Offline with Jon Favreau

Crooked Media

Is the internet slowly breaking our brains, and if so, what can we do about it?

Offline with Jon Favreau is a place where you can take a break from doom-scrolling and tune in to deeper conversations about the impact of technology and the internet on our politics and culture.

Intimate interviews between Pod Save America host Jon Favreau and notable guests like Stephen Colbert, Hasan Piker, Chimamanda Adichie, ContraPoints, Margaret Atwood, and Rachel Maddow shed light on how our extremely online existence shapes the ways we live, work, and interact with one another. Together we’ll take on the most existential questions facing Americans right now, to figure out how to live happier, healthier lives, both on and offline.

New episodes drop every Saturday, wherever you get your podcasts and on the Offline YouTube channel.

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247 episodes
Updated Saturday

Episodes247

Newest first

Mar 5, 2023 · 36 min
What Do We Lose if We Lose Black Twitter?
Jason Parham, senior writer at WIRED, walks Jon through the evolution and legacy of Black Twitter. Parham’s three-part series, “A People’s History of Black Twitter,” follows the online community from its early days of late night takes, through an era of platform dominance, and into an uncertain future. He joins Offline to discuss how Black Twitter has shaped the last ten years of discourse and activism, how the internet complicates cultural appropriation, and what will happen if Twitter fades away. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Feb 26, 2023 · 49 min
What Happened To Your Ambition? | Work Appropriate
Offline's crew is *offline* this week but we're excited to share one of our favorite recent episodes of Crooked's podcast Work Appropriate hosted by Anne Helen Petersen. In this episode Anne, along with guest Rainesford Stauffer, author of the forthcoming All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive, field listener-submitted questions about the real-life issues they're running into at work due to their ambition and discuss how ambition could be used as a positive force outside of work. You know, like in your actual life. Go figure. Like what you hear? Check out new episodes of Work Appropriate every week wherever you get your podcasts. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Feb 19, 2023 · 44 min
Are We Amusing Ourselves to Death?
Megan Garber, staff writer at the Atlantic, joins Offline to explain how we’re already living in the Metaverse––not with headsets and legless avatars, but via a continuous stream of immersive entertainment. Jon and Megan discuss how our internet jargon, scandal-to-miniseries pipeline, and former reality TV president all reflect a blurring of fact and fiction. And they ask: when everything becomes entertainment, what remains of our reality? For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Feb 12, 2023 · 48 min
What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from an 84 Year Study on Happiness
Dr. Robert Waldinger, Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, joins Offline to talk about his new book “The Good Life: Lessons From the Longest Study on Happiness.” Bob and Jon discuss how close relationships are the secret to a fulfilling life, why technology can make us lonelier, and what 84 years of data teach us about coming together and growing apart. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Feb 5, 2023 · 1 hr 1 min
Who Can Own the Most Libs? Tim Miller on the ’24 GOP Primary
Tim Miller, former Republican operative, current Never Trumper, and contributor at the Bulwark, joins Jon to kickoff the GOP’s very online, very weird 2024 presidential primary. The two discuss Donald Trump’s return to Facebook, Ron DeSantis’ culture wars, and the competition for MAGA media’s stars, trolls, and grifters. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Jan 29, 2023 · 45 min
What’s With All the Tech Layoffs?
Amazon, Google, Facebook and the entire tech sector just laid off tens of thousands of employees. How did America’s fastest growing industry become its most troubled? Annie Lowrey, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Offline to break it down. She makes the case that while this moment may be particularly bad for tech, for the rest, better days are probably right around the corner. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Jan 22, 2023 · 34 min
Do Dating Apps Make it Harder to Find Love?
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 in a world of swiping. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Jan 15, 2023 · 47 min
Two Writers Wonder If They’ll Be Replaced By AI
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 version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Jan 8, 2023 · 57 min
How to Avoid Distraction with Johann Hari
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 episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Jan 1, 2023 · 58 min
Offline Mailbag with Emily Favreau and Dare We Say
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 transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Dec 18, 2022 · 29 min
The Worst Tweets of 2022 with Rebecca Jennings
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 episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Dec 11, 2022 · 43 min
Is This the End of Social Media? With Ian Bogost
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 with these platforms may be closer than we think. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Dec 4, 2022 · 58 min
What Democrats Could Learn from Republicans with Brian Beutler
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 Democratic party, what will matter to swing voters in 2024, and how the Republican Party is already on the hunt for the next Benghazi. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Nov 20, 2022 · 38 min
How to Talk Your Uncle Out of QAnon this Thanksgiving
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. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Nov 13, 2022 · 1 hr 1 min
Bad Vibes v. Good Results. Lynn Vavreck on the ’22 Midterms
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. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Nov 6, 2022 · 41 min
Elon’s Twitter is in the Sh*tter with Nilay Patel
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 a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Oct 30, 2022 · 42 min
Kanye West’s Dark, Twisted Internet
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Oct 23, 2022 · 56 min
Persuasion Isn’t Dead with Anand Giridharadas
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Oct 16, 2022 · 44 min
Rachel Maddow on America’s Forgotten Insurrection
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Oct 9, 2022 · 51 min
Is Remote Work Here to Stay? With Derek Thompson
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.