Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz and Lakshmi Rengarajan, hosts of the newest season of The Cut’s Land of the Giants, join Offline to talk about how apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble have redefined romance. They’ve named the season “Dating Games” and ask whether the goals of dating app companies are aligned with our romantic aspirations. Jon talks to them about the ways internet dating has gamified romance, what the current dating app generation has lost, and whether there are alternatives for finding love...
Jan 22, 2023•35 min•Ep. 58
Evan Puschak, also known as The Nerdwriter, joins Offline to discuss ChatGPT, the revolutionary artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI. In his most recent video essay, “The Real Danger of ChatGPT,” Puschak explores how AI could erode our fundamental ability to understand ourselves and the world around us. He sits down with Jon to discuss that essay, evaluate the strengths and limitations of ChatGPT, and talk about the ways the internet is trying to replace our minds. For a closed-captioned ...
Jan 15, 2023•47 min•Ep. 57
Have you lost your ability to pay attention? Do you struggle to read a book? Can’t focus on a single task? Johann Hari, author of the New York Times bestseller Stolen Focus , joins Offline to discuss his 4-year, multi-country journey to regain control of his attention. He and Jon talk about the science behind focusing, how tech companies have maliciously destroyed our brains, and what we can do, collectively and individually, to steal our attention back. For a closed-captioned version of this ep...
Jan 08, 2023•58 min•Ep. 56
Description: Josie Totah and Yasmine Hamady, hosts of Crooked’s Dare We Say podcast, join Offline for a special mailbag episode on the internet’s generational divide. Then, Jon and Emily Favreau sit down for their annual holiday Q&A on twitter fights, raising a toddler, Taylor Swift and other listener-submitted questions. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected] and include the name of the podcast....
Jan 01, 2023•58 min•Ep. 55
Rebecca Jennings, senior correspondent at Vox, talks with Jon about the year’s most chronically online conversations––those seemingly innocuous threads and videos that, for some reason, got people up in arms. Jennings’ recent article “Every ‘chronically online’ conversation is the same,” describes the predictability of people being vilified on social media, and she joins Offline to discuss how much of our thirst for drama is really a thirst for punishment. For a closed-captioned version of this ...
Dec 18, 2022•29 min•Ep. 54
Ian Bogost, author and professor at Washington University in St. Louis, talks with Jon about the demise of online social networks. In a recent Atlantic article, “The Age of Social Media Is Ending,” Bogost examines the platforms’ dipping trajectory and argues that people just aren’t meant to talk to each other this much. He joins Offline to elaborate on how Twitter, Instagram and TikTok have sacrificed connection for content, friendship for sponsorship––and why a cultural shift in how we interact...
Dec 11, 2022•44 min•Ep. 53
This week, a Crooked Media crossover event as Brian Beutler, host of Positively Dreadful, sits down with Jon to talk all the things Democrats could learn from Republicans. Yep, you read that right. Brian makes the case that when it comes to messaging, Democrats should be less shy and spend more energy drawing attention to Republican scandals and controversies — just like the GOP did for Hillary’s emails, the migrant caravan, or crime. He talks to Jon about the obstacles in front of the Democrati...
Dec 04, 2022•58 min•Ep. 52
Beth Goldberg joins Offline to discuss her work at Jigsaw, the misinformation-tackling team at Google that’s been called “the Internet’s justice league.” Goldberg walks Jon through the dos and don’ts of drawing your Q Anon cousins, election-denying uncles, and vaccine-skeptic grandmas out of their conspiracy rabbit holes this Thanksgiving. By pre-bunking, seeding doubt, and listening with compassion, together we can hash it all out. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . Fo...
Nov 20, 2022•39 min•Ep. 51
Dr. Lynn Vavreck, professor of political scientist at UCLA and contributing columnist to The Upshot at The New York Times, sits down with Jon to talk about 2022 midterms. After 2020, Lynn and her colleagues interviewed over 500,000 voters, leading them to conclude that our politics aren’t just polarized, but calcified. She argues that calcification has placed our politics on a knife’s edge, raising the stakes of every election and that 2022 was the biggest case of calcification we’ve seen yet. F...
Nov 13, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 50
Nilay Patel, Editor-in-Chief of The Verge and host of the Decoder podcast, talks with Jon about Elon Musk’s newest and thorniest business venture: purchasing Twitter. In a recent article, “Welcome to Hell, Elon,” Patel describes the quandary that awaits the Tesla founder and argues that Musk has made a historic mistake. He joins Offline to talk Musks’ misguided free speech promises, the limits of technical solutions to political problems, and the hubris of an internet troll-turned-King Twit. For...
Nov 06, 2022•42 min•Ep. 49
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected] and include the name of the podcast.
Oct 30, 2022•43 min•Ep. 48
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Oct 23, 2022•56 min•Ep. 47
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Oct 16, 2022•45 min•Ep. 46
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Oct 09, 2022•52 min•Ep. 45
Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa faces 100 years in prison stemming from what she says are illegitimate charges, but that hasn’t stopped her mission of exposing political malfeasance and lies in her home country of the Philippines. She joined David to talk about immigrating to the US as a child and later returning to the Philippines where she built a career, technology’s corrosive impact on journalism and democracy, founding Rappler and finding herself a government target, and maintain...
Oct 02, 2022•1 hr 4 min
What will it take to save democracy in 2022 and beyond? The MAGA movement is one of the greatest threats to American democracy. But one of the greatest divides in American politics is between the minority of voters who follow politics closely and the vast majority who don’t. In order to win the midterms, Democrats will have to reach that majority.New episodes of The Wilderness drop every Monday. Subscribe to The Wilderness wherever you get your podcasts. Apple: apple.co/thewilderness Spotify: ht...
Sep 18, 2022•40 min
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Sep 11, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 44
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Sep 04, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 43
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Aug 28, 2022•48 min•Ep. 42
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Aug 21, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 41
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Aug 14, 2022•53 min•Ep. 40
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Aug 07, 2022•57 min•Ep. 39
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Jul 31, 2022•58 min•Ep. 38
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Jul 24, 2022•59 min•Ep. 37
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Jul 17, 2022•50 min•Ep. 36
The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade, access to abortion has collapsed across the country, and Democrats in Washington don’t have the votes to undo the decision right now. It’s a mess! But we may be able get Roe back sooner than it seems—if Democrats and their allies in the reproductive rights movement learn from years of their own missteps, and quickly. That will determine whether restoring the right to abortion takes six months or 60 years. This episode of Positively Dreadful originally...
Jul 10, 2022•1 hr 6 min
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Jul 03, 2022•43 min•Ep. 35
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Jun 26, 2022•42 min•Ep. 34
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Jun 19, 2022•50 min•Ep. 33
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Jun 12, 2022•40 min•Ep. 32
