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 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.
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
9 snips
Apr 23, 2023 • 57min
How the Internet is Radicalizing Young Men
Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project and author of Men Who Hate Women and Fix the System, Not Women, joins Offline to shed light on one of the darkest corners of the internet: the manosphere. Made up of tens of thousands of incels, pick up artists, and white supremacists, the manosphere is an online hotbed of misogyny with violent real-world implications. Laura describes how she went undercover to infiltrate these platforms, and what she learned about protecting men and boys from radicalization. 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.
6 snips
Apr 16, 2023 • 1h 3min
John Green Doesn’t Think the World is Ending (Yet)
John Green, bestselling author and YouTube Vlogbrother, joins Offline to share lessons from his most recent book, The Anthropocene Reviewed. His collection of essays rates historical events, philosophical musings and personal anecdotes on a 5-star scale that, these days, feels both inescapable and indispensable. The Jo(h)ns talk through the faults in these stars, and the importance of finding ways to live meaningfully and hopefully in a world of mixed reviews. 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.
Apr 9, 2023 • 1h 28min
Should America Ban TikTok?
This week we’re bringing you the TikTok debate we wish we had from Congress. Featuring perspectives from V Spehar, host of TikTok’s Under the Desk News; Senator Mark Warner, lead sponsor of the RESTRICT Act; and Graham Webster, Chinese technology expert. Over three interviews, Jon and Max offer a smarter debate for and against banning TikTok. 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.
6 snips
Mar 26, 2023 • 55min
The End of Big Tech as We Know It
Jon welcomes Max Fisher, Crooked’s newest team member, to the Offline family! Max, former New York Times reporter and author of The Chaos Machine, joins the show as a recurring contributor, bringing fresh commentary, segments, and even interviews to Offline. This week he and Jon put their heads together to decode AI hysteria, the TikTok ban, and whether big tech has passed its prime. 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.
Mar 19, 2023 • 51min
How to Beat Fox News
Andy Kroll, author and ProPublica journalist, joins Offline to discuss the one thing Fox News fears: lawsuits. Kroll’s new book, A Death on W Street: The Murder of Seth Rich and the Age of Conspiracy, recounts how conspiracists co-opted a young man’s tragic death, the role of Fox News in perpetuating those lies, and how the Rich family fought back and won. He and Jon talk about what this means for the Dominion lawsuit, and whether Fox has finally met its match. 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.
Mar 12, 2023 • 46min
Margaret Atwood on Good, Evil and Stupidity
Margaret Atwood, famed author, poet and “dystopia prophet,” joins Offline to talk about fighting tyranny and finding hope. Much like her latest book, Old Babes in the Wood, Atwood’s conversation with Jon sandwiches her thoughts and fears on the present between poignant chapters of the past. They discuss censorship, religion, parenting and how to listen for what you can’t hear. 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.
Mar 5, 2023 • 37min
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 • 50min
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 • 44min
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.
11 snips
Feb 12, 2023 • 49min
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.
