Welcome to the final episode of The Vergecast for 2019. On today’s docket, we’ve got a deep dive into the lives of YouTube moderators, plans for the biggest smart home standards to unite under one banner, and Microsoft’s surprise announcement of the Xbox Series X.

In the first half of the show, Silicon Valley editor Casey Newton joins to talk about his continuing reporting on the lives of online content moderators with a recent feature that spoke to employees from Google and YouTube about how viewing violent content for a living has impacted their lives, potentially giving them PTSD.

The second half of the show, Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Paul Miller discuss the announcement that Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung, and others have joined up to create a new open-source smart home standard and why it is necessary for the connected home.

Lastly, we end on another announcement: the Xbox Series X. The crew discusses the unclear naming convention of the console as well as the size and specs listed for a holiday 2020 release.

There’s a whole lot more in between all of that — like Paul’s weekly segment “To charge the time, do a dongle crime” — so hang out with The Verge for one last listen before you slide into the holidays.

The stories we discuss this week:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/20/21030564/vergecast-podcast-382-youtube-moderators-smart-home-standards-xbox-series-x-announcement