Offline with Jon Favreau
Arts & Culture Podcasts
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 smarter, lighter conversations about the impact of technology and the internet on our collective 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 spark curiosity and introspection around the various ways our extremely online existence shapes everything from the ways we live, work, and interact with one another. Together we’ll figure out how to live happier, healthier lives, both on and offline. New episodes drop every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts and on the Offline YouTube channel. Subscribe to Friends of the Pod! Your subscription makes Crooked’s work possible and gives you access to ad-free episodes of Offline with Jon Favreau, Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, and Lovett or Leave It, plus exclusive content and a lively Discord community. Learn more and subscribe at crooked.com/friends or on Apple Podcasts.
Location:
United States
Genres:
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Description:
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 smarter, lighter conversations about the impact of technology and the internet on our collective 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 spark curiosity and introspection around the various ways our extremely online existence shapes everything from the ways we live, work, and interact with one another. Together we’ll figure out how to live happier, healthier lives, both on and offline. New episodes drop every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts and on the Offline YouTube channel. Subscribe to Friends of the Pod! Your subscription makes Crooked’s work possible and gives you access to ad-free episodes of Offline with Jon Favreau, Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, and Lovett or Leave It, plus exclusive content and a lively Discord community. Learn more and subscribe at crooked.com/friends or on Apple Podcasts.
Language:
English
Website:
https://crooked.com/offline
Episodes
How Trump, Memes, and Algorithms Transformed The Way We Speak
9/25/2025
Skibidi rizz Labubu Dubai matcha. The internet—and its algorithms—have reshaped the words we use and the way we speak—but are those changes also affecting our politics? Adam Aleksic, known online as Etymology Nerd, joins Offline to talk to Jon about his new book “Algospeak” in which he makes sense of our new, internet-optimized linguistic landscape. Jon and Adam discuss how that landscape is changing our politics, how Donald Trump’s unusual syntax is designed to capture attention in it, and why brainrot has become the dominant aesthetic of the generations most native to the internet—Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
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.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Duration:01:02:29
Inside the MAGA Reaction to Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
9/18/2025
Charlie Kirk’s assassination has rattled people on both sides of the aisle and terrified those whose jobs, like Charlie’s, involve talking about politics on the public stage. Jon reflects on the aftermath of the killing, what he finds most alarming, and his disappointment with leaders on the right and followers on the left. Then, the Bulwark’s Will Sommer joins the show to break down how important Charlie Kirk was to the MAGA movement, how the right is reacting to new information about his killer, and how Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Megyn Kelly are all scrambling for control of his legacy and Turning Point USA. Jon closes out the show by answering Offline producer Austin Fisher’s questions on the ripple effects of the assassination.
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.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Duration:00:55:49
Can The Left Reclaim America's Story?
9/11/2025
Democrats need to defend democracy without undermining it—but how? John Ganz, author of When the Clock Broke and the "Unpopular Front” substack, joins Offline to interrogate why Democrats have ceded nostalgia about the past to Republicans, how they should be resisting the America's autocratic slide, and what it says about our political moment that his “Trump is dead” tweet went viral. John and Jon discuss the pros and cons of using historical frameworks like fascism to understand contemporary American politics, how the seed of Trumpism was planted in the early 1990s, and whether Democratic leaders are falling short on rhetoric.
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.
Duration:01:02:38
JD Vance and the Post-Liberal Right's War on America
9/4/2025
As the U.S. slides into autocracy, Americans need to be reminded that liberalism can still solve the problems that Trump uses to fear monger. Jerusalem Demsas, founder and editor in chief of “The Argument,” joins Offline to explain what solutions for immigration and the economy would look like, her beef with the post-liberal left, and why she’s staying on Twitter...and maybe you should too. Plus, what she’s seeing on the ground at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, DC—aka the place JD Vance gets his crazy blood and soil ideas.
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.
Duration:00:59:51
Have Our Screens Made Us Too Distracted For Democracy?
8/21/2025
Ben Rhodes—bestselling author, Pod Save the World co-host, and fellow Obama administration alum—joins Offline to explain how America is being torn apart by short-term thinking and the technology that stokes it. Ben recently wrote a piece for the New York Times on the topic, and he and Jon connect the dots between big tech, the attention economy and domestic dogmas, drawing on fifty years of foreign policy to explain how we got to a place where no one can focus on the worst of what Trump’s doing—let alone agree on a national narrative.
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.
Duration:01:04:30
AI's Threat to Gen Z's Jobs, the FartCoin Economy, and Why the Internet Wants to Check Your ID
8/14/2025
Kyla Scanlon, author and economic commentator, joins Offline to explain why our economy feels so weird. She and Jon talk about the ways AI — and Labubus — have taken over the markets, whether big tech has become overly reliant on the attention economy, and why Gen Z is feeling so down about their longterm economic prospects. But first! Jon sits down with The New Yorker's Kyle Chayka to talk about internet age verification laws, whether we all have posting ennui, and why people are mourning the end of ChatGPT-4 like the loss of a close friend.
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.
Duration:01:06:19
QAnon Reacts to Epstein, Laura Loomer Gets Loomered, and Jon Gets Caught Up in the Syndey Sweeney Discourse
8/7/2025
As the Trump administration manufactures conspiracies to distract from the president’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, some on the right are blaming the deep state while others are finally calling foul. The Bulwark’s Will Sommer has been covering the far right conspiracy beat for years, and he joins the show to break down the Epstein drama, run through the kooks in charge of federal law enforcement, and compare the unhinged agendas of MAGA's two misinformation queens, Laura Loomer and Candace Owens. One thing’s for sure: never before have so many online lunatics occupied positions of such power and influence.
Duration:00:47:24
Trump Bans Woke AI, TikTok Cancels Sydney Sweeney, and How MAGA Became Multiracial
7/31/2025
Why are non-white voters moving towards Trump? Yale professor and author Daniel Martinez HoSang sits down with Jon to examine how Democrats’ multiracial coalition fell apart during and after Obama’s presidency, what minorities see in Trump (and why they have no remorse about voting for him) and what the left can do to win them back. But first! Max is back to hash out the news of the week: Trump has announced his AI Action Plan and signed executive orders attacking "woke AI”—no word yet on chatbots that call themselves MechaHitler and act like Nazis, which happened recently with Elon Musk’s Grok AI. Speaking of Nazis, both the Department of Homeland Security and…Sydney Sweeney? have been accused of playing into white nationalist tropes online, and the Tea app has been hacked, exposing thousands of women's personal information to the delight of 4chan incels.
Duration:01:15:29
Trump’s Epstein Nightmare, Jubilee’s Fascist Debate, and the Movie Twitter Wrote
7/24/2025
Living through a deadly plague as we watched the country descend into political violence on our screens might've left us with some...unresolved issues. Director Ari Aster sits down with Jon to break down his new dark comedy, “Eddington,” which depicts the violent unraveling of a small town as it faces pandemic, polarization, and AI proliferation. But first! MSNBC’s Brandy Zadrozny joins Offline to unpack the latest in MAGA’s cannibalizing Epstein conspiracy, debate the merits of online debate (we're looking at you, Jubilee), and wade through Elon’s latest unhinged innovation: a horny anime chatbot that flirts with children.
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.
Duration:01:12:39
Raising Boys in the Era of Incels, MAGA, and the Manosphere
7/17/2025
Boys today are being told to man up by the right and sit down by the left. Coming of age in the shadow of #MeToo and wading through algorithms rife with manosphere content, many young men are accepting the far right’s simple answers and leaning into traditional masculinity…without realizing it’s stunting their emotional development. Others are letting technology isolate and depress them. What is it about boys' psychology that makes them so vulnerable to the Internet Age? How does patriarchy lead well-intentioned parents to treat their sons less affectionately? When will men have a liberation movement—and do they deserve one? Ruth Whippman, author of BoyMom, sits down with BoyDad Jon to unpack it all.
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.
Duration:01:06:08
Peter Thiel's Antichrist, JD Vance's Split with the Pope, and Ross Douthat's Scientific Case for Believing in God
7/10/2025
Religion in the US has been on the decline for many years, but does atheism make us unhappier? Ross Douthat, New York Times Opinion columnist and author of Believe, joins Offline to explain why he thinks believing in God is a rational choice, why secular humanism feels worse in the age of Trump, and what he makes of Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance’s recent misanthropic comments on his "Interesting Times" podcast.
Duration:01:17:54
Hugs From Your Late Mom, Interdimensional Chats, and College Cheating: The AI Future Is Here
6/26/2025
We don't really know how AIs like ChatGPT work...which makes it all the more chilling that they're now leading people down rabbit holes of delusion, actively spreading misinformation, and becoming sycophantic romantic partners. Harvard computer science professor Jonathan Zittrain joins Offline to explain why these large language models lie to us, what we lose by anthropomorphizing them, and how they exploit the dissonance between what we want, and what we think we should want.
Duration:01:21:00
The Truth About Young Men's Shift Towards Trump
6/19/2025
Why are young men — of all races — moving toward Trump? Are high prices to blame? Their media diets? The Democrats? John Della Volpe, the nation’s leading youth pollster, joins Offline to discuss “Speaking to American Men,” a new $20 million effort to bring young men back into the Democratic coalition. John and his colleagues surveyed more than 1,000 men under 30 and conducted dozens of focus groups to understand what these men think about Donald Trump, the Democrats, and the direction of the country. He sits down with Favreau to share the effort’s initial findings — some surprising, some not — and to explain why reversing their shift toward MAGA may actually be easier than progressives assume.
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.
Duration:01:05:53
Succession’s Creator Takes on the Tech Billionaires
6/12/2025
Jesse Armstrong, the Emmy Award-winning creator of HBO's "Succession," joins Offline to chat about how he made a mockery of Silicon Valley tycoons in his new movie, “Mountainhead.” He and Jon discuss why the men who run social media companies are so anti social, how hard it is to satirize people who are already parodies of themselves, and compare notes on their writing process. Then, Offline welcomes an old friend back to the show to celebrate the Musk-Trump fallout.
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.
Duration:01:02:57
Momfluencers, Baby Gadgets, and the Perils of Parenting in The Digital Age
6/5/2025
Are we surveilling our children too much? Do we need fancy gadgets to track their sleep? Should we be taking so many pictures of them? Longtime New York Times culture critic Amanda Hess joins Offline to discuss why the optimization of childhood may just be another empty promise of the information age. Amanda's new book, Second Life, follows her digital identity crisis as she grapples with her newborn baby's rare genetic disorder, traversing the Facebook groups, Reddit threads, spy cams and momfluencers she and other parents use as a 21st century substitute for a proverbial village.
Duration:01:07:57
AI News Anchors, Dems $20 Million Plan to Study Men, and Max Bids Farewell to Offline
5/29/2025
To celebrate his final appearance on the pod, Max takes Jon on a trip down memory lane, sharing his favorite Offline clips from the past two years—including lessons he learned while trying to take control of his screen time, insights about loneliness in the digital age, and a touching reflection on what it means to pay attention to what you pay attention to. But first! Your favorite millennials discuss a terrifying AI model that’s likely to kick off the fake news apocalypse and the Democratic Party’s new not-so-secret secret plan to win back the support of young men (and what Democratic donors should spend their money on instead).
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.
Duration:01:16:35
Elon's Offline Challenge, Grok’s White Genocide Glitch, and Silicon Valley's New Religion
5/22/2025
The tech elite believe AI is just a few years away from displacing most computer-based jobs, and they seem…excited about it? Atlantic staff writer Matteo Wong joins Offline to discuss why Silicon Valley thinks AI is more important than anything happening in politics or the economy, and why it’s all eerily similar to their optimism around social media in the 2010s. But first! Max shares a personal update that we all hate, and then it's onto the news. This week, foe of the pod Elon Musk decided he’s done spending millions to be fake friends with Donald Trump. America’s edge lord may be posting less, but xAI is still spreading the good word. Max and Jon explain why Grok got so obsessed with unfounded claims of white genocide in South Africa, examine why Jon is STILL getting in Twitter fights, and explore new research on social media's dubious teen accounts.
Duration:01:10:23
Jon Gets Hacked, Woke Offline Pope, and How Jia Tolentino’s Brain Finally Broke
5/15/2025
Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror and staff writer at the New Yorker, joins Offline to discuss how it’s becoming harder and harder to make sense of reality, especially with AI taking over our feeds. She and Jon talk about how online distrust bleeds into life offline, parenting in this moment of endless horrors, and the inspiration (or lack thereof) behind her latest essay, "My Brain Finally Broke." But first! Jon’s X account may have gotten hacked, but even a crypto scam couldn't stop him from getting his social media fix. Then, he and Max dig into Trump’s attacks on the U.S. Copyright Office, and the concerns it raises over the material AI companies are using to train their models. Finally, the guys explain how the new pontiff has come out against the technology, and why “Leo” is an homage to the last pope to preside over an industrial revolution.
Duration:01:23:17
Pope Trump, Zuckerberg’s AI Friends, and the Shocking Truth of How Teens Live Online
5/8/2025
Lauren Greenfield, director of the acclaimed FX docuseries “Social Studies,” sits down with Jon to talk about the year she spent shadowing a group of LA teens as they navigated their very online lives. The kids gave Lauren permission to screen record their phones for the duration of filming, and the result is an intimate, frenetic and often horrifying account of what it's like to be underage on the internet. But first! Mark Zuckerberg is crushing the podcast circuit with relatable anecdotes about his underground bunker and replacing human friends with AI companions. Meanwhile, his frenemy Elon Musk is making a not-so-triumphant departure from DOGE. Jon and Max discuss whether the Department’s next step is a full-scale American panopticon, then say a little prayer for AI Pope Trump.
"Social Studies" curriculum and resources: https://www.learner.org/socialstudies/
Duration:01:18:05
The Global Elite’s Secret Group Chats, Gen Z's Lifestyle Subsidy, and Meta's Sex Bots
5/1/2025
Pete Hegseth isn’t the only one who loves a group chat—turns out Silicon Valley's descent into Trumpism was powered by a constellation of Signal and WhatsApp chats between America’s tech overlords. Max and Jon walk through the Marc Andreessen-powered phenomenon, then discuss how Jeff Bezos was forced to kiss Trump’s ring this week by walking back Amazon's response to his tariffs. Next up: how will Gen Z's lifestyle subsidy (cheap AI) compare to millenials’ lifestyle subsidy (cheap Ubers)? And finally, what’s the most disturbing way people are using AI chatbots…and why does it involve John Cena?
Duration:01:06:30