Better Offline

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Better Offline is a weekly show exploring the tech industry’s influence and manipulation of society - and interrogating the growth-at-all-costs future that tech’s elite wants to build.  Combining narrative-form storytelling, one-on-one interviews and panel-based discussions, Better Offline cuts through the buzzwords and obfuscation of the tech industry, investigating and evaluating the schemes and scams of everyone from cryptocurrency scumbags to the greediest of the venture capital elite. Tech industry veteran Ed Zitron and a dynamic coterie of guests will help listeners understand the who, how and why of how tech’s most powerful players are changing the world - for better or for worse.
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Episodes

Published 2026-05-15

Monologue: AI Is Making The Tech Industry Weak

22 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through how LLMs and the obsession with AI is actively destroying the fabric of the tech industry.

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Published 2026-05-13

The Insanity of the Markets with Ben & Emil

55 min Transcript
Open

On this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by the hosts of the Ben & Emil show to talk about how the markets have been driven insane by semiconductor buzz and social media hysteria.

https://benandemilshow.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@benandemilshow

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This week’s Better Offline is a recording of a panel held by Clarion West in Seattle earlier this year with Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron, discussing enshittification, The Rot Economy, and the destruction of modern tech platforms, moderated by Whitney Beltrán.

Original Air Date: 11.12.25

Cory Doctorow: https://craphound.com/
Whitney Beltrán: https://brightwhitney.com/

Get involved with Clarion West: https://www.clarionwest.org/get-involved/give/

Clarion West is a nonprofit literary organization that runs an acclaimed six-week residential workshop every summer, online classes and workshops, one-day and weekend workshops, a reading series every summer, and other events throughout the year. At Clarion West, you’ll be among award-winning and best-selling writers in science fiction, fantasy, games, horror, and more. Our workshops and classes are taught by world-class instructors from across the field of speculative fiction. Wherever you may be in your career, whether novice or sage, we offer a diverse listing of classes that is packed with valuable information to take your writing to the next level.

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Published 2026-05-01

Monologue: AI's Compute Demand Story Is A Lie

18 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs through how 70-80% of Amazon and Microsoft’s AI revenue and capacity is taken up by OpenAI and Anthropic, and how capacity constraints across the industry are a result of hyperscalers sacrificing their infrastructure to the least-profitable startups of all time.

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Published 2026-04-29

Palantir's Manifesto with June and Caleb from KTC

67 min Transcript
Open

On this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron digs into Palantir’s 22-point manifesto with Caleb and June from Kill The Computer.

The Manifesto: https://x.com/PalantirTech/status/2045574398573453312 

Caleb and June
https://bsky.app/profile/birdrespecter.bsky.social

https://bsky.app/profile/killthecomputer.com

https://bsky.app/profile/junlper.beer

https://x.com/canteverdie

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Published 2026-04-24

Monologue: How OpenAI Kills Oracle

11 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs through how OpenAI must grow its revenue by 1000% in the next three years and raise at least another $200 billion for it to be able to pay its compute deals with Oracle and other providers, and how Oracle dies if OpenAI fails to pay its bills.

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Published 2026-04-22

Cal Newport on Mythos and Anthropomorphization

59 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline, Ed is joined by computer science professor and writer Cal Newport to talk about the Claude Mythos marketing scam, the lies around AI job loss, and why LLMs shouldn’t talk like they’re people.

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New Yorker archive: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/cal-newport

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Published 2026-04-17

Monologue: On Dangerous Rhetoric

12 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron discusses how AI labs’ dangerous rhetoric around AI capabilities and job loss are antagonizing and terrifying people that are already on edge, and that de-escalation starts with Altman and Amodei talking about LLMs as normal software.

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Published 2026-04-15

More, Everything, Forever With Adam Becker

47 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by journalist and astrophysicist Adam Becker to talk about introspection-free venture capital, the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse effect of LLMs, and trying to find a better future to focus on.

https://bsky.app/profile/adambecker.bsky.social 
https://www.youtube.com/@DreamingAgainstTheMachine 
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/adam-becker/more-everything-forever/9781541619593/

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Published 2026-04-09

Investigating Altman With Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz

43 min Transcript
Open

In a special episode of Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by writers Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz of the New Yorker to talk about their massive investigation into Sam Altman, his ouster from OpenAI, and the consequences of trusting Silicon Valley with the future.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted 

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Published 2026-04-07

The Reality of AI Economics With Paul Kedrosky

40 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by economist Paul Kedrosky to talk about the large amount of speculative data center land purchases, the brittle NVIDIA GPU economy, and the economic realities of AI.

https://paulkedrosky.com/

The Nick, Dick and Paul Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFbDiETo29GTIjg6Lk4imig

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Published 2026-04-03

Monologue: AI Isn't Too Big to Fail

17 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron breaks down why AI isn’t too big to fail, why no bailout is coming, and how people need to learn more about history before using it to justify burning billions of dollars.

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Published 2026-04-01

Monologue: What's Going On At Anthropic?

11 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron discusses Anthropic’s aggressive new rate limits, the leak of Claude Code’s source code, and the dread consequences of having software written 100% by LLMs.

Free newsletter: The Subprime AI Crisis Is Here https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-subprime-ai-crisis-is-here/ 

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Peak hours announcement: https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/26/anthropic_tweaks_usage_limits/?ref=wheresyoured.at 
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/31/anthropic_claude_code_source_code/ 
Boris on 100% of his code: http://x.com/bcherny/status/2004897269674639461 
Lenny interview with Boris: https://x.com/lennysan/status/2024896611818897438 

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Published 2026-03-27

Monologue: The AI Industry Is Lying To You

10 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about OpenAI killing Sora, and how the majority of announced data centers are either barely getting built or vaporware, with only 3GW of IT load coming online in 2025 in America, and only 5GW of data centers under construction worldwide.

This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-lying-to-you/

JustDario’s piece - The Data Center Frenzy Will Be Remembered As The Largest Waste Of Capital In History https://justdario.com/2025/10/the-data-centers-frenzy-will-be-remembered-as-the-largest-waste-of-capital-in-history/ (warning, my man has a lot of ads)

Sora burns $15m a day (Forbes) https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2025/11/10/openai-spending-ai-generated-sora-videos/

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Published 2026-03-25

NVIDIAdrome with Steve Burke of GamersNexus

57 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline, Ed is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about NVIDIA’s strange and embarrassing GTC, DLSS5, and the increasingly-hysterical AI bubble.
Free newsletter that discusses data center timing and NVIDIA's China situation: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-lying-to-you/

https://www.youtube.com/user/gamersnexus

https://x.com/GamersNexus

GamersNexus “Microslop” Shirt 
https://store.gamersnexus.net/products/microslop-parody-t-shirt

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Published 2026-03-20

Monologue: LLM Code Is Already Breaking Big Tech

11 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about hyperscalers allowing non-technical workers to ship code, and how the over-reliance on LLMs and push to ship as much code as possible is setting big tech up for a calamity.

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The Information piece: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-meta-rogue-ai-agent-triggers-security-alert?rc=kz8jh3 
Business Insider piece: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-tightens-code-controls-after-outages-including-one-ai-2026-3

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Published 2026-03-18

Prediction Markets with Rebecca Ungarino and Nick Devor

48 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline, Ed is joined by Rebecca Ungarino and Nick Devor of Barron’s to talk about the legalities of prediction markets, their effect on society, and how everyone is operating on the bleeding edge of financial regulations.

Nick Devor:
https://www.barrons.com/authors/nick-devor

https://x.com/nickdevor_

Rebecca Ungarino:
https://www.barrons.com/authors/rebecca-ungarino

Story (from both of them!): JPMorgan Is Considering New Prediction Market Guidance for Employees
https://www.barrons.com/articles/jpmorgan-kalshi-polymarket-prediction-markets-rules-9f871a65 

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Published 2026-03-13

Monologue: It's The Beginning Of History

14 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about the end of tech’s hypergrowth era, generative AI’s failure as a business model, and why we need to stop looking to the past to prove that the future will work out.

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Published 2026-03-11

Hater Season: Henry Zebrowski

59 min Transcript
Open

Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed is joined by Henry Zebrowski of Last Podcast on the Left to talk about Business Idiots, the metaverse, and the beauty of the human mind.

https://www.patreon.com/cw/lastpodcastontheleft 
youtube.com/@lpntv

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Published 2026-03-04

Hater Season: Corey Quinn

46 min Transcript
Open

Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed talks with Corey Quinn, Chief Cloud Economist at Duckbill, about the realities of LLMs and the chaotic world of Amazon Web Services.

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LastWeekinAWS.com 
DuckbillHQ.com
https://bsky.app/profile/quinnypig.com

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Published 2026-02-27

Monologue: Analyslop And The Death of Critical Thinking

7 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the "analyslop" phenomenon of speculative, lie-ridden fan fiction that gets framed as meaningful research and promoted by the mainstream media.

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Published 2026-02-25

Hater Season: Victoria Song & Alex Cranz

59 min Transcript
Open

Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed talks with Victoria Song of The Verge about “wellness products,” bullshit workout metrics and black market peptides.

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Alex Cranz:
https://bsky.app/profile/cranz.bsky.social

Victoria Song:
https://bsky.app/profile/vicmsong.bsky.social 
https://www.theverge.com/authors/victoria-song

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In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through why AI isn’t replacing all software companies, and why the hype behind Claude Code is utterly specious.

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Published 2026-02-18

Hater Season: Caleb Wilson, Juniper and Arif Hasan

59 min Transcript
Open

Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed talks with Kill The Computer’s Juniper and Caleb and Arif Hasan of Wide Left about prediction markets, silicon valley’s billionaire whiners, and how Anthropic is trying to redefine “profitability.”

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Arif
wideleft.football
x.com/ArifHasanNFL
arif.bsky.social

Caleb and June
https://bsky.app/profile/birdrespecter.bsky.social

https://bsky.app/profile/killthecomputer.com

https://bsky.app/profile/junlper.beer

https://x.com/canteverdie

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Published 2026-02-13

Monologue: No, Something Big Isn't Coming

6 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through why Matt Shumer’s “Something Big Is Coming” is deceptive misinformation peddled by a guy who previously tried to defraud the AI community, and why everybody who boosted or republished it should be ashamed of themselves.

The Annotated version of Something Big Is Coming: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5c3m575cq21p7jjac/Something-Big-Is-Coming-Annotated.pdf?rlkey=qlr0mgnlpjifo5xkon2crhrhw&dl=0

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Published 2026-02-11

Hater Season: Cal Newport on AI Reporting

66 min Transcript
Open

Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed talks with computer science professor and writer Cal Newport about the ways in which the media fails to report the truth about AI.

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Cal Newport’s “Don’t Trust AI Reporting”: https://youtu.be/xUh3Gc-BAlo?si=XpVzYHh7_k_VXpU1 

Podcast & Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@CalNewportMedia/

Newsletter: https://calnewport.com

New Yorker archive: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/cal-newport

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Published 2026-02-06

Monologue: Is Oracle Screwed?

8 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the world finally realizing that NVIDIA’s $100bn deal with OpenAI was BS, and the very real possibility of Oracle’s collapse.

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The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-100-billion-megadeal-between-openai-and-nvidia-is-on-ice-aa3025e3?st=H2AMjC&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Oracle tweet about the deal: https://x.com/Oracle/status/2018368835363942668?s=20

Altman tweet about deal: https://x.com/sama/status/2018451015272694248?s=20

Jensen Huang on Jim Cramer: https://youtu.be/ZVTZc0j4hDY?si=8XdqTM1SGYH3fJwG&t=913 (15 minutes in)

Hater’s Guide To Oracle: https://www.wheresyoured.at/haters-guide-oracle/ 

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Published 2026-02-04

Hater Season: Openclaw with David Gerard

38 min Transcript
Open

In the first episode of Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - Ed is joined by David Gerard of Pivot to AI to talk about Openclaw/Clawdbot/Moltbot, how seemingly smart people keep being “one-shotted” by AI, and why we’ve been headed toward a calamity in the markets since 2008.

https://pivot-to-ai.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@PivotToAI

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pivot-to-ai/id1844698298

https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/

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Published 2026-01-30

AI Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble: Part Four

11 min Transcript
Open

In the final part of this week’s Dot Com Bubble series, Ed Zitron walks you through to the logical endpoints of his arguments about the AI bubble - a 40%-90% collapse of NVIDIA’s revenues, tens of billions of dollars of impairments for hyperscalers, an existential contraction in venture capital, the near-collapse of Oracle, and $200 billion or more in unpaid data center debt.

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Published 2026-01-29

AI Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble: Part Three

13 min Transcript
Open

In part three of this week’s Dot Com Bubble series, Ed Zitron explains how the economics of the AI bubble are much, much worse than the dot com bubble, with far fewer customers, way more debt, and a stock market with an unhealthy obsession with one stock - NVIDIA.

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Published 2026-01-28

AI Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble: Part Two

20 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week’s Dot Com Bubble series, Ed Zitron explains the flimsy mythology used to convince the world to run millions of miles of fiber optic cable - and how completely different that is to building hundreds of billions of data centers of GPUs.

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Published 2026-01-27

AI Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble: Part One

13 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week’s series, Ed Zitron explains how the AI bubble could be so much worse than the dot com bubble - and how people are too flippant about the carnage caused by the 2000s telecommunications bubble bursting.

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Published 2026-01-26

Working In The Dot Com Bubble ft. Matt Rosoff

55 min Transcript
Open

To kick off this week’s Better Offline Dot Com Special, Ed Zitron is joined by The Register’s Matt Rosoff to talk about what it was like to be in the tech industry during the last time the markets got drunk on a major digital hype cycle.

Matt Rosoff: https://www.theregister.com/Author/Matt-Rosoff/

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:agrmux4phzmfvgyblvhxrbnh

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Published 2026-01-23

The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part Four

34 min Transcript
Open

In the final part of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how ignoring the horrifying margins and destructive practices of the AI industry is setting up venture capital and the global markets for a catastrophe, and how all of this could’ve been avoided.

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Read along with the newsletter version for links! https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshittifinancial-crisis/

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Published 2026-01-22

The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part Three

31 min Transcript
Open

In part three of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how the imaginary demand for AI compute is setting up every single data center developer for disaster - and how many major banks will be caught in the contagion.

This series was a ton of work, so please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/84rt762qen

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Published 2026-01-21

The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part Two

44 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how companies like AMD, Broadcom and NVIDIA are swindling stockholders with the help of analysts and the media, and how decades of easy returns for venture capital are an existential risk to the future of startup fundraising.

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Published 2026-01-20

The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part One

35 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through the enshittification of the stock market, where toxic companies appreciate in value despite their toxicity, recklessness and waste, aided and abetted by analysts who not only ignore the toxicity but actively celebrate it. 

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Published 2026-01-16

Monologue: The Year Ahead

7 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the seeming collapse of Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines, and why the AI bubble can’t survive the death of OpenAI.

Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! 

Kylie Robison’s scoop about Thinking Machines: https://x.com/kyliebytes/status/2011572331798548899

Max Zeff of WIRED’s follow-on story: https://www.wired.com/story/thinking-machines-lab-cofounders-leave-for-openai/

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Published 2026-01-14

The Anti-Consumer Electronics Show with Steve Burke

60 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about AMD, Lenovo, NVIDIA and Intel’s CES keynotes - and how the tech industry has turned its back on consumers in favor of growth.

Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful!

GamersNexus:
NVIDIA's AI Bubble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFG3Ah-zf18 
AMD Failed Us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsCrKGY9F1o 
Intel Pulls An NVIDIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wNnLtsxNkY 
"AMD & NVIDIA Abandoned This Segment" | Intel Arc GPU Factory Tour with Sparkle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwrUxG26ulk 
Support GamersNexus’ AI Surveillance Dystopia Series: https://store.gamersnexus.net/ai-dystopia 
https://www.youtube.com/gamersnexus

https://gamersnexus.net/

https://bsky.app/profile/gamersnexus.bsky.social

https://x.com/GamersNexus

CES Videos: 
Lenovo: https://youtu.be/vAa8ITmv54I?si=vfYqWhkbqGPa1avV&t=288

NVIDIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NBILspM4c4

AMD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvBNWbFK2lY

Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/events/ces.html

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Ed's Socials:

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Published 2026-01-10

CES 2026: Part Ten (Epilogue)

56 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In our CES epilogue, Ed is joined by author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, tech bubble newsletter writer Ed Ongweso Jr. and CES bartender Phil Broughton to talk about this year’s coverage, the upcoming venture apocalypse, and what we expect from 2026.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025:
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social

Cory Doctorow: http://pluralistic.net/

https://www.eff.org/ 

Phil Broughton: https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social/

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 

Matt Osowski: https://www.mattosowski.com/ 

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

---

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Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-10

CES 2026: Part Nine (Friday)

120 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Friday’s second episode, Ed is joined by author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, the Las Vegas Sun’s Kyle Chouinard, Ed Ongweso Jr. of the Tech Bubble Newsletter, Garrison Davis of It Could Happen Here, and Robert Evans of Behind The Bastards to talk about Vegas’ reaction to CES, the useful stuff getting pushed to the fringes, the hollow nature of this year’s CES, and an acoustic version of the Better Offline theme.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025:
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 

Cory Doctorow: http://pluralistic.net/ https://www.eff.org/ 

Garrison Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/bishonentype.bsky.social 

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 

Robert Evans: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social

Kyle Chouinard: https://lasvegassun.com/staff/kyle-chouinard/

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-09

CES 2026: Part Eight (Friday)

124 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Friday’s first episode, Ed is joined by author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, YouTuber and CEO of Clicks Michael Fisher, Cherlynn Low of Engadget, Edward Ongweso of the Tech Bubble Newsletter and Garrison Davis of It Could Happen Here to talk about the Clicks Communicator, Amazon’s surveillance tech, the advances in tech in eyeglasses, engadget’s best tech of CES and why we’re worried about the future.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025:
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 

Cory Doctorow http://pluralistic.net/ https://www.eff.org/ 

Michael Fisher - https://www.clicks.tech/

Cherlynn Low - https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/cherlynn-low/
https://bsky.app/profile/cherlynn.bsky.social

Garrison Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/bishonentype.bsky.social

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

https://bookmaniac.org/

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/09/quantity-break/#so-many-chips

Cyber Fidget: https://youtube.com/shorts/JEEmhcTscP8?si=7_1O-GARnnBeSGuK

https://petewarden.com/2025/10/16/why-does-a-local-ai-voice-agent-running-on-a-super-cheap-soc-matter/

https://petewarden.com/2025/11/29/i-know-were-in-an-ai-bubble-because-nobody-wants-me-%f0%9f%98%ad/

---

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Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-09

CES 2026: Part Seven (Thursday)

132 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. 

In Thursday’s second episode, Ed is joined by actress and standup comedian Chloe Radlciffe, Garrison Davis of It Could Happen Here, writer Westin Lee, Robert Evans of Behind The Bastards, Ed Ongweso of the Tech Bubble Newsletter, and tech writer Rob Pegoraro to talk about how this CES feels like something is missing, building things for actual people, how everybody is talking about “incremental” improvements in AI, OpenAI’s similarities to Theranos, and the problematic nature of mass-automation.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025: 
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Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social

Rob Pegoraro: https://bsky.app/profile/robpegoraro.com

Westin Lee: https://bsky.app/profile/westinlee.bsky.social

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 

Chloe Radcliffe: https://www.instagram.com/chloebadcliffe/?hl=en

https://punchup.live/chloeradcliffe

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

Here’s the robot we talked about: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social/post/3mbwvlat7dc23

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-08

CES 2026: Part Six (Thursday)

121 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Thursday’s first episode, Ed is joined by Devindra Hardawar of Engadget, actress and standup comedian Chloe Radlciffe, Edward Ongweso of the Tech Bubble Newsletter and Matt Binder of Mashable to talk about the anti-consumer electronics show, how AI buying up all the RAM is going to make computing unaffordable, Dell’s quasi-reversal on AI, why you should be buying all your tech used, and why it’s time to use tech to tell people you love their stuff.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025:
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 

Devindra Hardawar:
https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/devindra-hardawar/
http://thefilmcast.com/

Matt Binder: https://mashable.com/author/matt-binder

Chloe Radcliffe: 

https://www.instagram.com/chloebadcliffe/?hl=en

https://punchup.live/chloeradcliffe

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-08

CES 2026: Part Five (Wednesday)

132 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Wednesday’s second episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Karissa Bell of Engadget, Jared Newman of the Advisorator newsletter, standup comedian and host of the Factually Podcast Adam Conover, Ed Ongweso Jr. of the Tech Bubble Newsletter, Robert Evans of Behind The Bastards and standup comedian and actor Chloe Radcliffe to talk about very slow laundry robots, the return of the pebble watch (and their new ring), robotic assistive technology products, the sloppification of CES, and asking “who cares?” to every single booth.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025:
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 

Karissa Bell
https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/karissa-bell/

Jared Newman:
https://advisorator.com/members/signup/

https://cordcutterweekly.com/ 

Chloe Radcliffe:

https://www.instagram.com/chloebadcliffe/?hl=en

https://punchup.live/chloeradcliffe

Robert Evans: 

https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social 
https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/behind-the-bastards/id1373812661?l=en-GB 

Adam Conover:
https://www.instagram.com/adamconover/?hl=en 
www.adamconover.net/tourdates

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/ 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-07

CES 2026: Part Four (Wednesday)

130 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Wednesday's first episode, Ed is joined by Garrison Davis of It Could Happen Here, Matt Binder of Mashable, Ben Rudolph of Cartographiq, standup comedian and host of the Factually Podcast Adam Conover, Ed Ongweso Jr. of the Tech Bubble Newsletter, and standup comedian and actor Chloe Radcliffe to talk about an “agent-powered” BBQ, showstoppers, the multiple wife cubes being shown on the floor, how solving male loneliness comes from male introspection, empathy and kindness, and how CES perpetuates a culture of trying to make women the solution instead.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025:
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 

Matt Binder: https://mashable.com/author/matt-binder

Gare Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jm6ufvsw3hg5zgdpnd3zb4tv

Chloe Radcliffe:

https://www.instagram.com/chloebadcliffe/?hl=en

https://punchup.live/chloeradcliffe

Adam Conover: 

https://www.instagram.com/adamconover/?hl=en 

www.adamconover.net/tourdates

Ben Rudolph:
https://www.cartografiq.com/

https://x.com/benthepcguy

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-07

CES 2026: Part Three (Tuesday)

128 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. 

In Tuesday’s second episode, Ed is joined by Victoria Song of The Verge, writer Rory Cellan-Jones, 
Robert Evans of Behind The Bastards, standup comedian and host of the Factually Podcast Adam Conover, and standup comedian and actor Chloe Radcliffe to talk about the useless numbers generated by wearables, Chinese peptides, how absolutely nobody at CES is Steve Jobs, LLMs getting read-write access to your taxes, and a bunch of stuff about sex toys that I recommend you do not listen to if you have children around.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025: 
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc

Rory Cellan-Jones: https://rorycellanjones.substack.com/

https://www.moversandshakerspodcast.com/

Robert Evans: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social 
https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/behind-the-bastards/id1373812661?l=en-GB 

Chloe Radcliffe: https://www.instagram.com/chloebadcliffe/?hl=en

Adam Conover: https://www.instagram.com/adamconover/?hl=en

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-06

CES 2026: Part Two (Tuesday)

121 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. 

In Tuesday’s first episode, Ed is joined by Ed Niedermeyer of the Autonocast, Henry Casey of CNN Underscored, Gare Davis of It Could Happen Here and Ed Ongweso Jr. of The Tech Bubble newsletter to talk about smart glasses, wireless TVs, and the big lie of consumer robotics.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025: 
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/

Gare Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jm6ufvsw3hg5zgdpnd3zb4tv

Henry Casey - https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/about/henry-t-casey 
https://bsky.app/profile/henrytcasey.net

Ed Niedermeyer of The Autonocast: https://www.autonocast.com/https://bsky.app/profile/niedermeyer.online

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

LG’s robot: https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/lg-brought-a-robot-that-cooks-folds-laundry-and-empties-the-dishwasher-to-ces/ 

The Aura TV with a soundbar built in: https://global.dreametech.com/products/dreametv-s100

Displace Wireless TV: https://displace.tv/

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-06

CES 2026: Part One (Monday)

159 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In the first episode, Ed introduces you to Better Offline’s CES coverage, we talk about NVIDIA’s tepid press conference, smart glasses, LLMs on TV and Robert’s new exoskeleton. Featuring Ed Ongweso Jr. (The Tech Bubble Newsletter), David Roth (Defector), Scott Stein (CNET), Lisa Eadicicco (CNN) and Robert Evans (Behind The Bastards).

We’ll be here all week - one episode from Monday, then two from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and an epilogue from Saturday.

David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 

Defector: Defector.com

It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/

Matt Binder: https://bsky.app/profile/mattbinder.bsky.social

https://mashable.com/author/matt-binder

Scott Stein https://www.cnet.com/profiles/scottstein8/ 

Lisa Eadicicco https://www.cnn.com/profiles/lisa-eadicicco 

Robert Evans: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social 

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2026-01-02

CZM Rewind: The Case Against Generative AI (Part 4)

28 min Transcript
Open

In part four of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how there’s literally not enough money in the world to pay for OpenAI’s estimated $1 trillion four-year burn, and why the media tell the truth about AI to save retail investors.

Original Air Date: 10.3.25

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-12-31

CZM Rewind: The Case Against Generative AI (Part 3)

27 min Transcript
Open

In part three of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how “AI replacing software engineers” is a myth spread by the media and investors - and how Microsoft only has 8 to 12 million active paying customers for Microsoft 365’s AI Copilot out of 440 million users.

Original Air Date: 10.2.25

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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Published 2025-12-26

CZM Rewind: The Case Against Generative AI (Part 2)

29 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how NVIDIA funds and pumps money into unprofitable, debt-ridden “neoclouds” all to create vehicles to buy more GPUs - all to cover up the lack of demand for generative AI compute.

Original Air Date: 10.1.25

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Published 2025-12-24

CZM Rewind: The Case Against Generative AI (Part 1)

24 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how generative AI is sold through a complete misunderstanding of the concept of labor - and myth-building by companies like NVIDIA and OpenAI.

Original Air Date: 9.30.25

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Published 2025-12-19

Part Three: NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It?

33 min Transcript
Open

In part three of this week's three-part NVIDIA series, Ed Zitron walks you through why there are millions of Blackwell GPUs sitting in warehouses, and why AI’s lack of any profits makes NVIDIA’s future entirely dependent on endless debt and venture capital.

This series took a lot of work, so if you want to support me, why not subscribe to my premium newsletter? Get $10 off a year’s subscription today: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/p94my1c5ya

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Published 2025-12-18

Part Two: NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It?

29 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week's three-part NVIDIA series, Ed Zitron walks you through the history of Enron, why it differs from NVIDIA, and why growth-desperation led big tech to waste hundreds of billions of dollars on GPUs.

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Published 2025-12-17

Part One: NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It?

31 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week's three-part NVIDIA series, Ed Zitron walks you through why NVIDIA is specifically nothing like Enron, WorldCom or Lucent, and why investors might be thinking that’s the case anyway. Thank you to Ben Cahn of the Ben and Emil show for voicing "NVIDIA" - listen here - https://www.youtube.com/@benandemilshow

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Published 2025-12-12

Monologue: The Questions I'm Asking

5 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron lists the questions he’s asking - and the things he’s looking for - that he believes will actually burst the bubble. 

Reach out at ezitron.76 on Signal.

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Published 2025-12-10

The State of Consumer Tech with Lisa Eadicicco

32 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City. Ed is joined in-studio by CNN Tech Editor Lisa Eadicicco to talk about the state of consumer electronics, Samsung’s Vision Pro competitor, and why every phone kind of looks the same.

https://www.cnn.com/profiles/lisa-eadicicco

https://x.com/LisaEadicicco

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Published 2025-12-05

The State of the Games Industry with Nathan Grayson

39 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Nathan Grayson of worker-owned games site Aftermath to talk about building an independent media outlet and the state of the game industry writ large.

Nathan Grayson: 
https://aftermath.site/author/nathan-grayson
https://bsky.app/profile/nathangrayson.bsky.social

Celebrate Aftermath’s anniversary by subscribing - just $1 for your first month! https://aftermath.site/11-06-2025-01-12-00-2ndbirthdayoffer 

Buy Aftermath’s “Destroy AI” Hoodie: https://aftermath.site/destroy-ai-aftermath-kim-hu-hoodie-shirt/

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Published 2025-12-04

Monologue: AI Isn't Getting A Bailout

10 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron breaks down how economically irrelevant AI is, and how no bailout is coming to save the Large Language Model era.

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Published 2025-12-03

Is Valve Taking On Microsoft? with Steve Burke

38 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about Valve’s new console-like Steam Machine and Vision Pro-like Steam Frame, and what this means for the future of gaming.

GamersNexus:  
Valve Steam Machine, Desktop SteamOS, Steam Frame VR, & Controller | ft. Engineering Discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUxObt1efQ 
Valve Steam Frame Engineering Deep-Dive: Water Cooling, Thermals, Power, Acoustics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NSjvJDe6Ic
Support GamersNexus’ AI Surveillance Dystopia Series: https://store.gamersnexus.net/ai-dystopia 
https://www.youtube.com/gamersnexus
https://gamersnexus.net/
https://bsky.app/profile/gamersnexus.bsky.social
https://x.com/GamersNexus
Steam Machine: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine
Steam Frame: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe

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Published 2025-11-27

A Thanksgiving Monologue

7 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron thanks you for being such wonderful listeners. If you ever have a tip, reach out on ezitron.76.

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Carl Brown, a veteran software developer and host of The Internet of Bugs, to talk about the realities of software development, what coding LLMs can actually do, and how the media gets it wrong about software engineering at large.

Original Air Date: 6.4.25

https://www.youtube.com/@InternetOfBugs

New GitHub Copilot Research Finds 'Downward Pressure on Code Quality' - https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2024/01/25/copilot-research.aspx
Report: AI coding assistants aren’t a panacea - https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/21/report-ai-coding-assistants-arent-a-panacea/

Internet of Bugs Videos to watch:
Debunking Devin: "First AI Software Engineer" Upwork lie exposed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNmgmwEtoWE&t=3s
AI Has Us Between a Rock and a Hard Place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJGNqnq-aCA
Software Engineers REAL problem with "AI" and Jobs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQmN6xSorus&list=PLv0sYKRNTN6QhoxJdyTZTV6NauoZlDp99
AGILE & Scrum Failures stuck us with "AI" hype like Devin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C1Rxa9DMfI&t=1s

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Published 2025-11-20

What People Actually Use ChatGPT For With Gerrit De Vynck

42 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Gerrit De Vynck of The Washington Post to discuss what an analysis of 47,000 ChatGPT conversations can tell us about how people use the service - and how willing it is to fuel basically any conversation.

We analyzed 47,000 ChatGPT conversations. Here’s what people really use it for - https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/11/12/how-people-use-chatgpt-data/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/gerrit-de-vynck/ 
https://x.com/GerritD 
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In a Better Offline exclusive, Ed Zitron reveals how much OpenAI spent on inference in 2024 and 2025, as well as how much it paid Microsoft as part of its 20% revenue share. Inference costs are much higher - and implied revenues much lower - than previously reported.

(Free) Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/

The Information - OpenAI’s First Half Results: $4.3 Billion in Sales, $2.5 Billion Cash Burn - https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openais-first-half-results-4-3-billion-sales-2-5-billion-cash-burn?rc=kz8jh3 

The Information (reference to $6bn inference spend) - http://theinformation.com/articles/openai-forecasts-revenue-topping-125-billion-2029-agents-new-products-gain?rc=kz8jh3

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This week’s Better Offline is a recording of a panel held by Clarion West in Seattle earlier this year with Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron, discussing enshittification, The Rot Economy, and the destruction of modern tech platforms, moderated by Whitney Beltrán.

Cory Doctorow: https://craphound.com/
Whitney Beltrán: https://brightwhitney.com/

Get involved with Clarion West: https://www.clarionwest.org/get-involved/give/

Clarion West is a nonprofit literary organization that runs an acclaimed six-week residential workshop every summer, online classes and workshops, one-day and weekend workshops, a reading series every summer, and other events throughout the year. At Clarion West, you’ll be among award-winning and best-selling writers in science fiction, fantasy, games, horror, and more. Our workshops and classes are taught by world-class instructors from across the field of speculative fiction. Wherever you may be in your career, whether novice or sage, we offer a diverse listing of classes that is packed with valuable information to take your writing to the next level.

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Published 2025-11-07

Monologue: AI's Desperation Era

6 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about OpenAI hinting they’d want a federal backstop for data center loans, NVIDIA’s weird, desperate post about China, and his deep suspicion about OpenAI’s leaked numbers.

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WSJ: OpenAI Made a $12 Billion Loss Last Quarter, Microsoft Results Indicate
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-sp-500-nasdaq-10-31-2025/card/openai-made-a-12-billion-loss-last-quarter-microsoft-results-indicate-e71BLjJA0e2XBthQZA5X

The Register: Microsoft seemingly just revealed that OpenAI lost $11.5B last quarter
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/29/microsoft_earnings_q1_26_openai_loss/

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Published 2025-11-05

Vibe Coding is BS w/ Charlie Meyer

53 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City. Ed is joined in-studio by founder and writer Charlie Meyer to talk about the BS of vibe coding, why the valley went so crazy about scaling laws, and the realities of AI coding.

https://blog.charliemeyer.co/
https://csmeyer.substack.com/

Code Doesn’t Happen To You - https://csmeyer.substack.com/p/code-doesnt-happen-to-you
The Trillion Dollar Chart (scaling laws piece) - https://blog.charliemeyer.co/the-trillion-dollar-chart/
Replit’s Existential Problem - https://blog.charliemeyer.co/replits-existential-problem/

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Published 2025-10-31

Monologue: Dealing With The Weight Of History

11 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron takes a moment to discuss the current state of the bubble, and the way we’re all feeling at this time in history.

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The Register: Microsoft seemingly just revealed that OpenAI lost $11.5B last quarter
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/29/microsoft_earnings_q1_26_openai_loss/

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Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed is joined in-studio by Paris Martineau of Consumer Reports and freelance writer Ashwin Rodrigues to talk about the amount of lead in protein shakes, why people turn to the internet for medical advice, and how supplements are the wild west of e-commerce. 

Paris Martineau
https://www.consumerreports.org/about-us/our-people/our-experts/paris-martineau/

https://bsky.app/profile/paris.nyc

Protein Powders story: https://www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein-powders-and-shakes-contain-high-levels-of-lead-a4206364640/

Ashwin Rodrigues
https://bsky.app/profile/ashwinrodrigues.com

Supplements Story: https://archive.ph/L6OZz/again?url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/well/doctors-supplements.html

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Published 2025-10-24

Monologue: Don't Be Scared Of Sora

12 min Transcript
Open

In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through why nobody should be afraid of generative video, and how it’s impossible, impractical and expensive to make movies with Sora.

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/20/nx-s1-5567119/sora-2-openai-hollywood

https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/video-generation

https://mediashower.com/blog/first-ai-viral-ad/

https://x.com/PJaccetturo/status/1932893269228466270

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---

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Published 2025-10-20

Exclusive: Here's How Much Anthropic Spends on AWS

21 min Transcript
Open

In a Better Offline exclusive, Ed Zitron reveals how much Anthropic spent on Amazon Web Services in 2024 and 2025, and how the costs of running their services are increasing linearly with their revenue, suggesting there may be no path to profitability for LLMs.

(Free) Newsletter: www.wheresyoured.at/costs/

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---

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Published 2025-10-17

Monologue: ChatGPT's Growth Is Collapsing In Europe

7 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through data from Deutsche Bank that shows ChatGPT’s growth is flatlining in Europe, and how advertising isn’t going to save OpenAI.

OpenAI’s ‘flatlining’ subs in Europe: The AI boom’s poster child may be struggling to recruit new subscribers, Deutsche Bank warns
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openai-flatlining-subs-europe-ai-145343677.html

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Published 2025-10-15

The Interview: Steve Burke of GamersNexus

98 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s episode of Better Offline, Ed flies out to North Carolina for a deep interview with Steve Burke of Gamersnexus about the state of PC hardware, AI, Linux gaming, their extremely scientific hardware testing, and building a channel watched by 2.5 million people.

https://www.youtube.com/gamersnexus 

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Published 2025-10-10

The World of AI Regulation with Brian Merchant

29 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by writer Brian Merchant to talk about US AI regulation, and how governments never seem to make the effort to understand technology.

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/were-about-to-find-out-if-silicon

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Published 2025-10-08

Radio Better Offline: Victoria Song and David Roth

51 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City. Ed Zitron is joined in studio by The Verge’s Victoria Song and Defector’s David Roth to talk about Sora 2, Meta’s AR glasses, the “friend” pendant, and why none of these products can ever truly deliver meaningful friendship.

Victoria Song: https://www.theverge.com/authors/victoria-song
https://bsky.app/profile/vicmsong.bsky.social

David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social
Defector: Defector.com
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849

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Published 2025-10-03

The Case Against Generative AI (Part 4)

28 min Transcript
Open

In part four of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how there’s literally not enough money in the world to pay for OpenAI’s estimated $1 trillion four-year burn, and why the media tell the truth about AI to save retail investors.

Latest Premium Newsletter: OpenAI Needs A Trillion Dollars In The Next Four Years: https://www.wheresyoured.at/openai-onetrillion/

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Published 2025-10-02

The Case Against Generative AI (Part 3)

27 min Transcript
Open

In part three of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how “AI replacing software engineers” is a myth spread by the media and investors - and how Microsoft only has 8 to 12 million active paying customers for Microsoft 365’s AI Copilot out of 440 million users.

Latest Premium Newsletter: OpenAI Needs A Trillion Dollars In The Next Four Years: https://www.wheresyoured.at/openai-onetrillion/

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Published 2025-10-01

The Case Against Generative AI (Part 2)

29 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how NVIDIA funds and pumps money into unprofitable, debt-ridden “neoclouds” all to create vehicles to buy more GPUs - all to cover up the lack of demand for generative AI compute.

Latest Premium Newsletter: OpenAI Needs A Trillion Dollars In The Next Four Years: https://www.wheresyoured.at/openai-onetrillion/

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Published 2025-09-30

The Case Against Generative AI (Part 1)

24 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how generative AI is sold through a complete misunderstanding of the concept of labor - and myth-building by companies like NVIDIA and OpenAI.

Latest Premium Newsletter: OpenAI Needs A Trillion Dollars In The Next Four Years: https://www.wheresyoured.at/openai-onetrillion/ 

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Newsletter: wheresyoured.at Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline Discord chat.wheresyoured.at Ed's Socials -

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instagram.com/edzitron

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email me ez@betteroffline.com

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Published 2025-09-26

Monologue: OpenAI and NVIDIA's Deal Is BS

10 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through NVIDIA and OpenAI’s nonsense deal, and how OpenAI now needs $600 billion in the next four years to survive.

OpenAI and NVIDIA Announce Strategic Partnership to Deploy 10 Gigawatts of NVIDIA Systems
https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/openai-and-nvidia-announce-strategic-partnership-to-deploy-10gw-of-nvidia-systems 

New York Times - OpenAI to Join Tech Giants in Building 5 New Data Centers in U.S.
https://archive.is/vUf0t 

The Information - In OpenAI Megadeal, Nvidia Discusses a New Business Model: Chip Leasing
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-megadeal-nvidia-discusses-new-business-model-chip-leasing?rc=kz8jh3 

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Published 2025-09-24

Radio Better Offline: Adam Becker

67 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York city.

Ed Zitron is joined in studio by astrophysicist Adam Becker to talk about his new book More Everything Forever, the BS AGI story, why Eliezer Yudkowsky should never be taken seriously, and why billionaires love LLMs.

https://bsky.app/profile/adambecker.bsky.social 
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/adam-becker/more-everything-forever/9781541619593/ 

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Discord chat.wheresyoured.at 

Ed's Socials -

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by software engineer Colt Voege to talk about how AI isn’t 10xing the productivity of software engineering, the truth about coding LLMs, and what we can actually expect AI to do for software in the future.

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Published 2025-09-17

Radio Better Offline: Edward Ongweso Jr. & Allison Morrow

55 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City. Ed Zitron is joined in studio by Allison Morrow of CNN, Ed Ongweso Jr. of the Tech Bubble newsletter to talk about the AI vibe shift, OpenAI’s burn rate, what will finally burst the bubble, and something called “Critterz.”

Allison Morrow
https://www.cnn.com/profiles/allison-morrow
https://bsky.app/profile/amorrow.bsky.social

Ed Ongweso Jr.
https://thetechbubble.substack.com/
https://bsky.app/profile/edwardongwesojr.com

OpenAI Hopes Animated 'Critterz' Will Prove AI Is Ready for the Big Screen - https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/openai-hopes-animated-critterz-will-prove-ai-is-ready-for-the-big-screen/

The AI vibe shift is upon us - https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/22/business/ai-vibe-shift-nightcap

The Silicon Valley Consensus & the "AI Economy" - https://thetechbubble.substack.com/p/the-silicon-valley-consensus-and-614

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Published 2025-09-12

How To Argue With An AI Booster, Part Three

37 min Transcript
Open

In the final part of this week's three-part Better Offline Guide To Arguing With AI Boosters, Ed Zitron walks you through why generative AI is nothing like Amazon Web Services, how the media misled the public about ChatGPT, and why ChatGPT’s popularity does not mean it’s a mass-market product.

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Published 2025-09-11

How To Argue With An AI Booster, Part Two

32 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week's three-part Better Offline Guide To Arguing With AI Boosters, Ed Zitron walks you through why the AI bubble is nothing like the dot-com bubble, how the cost of inference is actually going up, and why OpenAI’s massive burnrate is nothing like Uber’s.

Latest Premium Newsletter: Why Everybody Is Losing Money On Generative AI: https://www.wheresyoured.at/why-everybody-is-losing-money-on-ai/

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Published 2025-09-10

How To Argue With An AI Booster, Part One

35 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week's three-part Better Offline Guide To Arguing With AI Boosters, Ed Zitron walks you through why AI is nothing like the early days of the internet, why it isn’t the early days of the AI industry, and why every booster argues in the future tense.

Latest Premium Newsletter: Why Everybody Is Losing Money On Generative AI: https://www.wheresyoured.at/why-everybody-is-losing-money-on-ai/

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Published 2025-09-05

Monologue: Tech Skepticism Is Going Mainstream

13 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline monologue, Ed walks you through how tech and business skepticism has begun to go mainstream, and how it can be the force to push back against the Rot Economy.

Ed On CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGVKZQQSJkg&t=2s
Ed On BBC (July): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AxrpXF7MWw&t=1s
Ed On BBC (August): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI9cjWDpmSY
Ed On Bloomberg’s Everybody’s Business Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2F4heaeJIE
Ed On Newcomer Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxyNHv3cQvY&t=14s
Ed On Last Week In AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rma3FzaWi3Y

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Published 2025-09-03

The Black Market for AI GPUs with Steve Burke

37 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about the black market for AI GPUs in China - and how Bloomberg suspiciously forced YouTube to take his video down.

Premium Newsletter: AI Bubble 2027 - https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-bubble-2027 

GamersNexus:  
Our Channel Could Be Deleted (GamersNexus) https://youtu.be/tUnRWh4xOCY?si=AD2hyE6z5-ZiyInW  
Mirror of NVIDIA AI GPU Black Market Story - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyWelvEP_CQ 
https://www.youtube.com/gamersnexus
https://gamersnexus.net/
https://bsky.app/profile/gamersnexus.bsky.social 
https://x.com/GamersNexus

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Published 2025-08-29

Monologue: What If I'm Right?

20 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s Better Offline monologue, Ed considers what would happen if he’s right about the AI bubble bursting - and the consequences of three years of myth-peddling journalism and markets addicted to growth at all costs.

FT: Microsoft talks set to push OpenAI’s restructure into next year
https://www.ft.com/content/b81d5fb6-26e9-417a-a0cc-6b6689b70c98

Sherwood: Nvidia, the asset manager, had a massive Q2 thanks to CoreWeave’s rally
https://sherwood.news/markets/nvidia-the-asset-manager-had-a-massive-q2-thanks-to-coreweaves-rally/

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https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/better-offline-discount

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Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of one of iHeartRadio's satellite studios in New York city. Ed is joined by Kyle Barr of Gizmodo, freelance writer Alex Cranz and content creator Michael Fisher (AKA Mr. Mobile) to talk about the weird and fun gadgets that are still getting made, both in the US and abroad.

Latest newsletter: How To Argue With An AI Booster - https://www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue-with-an-ai-booster/ 
Latest premium newsletter: How Does GPT-5 Work? - https://www.wheresyoured.at/how-does-gpt-5-work/ 

Meshtastic Explainer: https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1bpa7hu/explain_meshtastic_to_me_like_i_have_a_learning/ 
CyberDecks: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/ 

Alex Cranz:
https://bsky.app/profile/cranz.bsky.social
https://x.com/alexhcranz

Kyle Barr: 
https://x.com/KyleBarr5 
https://gizmodo.com/author/kylebarr 
Screw Foldables: Lenovo’s Rollable Laptop Proves There Are Better Uses for Flexible Screens
https://gizmodo.com/lenovo-thinkbook-plus-gen-6-rollable-review-2000637995 
Framework Laptop 13 Review: Wait, Did I Actually Have Fun With a PC? https://gizmodo.com/framework-laptop-13-review-wait-did-i-actually-have-fun-with-a-pc-2000590685
This Gaming Handheld’s External Battery Isn’t as Dumb as You Think https://gizmodo.com/this-gaming-handhelds-external-battery-isnt-as-dumb-as-you-think-2000639520 
I Flew Insta360’s First Drone With a 360-Degree Camera, and It’s DJI’s Worst Nightmare
https://gizmodo.com/after-using-this-360-drone-ill-never-look-at-flying-cameras-the-same-way-again-2000641466 

Michael Fisher:
http://threads.com/captain2phones
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSOpcUkE-is7u7c4AkLgqTw 
Motorola Razr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGTkjchlVJk 
Light Phone https://youtu.be/fRRNSEb1DAQ?si=uTZ6lOw1925K2y05 
The Minimal Phone https://youtu.be/atYcpCoghnc?si=uxybVX3iyyCVn1Tu  
TRMNL https://youtu.be/Ax792f2RbIY?si=bRCEmDh_Bd362Wwg
Galaxy Z Flip 7 https://youtu.be/1WLIY7oObvU?si=4KIgxuROrMHCJCEx

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Published 2025-08-22

Exclusive: How GPT-5 Actually Works

28 min Transcript
Open

In a bonus third episode, Ed Zitron reports exclusively on how OpenAI’s new "router-based" ChatGPT-5 makes it impossible for the company to cache the static prompt for any model or tool it uses every single prompt, doubling token burn for mediocre gains.

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Published 2025-08-21

The AI Money Trap, Part Two

41 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week's two-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how America’s economic growth has become dependent on Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta’s AI capital expenditures - and how this inevitably harms both the economy and our markets.

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Published 2025-08-20

The AI Money Trap, Part One

41 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week's two-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how AI startups’ overstuffed valuations make them impossible targets for acquisition or IPO - and how this may cause lasting harm to Silicon Valley when the bubble bursts.

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Published 2025-08-15

Monologue: The Agony Of GPT-5

11 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks through the rough launch of GPT-5, and how ChatGPT’s fandom-like following has become a huge problem for OpenAI.

The Enshittification of Generative AI: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshittification-of-generative-ai/

The Wall Street Journal - The Next Great Leap in AI Is Behind Schedule and Crazy Expensive:
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-gpt5-orion-delays-639e7693?ref=wheresyoured.at 

Live service game post: https://bsky.app/profile/catharsis23.bsky.social/post/3lw5jvotgfk2

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Published 2025-08-13

CZM Rewind: The Academics That Think ChatGPT Is BS

57 min Transcript
Open

In a paper released earlier this year, three academics from the University of Glasgow classified ChatGPT's outputs not as "lies," but as "BS" - as defined by philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt in "on BS" (and yes I'm censoring that) - and created one of the most enjoyable and prescient papers ever written. In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by academics Michael Townsen Hicks, James Humphries and Joe Slater in a free-wheeling conversation about ChatGPT's mediocrity - and how it's not built to represent the world at all.

Paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5
Michael Townsen Hicks: https://www.townsenhicks.com/
Joe Slater: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/joeslater/

Original Air Date: 7.18.24

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In this week’s Better Offline monologue, Ed talks about Anker’s Nebula X1, an expensive, excellent-looking and adaptable projector that can work just about anywhere.

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Nebula X1 Projector: https://amzn.to/45645dR
Nebula Wireless Satellite Speakers: https://amzn.to/45E2EmZ
Nebula gimbal stand for projectors: https://amzn.to/47qi8wa
Epson Duet 80” Projector Screen: https://amzn.to/45o5Odr

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Published 2025-08-06

Building A Newspaper Out of the Internet with Molly White

35 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed is joined by writer and critic Molly White to talk about how RSS can purify your news experience, the challenge of the newsletter economy, and what gives her optimism for the future.

Citation Needed Newsletter: https://www.citationneeded.news
Molly on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/molly.wiki

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Published 2025-08-01

Monologue: Annualized Revenues Are BS

8 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through how and why OpenAI and Anthropic use “annualized revenues” to hide that they’re nowhere near their yearly revenue projections.

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/anthropic-revenue-hits-4-billion-annual-pace-competition-cursor-intensifies?rc=kz8jh3 
www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-hits-12-billion-annualized-revenue-breaks-700-million-chatgpt-weekly-active-users?rc=kz8jh3

Episode note: I say “$5.5 billion” for OpenAI’s potential revenue in 2025. Calculations I’ve run since suggest it could be lower - around $5.25 billion. Both of these numbers are reasonable.

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Published 2025-07-30

Radio Better Offline: Mia Sato & Dave Lee

68 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed Zitron is joined in studio by Mia Sato of The Verge and Dave Lee of Bloomberg to talk how companies like TikTok and Google change the web with their incentives, the nihilism of Pop Mart's viral Labubus, and why people are more game to pay independent writers.

Mia Sato, The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/authors/mia-sato
https://bsky.app/profile/miasato.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/miasato.2/

Story around “dupes”
https://www.theverge.com/cs/features/709635/knock-it-off

Story around “Labubus”
https://www.theverge.com/analysis/710047/labubu-pop-mart-blind-boxes-scarcity-marketing

Dave Lee, Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AWQ3soOJK0Y/dave-lee
https://x.com/DaveLeeBBG
https://bsky.app/profile/davelee.me

Story around Google and AI
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-28/google-is-reaping-the-rewards-of-its-unfair-ai-advantage?srnd=undefined

Google “Web Guide”
https://blog.google/products/search/web-guide-labs/

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Published 2025-07-25

The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble, Pt. 3

41 min Transcript
Open

In part three of this week's three-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how AI agents don’t really exist, how deceitful AI marketing has become, and why everything is brittle as a result.

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Published 2025-07-24

The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble, Pt, 2

37 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week's three-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how little money there is in generative AI, how Anthropic and OpenAI are killing their own customers, and why there may never be a profitable LLM company.

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Published 2025-07-23

The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble, Pt. 1

35 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week's three-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how the US stock market rests on the back of GPU sales, and how a lack of any real business returns spells doom for the AI bubble long-term.

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Published 2025-07-18

Monologue: The Updated Pale Horses of the AIpocalypse

14 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the pale horses of the AIpocalypse - and how the AI bubble’s deepest weakness is that it’s almost entirely based on vibes.

Anthropic’s new data center in Indiana: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/technology/amazon-ai-data-centers.html

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Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed Zitron is joined in studio by actor, writer and producer Brian Koppelman, Engadget Managing Editor Cherlynn Low and comedian Mike Drucker to talk about the current state of the tech industry, what AI can actually do, and what the tech industry looks like in the next year.

Anthropic and OpenAI Have Begun The Subprime AI Crisis
https://www.wheresyoured.at/anthropic-and-openai-have-begun-the-subprime-ai-crisis/
Anthropic Is Bleeding Out
https://www.wheresyoured.at/anthropic-is-bleeding-out/

Brian Koppelman
https://www.instagram.com/briankoppelman/

Mike Drucker
https://bsky.app/profile/mikedrucker.bsky.social
https://mikedrucker.substack.com/
Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/good-game-no-rematch-mike-drucker?variant=43103018024994
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Game-No-Rematch-Video/dp/1335012699
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/good-game-no-rematch-mike-drucker/1145272268 

Cherlynn Low
https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/cherlynn-low 
https://bsky.app/profile/cherlynn.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/cherlynnstagram/

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Published 2025-07-11

Make Fun Of Them, Pt. 2

25 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week's two-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron makes a plea to the tech media - to stop automatically accepting what the tech executives have to say, and to admit that these people sound really, really stupid, even if they use long words.

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Published 2025-07-10

Monologue: Is Anthropic Killing Cursor?

10 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through how Anthropic jacked up prices on its largest customer Cursor - and how it’s a sign that the Subprime AI Crisis has begun.

Premium Newsletter covering this:
https://www.wheresyoured.at/anthropic-and-openai-have-begun-the-subprime-ai-crisis/

Bluesky thread summarizing: https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com/post/3ltfabnj3ec23 

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Published 2025-07-09

Make Fun Of Them, Pt. 1

29 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week's two-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through a radical new idea: make fun of CEOs, tear down their legacies and push back on their empty promises.

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Published 2025-07-04

Monologue: You Should Get Into Vinyl

11 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron talks about why you should get into vinyl, and why analog music is so much fun in the digital age.

U-Turn Audio: https://uturnaudio.com/pages/turntables
Discogs: Discogs.com

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Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York city.

Ed Zitron is joined in studio by Allison Morrow of CNN, Victoria Song of The Verge and Gare Davis of It Could Happen Here to talk about the fairy tale of AGI, AI boosters’ religious attachment to the industry’s success, and how the tech industry fears admitting they’re out of ideas.

Allison Morrow

https://www.cnn.com/profiles/allison-morrow
https://bsky.app/profile/amorrow.bsky.social
AI warnings are the hip new way for CEOs to keep their workers afraid of losing their jobs
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/18/business/ai-warnings-ceos

Victoria Song

https://www.theverge.com/authors/victoria-song 
https://bsky.app/profile/vicmsong.bsky.social

The Unbearable Obviousness of AI Fitness Summaries
https://www.theverge.com/fitness-trackers/694140/ai-summaries-fitness-apps-strava-oura-whoop-wearables

Gare Davis
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jm6ufvsw3hg5zgdpnd3zb4tv
https://www.instagram.com/hungrybowtie

It Could Happen Here
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/

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Published 2025-06-27

Monologue: Did OpenAI Steal Another Startup's Idea?

10 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the murky lawsuit between OpenAI’s soon-to-be-acquired hardware wing and Iyo, a company they met with multiple times that makes a similar-sounding product with a near-identical name. 

Sam Altman tweets: https://x.com/sama/status/1937606794362388674
Jason Rugolo tweets: https://x.com/jasonRugolo/status/1936933761964511721

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---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-06-25

NVIDIA Vs. The Media ft. GamersNexus

47 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about NVIDIA’s approach to the media, AI pushing out real tech at Computex, and the weird world of consumer graphics.

Follow GamersNexus:  

https://www.youtube.com/gamersnexus
https://gamersnexus.net/
https://bsky.app/profile/gamersnexus.bsky.social 
https://x.com/GamersNexus

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-06-20

Monologue: OpenAI Vs. Microsoft

9 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through OpenAI’s desperate attempts to lean on Microsoft to change the terms of their agreement, and how the entire AI bubble may rest on this negotiation. 

WSJ: OpenAI and Microsoft Tensions Are Reaching a Boiling Point https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-and-microsoft-tensions-are-reaching-a-boiling-point-4981c44f 
The Information: OpenAI Seeks New Financial Concessions From Microsoft, a Top Shareholder https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-seeks-new-financial-concessions-microsoft-top-shareholder?rc=kz8jh3
The Information: OpenAI Starts Selling ChatGPT at a Discount, Hurting Microsoft
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-starts-selling-chatgpt-discount-hurting-microsoft?rc=kz8jh3
Data Center Dynamics: Crusoe secures $750m credit facility from Brookfield
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/crusoe-secures-750m-credit-facility-from-brookfield/
The Information: Oracle CEO Says OpenAI’s Stargate Venture ‘Not Formed Yet’
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/oracle-ceo-says-openais-stargate-venture-formed-yet?rc=kz8jh3

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---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-06-18

Radio Better Offline: Pablo Torre and David Roth

85 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York city.

Ed Zitron is joined in studio by Pablo Torre of Pablo Torre Finds Out and David Roth of Defector to talk about independent media, what makes a compelling show, and what it’s like raising a turtle.

Pablo Torre Finds Out: https://www.youtube.com/@PabloTorreFindsOut
Investigating Belichick's Girlfriend: The Power of Jordon Hudson, Revealed
https://youtu.be/As5P5TA-ERk?si=-PfM7fZ-Tw8S-yQc
Hank Azaria on His Bruce Springsteen Tribute Band, Apu and Finding His True Voice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rnyMXm1ThQ

David Roth
https://defector.com/author/david-roth
https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-06-13

The Era of the Business Idiot, Part 3

35 min Transcript
Open

In part three of this week's three-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how the era of the Business Idiot has led to a dramatic deceleration in innovation - and how the tech media must fight back against their ridiculous narratives to save Silicon Valley.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-06-12

The Era of the Business Idiot, Part 2

32 min Transcript
Open

In part two of this week's three-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how Business Idiots demanded we all return to the office to hide their own lack of utility - and how this directly led to their desperation to adopt generative AI.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-06-11

The Era of the Business Idiot, Part 1

27 min Transcript
Open

In part one of this week's three-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how Business Idiots have captured our society, with middle management losers breeding out true meritocracy and value-creation in favor of symbolic growth and superficial intelligence.

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---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-06-06

Monologue: The AI Job Loss Con

5 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through how the media is misleading you about AI job loss as a form of propaganda for OpenAI and Anthropic - and the Business Idiots behind it.

CNN - The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine - https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/30/business/anthropic-amodei-ai-jobs-nightcap
Oxford Economics - Educated but unemployed, a rising reality for college grads - https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/US-Educated-but-unemployed-a-rising-reality-for-college-grads.pdf  
Axios - AI is keeping recent college grads out of work - https://www.axios.com/2025/05/29/ai-college-grads-work-jobs

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---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-06-04

The Truth About Software Development with Carl Brown

57 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Carl Brown, a veteran software developer and host of The Internet of Bugs, to talk about the realities of software development, what coding LLMs can actually do, and how the media gets it wrong about software engineering at large.

https://www.youtube.com/@InternetOfBugs

New GitHub Copilot Research Finds 'Downward Pressure on Code Quality' - https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2024/01/25/copilot-research.aspx
Report: AI coding assistants aren’t a panacea - https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/21/report-ai-coding-assistants-arent-a-panacea/

Internet of Bugs Videos to watch:
Debunking Devin: "First AI Software Engineer" Upwork lie exposed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNmgmwEtoWE&t=3s
AI Has Us Between a Rock and a Hard Place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJGNqnq-aCA
Software Engineers REAL problem with "AI" and Jobs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQmN6xSorus&list=PLv0sYKRNTN6QhoxJdyTZTV6NauoZlDp99
AGILE & Scrum Failures stuck us with "AI" hype like Devin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C1Rxa9DMfI&t=1s

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---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-30

Monologue: Don't Buy A Switch 2, Get A Handheld Gaming PC

6 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the awesome world of handheld gaming PCs - and why you should pick one up over a Nintendo Switch 2.

Rog Ally X: https://rog.asus.com/us/gaming-handhelds/rog-ally/rog-ally-x-2024/
Lenovo Legion Go S: https://amzn.to/4kgZCKD
MSI Claw: https://amzn.to/43PPNNG

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---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-28

The Better Offline Mailbag

41 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by producer Sophie Lichterman to answer questions about life, technology, and Better Offline itself.

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---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-23

Monologue: Jony Ive and OpenAI's New BS Machine

10 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the ridiculousness of OpenAI acquiring Jony Ive’s pre-product hardware startup for $6.5bn in stock - and why it only proves how washed the company might be.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

WSJ: What Sam Altman Told OpenAI About the Secret Device He’s Making With Jony Ive
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/what-sam-altman-told-openai-about-the-secret-device-hes-making-with-jony-ive-f1384005

Bloomberg: OpenAI to Buy AI Device Startup From Apple Veteran Jony Ive in $6.5 Billion Deal
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-21/openai-to-buy-apple-veteran-jony-ive-s-ai-device-startup-in-6-5-billion-deal

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-21

Saving Games Journalism With Giant Bomb

43 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Dan Ryckert, Jeff Bakalar and Jeff Grubb, the new owners of gaming website Giant Bomb, to talk about the hopeful, independent future for games journalism - and media at large.

http://www.giantbomb.com/join

Dan Ryckert: https://bsky.app/profile/danryckert.com
Jeff Grubb: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bdacp2cmuuyawx553cv2spdy
Jeff Bakalar: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:tyuqlcnoqijzqor53ka2a7o2

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

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---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-16

Monologue: How Better Offline Saved Me

8 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the story of how writing The Man That Destroyed Google Search saved his life.

The Man That Destroyed Google Search: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-man-that-destroyed-google-search/id1730587238?i=1000653621646

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-14

Empires of AI With Karen Hao

51 min Transcript
Open

Ed Zitron is joined by Karen Hao, author of the book Empire of AI, to talk about the confusing world of OpenAI and the associated mind-poison of artificial general intelligence.

Book link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743569/empire-of-ai-by-karen-hao/
(all the buy links are available there)
Karen’s website: https://karendhao.com/
Twitter: https://x.com/_karenhao
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karendhao/
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/karenhao.bsky.social

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline use free99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable 

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at 
Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline 
Discord chat.wheresyoured.at 
Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron 
instagram.com/edzitron
https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com 
https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 
email me ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-09

Monologue: Sam Altman's BS Eye Scanning Startup

12 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through World, Sam Altman’s meaningless new “World” startup that trades you cryptocurrency for a scan of your eyeballs, and how it proves something is deeply wrong with our society.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-07

Tariffs and The End Of Affordable Computing w/ Steve Burke

37 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about how tariffs are throwing the PC gaming industry into disarray, and how the era of affordable computing is coming to an end.

GamersNexus:
The End Of Affordable Computing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W_mSOS1Qts&t=2s&ab_channel=GamersNexus
https://www.youtube.com/gamersnexus
https://gamersnexus.net/
https://bsky.app/profile/gamersnexus.bsky.social
https://x.com/GamersNexus

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-02

I'm Mad As Hell, And I'm Not Gonna Take It Anymore

27 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through all the signs that the bubble is bursting, and how hysterical boosters continue to desperately keep it from doing so.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-05-01

Monologue: Why We Need Tech Criticism More Than Ever

6 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through why better tech criticism will lead to a better tech industry - and a better society at large.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-04-30

The BS Bubble

30 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through why it’s so harmful that the media keeps taking OpenAI at its word - and responds to the most common critiques from AI boosters.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-04-25

Monologue: The Tech I Actually Like

12 min Transcript
Open

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the tech he actually likes, and how digital connections give him hope in the darkest times.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable

Sasmsung 49” Odyssey OLED G9 https://amzn.to/3Gg5Qvb
Ascrono Macbook Dock https://amzn.to/3YHfSeO
Anker Nano Power Bank (10k mAh, USB-C Cable) https://amzn.to/44zjC5R
Anker 165W USBC battery with retractable cable: https://amzn.to/445Dwpa
Anker 250W GaN Prime Charger: https://amzn.to/42QOEVH
Anker MagGo 3-in-1 Charger: https://amzn.to/3YK26bt
Macbook Pro 16”: https://amzn.to/42HtiJc
Apple Watch Series 10: https://amzn.to/43XQ3uF
Apple Airpods Max: https://amzn.to/4cLb12n
Airpods Pro 2: https://amzn.to/3Er5SQd
Moonlander ZSA: https://www.zsa.io/moonlander
Apple Magic Trackpad: https://amzn.to/3GhYPtw
Pakt 25L Duffel: https://paktbags.com/products/25l-travel-duffel
Tonal: tonal.com

---

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Ed Zitron is joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN, to talk about Google's recent antitrust trial losses, Meta's FTC case, and why it should give you hope for the future.

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

You can also order a limited-edition Better Offline hat until 5/22/25! https://cottonbureau.com/p/CAGDW8/hat/better-offline-hat#/28510205/hat-unisex-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-adjustable


Follow Jason: https://x.com/jason_kint

https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2025/04/17/google-ad-tech-illegal-monopoly-doj 
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5364789/mark-zuckerberg-meta-ftc-antitrust-trial

---

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Published 2025-04-18

OpenAI Is A Systemic Risk To The Tech Industry

42 min Transcript
Open

In the second part of this week’s two-part episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how OpenAI has become a systemic risk, one that may destroy CoreWeave, cost NVIDIA and Oracle billions, and break the back of an ailing tech industry.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

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Published 2025-04-17

Monologue: How The Media Keeps Inflating Bubbles

10 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through how the media's lackluster approach to critiquing the powerful led to the needless, unsustainable AI bubble - and how things could change for the better.

Vote for Better Offline's "Man Who Killed Google Search" as the best business podcast episode in this year's Webby's! Open until April 17! Vote today!
https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/business

Vote for Weird Little Guys in this year’s Webbys! https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/crime-justice 

---

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Published 2025-04-16

OpenAI Cannot Survive

40 min Transcript
Open

In the first part of this week's two-part episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how impossible it will be for OpenAI to stay alive - and how SoftBank’s attempts to help are materially harming the company.

Vote for Better Offline's "Man Who Killed Google Search" as the best business podcast episode in this year's Webby's! Open until April 17! Vote today!
https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/business

Vote for Weird Little Guys in this year’s Webby's! https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/crime-justice 

---

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Published 2025-04-11

Monologue: OpenAI's Non-Profit Problem

8 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the precarious nature of OpenAI's non-profit status - and how a petition to the California Attorney general is an existential threat to the company.

Petition: https://aboutblaw.com/bhNa

---

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Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York city.

Ed Zitron is joined in studio by Allison Morrow of CNN, Ed Ongweso Jr. of the Tech Bubble newsletter, and Paris Martineau of The Information to talk about the collapse of the AI bubble, the goofy “AI 2027” fan fiction that has gone viral in the tech industry, and how the tech media faces a reckoning once the bubble truly bursts.

 

Vote for Better Offline's "Man Who Killed Google Search" as the best business podcast episode in this year's Webby's! Open until April 17! Vote today!
https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/business

Vote for Weird Little Guys in this year’s Webby’s! https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/crime-justice

Allison Morrow
https://www.cnn.com/profiles/allison-morrow
https://bsky.app/profile/amorrow.bsky.social

Ed Ongweso Jr.
https://thetechbubble.substack.com/
https://bsky.app/profile/edwardongwesojr.com

Paris Martineau
https://www.theinformation.com/u/parismartineau?rc=kz8jh3
https://bsky.app/profile/paris.nyc

 

https://ai-2027.com/

New York Times article on AI 2027 - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/technology/ai-futures-project-ai-2027.html

CNN - Apple’s AI isn’t a letdown. AI is the letdown - https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/tech/apple-ai-artificial-intelligence/index.html

CNN - The AI bubble may not be bursting, but tariff chaos is sure helping to deflate it https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/01/business/ai-bubble-markets-tariffs-nightcap/index.html

WSJ - How Is SoftBank Funding Its Mega Investment in OpenAI? A Lot of Debt - https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/openai-softbank-investment-debt-51b4a130

TechCrunch - OpenAI reportedly mulls buying Jony Ive and Sam Altman’s AI hardware startup - https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/07/openai-reportedly-mulls-buying-jony-ive-and-sam-altmans-ai-hardware-startup/

---

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Published 2025-04-04

Monologue: OpenAI's Albatross

9 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through how OpenAI's new image generator has become a massive burden on the company, and how OpenAI’s melting GPUs are a bad omen for the future.

Vote for Better Offline's "Man Who Killed Google Search" as the best business podcast episode in this year's Webby's! Open until April 17! Vote today!
https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/business

Vote for Weird Little Guys in this year’s Webby’s! https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/crime-justice

OpenAI’s new image generator is now available to all users - https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/31/openais-new-image-generator-is-now-available-to-all-users/

OpenAI Forecast Shows Shift From Microsoft to SoftBank (citation for $13 billion number) - https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-forecast-shows-shift-from-microsoft-to-softbank?rc=kz8jh3

---

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Published 2025-04-02

Radio Better Offline: David "Shingy" Shing

60 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by famed “digital prophet” David “Shingy” Shing, who calls himself a “creative omnivore,” to talk about adtech, being a "digital prophet," and society's attraction to nostalgia.

https://www.shingy.com/

Vote for Better Offline's "Man Who Killed Google Search" as the best business podcast episode in this year's Webby's! Open until April 17! Vote today!

https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/business

---

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Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

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Published 2025-03-28

Monologue: High Noon for CoreWeave & AI

13 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the wretched vibes surrounding CoreWeave's IPO and OpenAI's new funding, and the brittle state of the finances holding everything together.

Semafor: Microsoft chose not to exercise $12 billion Coreweave option

https://www.semafor.com/article/03/20/2025/microsoft-chose-not-to-exercise-12-billion-coreweave-option

The Information: CoreWeave Faces Reality Check on Bullish Growth Forecasts https://www.theinformation.com/articles/coreweave-faces-reality-check-bullish-growth-forecasts?rc=kz8jh3

The Financial Times: CoreWeave tests investor risk appetite with $7.5bn in looming debt repayments

https://www.ft.com/content/163c6927-2032-4346-857e-8e3787e4babc

Bloomberg: OpenAI Close to Finalizing Its $40 Billion SoftBank-Led Funding https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/openai-close-to-finalizing-its-40-billion-softbank-led-funding

My Newsletter: CoreWeave Is A Time Bomb

https://www.wheresyoured.at/core-incompetency/

---

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Published 2025-03-26

Radio Better Offline: Andy Richter

66 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in Los Angeles.

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by comedian Andy Richter to talk about how comedy and broadcast have evolved thanks to the internet. 

Follow Andy: https://bsky.app/profile/andyrichter.co
The Three Questions: https://teamcoco.com/podcasts/the-three-questions-with-andy-richter
The Andy Richter Call-in Show: https://www.siriusxm.com/blog/andy-richter-call-in-show
Sixteenth Minute (of Fame): https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-sixteenth-minute-of-fame-172216473/

---

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Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-03-21

Monologue: We Need To Talk About CoreWeave

9 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through CoreWeave, the first IPO of the AI bubble, and how its terrible finances, burdensome loans and questionable partners are cause for concern.

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/core-incompetency/

---

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Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York city.

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by tech reporters Alex Cranz, Cherlynn Low and Victoria song to talk about the broken promises of generative AI, and how useless things get funded far more than useful ones.

Alex Cranz: 
https://bsky.app/profile/cranz.bsky.social

Cherlynn Low:
https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/cherlynn-low/
https://x.com/cherlynnlow
https://bsky.app/profile/cherlynn.bsky.social

Victoria Song:
https://bsky.app/profile/vicmsong.bsky.social 
https://www.theverge.com/authors/victoria-song 

---

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Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

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Published 2025-03-14

SoftBank and OpenAI's Dangerous Game

34 min Transcript
Open

In the second of this week's two-part series, Ed Zitron walks you through how SoftBank is mortgaging its future to keep OpenAI alive - and the dangerous consequences of over-funding an unprofitable, unsustainable company.

---

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Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

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Published 2025-03-13

Monologue: How Does This End?

6 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks through how reckless members of the media continue to inflate the AI bubble - and the detailed notes he's been taking along the way.

---

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Published 2025-03-12

Microsoft Cuts The Power To AI

25 min Transcript
Open

In the first of this week's two-part series, Ed Zitron walks you through how Microsoft pulling back from over a gigawatt of compute capacity is a dark omen for the so-called AI Revolution. 

---

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Published 2025-03-07

Monologue: OpenAI Is Getting Desperate

8 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron goes through the underwhelming release of OpenAI's GPT-4.5 - and how OpenAI's rumored new pricing structure suggests this company is in trouble.

Here's the article cited from The Information: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-plots-charging-20-000-a-month-for-phd-level-agents?rc=kz8jh3

---

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Published 2025-03-05

How Growth Is Killing Video Games

73 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Gita Jackson and Nathan Grayson of worker-owned games site Aftermath to talk about how the growth-at-all-costs mindset is destroying games, how fandom culture naturally feeds extremism, how Aftermath does games journalism differently, and how despite everything, great games are still being made.

Gita Jackson:
https://bsky.app/profile/xoxogossipgita.bsky.social 
https://aftermath.site/author/gita-jackson 

Nathan Grayson: 
https://aftermath.site/author/nathan-grayson
https://bsky.app/profile/nathangrayson.bsky.social

Stream Big: The Triumphs and Turmoils of Twitch and the Stars Behind the Screen
https://www.amazon.com/Stream-Big-Triumphs-Turmoils-Twitch/dp/1982156767

Article on Skin Deep from Aftermath: https://aftermath.site/skin-deep-steam-next-fest-demo-impressions-pc 

The New York Times: Video Games Can’t Afford to Look This Good
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/arts/video-games-graphics-budgets.html

Aftermath - Fuck WB
https://aftermath.site/warner-bros-discovery-games-wonder-woman-monolith-shut-down

Pyre - https://www.supergiantgames.com/games/pyre/
Supergiant Games - https://www.supergiantgames.com
Avowed - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2457220/Avowed/

---

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Published 2025-02-28

Generative AI Is Not A Real Industry

43 min Transcript
Open

In the second of this week's two-part episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the dark truth of the generative AI industry - that consumer adoption of Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity is incredibly small, and it’s time to accept that there is nothing coming to justify the ruinous costs of Large Language Models. 

---

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Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

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https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-02-27

Monologue: What Bursts A Bubble?

10 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through what's making everybody worried about the bubble bursting - and what other signs might tell you that the party's over for AI.

---

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

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Published 2025-02-26

OpenAI Is Not A Real Company

36 min Transcript
Open

In this episode (the first of a two-parter), Ed Zitron walks you through how OpenAI isn’t a real company, but a venture-backed welfare recipient that spent $9 billion to lose $5 billion in 2024 with little product-market fit and a stagnant API business that suggests that there’s little adoption of generative AI.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

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Published 2025-02-21

What We're Fighting For

34 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the how the tech media misses the stories that hurt billions of people every day - and how deep down, most people really do like technology and miss when it wasn’t so actively harmful.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-02-20

Monologue: OpenAI Was Never A Non-Profit

10 min Transcript
Open

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the early days of OpenAI - and the simmering war between Elon Musk and Sam Altman over its non-profit status.

Suit: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69013420/musk-v-altman/

---

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Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

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https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-02-19

How The Tech Media Can Beat The Rot Economy

27 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the growth-at-all-costs Rot Economy has used software to poison so many parts of our lives - and how the tech media can rise to the challenge and fight for a better Silicon Valley by aligning with consumers against big tech.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through how the AI industry’s limp Super Bowl commercials show how little this industry has to offer - and how much contempt they have for consumers.

OpenAI: The Intelligence Age: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIhb5pEo_j0

Google: Dream Job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7e6g11BJc0

Salesforce: Gate Expectations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZqmBcqDkyw

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-02-12

How Sports Gambling Apps Are Rotting Society

84 min Transcript
Open

In a live-to-tape recording in Ed Zitron's living room, Wide Left writer Arif Hasan and Western Kabuki Host Caleb Wilson explain in detail the cultural power of sports, and how software has been used to poison every corner of sports with predatory gambling schemes. 

The Athletic story on sports gambling: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5777632/2024/10/14/sports-betting-addiction-problem-fans/

Wide Left article about sports gambling: 
https://www.wideleft.football/p/has-legalized-gambling-poisoned-the

Arif Hasan: 
https://bsky.app/profile/arif.bsky.social
https://x.com/ArifHasanNFL
Wide Left: https://www.wideleft.football

Caleb Wilson:
https://bsky.app/profile/birdrespecter.bsky.social
Western Kabuki: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/western-kabuki/id1647062210

The 60 Minute Drill Podcast (Ed, Arif and Caleb’s NFL podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/60-minute-drill/id1768225605

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-02-06

Monologue: What Happened With DeepSeek?

9 min Transcript
Open

In the first of a new series of weekly monologues, Ed Zitron breaks down what exactly happened with DeepSeek, and how it threatens to pop the AI bubble.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-02-03

How DeepSeek Showed That Silicon Valley Is Washed

42 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron explains how the emergence of a much-more-efficient generative AI model has become an existential threat to the future of OpenAI and Anthropic - and tells a dark story about the death of innovation in Silicon Valley.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-31

What The Hell Is DeepSeek?

32 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron explains how DeepSeek, a relatively-unknown Chinese model AI developer incubated in a hedge fund, has punctured the generative AI bubble, throwing the US startup scene (and markets) into disarray.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-29

Radio Better Offline: Jeremy Kaplowitz of the Quorators

45 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed Zitron is joined by Jeremy Kaplowitz of the podcast Quorators to talk about Quora, which he describes as “Reddit with a gas leak.”

www.youtube.com/@Quorators

www.patreon.com/Quorators

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-24

The Slop Society

42 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how lax regulation and all-too-chummy media coverage has empowered Mark Zuckerberg and other tech companies to intentionally make every digital experience worse for profit. 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-22

Facebook Was Already Zucked

36 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the latest "right-wing turn" for Mark Zuckerberg and Meta is really just formalizing policies on Facebook and Instagram that actively protected and elevated right-wing voices - and how we're entering a new era of rot for two of the world's largest social networks.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-15

Radio Better Offline: Paris Martineau, Jeff Jarvis

85 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed Zitron is joined by Paris Martineau of The Information and media critic Jeff Jarvis to talk about Paris' story around the horrible consequences of an anonymous dating app, Meta's slop-filled right-wing future, and what the media industry might look like in ten years' time.

Jeff Jarvis: https://jeffjarvis.com/
https://bsky.app/profile/jeffjarvis.bsky.social

Paris Martineau: https://bsky.app/profile/paris.nyc
Paris' story she talks about: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-a-casual-sex-website-left-the-door-open-to-teens

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-12

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 6 - Epilogue

63 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

Phil Broughton and Ed Ongweso Jr. join Ed Zitron for an epilogue on the Consumer Electronics Show and the 12+ hours of audio we've recorded - and what we're planning to do next.

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 
Phillip Broughton: https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social
https://www.funraniumlabs.com/

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-11

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 5 - Pt. 2

116 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Part 2 of our 5th day covering CES, Ed Zitron is joined by Robert Evans of Cool Zone Media, Gare Davis of Cool Zone Media, Kyle Chouinard of Las Vegas, Nevada, to talk labor, the true vibe of CES, and how growth-at-all-costs thinking crowds out real solutions to problems. And, of course, how much Ed loves everybody.

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/ bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 
David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 
Defector: Defector.com
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849 
Kyle Chouinard, Las Vegas Sun https://lasvegassun.com/staff/kyle-chouinard/ 
Gare Davis https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jm6ufvsw3hg5zgdpnd3zb4tv 
Robert Evans https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social 
Phil Broughton https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social/post/3kmolcb3bmx2r 
Our wonderful producer: https://www.mattosowski.com/ 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-10

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 5 - Pt. 1

101 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Part 1 of our 5th day covering CES, Ed Zitron is joined by writer Ed Ongweso Jr, David Roth of Defector, Cherlynn Low of Engadget and Health Physicist Phil Broughton to talk about men and their lack of vulnerability about sex, the sex toy industry, age tech, exoskeletons…and lasers!

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 
David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 
Defector: Defector.com
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849
Cherlynn Low, Engadget: https://bsky.app/profile/cherlynn.bsky.social https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/cherlynn-low/
Engadget’s Best Of CES: https://www.engadget.com/ces/

Washington Post story about AVNs: https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-interest/2024/02/25/ai-porn-avn-industry/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-10

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 4 - Pt. 2

93 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Part 2 of our 4th day covering CES, Ed Zitron is joined by writer Ed Ongweso Jr, David Roth of Defector, Karissa Bell of Engadget, reporter Rob Pegoraro and Senior Transportation Reporter at TechCrunch Sean O’Kane to discuss mobility at CES, violent robots, furry robots, electric boats and, well, varying levels of potential fraud.

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 
David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849 
Defector: Defector.com 
Karissa Bell, Engadget https://bsky.app/profile/karissabe.bsky.social 
https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/karissa-bell/ 
Rob Pegoraro: https://bsky.app/profile/robpegoraro.com 
Sean O’Kane: https://bsky.app/profile/seanokane.bsky.social 
https://techcrunch.com/author/sean-okane/ 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-09

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 4 - Pt. 1

96 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. 

In Part 1 of our 4th day covering CES, Ed Zitron is joined by Senior Review of Wearable Tech Victoria Song of The Verge, Ed Ongweso Jr, David Roth of Defector and Devindra Hardawar of Engadget to talk about the male-centric coverage of CES, personal nuclear reactors, useful wearables and tech companies that fantasize about making all of our decisions for us. 

Victoria Song: https://www.theverge.com/authors/victoria-song
https://bsky.app/profile/vicmsong.bsky.social
Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/
David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social
Defector: Defector.com
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849
Devindra Hardawar, Engadget: https://bsky.app/profile/devindra.bsky.social
https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/devindra-hardawar/
Devindra’s coverage of the ASUS Zenbook A14 https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/asus-unveiled-the-zenbook-a14-at-ces-2025-and-its-the-macbook-air-competitor-ive-been-dreaming-of-173026277.html
Phillip Broughton: https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social
https://www.funraniumlabs.com/

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-09

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 3 - Pt. 2

94 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the second episode, 

In this episode Ed Zitron is joined by David Roth of Defector, reporter Edward Ongweso Jr., Ed Niedermeyer of the Autonocast, and tech freelancer Jared Newman to talk about the consequences of spending days at the Consumer Electronics Show, how a show gets away with having so many booths that don’t actually seem to sell things to consumers, and an idea for generative AI that I deeply apologize for.

David Roth: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 
Jared Newman: https://bsky.app/profile/advisorator.com 
Ed Ongweso Jr: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 
Ed Niedermeyer: https://bsky.app/profile/niedermeyer.io 
The Autonocast: https://www.autonocast.com/ 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-09

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 3 - Pt. 1

93 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the second episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Jesse Farrar and Michael Hale of Your Kickstarter Sucks, Henry Casey of CNN Underscored, Max Cherney of Reuters, Matt Binder of Mashable, Tom McKay of ITBrew and journalist Ed Ongweso Jr. to talk about trying to find something useful that AI does in a show where everybody uses AI so liberally that it's effectively stopped meaning anything.

Your Kickstarter Sucks: https://www.patreon.com/yourkickstartersucks 
Jesse Farrar: https://bsky.app/profile/jessefarrar.com 
Michael Hale: https://x.com/dogboner 
Ed Ongweso Jr: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 
Max Cherney: https://www.reuters.com/authors/max-a-cherney/ 
Matt Binder: https://bsky.app/profile/mattbinder.bsky.social 
Henry Casey: https://bsky.app/profile/henrytcasey.net 
Tom McKay: https://bsky.app/profile/catturd2.bsky.social 
---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-08

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 2

99 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the second episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Health Physicist Phil Broughton, actual priest Gabriel Mosher, journalist Ed Ongweso Jr., and eventually Robert Evans and Gare Davis of It Could Happen Here, to talk about turning our health into an analytics nightmare, the amount of made-up stuff on the floor, how we beat the generative AI slop, and something called a "suicide helicopter." 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
Robert Evans: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social
Gare Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/hungrybowtie.bsky.social
Gabriel Mosher: https://bsky.app/profile/eighthway.com
Phil Broughton: https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social

Linda Yaccarino’s CES Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R9LtHiZ74w
Meta ends fact-checking program: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-ends-fact-checking-program-community-notes-x-rcna186468

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-07

Better Offline CES 2025: Day 1

75 min Transcript
Open

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the first episode, Ed introduces you to Better Offline’s coverage, bringing in writer Edward Ongweso Jr., as well as It Could Happen Here’s Robert Evans and Gare Davis. 
We’ll be here all week - two episodes a day, with a finale on Saturday. A talk show in the center of the Rot Economy. 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
Robert Evans: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social
Gare Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/hungrybowtie.bsky.social

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-03

The Invisible War Criminals

36 min Transcript
Open

In part 2 of the 2024 Better Offline finale, Ed Zitron tells you how to fight back against the growth-at-all-costs Rot Economy and its destruction of the tech ecosystem - by pushing the media to improve their coverage, telling everybody you know who's responsible, and remembering what it is you truly love about technology.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2025-01-01

The Invisible War

35 min Transcript
Open

In this year's two-part finale, Ed Zitron enumerates the damage being done to billions of people by the growth-at-all-costs Rot Economy - and why you need to have solidarity with your fellow user.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-12-30

FTC Chair Lina Khan: The Better Offline Interview

29 min Transcript
Open

FTC Chair Lina Khan joins Ed Zitron to talk about competitiveness in the tech industry, controlling the cloud giants, and what should give you hope as we head into 2025.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a special live-to-tape episode of Better Offline, Ed is joined by The Verge's Alex Cranz and YouTube influencer Michael Fisher to talk about what they're actually enjoying in the tech industry - and why things don't feel quite as magical and exciting as they used to.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheMrMobile

https://www.theverge.com/authors/alex-cranz 

Original Air Date: 6.26.24

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-12-18

Watching the Watchmen with Jason Koebler

58 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by 404 Media's Jason Koebler to talk about the state of both the tech industry and the tech media, and how 404 Media has built a worker-owned outlet that genuinely works.

Follow Jason:

https://www.404media.co/ https://x.com/jason_koebler https://bsky.app/profile/jasonkoebler.bsky.social

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-12-11

Everything Is Advertising with Ryan Barwick

41 min Transcript
Open

Ed Zitron is joined in-studio by Ryan Barwick of Marketing Brew to talk about how the entire tech ecosystem is controlled by ads - and whether companies like OpenAI and Perplexity can hope to plug the gaps in their leaky revenue models.

Follow Ryan: 

https://x.com/Ryanbarwick

https://www.marketingbrew.com/contributor/ryan-barwick

---

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Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

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Published 2024-12-06

The Coming Generative AIPocalypse

31 min Transcript
Open

We're approaching the end of the line for generative AI as big tech realizes that spending $200bn on chips and data centers isn't going to create any good products. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through what might happen - and why we should still have hope.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-12-04

Yep, We're At Peak AI

19 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron discusses big tech's discovery of the diminishing returns in training generative AI models - and how we may have finally have reached peak AI.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-11-27

CZM Rewind: The Man That Destroyed Google Search

31 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron tells you the disgraceful story of how Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's former head of ads - led a coup so that he could run Google Search, and how an email chain from 2019 began a cascade of events that would lead to the outright decay of the most important website on the internet. 

Original Air Date: 4.25.24

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

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Published 2024-11-20

The Rot Society

38 min Transcript
Open

Blame the tech industry for the rise of authoritarianism. Blame a news media handicapped by a deference to power and a fear of bias. Blame the fact that our digital lives are unchecked ecological disasters. In this episode, Ed Zitron draws a direct line from the rot of the digital ecosystem for what happened on November 5.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-11-13

William Lazonick on How The Stock Market Killed Tech

53 min Transcript
Open

Recorded live at Web Summit Lisbon, Ed Zitron is joined by William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, who is also the co-founder and president of the Academic-Industry Research Network, to talk about how the incentives of shareholder capitalism and stock buybacks are destroying innovation. 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-11-06

The Streisand Effect with Mike Masnick

54 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Mike Masnick, CEO and Founder of Techdirt, inventor of the Streisand effect, and member of the board of Bluesky to...well...talk about quite literally that. A banger episode.

https://www.techdirt.com/user/mmasnick/ https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-10-30

A Nobel Economist's Plan To Tax Digital Ads

33 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Daron Acemoglu, MIT Economist and recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, to talk about his daring - and likely effective - plan to tax all digital advertising revenue over $500m at 50% as well as how we might adjust incentives to bring big tech under control.

PAPER: https://shapingwork.mit.edu/research/the-urgent-need-to-tax-digital-advertising/ 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-10-25

A Requiem for Prabhakar Raghavan

18 min Transcript
Open

Last week, Prabhakar Raghavan, The Man Who Destroyed Google Search, was removed from his position at Google and made a "Chief Technologist," benching him in favor of a McKinsey-Google Lifer. In this episode, Ed ZItron walks you through how the removal of Prabhakar Raghavan shows that Google is in deep, deep trouble - and may finally be falling apart. 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-10-23

Data Vampires with Paris Marx

38 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed is joined by Paris Marx, author of the Disconnect Blog and the host of Tech Won't Save Us, to talk about the historic - and horrifying - push of hyper-scalers to build out and control vital parts of the world's infrastructure.

Tech Won't Save Us: https://techwontsave.us/episodes

Data Vampires Ep 1: https://techwontsave.us/episode/241_data_vampires_going_hyperscale_episode_1

Data Vampires Ep 2: https://techwontsave.us/episode/243_data_vampires_opposing_data_centers_episode_2

Paris on Twitter: https://x.com/parismarx 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-10-16

Zephyr Teachout On Corruption

37 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed is joined in the iHeartRadio studios in New York City by Zephyr Teachout, Fordham Law Professor and Author of "Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money" to talk about corruption, the ways in which we can curb the power of corporations - and why there's renewed hope for a better world.

Zephyr on X: https://x.com/ZephyrTeachout

Zephyr's book: https://www.amazon.com/Break-Em-Up-Recovering-Freedom/dp/125020089X 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-10-11

The Subprime AI Crisis

47 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the brewing subprime AI crisis. The entire generative AI market is run on the back of unprofitable tech run at prices subsidized by big tech, and when OpenAI and others have to charge the actual costs underlying their services, there may be terrible consequences.

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-10-09

Why OpenAI Is A Terrible Business

46 min Transcript
Open

As of last week, OpenAI is now worth $157 billion - yet below the hood is a far darker story. In this episode, Ed Zitron explains the cold, hard truth - that OpenAI is a terrible business that burns billions of dollars, and its failure to scale its cloud business tells a dark tale about the wider generative AI industry. 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-10-02

The Department of Justice V Google Ads: Part 4

30 min Transcript
Open

Ed Zitron is joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN and Arielle Garcia, Director of Intelligence at CheckMyAds, for the final episode of Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google. The case alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies."

Here's a great explainer about how this all works from the Better Offline Reddit.

For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/, follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint & follow Arielle at https://x.com/ArielleSGarcia

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-09-27

How To Break the Internet with Chris Stokel-Walker

43 min Transcript
Open

Just over a month after the CrowdStrike debacle, Ed Zitron is joined by journalist and author Chris Stokel-Walker to "stokel-walk" through the brittle patchwork of open source, non-profit and for-profit entities that hold up the internet - and how calamitous it would be if any of them buckled.

Article: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/crowdstrike-trigger-global-meltdown-cyber-fail-amazon-b2586523.html

Follow Chris: https://x.com/stokel 

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-09-25

The Department of Justice V Google Ads: Part 3

42 min Transcript
Open

Ed Zitron is joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN and Arielle Garcia, Director of Intelligence at CheckMyAds, for the third episode of Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google, one that alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies."

This is the third episode of our ongoing coverage of the trial, which Jason and Arielle have been attending in-person in Washington DC. Here's a great explainer about how this all works from the Better Offline Reddit.

For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/ & follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-09-18

The Department of Justice V Google Ads: Part 2

32 min Transcript
Open

Ed Zitron is once again joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN, for the second episode of Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google, one that alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies." This is the second episode of our ongoing coverage of the trial, which Jason will be attending in-person in Washington DC. For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/ and follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-09-13

Silicon Valley Fashion With The Menswear Guy

39 min Transcript
Open

After earnings failed to reassure investors about their concerns around generative AI's return on investment, NVIDIA's stock suffered a record $279 billion loss in the space of a day. Nevertheless, the most important NVIDIA story is that of Chief Executive Jensen Huang, who appears to be one of the few tech executives that knows how to dress himself. In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by fashion expert Derek Guy (AKA @dieworkwear on Twitter) to talk about Jensen's swag, and why more men should find ways to enjoy fashion.

Derek on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dieworkwear

https://www.dieworkwear.com/

https://www.putthison.com/

---

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-09-09

The Department of Justice V Google Ads: Part 1

45 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN, to set the scene for Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google, one that alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies." This is the first in our ongoing coverage of the trial, which Jason will be attending in-person in Washington DC. For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/ and follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials -

http://www.twitter.com/edzitron

instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-09-06

How Google Cheated Their Way To Billions

36 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how Google used their monopolies over search and search advertising to scam advertisers - and why the entire tech industry should demand that Google is broken up and forced to compete like the rest of us. 

LINKS: http://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks 

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at 

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at 

Ed's Socials:

http://www.twitter.com/edzitron 

instagram.com/edzitron 

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-09-04

How Monopolies Are Making Tech Worse

34 min Transcript
Open

A few weeks ago, a federal judge declared that Google has a monopoly over the search industry and text-based advertising. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the many monopolies of big tech hurt you on a daily basis.

LINKS: http://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks 

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at 

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at 

Ed's Socials:

http://www.twitter.com/edzitron 

instagram.com/edzitron 

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-08-28

Matt Stoller Explains Monopolies

58 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron sits down with Matt Stoller, author of the BIG Newsletter and Research Director of the American Economic Liberties Project to explain what a monopoly is, why they're so pervasive, how America entered a "monopoly crisis," and what all of this means for Google, Apple, Meta, and the rest of big tech.

Want to read the transcript of this episode? Go to wheresyoured.at/stoller

BIG by Matt Stoller https://www.thebignewsletter.com/

Matt Stoller on Twitter https://x.com/matthewstoller 

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at 

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at 

Ed's Socials:

http://www.twitter.com/edzitron 

instagram.com/edzitron 

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-08-21

Algorithms and Oligopolies with Thomas Germain

87 min Transcript
Open

In the fourth live-to-tape episode of Better Offlive, Ed Zitron sits down with the BBC's Thomas Germain to talk about breaking up big tech, and how we can find hope in the hopelessness of multiple monopolies and algorithms.

LINKS:

Thomas Germain: https://x.com/thomasgermain

vkgoeswild: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbKM5fcSsaEFZRP-bjH8Y9w

Dan Yang: https://www.instagram.com/realdanyang

Cities By Diana: https://www.instagram.com/citiesbydiana

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-08-16

Big Tech Is The Enemy of Innovation

42 min Transcript
Open

As the AI bubble collapses, it's time for the tech industry to repent, and to recognize that the future cannot be decided entirely by four or five trillion-dollar firms that are no longer capable of innovation, only copying other people's ideas. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the generative AI boom shows how little big tech cares about actual innovation - and how this might eventually lead to their collapse.

LINKS: http://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks 

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at 

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at 

Ed's Socials:

http://www.twitter.com/edzitron 

instagram.com/edzitron 

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-08-14

How The AI Bubble Bursts

40 min Transcript
Open

After a year of opulent spending, the markets have begun to sour on big tech's $200 billion bet on generative AI, unfortunately timing with the delay of Nvidia's new AI-specialized "blackwell" chips. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the pale horses of the AI apocalypse - and what this means for the tech industry at large.

LINKS: http://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks 

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at 

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at 

Ed's Socials -

http://www.twitter.com/edzitron 

instagram.com/edzitron 

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-08-07

Enzittification with Cory Doctorow & Brian Merchant

113 min Transcript
Open

In the third live-to-tape episode of Better Offlive, Ed Zitron is joined in-studio in Los Angeles by Cory Doctorow and Brian Merchant to talk about the forces that have turned the tech industry away from innovation - and how we might turn the tide against them.

CORY DOCTOROW:

https://pluralistic.net/

https://x.com/doctorow

BRIAN MERCHANT: 

Blood In The Machine Book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown

Newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/

https://x.com/bcmerchant

Ed's Socials:

https://www.twitter.com/edzitron

https://instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social 

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the second live-to-tape episode of Better Offlive, Ed Zitron is joined in-studio by the New York Times' Mike Isaac and The Verge's Kylie Robison to discuss the current state of tech journalism.

KYLIE: https://x.com/kyliebytes https://www.threads.net/@kylie.robison

MIKE: https://x.com/MikeIsaac https://www.threads.net/@mike_isaac?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/mike_isaac

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials -

http://www.twitter.com/edzitron 

instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-07-24

Rot Economics with MIT's Daron Acemoglu

33 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron sits down with famed MIT economist Daron Acemoglu to talk about the economics of the tech ecosystem, the ridiculousness of generative AI's promises, and the realities of tech's growth-at-all-costs ecosystem.

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social https://www.threads.net/@edzitron;

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-07-22

CrowdStruck

30 min Transcript
Open

On Friday July 19, millions of Windows PCs entered a doom-loop that rendered them non-functional thanks to an update sent by a little-known company called CrowdStrike - and in this emergency Better Offline dispatch, Ed Zitron walks you through exactly what happened, why it's so bad, and why both CrowdStrike and Microsoft executives should face criminal prosecution for such a catastrophic managerial failure. These are the dark consequences of the growth-at-all-costs movement.

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Published 2024-07-19

The Academics That Think ChatGPT Is BS

56 min Transcript
Open

In a paper released earlier this year, three academics from the University of Glasgow classified ChatGPT's outputs not as "lies," but as "BS" - as defined by philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt in "on BS" (and yes I'm censoring that) - and created one of the most enjoyable and prescient papers ever written. In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by academics Michael Townsen Hicks, James Humphries and Joe Slater in a free-wheeling conversation about ChatGPT's mediocrity - and how it's not built to represent the world at all.

LINKS:

Paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5

Michael Townsen Hicks: https://www.townsenhicks.com/

Joe Slater: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/joeslater/

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

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Published 2024-07-17

Pop Culture

49 min Transcript
Open

When the money gets nervous, so should you. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through a remarkable report from global investment bank Goldman Sachs where multiple economists call BS on the AI movement - and why it's time for the rest of the world to follow suit.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 

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Published 2024-07-12

How Shareholders Are Destroying The Tech Industry

55 min Transcript
Open

The shareholder supremacy has eaten the tech industry, driving private and public companies to chase unprofitable, unsustainable ideas like generative AI as a means of expressing eternal growth to the markets. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how this destructive mindset has created an entirely new kind of manager - one disconnected from labor and creation - and how the dark hand of shareholder supremacy is behind everything strange and bad in tech in the last few years

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 

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Published 2024-07-10

The Shareholder Supremacy

34 min Transcript
Open

In this episode, Ed Zitron tracks the history of the growth-at-all-costs rot economy to a court case in 1916 that established the Shareholder Supremacy, and set the terms for General Electric's Jack Welch to fundamentally break capitalism, an era where companies moved away from building lasting, sustainable companies that created things and instead began focusing on pleasing shareholders - and how it leads to today's terrible tech companies and leaders.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline 

Discord chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron  instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social  https://www.threads.net/@edzitron  

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A few weeks ago, an Australian tech worker called Nik Suresh wrote an evisceration of the current AI hype boom called "I Will F**king Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again." Ed Zitron and Robert Evans sat down to talk about the blog - and the wider problems that Nik sees in the tech industry at large.

LINKS:

Nik's blog: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

Discord chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social https://www.threads.net/@edzitron 

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In a special live-to-tape episode of Better Offline, Ed is joined by The Verge's Alex Cranz and YouTube influencer Michael Fisher to talk about what they're actually enjoying in the tech industry - and why things don't feel quite as magical and exciting as they used to.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheMrMobile

https://www.theverge.com/authors/alex-cranz 

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Published 2024-06-21

The Onion Knight Ft. Ben Collins

49 min Transcript
Open

In April, The Onion was acquired by a new entity called Global Tetrahedron, revealed shortly thereafter to be a joint venture between billionaire Jeff Lawson and former NBC disinformation reporter Ben Collins, now its CEO. Ben joins Ed to talk about buying The Onion, keeping its Chicago roots, and how we can save digital media. 

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Published 2024-06-19

Let Tim Cook

33 min Transcript
Open

Last week, Apple announced that they're integrating artificial intelligence into your iPhone and Mac in a stunningly demure and reserved presentation. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through whether you should trust Apple - and how OpenAI agreed to the worst deal in tech history to integrate ChatGPT in the least-prominent way.

EPISODE LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks 

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Published 2024-06-12

The Talented Mr. Altman

55 min Transcript
Open

Sam Altman has used his power and influence to become a multi-billionaire with stakes in hundreds of startups, but behind the curtain, he's never run a successful company, fired from both Y Combinator and, briefly, OpenAI. In this episode, Ed Zitron digs into the history of Silicon Valley's most popular confidence man, and talks to the Wall Street Journal's Tom Dotan about Altman's many, many investments. EPSIODE LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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Published 2024-06-05

The Rot-Com Bubble

30 min Transcript
Open

Tech's hyper-growth era is ending, with online 100 million new people getting online between 2022 and 2023, and almost every major web platform seeing a decline in growth since 2021. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how tech's decline is driving the tech industry to try and sell you useless products like the metaverse, cryptocurrency and generative AI.

Episode Links: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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Published 2024-05-29

AI Is Breaking Google

48 min Transcript
Open

On May 14th 2024, Google introduced their Search Generative Experience, a service that uses hallucination-prone artificial intelligence to generate answers to queries rather than just presenting links, all so that they could Wall Street that they're innovative and future-forward. The result is an even-more-broken search experience, and in this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the rotten state of Google, and speaks with Lily Ray, a 15-year veteran of the search engine optimization industry, about how Google abandoned the web.

LINKS:

Lily Ray: https://lilyray.nyc/ https://twitter.com/lilyraynyc

The Verge's Interview With Sundar Pichai: https://www.theverge.com/24158374/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-ai-search-gemini-future-of-the-internet-web-openai-decoder-interview 

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Published 2024-05-24

We're Watching Facebook Die

37 min Transcript
Open

For three years, Facebook's monthly active users have been declining dramatically, with Facebook.com losing 397 million unique monthly visitors since May 2021. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how Mark Zuckerberg's abominable growth-at-all-costs mindset has turned Facebook into a dystopia of AI-generated slop, dangerous misinformation and outright pornography, all as a result of Zuckerberg's intentionally harmful approach to social media.

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Published 2024-05-22

How Mark Zuckerberg Deliberately Made Facebook Worse

45 min Transcript
Open

In the last decade, Mark Zuckerberg and his internal growth team have repeatedly and intentionally made Facebook and Instagram harder and more dangerous to use in the pursuit of perpetual growth, and in this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through multiple horrifying insider stories about Facebook's disgusting approach to user happiness.

LINK for documents: https://www.wheresyoured.at/killingfacebook/ 

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Published 2024-05-15

OpenAI's Video Generating AI Is Dead On Arrival

44 min Transcript
Open

Earlier in the year, OpenAI debuted Sora, an AI that can generate videos that almost look realistic. In this episode, Ed walks through why generating video with AI is a near-impossible task, and speaks with Walter Woodman of Shy Kids, who made a movie called "Air Head" using the tool. LINKS: Shy Kids' Air Head - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4wJ4WeJrz4 Mira Murati Interview with Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/joanna-stern-personal-technology/openai-made-me-crazy-videosthen-the-cto-answered-most-of-my-questions/C2188768-D570-4456-8574-9941D4F9D7E2 

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Published 2024-05-08

Enron Musk Ft. Ed Niedermeyer

54 min Transcript
Open

On April 26 2024, the NHTSA, the government body responsible for keeping roads safe, found Tesla's Autopilot and Full-Self-Driving software created a "critical safety gap" with drivers, killing and injuring people in the process, in the very same week that Elon Musk fired most of Tesla's team behind their Supercharger electric vehicle charging moment. Ed Zitron brings on E.W. Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, to explain exactly what the hell is going on.

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Published 2024-05-01

The Cult of Failing Upwards

38 min Transcript
Open

Ed Zitron walks you through how career manager Adam Mosseri pushed out Instagram's original founders, turning it into an ultra-profitable app that barely works, and how Sam Altman, the so-called hero of the AI boom, is a lobbyist dressed as a technologist best-known for being an absent, self-obsessed demagogue.

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Published 2024-04-24

How Managers Are Breaking The Internet

34 min Transcript
Open

The growth-at-all-costs management consultant mindset has turned most of the modern internet into a painful and profitable social experiment - and in this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how these disconnected, growth-hungry personalities have made Google and Meta abdicate any responsibility toward their users and products.

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In the last few weeks TikTok and other social networks have been flooded with memes about a chinese glycine manufacturer called Donghua Jinlong, all thanks to one innocent promotional video. Ed Zitron is joined by journalist Louise Matsakis and writer/researcher Tianyu Fang to talk about why young people are talking about glycine. Read more of Louise's work at https://youmayalsolike.beehiiv.com/ and you can find Tianyu at https://twitter.com/tianyuf 

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Published 2024-04-12

The AI Bubble Is Bursting

47 min Transcript
Open

Every major tech firm is betting billions of dollars that the generative AI revolution will change society - yet when you look under the hood, the reality of generative AI might be far grimmer. Ed Zitron walks you through the many signs that we're on the verge of the AI bubble popping - and what the consequences might be if it does.

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Published 2024-04-10

Are We At Peak AI?

30 min Transcript
Open

It’s been just under a year and a half since ChatGPT - an AI-powered chatbot launched by so-called non-profit OpenAI - ushered in a new era of investor and media hype around how artificial intelligence would change the world. But what if this we're actually at the peak of what generative AI can do? In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the four intractable problems that are stopping Large Language Models like ChatGPT in their tracks - and why they're all-but-impossible to overcome.

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Published 2024-04-03

Wikipedia Is All The Web Has Left ft. Molly White

37 min Transcript
Open

Wikipedia, a non-profit encyclopedia that anybody can edit, remains one of the few trustworthy and reliable websites left online. Ed Zitron is joined by critic, researcher and 18-year veteran of the Wikipedia editing community Molly White to discuss how Wikipedia actually works, and why you should care about its future.

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The media industry has laid off over 30,000 people in the last three years as a result of an executive sect that doesn't read, write, or meaningfully contribute to society. Ed Zitron walks you through how the startup mindset destroyed Sports Illustrated, VICE and The Messenger - and how journalism can turn the tide and survive.

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Published 2024-03-20

How Growth Is Killing Tech's Innovation, ft. Robert Evans

53 min Transcript
Open

Ever wonder why Silicon Valley stopped making anything new or interesting? It's because of the same growth-at-all-costs mindset that's destroyed the rest of the tech ecosystem. Ed Zitron is joined by Robert Evans to discuss how venture capital demolished tech's ability to innovate by forcing the smartest people in the world to work on the dumbest things ever invented.

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Published 2024-03-13

Musk's Uncharitable Charity ft. David Fahrenthold

45 min Transcript
Open

A New York Times investigation revealed this week that Musk's $7 billion "Musk Foundation" regularly fails to donate enough money to get its multi-billion dollar tax break. Ed brings on Pullitzer-prize winning reporter David Fahrenthold of the New York Times to walk through the extremely questionable world of Elon Musk's non-profit.

Link to the New York Times story: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html

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Published 2024-03-06

The Metaverse: How Mark Zuckerberg Lied To The World

38 min Transcript
Open

In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg renamed Facebook to Meta, claiming that it was now a "Metaverse company," throwing the entire tech industry into one of its most specious hype cycles. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the tech industry wasted nearly two years chasing a concept that nobody could define, burning billions of dollars on an idea that would cost thousands of people their jobs.

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Published 2024-03-01

How The Winklevoss Twins Lost A Billion Dollars

47 min Transcript
Open

Though the Winklevoss brothers are best known for their role in the early days of Facebook, you'll be surprised to learn that they recently lost customers at their cryptocurrency exchange over a billion dollars through a shady loan scheme. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the two identical riverboat giants went from being conned by Mark Zuckerberg to conning over a hundred thousand people into putting their cryptocurrency in the hands of the world's worst investor. 

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Published 2024-02-24

The Rot Economy ft Robert Evans

48 min Transcript
Open

Ever wonder why Google results are getting worse, or why you aren't seeing your friends on Instagram? It's all because of the growth-at-all-costs economy that's swallowed the tech industry, where the user experience takes a back seat to monetizing every interaction with the platforms you used to love. Ed Zitron is joined by Cool Zone Media's Robert Evans to walk you through the economic theory that's destroying the tech industry from within.

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Published 2024-02-21

An Autopsy of Apple's Vision Pro

49 min Transcript
Open

Apple's $3500 face computer is here, and after spending far too many hours inside it, Ed Zitron has found Apple's vision of the future to be equal parts exciting and frustrating - and a dark omen for the future of tech. He also sits down with the Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern to talk about her experience as one of the early reviewers of the Vision Pro.

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