Sonja Lyubomirsky, happiness researcher and author of How to Feel Loved , joins Offline to explain the secret to living a contented life—and why the internet makes it so damn hard. If everyone we love and seek to impress is reachable at all times…why are Americans getting less happy, year after year? Sonja and Jon chat about how social media curation may be seeping offline, the ways our digital lives have affected our ability to form strong relationships, and whether AI could actually help bring...
May 30, 2026•55 min•Ep. 237
Does political violence ever help a social cause? Zayd Ayers Dohrn, playwright and host of Crooked's "Mother Country Radicals," joins Offline to discuss the complicated legacy of radical activism in America. In his new book, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young , Zayd dives even deeper into the morally ambiguous decisions made by his parents...two founding members of the notorious Weather Underground. He and Jon contemplate what activist actions lead to mass alienation vs. adoption of ideals, wh...
May 23, 2026•57 min•Ep. 236
Why is Palantir, the former employer of congressional candidate Alex Bores, currently running attack ads against him...for working at Palantir? New York Assemblymember Alex Bores joins Offline to explain why his stance on AI has made him a target for the biggest dark money super PAC in the country. Then, he and Jon discuss what AI regulation could actually look like if we had a competent government, how to guarantee the dignity of work in an age of full automation, and weather the wealth AI crea...
May 16, 2026•54 min•Ep. 235
Cal Newport, computer scientist and author of Deep Work, joins Offline to explain why we need a revolution in cognitive fitness, and how AI is going to get in the way. Cal and Jon explore how smartphones and AI are destroying our ability to concentrate, how our attention spans are a third of what they were just twenty years ago, and how we can practice “deep work” in our constantly interrupted digital environment. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of t...
May 09, 2026•52 min•Ep. 234
Megan Garber, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the new book Screen People , joins Offline to explain how we’re no longer just an audience for the media we consume; we’re also actors and producers in an endless show of our own creation. She and Jon discuss the corrosive nature of an internet filled with “main characters,” whether it’s possible to overcome screen person syndrome, and why our survival as a country depends on it....
May 02, 2026•56 min•Ep. 233
With Pope Leo XIV stepping up his criticisms of the Trump administration this month, the president is out for blood...and not the transubstantiated kind. Christopher Hale, author of the Letters from Leo newsletter, joins Offline to explain the real threat this woke offline pope poses to MAGA. He and Jon discuss why the head of the Catholic Church is so obsessed with AI, how the Democratic Party should make space for more religious people, and the wisdom of Leo’s boomerisms like “an algorithm wil...
Apr 25, 2026•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 232
New York Times journalist Noam Scheiber stops by the pod to talk to Jon about his new book Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class , in which he argues that stagnant wages and rising student debt have changed the economic promise once offered by a college degree. The two discuss how college-educated workers are responding to this new reality, both individually and collectively; how AI may supercharge the pains already felt by new college grads; and how it's all reshapin...
Apr 18, 2026•53 min•Ep. 231
New Yorker journalist Andrew Marantz joins Offline to break down his new investigation into Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Over the course of hundreds of interviews, including over a dozen with Altman himself, Andrew and his coauthor Ronan Farrow unveiled a leader who tells people exactly what they want to hear, whether or not it’s true. Just like the AI model he created! Jon and Andrew discuss the contradictory narratives coming out of OpenAI, whether they could build port...
Apr 11, 2026•56 min•Ep. 230
Mark Zuckerberg is finally being held accountable–not by government regulators, board members or shareholders, but by two lawsuits. Tech journalist Casey Newtown, editor of Platformer , joins Offline to explain how a young woman in California beat Meta and Google on the grounds that Instagram and YouTube had destroyed her mental health. Jon and Casey discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the case, whether losing end-to-end encryption could lead to a surveillance state, and what happens if soci...
Apr 04, 2026•59 min•Ep. 229
Why fight for a better future if we don't believe one is possible? Why organize, why vote? Dr. Deepika Chopra, the "Optimism Doctor," joins the show to talk about the dangers of cynicism, and to explain how optimism is a more rational and democracy-safeguarding response to this political moment. In her new book, The Power of Real Optimism , Dr. Chopra argues that the outlook is neither a trait nor mindset; it's a learnable set of skills that even the most pessimistic among us can incorporate. An...
Mar 28, 2026•55 min•Ep. 228
Life or death decisions are being gamified for profit on online prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. But these platforms may also have the potential to create a modernized—if morally questionable—method of opinion polling. Politico Magazine contributing writer Nancy Scola joins Offline to explain the rise of these markets, the argument for them, and the people in D.C. who stand to gain the most. But first! Senator Chris Murphy stops by the show to break down the brand new BETS OFF Act,...
Mar 23, 2026•44 min•Ep. 227
Journalist and historian Anne Applebaum joins Offline to discuss America’s slide towards autocracy, as illustrated through Trump's war of choice in Iran. Anne is a staff writer at The Atlantic, an authoritarianism expert, and the host of the "Autocracy in America" podcast. She and Jon discuss how Trump and the White House are using propaganda to minimize the seriousness of this war, what our president has learned from other autocrats, and why Anne is still hopeful that American democracy can sti...
Mar 14, 2026•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 226
Derek Thompson, journalist and co-author of Abundance, joins Offline to hash out some hard truths about AI: who it will actually replace, why we haven’t seen more labor market disruption, and why the Department of War’s battle with Anthropic spells the end of private property rights in America. Then Derek lays out his Postmanesque "Everything Is Television" theory of media for Jon, where politics becomes theater and news becomes performance. The guys wrap it up by discussing how becoming fathers...
Mar 07, 2026•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 225
Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, joins Offline to talk about the horrifying trends his team has unearthed across social media platforms…and how it’s put him in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration. To date, Imran has weathered multiple lawsuits, stood up to Elon Musk, and won. But now, the State Department is trying to get him deported back to the UK—just for publicizing how platforms are hotbeds of bigotry and self harm content. He and Jon talk about how Section...
Feb 28, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 224
Max Fisher returns to the show to podmaxx with Jon about the latest Offline-worthy news, including the landmark court case that's put Mark Zuckerberg on trial and internal drama at the AI giants that has the companies feuding with the Department of Defense, Hollywood, and their own employees. Plus, the two discuss the role citizens' social media videos have played in holding ICE agents accountable and attempt to make sense of Clavicular, a 20-year-old "looksmaxer" who has taken over their Twitte...
Feb 21, 2026•59 min•Ep. 223
AI company Anthropic has a new, values-oriented “constitution” that they’re feeding their chatbot, Claude. Amanda Askell, the company’s in-house philosopher, joins Offline to talk about what it means to teach ethics to an LLM, whether the AI skews more human or more robot, and how she is training Claude to make its own judgements. Breaking with other AI models—and social media’s attention obsession—Amanda is trying to teach Claude not to be sycophantic or engagement-driven, but a kind soul who m...
Feb 14, 2026•1 hr•Ep. 222
Charlie Warzel, Atlantic staff writer and host of the "Galaxy Brain" podcast, joins Offline to break down the news of the week: how Elon Musk's negligence and the Epstein Files continue to corrode our society, whether we’ve reached The Singularity with new AI-only social media sites like Moltbook, and how phones—and neighborliness—have been the saving grace of Trump’s assault on Minnesota. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episode, please email...
Feb 07, 2026•59 min•Ep. 221
Adam Friedland sits down with Jon to make sense of his unlikely rise from the self deprecating (and self defecating) cohost of Cum Town to…a public intellectual? "The Adam Friedland Show" has a knack for jolting politicians and celebrities out of their canned talking points, and its host shares what he thinks of the format he initially set out to skewer, the questions we need to be asking about the ICE crackdown, and his issues with Republicans and Democrats alike. For a closed-captioned version...
Jan 31, 2026•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 220
Minneapolis isn’t just protesting ICE—it’s fully organizing against it. Lydia Polgreen, journalist and opinion columnist at The New York Times, joins Offline to explain the difference, share what she saw on the ground in the Twin Cities, and explain how it compares to other countries’ slides towards authoritarianism. As a former foreign correspondent in West Africa and India—and having grown up in Minnesota—Lydia breaks down this civil unrest and what it spells for the future of America. For a c...
Jan 24, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 219
Journalist, blogger, and science fiction writer Cory Doctorow stops by the studio to talk to Jon about “enshittification,” his theory that explains how, sometime over the last decade, everything online became substantially worse. The two discuss how tech companies lure in, trap, and then extract as much capital as possible from users; how that process played out at Facebook and Amazon; and what it would take — from a Democratic-led FTC and Congress — to reverse the trend before it’s supercharged...
Jan 17, 2026•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 218
Does misinformation even matter if no one can agree on a shared reality? The New Yorker’s Jay Caspian Kang joins Offline to explain how the ICE shooting in Minnesota exposes Americans’ algorithm silos. Then, he and Jon explore the rise of a 23-year-old YouTuber who ignited the right’s fascination with fraud in Minnesota, and break down five media trends that will reshape the industry in 2026 and beyond. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episode...
Jan 10, 2026•50 min•Ep. 217
What does 21st century authoritarianism look like in the United States? Author and Atlantic staff writer George Packer joins Offline to talk about America’s zombie democracy, who could be the most dangerous MAGA heir, and how Democrats should be fighting for the country. For our last episode of 2025, George and Jon connect the dots between Trump, polarization, oligarchs, AI, social media, Charlie Kirk and more. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this...
Dec 20, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 216
Julie Scelfo, founder of Mothers Against Media Addiction, sits down with Jon to talk about the impacts AI and social media are having on our kids…and what we can do to stop it. Julie breaks down what change parents can effect vs. policy makers, the horrors kids are normalizing on social media, and the corruption at the highest echelons of government that are preventing safety features from being mandated. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episo...
Dec 13, 2025•59 min•Ep. 215
Economist and techno-optimist Noah Smith, author of the Noahpinion Substack, joins Offline to debate the promise of artificial intelligence, the benefits of online fragmentation (could it be good for our society?) and whether liberal nationalism is feasible—and a good thing. Though Noah and Jon differ on a lot of “Offline” themes, they find common ground on the dangers of social media, leftist scolds, and a country with an identity crisis. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click he...
Dec 06, 2025•55 min•Ep. 214
What happens when the AI bubble bursts, how did Meta get away with it yet again, and…is Elon “Bubba”? Max Fisher pays Offline a visit to take stock of the year in memes, conspiracy theories, and information siloes. He and Jon meet the ghosts of twitter fights past and future, compare notes on staying off their phones, and chat about what they’re watching right now…besides Zohran and Trump flirting. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episode, ple...
Nov 29, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 213
There’s a lot of tired discourse about whether or not a Democratic Socialist like Zohran Mamdani could win in places that aren’t as blue as New York City. But what’s not getting enough attention is that Mamdani and his campaign somehow cracked the code for producing online content with offline results: getting people off the couch to connect with strangers face to face over a shared political goal. How’d they do it? Maya Handa, Zohran’s campaign manager, and Andrew Epstein, his communications di...
Nov 22, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 212
Is there anything wrong with Democratic leadership being so devoutly…secular? Jon sits down for a conversation with Texas State Representative James Talarico, who put becoming an ordained minister on hold to run for US Senate. They discuss how genuine connection is the only road toward persuasion in our divided world, whether James can flip a Senate seat on a platform of loving thy neighbor, and how Republicans are trying to knock him off a pedestal with OnlyFans headlines. Plus: why Democrats s...
Nov 15, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 211
Something happened in 2016 that led Democrats to campaign on unpopular issues. Researcher Simon Bazelon digs into extensive polling data—and on-the-ground-results from tight races—to explain where elites steered us off course, how we can neutralize Trump’s advantages, and why voters might not actually want radical change. Then, he and Jon discuss the pitfalls of an attention economy that gives clicks but NOT votes to viral, trendy policies. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click h...
Nov 08, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 210
Will the AI bubble pop or will AI permanently reshape our society? Jon sits down with Stephen Witt, an investigative journalist and author of “The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip” to talk about Stephen’s dire warning in the New York Times about an AI prompt that could end the world. The two discuss the data centers taking over towns across America (and propping up our economy), young people’s quickly evolving relationship to “chat,” and what hope th...
Nov 01, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 209
Chris Hayes, MSNBC host and author of The Siren’s Call , returns to Offline to talk about Democrats’ posting problem…they’re too afraid of controversy, too stingey with their appearences, and too focused on fundraising. Have the content firehoses diluted cancel culture? What’s the secret to Zohran Mamdani’s press strategy? Is John Fetterman the Democrats’ John McCain—and is there a lesson to learn in that?Also: Offline is now coming out Saturdays. Thank you for sharing your weekend with us! For ...
Oct 25, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 208
