Episodes

  • Monologue: How OpenAI Kills Oracle
    Apr 24 2026

    In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs through how OpenAI must grow its revenue by 1000% in the next three years and raise at least another $200 billion for it to be able to pay its compute deals with Oracle and other providers, and how Oracle dies if OpenAI fails to pay its bills.

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    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    11 mins
  • Cal Newport on Mythos and Anthropomorphization
    Apr 22 2026

    In this week’s Better Offline, Ed is joined by computer science professor and writer Cal Newport to talk about the Claude Mythos marketing scam, the lies around AI job loss, and why LLMs shouldn’t talk like they’re people.

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    New Yorker archive: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/cal-newport

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    Ed's Socials:

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    Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    59 mins
  • Monologue: On Dangerous Rhetoric
    Apr 17 2026

    In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron discusses how AI labs’ dangerous rhetoric around AI capabilities and job loss are antagonizing and terrifying people that are already on edge, and that de-escalation starts with Altman and Amodei talking about LLMs as normal software.

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    Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    12 mins
  • More, Everything, Forever With Adam Becker
    Apr 15 2026

    In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by journalist and astrophysicist Adam Becker to talk about introspection-free venture capital, the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse effect of LLMs, and trying to find a better future to focus on.

    https://bsky.app/profile/adambecker.bsky.social
    https://www.youtube.com/@DreamingAgainstTheMachine
    https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/adam-becker/more-everything-forever/9781541619593/

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    ---

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    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    48 mins
  • Investigating Altman With Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz
    Apr 9 2026

    In a special episode of Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by writers Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz of the New Yorker to talk about their massive investigation into Sam Altman, his ouster from OpenAI, and the consequences of trusting Silicon Valley with the future.

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted

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    ---

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    Ed's Socials:

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    Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    43 mins
  • The Reality of AI Economics With Paul Kedrosky
    Apr 7 2026

    In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by economist Paul Kedrosky to talk about the large amount of speculative data center land purchases, the brittle NVIDIA GPU economy, and the economic realities of AI.

    https://paulkedrosky.com/

    The Nick, Dick and Paul Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFbDiETo29GTIjg6Lk4imig

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    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. Buy our new “FUCK DATA CENTERS” shirts today!

    ---

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    Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

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    Ed's Socials:

    https://twitter.com/edzitron

    https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

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    Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    41 mins
  • Monologue: AI Isn't Too Big to Fail
    Apr 3 2026

    In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron breaks down why AI isn’t too big to fail, why no bailout is coming, and how people need to learn more about history before using it to justify burning billions of dollars.

    This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-subprime-ai-crisis-is-here/
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    ---

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    Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

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    Ed's Socials:

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    https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

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    Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    18 mins
  • Monologue: What's Going On At Anthropic?
    Apr 1 2026

    In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron discusses Anthropic’s aggressive new rate limits, the leak of Claude Code’s source code, and the dread consequences of having software written 100% by LLMs.

    Free newsletter: The Subprime AI Crisis Is Here https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-subprime-ai-crisis-is-here/

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    Peak hours announcement: https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/26/anthropic_tweaks_usage_limits/?ref=wheresyoured.at
    https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/31/anthropic_claude_code_source_code/
    Boris on 100% of his code: http://x.com/bcherny/status/2004897269674639461
    Lenny interview with Boris: https://x.com/lennysan/status/2024896611818897438

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    11 mins