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 th...
May 06, 2026•58 min
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. Premium newsletter out later today - AI’s Demand Story Is A Lie - save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subsc...
May 01, 2026•19 min
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 Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyoureda...
Apr 29, 2026•1 hr 7 min
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. This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/four-horsemen-of-the-aipocalypse/ Premium newsletter out later today - How OpenAI Kills Oracle - save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: ...
Apr 24, 2026•11 min
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. 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 Podcast & Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@CalNewportMedia/ Newsletter: https://caln...
Apr 22, 2026•59 min
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. This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/i-will-never-respect-a-website/ Premium newsletter out later today - the Hater’s Guide to Private Credit - save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: http...
Apr 17, 2026•12 min
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/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyoured...
Apr 15, 2026•48 min
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 Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1...
Apr 09, 2026•43 min
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 Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! YOU CAN NOW B...
Apr 07, 2026•41 min
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. This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-subprime-ai-crisis-is-here/ Premium newsletter tie-in out later today - save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 YOU CAN NO...
Apr 03, 2026•18 min
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/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! Peak hours announcement: https://www.t...
Apr 01, 2026•11 min
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://ju...
Mar 27, 2026•11 min
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 Save $10 off a year o...
Mar 25, 2026•58 min
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. This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/why-are-we-still-doing-this/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! The Information piece:...
Mar 20, 2026•12 min
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...
Mar 18, 2026•49 min
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. Free newsletter tie-in: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-beginning-of-history/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! G...
Mar 13, 2026•15 min
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 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 YOU C...
Mar 11, 2026•59 min
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. 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 LastWeekinAWS.com DuckbillHQ.com https://bsky.app/profile/quinnypig.com YOU ...
Mar 04, 2026•47 min
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. Free newsletter tie-in: https://www.wheresyoured.at/on-nvidia-and-analyslop/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://co...
Feb 27, 2026•8 min
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. 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 Alex Cranz: https://bsky.app/profile/cranz.bsky.social Victoria Song: https://bsky.app/profi...
Feb 25, 2026•59 min
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. Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! 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...
Feb 20, 2026•8 min
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.” 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 Arif widele...
Feb 18, 2026•59 min
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 Save $10 off a year of my pre...
Feb 13, 2026•7 min
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. 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 Cal Newport’s “Don’t Trust AI Reporting”: https://youtu.be/xUh3Gc-BAlo?si=XpVz...
Feb 11, 2026•1 hr 7 min
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. Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! 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-ic...
Feb 06, 2026•8 min
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/ Please support me by s...
Feb 04, 2026•38 min
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. Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswhe...
Jan 30, 2026•12 min
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. 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 - it features an in-depth version of my dot co...
Jan 29, 2026•14 min
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. 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 - it features an in-depth version of my dot com bub...
Jan 28, 2026•20 min
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. 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 - it features an in-depth version of my dot com bubble analysis here: https://www.wh...
Jan 27, 2026•13 min
