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://cottonb...
May 21, 2025•44 min
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! ...
May 16, 2025•9 min
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 BET...
May 14, 2025•52 min
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-o...
May 09, 2025•12 min
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 ME...
May 07, 2025•38 min
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-a...
May 02, 2025•28 min
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 --- ...
May 01, 2025•7 min
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-100perce...
Apr 30, 2025•31 min
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 Sasmsun...
Apr 25, 2025•13 min
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-cotto...
Apr 23, 2025•34 min
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 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/p...
Apr 18, 2025•43 min
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:...
Apr 17, 2025•10 min
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://v...
Apr 16, 2025•40 min
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 --- 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://b...
Apr 11, 2025•8 min
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" a...
Apr 09, 2025•1 hr 25 min
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.webbyawa...
Apr 04, 2025•10 min
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!...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr
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-re...
Mar 28, 2025•13 min
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 Fam...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 6 min
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/ --- 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/edzit...
Mar 21, 2025•9 min
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/cherl...
Mar 19, 2025•1 hr 27 min
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. --- 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/ed...
Mar 14, 2025•34 min
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. --- 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 Se...
Mar 13, 2025•7 min
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. --- 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.ne...
Mar 12, 2025•25 min
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 --- LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ Discord: chat.wheresy...
Mar 07, 2025•9 min
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-g...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 14 min
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. --- LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at Ed's Social...
Feb 28, 2025•43 min
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. --- 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/@edzitr...
Feb 27, 2025•11 min
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:...
Feb 26, 2025•36 min
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 Ed's Socials: https://twitter.com/edzitron https://www.instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/pr...
Feb 21, 2025•34 min
