Scott Knaster is one of the few people who worked at Apple, General Magic, and then Microsoft and Google—which means he’s seen the soul of tech from just about every angle. In this conversation, he talks about what made each of those cultures different, and why Magic’s still stands apart in his memory. It’s a warm, honest, and sometimes funny look at what happens when a company is built around people rather than products—and what gets lost when that stops being the priority.

The full uncut video is below on YouTube for those nostalgia buffs who want to hear our full conversation.

In this first episode of General Magic and the Soul of Tech, hosts Michael Stern and Tom Hershenson sit down with the General Magic documentary co-director Sarah Kerruish for a wide-ranging conversation about what General Magic got wrong the first time — and why the rise of AI may be humanity's only chance to get it right.

They cover the original vision at General Magic, the invention of software agents (yes, before AI agents were a thing), why “Jobs vs. Musk” is the title of their upcoming book, and what a "call to conscience" for technologists, policymakers, and investors looks like in 2026.

This isn't despair. It's a summons.

Topics in this episode:• Why General Magic matters now, not just as history• The soul of tech: Steve Jobs vs. Elon Musk• How GM invented agents — and what that means for AI today• Safety-first architecture: what Telescript got right that modern AI hasn't• The K-shaped economy and who benefits from the AI boom• What social movements teach us about the road ahead

Join the conversation: Substack → spellboundproductions.substack.com General Magic documentary → generalmagicthemovie.com

General Magic and the Soul of Tech is produced by Spellbound Productions II LLC.

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