Better Offline
Better Offline is a weekly show that explores the tech industry's influence and manipulation of society, 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, the show cuts through buzzwords and obfuscation to investigate schemes and scams from cryptocurrency scumbags to venture capital elites. Hosted by tech industry veteran Ed Zitron, the podcast helps listeners understand how tech's most powerful players are changing the world.
Episodes
Monologue: Meta Admits It Bought Too Many GPUs
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through Meta’s plans to sell its AI compute, and how this is an admission to the grim fact that there isn’t really a reason for anyone to be building all these AI data centers.Ed Zitron on CNBC: Generative AI's Business Model Does Not Work, And Tech Is Out Of Hypergrowth Ideashttps://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/comments/1ul
The WSJ On Polymarket's Questionable Ads
In this week’s Better Offline, Ed talks with the Wall Street Journal’s Caitlin Ostroff and Katherine Long about how Polymarket is working with influencers to show videos of fake bets cashing out - and how the prediction markets have grown into a large, barely-regulated operation.Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual h
Monologue: Tokenpocalypse Now
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through how organizations are freaking out after having to pay the real cost of AI tokens, and how the surge of competitive open weight models could lead to the post-bubble locally-run future of LLMs. Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1
Monologue: Silicon Valley is A Cargo Cult
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through how AI is the pinnacle of Silicon Valley monoculture, and a monument to the cargo cult desperation of a tech industry that celebrates mediocrity and has run out of ideas. Newsletter: Cargo Culture: https://www.wheresyoured.at/cargo-culture/ OpenAI Exclusive: https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/ Save $10 off a y
The AI Industry Must Stop Doom Trolling w/ Cal Newport
In this week’s Better Offline, Ed talks with computer science professor and writer Cal Newport about AI companies “doom trolling” consumers using scary stories about conscious computers, and how we need to make fun of the scare-mongering and ridicule the executives peddling in it.Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of a
Exclusive: OpenAI Spent $34 Billion In 2025, With Losses Up 8X
In a special exclusive episode of Better Offline, Ed Zitron digs into the audited financials of OpenAI from 2024 and 2025.Companion newsletter: www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERC
CZM Rewind: The Rot-Com Bubble
Tech's hyper-growth era is ending, with online 100 million new people getting online between 2022 and 2023, and almost every major web platform seeing a decline in growth since 2021. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how tech's decline is driving the tech industry to try and sell you useless products like the metaverse, cryptocurrency and generative AI. Original Air Date: 6.5.24 Save $1
Monologue: AI Can't Afford To Slow Down
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through how the “does AI have ROI?” debate is coming at the worst possible time for two companies that can’t afford to slow down thanks to their $1.1 trillion in compute commitments.Newsletter: AI Doesn’t Have ROI https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-doesnt-have-roi/ Ed on Bloomberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Why AI Has No ROI with Paul Kedrosky
In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by economist Paul Kedrosky to talk about why nobody can find the ROI of AI, why there won’t be a Dot Com Bubble-style recovery for AI data centers, and how Google’s $80bn equity sale shows we’re at the top.https://paulkedrosky.com/ The Nick, Dick and Paul Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFbDiETo29GTIjg6Lk4imig S
Monologue: Everyone Suddenly Cares About AI ROI
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through how AI’s move to token-based billing has revealed that absolutely nobody has a way of measuring AI’s ROI - and how these massive costs might finally burst the bubble.Companion newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-revenge-of-the-business-idiot/ Axios: AI sticker shock hits corporate America https://www.axios
The AI Industry Is Losing
In this week's Better Offline, Ed Zitron runs you through how Uber’s COO said the quiet part out loud - that AI’s outputs and efficacy do not match up with its ruinous costs - and how despite its bluster, the AI industry’s grift is failing.Free newsletter tie-in: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-revenge-of-the-business-idiot/ Please subscribe to my premium newsletter - save $
Monologue: Anthropic Is Not Profitable Unless You Remove Its Costs
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through Anthropic’s claims it will be non-GAAP EBITDA profitable for Q2 2026 by having SpaceX discount its compute costs, and how said revenues don’t match up with its CFO’s sworn affidavit or previous reporting on its finances.Companion newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/anthropics-profitability-swindle/ https://ww
AI Versus The PC Industry With GamersNexus
In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about NVIDIA’s alleged GPU shipments to China, how AI is choking the PC gaming industry, and how mad Jensen Huang keeps getting on podcasts.Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! GamersNexus:
Monologue: AI Is Making The Tech Industry Weak
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through how LLMs and the obsession with AI is actively destroying the fabric of the tech industry.Please subscribe to my premium newsletter - save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau
The Insanity of the Markets with Ben & Emil
On this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by the hosts of the Ben & Emil show to talk about how the markets have been driven insane by semiconductor buzz and social media hysteria.https://benandemilshow.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@benandemilshow Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswher
CZM Rewind: Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron on Enshittification and the Rot Economy
This week’s Better Offline is a recording of a panel held by Clarion West in Seattle earlier this year with Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron, discussing enshittification, The Rot Economy, and the destruction of modern tech platforms, moderated by Whitney Beltrán. Original Air Date: 11.12.25Cory Doctorow: https://craphound.com/Whitney Beltrán: https://brightwhitney.com/ Get involved
Monologue: AI's Compute Demand Story Is A Lie
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs through how 70-80% of Amazon and Microsoft’s AI revenue and capacity is taken up by OpenAI and Anthropic, and how capacity constraints across the industry are a result of hyperscalers sacrificing their infrastructure to the least-profitable startups of all time.Premium newsletter out later today - AI’s Demand Story Is A Lie - save
Palantir's Manifesto with June and Caleb from KTC
On this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron digs into Palantir’s 22-point manifesto with Caleb and June from Kill The Computer.The Manifesto: https://x.com/PalantirTech/status/2045574398573453312 Caleb and Junehttps://bsky.app/profile/birdrespecter.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/killthecomputer.com https://bsky.app/profile/junlper.beer https://x.com/canteverdie Please support m
Monologue: How OpenAI Kills Oracle
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.This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/four-horsemen-of-the-aipocalypse/ 
Cal Newport on Mythos and Anthropomorphization
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.Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/pu
Monologue: On Dangerous Rhetoric
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.This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/i-will-never-respect-a-website/ Premium newsle
More, Everything, Forever With Adam Becker
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-
Investigating Altman With Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz
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 Save $10 off a year of my pre
The Reality of AI Economics With Paul Kedrosky
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 Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitrons
Monologue: AI Isn't Too Big to Fail
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/ Premium newsletter tie-in out later today - save $10 off a year of my p
Monologue: What's Going On At Anthropic?
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/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyou
Monologue: The AI Industry Is Lying To You
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about OpenAI killing Sora, and how the majority of announced data centers are either barely getting built or vaporware, with only 3GW of IT load coming online in 2025 in America, and only 5GW of data centers under construction worldwide.This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-lying-to-you/ JustDario&
NVIDIAdrome with Steve Burke of GamersNexus
In this week’s Better Offline, Ed is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about NVIDIA’s strange and embarrassing GTC, DLSS5, and the increasingly-hysterical AI bubble.Free newsletter that discusses data center timing and NVIDIA's China situation: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-lying-to-you/ https://www.youtube.com/user/gamersnexus https://x.com/GamersNexus Game
Monologue: LLM Code Is Already Breaking Big Tech
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about hyperscalers allowing non-technical workers to ship code, and how the over-reliance on LLMs and push to ship as much code as possible is setting big tech up for a calamity.This week’s free newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/why-are-we-still-doing-this/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswhere
Prediction Markets with Rebecca Ungarino and Nick Devor
In this week’s Better Offline, Ed is joined by Rebecca Ungarino and Nick Devor of Barron’s to talk about the legalities of prediction markets, their effect on society, and how everyone is operating on the bleeding edge of financial regulations.Nick Devor: https://www.barrons.com/authors/nick-devor https://x.com/nickdevor_ Rebecca Ungarino:https://www.barrons.com/authors/rebecca-ungarin
Monologue: It's The Beginning Of History
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about the end of tech’s hypergrowth era, generative AI’s failure as a business model, and why we need to stop looking to the past to prove that the future will work out. Free newsletter tie-in: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-beginning-of-history/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatg
Hater Season: Henry Zebrowski
Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed is joined by Henry Zebrowski of Last Podcast on the Left to talk about Business Idiots, the metaverse, and the beauty of the human mind.https://www.patreon.com/cw/lastpodcastontheleft youtube.com/@lpntv Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here&r
Hater Season: Corey Quinn
Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed talks with Corey Quinn, Chief Cloud Economist at Duckbill, about the realities of LLMs and the chaotic world of Amazon Web Services.Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghos
Monologue: Analyslop And The Death of Critical Thinking
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the "analyslop" phenomenon of speculative, lie-ridden fan fiction that gets framed as meaningful research and promoted by the mainstream media. Free newsletter tie-in: https://www.wheresyoured.at/on-nvidia-and-analyslop/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-
Hater Season: Victoria Song & Alex Cranz
Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed talks with Victoria Song of The Verge about “wellness products,” bullshit workout metrics and black market peptides.Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.
Monologue: AI Isn't Replacing Software Companies, Calm Down About Claude Code
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through why AI isn’t replacing all software companies, and why the hype behind Claude Code is utterly specious.Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https:
Hater Season: Caleb Wilson, Juniper and Arif Hasan
Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed talks with Kill The Computer’s Juniper and Caleb and Arif Hasan of Wide Left about prediction markets, silicon valley’s billionaire whiners, and how Anthropic is trying to redefine “profitability.” Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsl
Monologue: No, Something Big Isn't Coming
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through why Matt Shumer’s “Something Big Is Coming” is deceptive misinformation peddled by a guy who previously tried to defraud the AI community, and why everybody who boosted or republished it should be ashamed of themselves.The Annotated version of Something Big Is Coming: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5c3m575cq
Hater Season: Cal Newport on AI Reporting
Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - continues as Ed talks with computer science professor and writer Cal Newport about the ways in which the media fails to report the truth about AI.Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghosti
Monologue: Is Oracle Screwed?
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the world finally realizing that NVIDIA’s $100bn deal with OpenAI was BS, and the very real possibility of Oracle’s collapse.Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! The $100 Billion Megadeal B
Hater Season: Openclaw with David Gerard
In the first episode of Better Offline’s “Hater Season” - an ongoing roundtable with tech’s greatest haters - Ed is joined by David Gerard of Pivot to AI to talk about Openclaw/Clawdbot/Moltbot, how seemingly smart people keep being “one-shotted” by AI, and why we’ve been headed toward a calamity in the markets since 2008.https://pivot-to-ai.com/ https://w
AI Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble: Part Four
In the final part of this week’s Dot Com Bubble series, Ed Zitron walks you through to the logical endpoints of his arguments about the AI bubble - a 40%-90% collapse of NVIDIA’s revenues, tens of billions of dollars of impairments for hyperscalers, an existential contraction in venture capital, the near-collapse of Oracle, and $200 billion or more in unpaid data center debt. Please su
AI Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble: Part Three
In part three of this week’s Dot Com Bubble series, Ed Zitron explains how the economics of the AI bubble are much, much worse than the dot com bubble, with far fewer customers, way more debt, and a stock market with an unhealthy obsession with one stock - NVIDIA. Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswhere
AI Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble: Part Two
In part two of this week’s Dot Com Bubble series, Ed Zitron explains the flimsy mythology used to convince the world to run millions of miles of fiber optic cable - and how completely different that is to building hundreds of billions of data centers of GPUs. Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyour
AI Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble: Part One
In part one of this week’s series, Ed Zitron explains how the AI bubble could be so much worse than the dot com bubble - and how people are too flippant about the carnage caused by the 2000s telecommunications bubble bursting. Please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/pr
Working In The Dot Com Bubble ft. Matt Rosoff
To kick off this week’s Better Offline Dot Com Special, Ed Zitron is joined by The Register’s Matt Rosoff to talk about what it was like to be in the tech industry during the last time the markets got drunk on a major digital hype cycle. Matt Rosoff: https://www.theregister.com/Author/Matt-Rosoff/ https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:agrmux4phzmfvgyblvhxrbnh Please support me by subscribin
The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part Four
In the final part of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how ignoring the horrifying margins and destructive practices of the AI industry is setting up venture capital and the global markets for a catastrophe, and how all of this could’ve been avoided.This series was a ton of work, so please support me by subscribing to my
The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part Three
In part three of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how the imaginary demand for AI compute is setting up every single data center developer for disaster - and how many major banks will be caught in the contagion.This series was a ton of work, so please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off yo
The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part Two
In part two of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how companies like AMD, Broadcom and NVIDIA are swindling stockholders with the help of analysts and the media, and how decades of easy returns for venture capital are an existential risk to the future of startup fundraising.This series was a ton of work, so please support me by
The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part One
In part one of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through the enshittification of the stock market, where toxic companies appreciate in value despite their toxicity, recklessness and waste, aided and abetted by analysts who not only ignore the toxicity but actively celebrate it. This series was a ton of work, so please support me b
Monologue: The Year Ahead
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the seeming collapse of Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines, and why the AI bubble can’t survive the death of OpenAI. Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! Kylie Robison’s scoop about Thi
The Anti-Consumer Electronics Show with Steve Burke
In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about AMD, Lenovo, NVIDIA and Intel’s CES keynotes - and how the tech industry has turned its back on consumers in favor of growth.Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! GamersNexus: NVIDIA's
CES 2026: Part Ten (Epilogue)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In our CES epilogue, Ed is joined by author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, tech bubble newsletter writer Ed Ongweso Jr. and CES bartender Phil Br
CES 2026: Part Nine (Friday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In Friday’s second episode, Ed is joined by author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, the Las Vegas Sun’s Kyle Chouinard, Ed Ongweso Jr.
CES 2026: Part Eight (Friday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In Friday’s first episode, Ed is joined by author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, YouTuber and CEO of Clicks Michael Fisher, Cherlynn Low of
CES 2026: Part Seven (Thursday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In Thursday’s second episode, Ed is joined by actress and standup comedian Chloe Radlciffe, Garrison Davis of It Could Happen Here, writer Wes
CES 2026: Part Six (Thursday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In Thursday’s first episode, Ed is joined by Devindra Hardawar of Engadget, actress and standup comedian Chloe Radlciffe, Edward Ongweso of the Tech
CES 2026: Part Five (Wednesday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In Wednesday’s second episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Karissa Bell of Engadget, Jared Newman of the Advisorator newsletter, standup comedian and hos
CES 2026: Part Four (Wednesday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In Wednesday's first episode, Ed is joined by Garrison Davis of It Could Happen Here, Matt Binder of Mashable, Ben Rudolph of Cartographiq, standup comedi
CES 2026: Part Three (Tuesday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In Tuesday’s second episode, Ed is joined by Victoria Song of The Verge, writer Rory Cellan-Jones, Robert Evans of Behind The Bastards, s
CES 2026: Part Two (Tuesday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In Tuesday’s first episode, Ed is joined by Ed Niedermeyer of the Autonocast, Henry Casey of CNN Underscored, Gare Davis of It Could Happen He
CES 2026: Part One (Monday)
Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the first episode, Ed introduces you to Better Offline’s CES coverage, we talk about NVIDIA’s tepid press conference, smart glasses, LLMs o
CZM Rewind: The Case Against Generative AI (Part 4)
In part four of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how there’s literally not enough money in the world to pay for OpenAI’s estimated $1 trillion four-year burn, and why the media tell the truth about AI to save retail investors. Original Air Date: 10.3.25 YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/be
CZM Rewind: The Case Against Generative AI (Part 3)
In part three of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how “AI replacing software engineers” is a myth spread by the media and investors - and how Microsoft only has 8 to 12 million active paying customers for Microsoft 365’s AI Copilot out of 440 million users. Original Air Date: 10.2.25 YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to&nb
CZM Rewind: The Case Against Generative AI (Part 2)
In part two of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how NVIDIA funds and pumps money into unprofitable, debt-ridden “neoclouds” all to create vehicles to buy more GPUs - all to cover up the lack of demand for generative AI compute. Original Air Date: 10.1.25 YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/b
CZM Rewind: The Case Against Generative AI (Part 1)
In part one of this week’s four-part case against generative AI, Ed Zitron walks you through how generative AI is sold through a complete misunderstanding of the concept of labor - and myth-building by companies like NVIDIA and OpenAI. Original Air Date: 9.30.25 YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free s
Part Three: NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It?
In part three of this week's three-part NVIDIA series, Ed Zitron walks you through why there are millions of Blackwell GPUs sitting in warehouses, and why AI’s lack of any profits makes NVIDIA’s future entirely dependent on endless debt and venture capital. This series took a lot of work, so if you want to support me, why not subscribe to my premium newsletter? Get $10 off a year&rsquo
Part Two: NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It?
In part two of this week's three-part NVIDIA series, Ed Zitron walks you through the history of Enron, why it differs from NVIDIA, and why growth-desperation led big tech to waste hundreds of billions of dollars on GPUs. This series took a lot of work, so if you want to support me, why not subscribe to my premium newsletter? Get $10 off a year’s subscription today: https://edzitronswheresyou
Part One: NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It?
In part one of this week's three-part NVIDIA series, Ed Zitron walks you through why NVIDIA is specifically nothing like Enron, WorldCom or Lucent, and why investors might be thinking that’s the case anyway. Thank you to Ben Cahn of the Ben and Emil show for voicing "NVIDIA" - listen here - https://www.youtube.com/@benandemilshow This series took a lot of work, so if you want to support me,
Monologue: The Questions I'm Asking
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron lists the questions he’s asking - and the things he’s looking for - that he believes will actually burst the bubble. Reach out at ezitron.76 on Signal. Want to support me? Get $10 off a year’s subscription to my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/w08jbm4jwg YOU C
The State of Consumer Tech with Lisa Eadicicco
Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City. Ed is joined in-studio by CNN Tech Editor Lisa Eadicicco to talk about the state of consumer electronics, Samsung’s Vision Pro competitor, and why every phone kind of looks the same. https://www.cnn.com/profiles/lisa-eadicicco https://x.com/LisaEadicicco Want to support me? Get
The State of the Games Industry with Nathan Grayson
In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Nathan Grayson of worker-owned games site Aftermath to talk about building an independent media outlet and the state of the game industry writ large. Nathan Grayson: https://aftermath.site/author/nathan-graysonhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathangrayson.bsky.social Celebrate Aftermath’s anniversary by subscribing - just $1 for your first month! https:/
Monologue: AI Isn't Getting A Bailout
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron breaks down how economically irrelevant AI is, and how no bailout is coming to save the Large Language Model era. Want to support me? Get $10 off a year’s subscription to my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/w08jbm4jwg It would mean a lot! YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go
Is Valve Taking On Microsoft? with Steve Burke
In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about Valve’s new console-like Steam Machine and Vision Pro-like Steam Frame, and what this means for the future of gaming. GamersNexus: Valve Steam Machine, Desktop SteamOS, Steam Frame VR, & Controller | ft. Engineering Discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUxObt1efQ Valve Steam Frame Engineer
A Thanksgiving Monologue
In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron thanks you for being such wonderful listeners. If you ever have a tip, reach out on ezitron.76. Want to support me? Get $10 off a year’s subscription to my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/w08jbm4jwg YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offlin
CZM Rewind: The Truth About Software Development with Carl Brown
In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Carl Brown, a veteran software developer and host of The Internet of Bugs, to talk about the realities of software development, what coding LLMs can actually do, and how the media gets it wrong about software engineering at large. Original Air Date: 6.4.25https://www.youtube.com/@InternetOfBugsNew GitHub Copilot Research Finds 'Downward Pressure on Code Qual
What People Actually Use ChatGPT For With Gerrit De Vynck
In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Gerrit De Vynck of The Washington Post to discuss what an analysis of 47,000 ChatGPT conversations can tell us about how people use the service - and how willing it is to fuel basically any conversation.We analyzed 47,000 ChatGPT conversations. Here’s what people really use it for - https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/11/12/how-people-use-ch
Exclusive: Here's How Much OpenAI Spends On Inference And Its MSFT Revenue Share
In a Better Offline exclusive, Ed Zitron reveals how much OpenAI spent on inference in 2024 and 2025, as well as how much it paid Microsoft as part of its 20% revenue share. Inference costs are much higher - and implied revenues much lower - than previously reported.(Free) Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/ The Information - OpenAI’s First Half Results: $4.3 Billion in Sales,
Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron on Enshittification and the Rot Economy
This week’s Better Offline is a recording of a panel held by Clarion West in Seattle earlier this year with Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron, discussing enshittification, The Rot Economy, and the destruction of modern tech platforms, moderated by Whitney Beltrán.Cory Doctorow: https://craphound.com/Whitney Beltrán: https://brightwhitney.com/ Get involved with Clarion West: https://w
Monologue: AI's Desperation Era
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about OpenAI hinting they’d want a federal backstop for data center loans, NVIDIA’s weird, desperate post about China, and his deep suspicion about OpenAI’s leaked numbers.Want to support me? Get $10 off a year’s subscription to my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-sub
