute to old-school Star Trek voice duplicators (bonus points if you remembered “A Taste of Armageddon”), the conversation careens like a loose wheel at Turn 3 into deeper territory: Is AI a tool, a crutch, or a creeping usurper of the soul? Is your favorite online sermon really the inspired word—or just a ChatBot in a collar? Can machines reflect the image of God, or are we building golden calves in code?

Want to hear the Ai Version?

In a rare blend of Talmudic reasoning and evangelical end-times caution, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod dissect the theological and ethical implications of AI’s rapidly expanding role in daily life—from writing sermons to reading the news, from parenting dilemmas (yes, Ben, we’re talking about you) to whether a made-up book in an AI-generated summer reading list is just a harmless glitch… or a flashing neon warning sign.

It’s not all fire and brimstone though. We get tales of printing collators, Kody Brown clickbait, and a wistful moment remembering when rabbis carried leather-bound tomes, not iPads. You’ll hear how Chabad.org embraces digital outreach while still insisting that kavana—deep focus and intention—is harder to kindle from a screen than from the printed page.

And somewhere in all this, we learn that yes, Rabbi Dave does use AI for his “Dave Does History” podcast. But not to replace himself—just to keep up with himself.

So whether you’re team “AI is the Beast” or “AI is just the new Gutenberg press,” this episode invites you to question, laugh, ponder, and maybe even grumble. Because in a world of cloned voices, fake headlines, and invisible hands behind the keyboard, the question isn’t just “What the Frock?”—it’s “Is anyone really there?”

Listen now and decide for yourself—if you dare…