Better Offline

The Era of the Business Idiot, Part 3

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 decelerati...

The Era of the Business Idiot, Part 2

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 the...

The Era of the Business Idiot, Part 1

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 managemen...

Monologue: The AI Job Loss Con

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 A...

The Truth About Software Development with Carl Brown

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 soft...

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

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

The Better Offline Mailbag

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

Monologue: Jony Ive and OpenAI's New BS Machine

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Saving Games Journalism With Giant Bomb

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 hopef...

Monologue: How Better Offline Saved Me

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 Destr...

Empires of AI With Karen Hao

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 artif...

Monologue: Sam Altman's BS Eye Scanning Startup

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through World, Sam Altman’s meaningless new “World” startup that trades you cryp...

Tariffs and The End Of Affordable Computing w/ Steve Burke

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ho...

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

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 fr...

Monologue: Why We Need Tech Criticism More Than Ever

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 la...

The BS Bubble

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 commo...

Monologue: The Tech I Actually Like

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

How Big Tech Is Losing Their Antitrust Trials feat. Jason Kint

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

OpenAI Is A Systemic Risk To The Tech Industry

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 Core...

Monologue: How The Media Keeps Inflating Bubbles

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through how the media's lackluster approach to critiquing the powerful led to the needless, unsustainabl...

OpenAI Cannot Survive

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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&r...

Monologue: OpenAI's Non-Profit Problem

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 Attor...

Radio Better Offline: Allison Morrow, Paris Martineau & Ed Ongweso Jr.

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Monologue: OpenAI's Albatross

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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&rsqu...

Radio Better Offline: David "Shingy" Shing

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Monologue: High Noon for CoreWeave & AI

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 o...

Radio Better Offline: Andy Richter

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 c...

Monologue: We Need To Talk About CoreWeave

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 q...

Radio Better Offline: Cherlynn Low, Alex Cranz & Victoria Song

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

SoftBank and OpenAI's Dangerous Game

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 dangero...

Monologue: How Does This End?

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 be...

Microsoft Cuts The Power To AI

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Monologue: OpenAI Is Getting Desperate

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 sugges...

How Growth Is Killing Video Games

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Generative AI Is Not A Real Industry

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 Cl...

Monologue: What Bursts A Bubble?

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

OpenAI Is Not A Real Company

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

What We're Fighting For

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, mos...

Monologue: OpenAI Was Never A Non-Profit

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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-p...

How The Tech Media Can Beat The Rot Economy

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Monologue: The Super Bowl Showed That Generative AI Is Washed

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 off...

How Sports Gambling Apps Are Rotting Society

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 cultura...

Monologue: What Happened With DeepSeek?

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 bubbl...

How DeepSeek Showed That Silicon Valley Is Washed

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 O...

What The Hell Is DeepSeek?

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Ed Zitron explains how DeepSeek, a relatively-unknown Chinese model AI developer incubated in a hedge fund, has punctured the generat...

Radio Better Offline: Jeremy Kaplowitz of the Quorators

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The Slop Society

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how lax regulation and all-too-chummy media coverage has empowered Mark Zuckerberg and other tech compani...

Facebook Was Already Zucked

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 Face...

Radio Better Offline: Paris Martineau, Jeff Jarvis

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...