Better Offline Cool Zone Media
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- Technology
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Better Offline is a weekly show exploring the tech industry’s influence and manipulation of society - and interrogating the growth-at-all-costs future that tech’s elite wants to build.
Combining narrative-form storytelling, one-on-one interviews and panel-based discussions, Better Offline cuts through the buzzwords and obfuscation of the tech industry, investigating and evaluating the schemes and scams of everyone from cryptocurrency scumbags to the greediest of the venture capital elite. Tech industry veteran Ed Zitron and a dynamic coterie of guests will help listeners understand the who, how and why of how tech’s most powerful players are changing the world - for better or for worse.
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The Man That Destroyed Google Search
In this episode, Ed Zitron tells you the disgraceful story of how Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's former head of ads - led a coup so that he could run Google Search, and how an email chain from 2019 began a cascade of events that would lead to the outright decay of the most important website on the internet.
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How Managers Are Breaking The Internet
The growth-at-all-costs management consultant mindset has turned most of the modern internet into a painful and profitable social experiment - and in this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how these disconnected, growth-hungry personalities have made Google and Meta abdicate any responsibility toward their users and products.
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How A Chinese Glycine Manufacturer Went Viral ft. Louise Matsakis and Tianyu Fang
In the last few weeks TikTok and other social networks have been flooded with memes about a chinese glycine manufacturer called Donghua Jinlong, all thanks to one innocent promotional video. Ed Zitron is joined by journalist Louise Matsakis and writer/researcher Tianyu Fang to talk about why young people are talking about glycine. Read more of Louise's work at https://youmayalsolike.beehiiv.com/ and you can find Tianyu at https://twitter.com/tianyuf
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The AI Bubble Is Bursting
Every major tech firm is betting billions of dollars that the generative AI revolution will change society - yet when you look under the hood, the reality of generative AI might be far grimmer. Ed Zitron walks you through the many signs that we're on the verge of the AI bubble popping - and what the consequences might be if it does.
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Are We At Peak AI?
It’s been just under a year and a half since ChatGPT - an AI-powered chatbot launched by so-called non-profit OpenAI - ushered in a new era of investor and media hype around how artificial intelligence would change the world. But what if this we're actually at the peak of what generative AI can do? In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the four intractable problems that are stopping Large Language Models like ChatGPT in their tracks - and why they're all-but-impossible to overcome.
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Wikipedia Is All The Web Has Left ft. Molly White
Wikipedia, a non-profit encyclopedia that anybody can edit, remains one of the few trustworthy and reliable websites left online. Ed Zitron is joined by critic, researcher and 18-year veteran of the Wikipedia editing community Molly White to discuss how Wikipedia actually works, and why you should care about its future.
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Customer Reviews
Thankful
This podcasts scratches a part of my brain that’s been itching for years. I think what Ed is doing is important. This kind of reporting is hard to find, even for those who look. Perhaps the tone is a little aggravated, but I understand and mirror these emotions. If you aren’t a VC or tech exec you probably will too. As with the vast majority of podcasts this one is more centered on grievance than solutions, but it seems that’s just where we are right now: In a big mess. Conversations like these can build awareness and help generate solutions. If you grieve for Reply All, this is the show for you.
Better offline
I’m laughing, rocking out, I’m angry, this rules. 5/5 stars
Digestible, Angry (in good way), Researched
Found Ed on Doughboys & later on QAA. Wonderfully opinionated and fun listens. I run marketing for a small business and it’s hard to shovel through the dookie on google to find some real insider perspective on trends and forces in real time. Ed is great at parsing why I am miserable every time I follow Meta or Google’s “experts” best practices.