Offline with Jon Favreau

We still don’t know why a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania opened fire on Trump last weekend. Lone shooters whose paths from normalcy to vigilantism seem esoteric, obscure, or perverse have become a familiar pattern—but there’s actually a lot we do understand about the origins of political violence. Max sits down with terrorism scholar J.M. Berger to understand the psychology of violent extremists and what role the internet plays in their decision to act. But first! Max is joined by the New Yorker’s Jessica Winter to talk about the online fandom around Vice President Kamala Harris and the true meaning of the coconut emoji. 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.

Elle Reeve, CNN commentator and author of the new book Black Pill, joins Offline to share her reporting on the darkest corners of the internet. For over a decade, Reeve has tracked the emergence of the alt-right, watched them radicalize on sites like 4chan and 8chan, and documented their migration off the web and into the streets of Charlottesville and halls of the Capitol. She and Jon talk about how this new brand of white nationalism feeds on male loneliness and white resentment, the schisms within the movement, and its implications for politics. But first! Jon and Max unpack the last few weeks of Dem Drama®. The guys critique the debate discourse, explain why social media forced this conversation to happen, and reveal why Jon is finally disabling some of his Twitter notifications. 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.

Chat GPT isn’t going to top the Billboard Hot 100 any time soon, but something is happening with AI and music—something’s BEEN happening. Unlike in entertainment and journalism, big music labels and even musicians like Drake and Grimes are cautiously embracing the latest in AI. And the results are not all bad! New Yorker writer John Seabrook sits down with Max to explain why the music industry has historically adopted new technologies, and how that Muddies the Waters around what is made by humans vs. what is made by machines. What does the future of songwriting look like with an AI Bob Dylan? Will a tide of lowbrow AI slop hurt artist payouts? And what’s really behind the record industry standing with artists? 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.

Has this pod saved America…from phone addiction?! We got Jon Lovett to take a rather extreme version of the Offline challenge in Fiji, AND America’s top doctor and friend of the pod Vivek Murthy is now calling for a Surgeon General’s warning label on social media platforms. Max and Jon bask in their success, then mourn the dismantling of the Stanford Internet Observatory, the nation’s leading mis- and disinformation research organization. Then, Max sits down with longtime tech journalist Brian Merchant to talk about whether AI development is slowing down, why workers should organize against the technology, and what good AI use cases and centaurs have in common. 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.

The kids are not alright, and the culprit is their phones. That’s the thesis of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation. He joins Offline to discuss why he thinks smartphones and social media are fueling a teen and adolescent mental health epidemic, the evidence behind his claims, and the criticism his anti-phone crusade has received. Then he and Jon dive into the four recommendations Haidt believes will lead us out of this crisis. 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.

Why are Republicans apologists for misinformation? How should campaigns respond to online trolls? Are Democrats still using an Obama-era digital strategy? Journalist Sasha Issenberg joins Offline to talk about his new book, The Lie Detectives, and to break down how to defeat conservatives in a truth-agnostic world. He and Jon discuss how today’s political class is adapting to a tumultuous and Trumpy social media landscape, and why controlling today’s narrative is more elusive than ever before. 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.

Critic Emily St. James and Crooked’s Halle Kiefer join Max to talk about “WALL-E.” The 2008 Pixar film depicts a future in which humans are so addicted to their screens that it takes a robot mutiny led by a mobile trash compactor to get them to log off. Why did the filmmakers opt for a trashpocalypse? How problematic is the movie’s portrayal of fatness? Why wasn’t there cancel culture aboard the spaceship? Find out in our last installment of Offline Movie Club (for now!). 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.

Birds Aren’t Real founder, Peter McIndoe, joins to talk about the impact of the satirical conspiracy that captured the imagination of Gen Z and what he learned about the appeal of false realities after spending years in character as one of the nation’s leading conspiracy theorists. But first: Is TikTok helping Trump win? Why is Google telling people to eat rocks? And what’s the story behind the “All Eyes on Rafah” image going viral across Instagram? Jon and Max break it down. 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.

Are we all living in The Matrix? Eh, probably not. But our tech obsessed, social media driven world is a lot closer to the reality The Matrix posed in 1999 than the Wachowskis probably ever dreamed of! New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie and host of Hysteria Erin Ryan, join Max to watch the beloved sci fi film and break down the ways The Matrix inspired a generation of tech bros and why so many people — from the online right to the LGBTQ+ community to recovering tech journalists — see themselves in its allegory. 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.

Do we treat political affiliation like a religion? Which parts of our identity are based off factual belief vs. imaginary belief? This week, Max talks to Professor Neil Van Leeuwen about the difference between thinking and believing, the power of groupish thought, and the similarities between religious creeds and political ideologies. But first! Jon and Max break down the drama between Scarlet Johansson and OpenAI, pick apart the TikTok blockout, and suspend their disbelief that a close friend of the pod is…on Survivor?! Will he love it or leave it? 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.

Ezra Klein joins Offline Movie Club to discuss “Her,” the movie that more or less incited this week’s Scarlett Johansson v. OpenAI drama. Back in 2013, when ChatGPT was just a twinkle in Sam Altman’s eye, no one thought a writer falling in love with his sentient virtual assistant was a near-term scenario. But here we are! Ezra, Max and Jon debate what AIs mean for relationships, how “Her” introduced emotional stakes that are absent from AIs in real life, and why Altman definitely copies Johansson’s husky voice in the latest GPT-4o. 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.

ChatGPT has officially entered its “Her” era! Jon and Max talk about the flirty AI that debuted this week, whose husky voice and warm enthusiasm evokes Scarlett Johansson. But not all the tech titans are doing so hot; Facebook’s noxious combo of AI-generated content and the real people who are falling for it has been coined the “zombie internet.” The guys discuss Meta’s spam problem, then take a look at how mental health curricula in schools can actually make things worse for students. 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.

Leave it to Tom Hanks to make internet catfishing seem so darn charming! This week, Offline’s Movie Club is watching “You’ve Got Mail,” the cozy, capitalist, and kind of creepy 90s classic. Remember when being online was a choice? When online dating was stigmatized? When Meg Ryan flounced around with unparalleled charisma? Max is joined by Jon Lovett and Crooked Executive Producer Kendra James to soak up the nostalgia of AOL, a roaring economy, and a time before Amazon. 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.

Is it time for you to make an AI friend? Jon and Max weigh the pros and cons of robot affirmation, sink their teeth into a new study on smart phone bans in schools, and then turn their attention to something they’re both very qualified to talk about: the rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake that’s reanimating Twitter. Plus, a new East vs. West feud takes shape as the guys face off for Vote Save America’s “Organize…or else” campaign. Head to votesaveamerica.com/2024 to ally yourself with your favorite Offline host. 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.

Bo Burnham’s comedy has long captivated and caricatured the internet, but the era his songs skewer the best is the hyperactive, blood-thirsty, online world of peak-pandemic lockdown. Max, Jon and comedian Jamie Loftus discuss “Bo Burnham: Inside,” in which a child of the internet breaks it down and breaks down. Was 2021 the peak of performative virtue signaling? Which host impersonated a flamingo on stage with Bo himself? Is apathy a tragedy and boredom a crime? Find out on this week’s Offline Movie Club. 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.

We all have a caveman brain—at least when it comes to navigating the internet. Amanda Montell, author of the new book The Age of Magical Overthinking, joins Offline to explain how the “cognitive biases” that we developed to make snap decisions in prehistoric times aren’t well suited to handle the volume and pace of the information era. She and Jon talk about biases like the halo effect, zero-sum biases, and declinism, and identify how these biases have supercharged celebrity fandom, influenced our news media, and made Democrats nostalgic for the George W. Bush era. 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.

When did we collectively agree that a hoodie-clad coder could wreak havoc on our society? Probably not long after “The Social Network” came out. This week we’re kicking off a new bonus series: the Offline Movie Club! The hosts will dive into one of their favorite films about the internet and technology to discuss what the movie gets right and wrong, and how it shapes our understanding of the digital era. This week Max, Jon and Halle Kiefer, host of the "Ruined" podcast, break down David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s 2010 biographical drama. What did it get right and wrong about Offline’s second favorite disruptor, Mark Zuckerberg? What creative liberties did the filmmakers take in retelling the story of Facebook’s founding? And has Sorkin ever given a female character a last name? 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.

Can Biden outpost Trump in the run up to 2024? Why is the president on TikTok if he wants to ban it? Rob Flaherty, former White House Director of Digital Strategy and current Deputy Campaign Manager for Biden joins Offline to explain. Jon and Rob talk about the ways the media environment has changed since 2020, how the Biden campaign is cutting through the noise this time around, and the importance of acknowledging voters’ frustrations. 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.

We did it folks! Jurors for Trump’s hush money trial are getting to read their resistance tweets to his face as Meta’s crackdown on news is slowly asphyxiating conservative media. Jon and Max celebrate the good news, and then dive into the much more somber topic of dating in the Internet Age. It turns out Gen Z is abandoning dating apps in favor of social media and the “old school” approach of meeting people in person. Then, Max interviews blogger Jenny Livingston about what it’s like to learn you’re going to live 50 more years, thanks to a new drug that’s working miracles for her and many other people with cystic fibrosis. 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.

Is FOMO the only thing keeping you on social media? Have we already reached peak artificial intelligence? And are Max and Jon too old to enjoy Glorb, a Spongebob Squarepants AI that’s become the hottest rapper on the internet? The guys cheer on the nosedive of Trump’s media company stocks, break down the latest research in why your friends want you to quit social media, and answer mailbag questions like “will Jon ever stop getting in Twitter fights?” 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.