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Better Offline

Better Offline

Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts 242 Episodes Oct 14, 2026

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

The Hater's Guide To Bonds With Rob Wigglesworth
The Hater's Guide To Bonds With Rob Wigglesworth Oct 14, 2026 2525 In this week's Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by Robin Wigglesworth of the Financial Times to explain how both corporate and sovereign bonds work, why you should care, and what you need to know about the tech industry’s growing debt.Rob Wigglesworth: A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern Worldhttps://www.amazon.com/Fabulous-Debt-Story-Bonds-Modern/dp/0593719182&n
Monologue: Australia's Dodgiest AI IPO Is A Pale Horse
Monologue: Australia's Dodgiest AI IPO Is A Pale Horse Oct 9, 2026 619 In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about the brittle state of Australian AI data center company Firmus’ IPO, its dodgy underlying numbers, and how the Australian media has set an example of how you should actually cover an AI company. NOTE: This IPO was officially postponed shortly before going to press. The content still rocks. Newsletter: Credit Crunch: https://www.wh
"Cycular" Financing w/ GamersNexus
"Cycular" Financing w/ GamersNexus Oct 7, 2026 2990 In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about NVIDIA’s “cycular” financing, Trump’s “superintelligence” accord, the growing bubble in the gaming industry, and the Steam Frame VR headset. Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 YOU CAN
Monologue: Anthropic's $413bn Burden
Monologue: Anthropic's $413bn Burden Oct 2, 2026 398 In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about Anthropic’s $413 billion in non-cancellable compute commitments, and how its future depends on the impossible task of borrowing $50 billion to $100 billion a year from a bond market that’s already strained by endless AI data center debt. Link to details on contracts: https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com/post/3mwoc3p2b2s2mN
Monologue: Anthropic Lost $8bn In 2025, Was A Worse Business Than OpenAI
Monologue: Anthropic Lost $8bn In 2025, Was A Worse Business Than OpenAI Sep 30, 2026 472 In this week's Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks through Anthropic’s 2025 financials, covering how it spent $2.75 to make a dollar, and how it was, at least last year, a worse business than OpenAI.Dead Money: https://www.wheresyoured.at/dead-money/Anthropic story from Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/anthropics-ipo-prospectus-shows-sweeping-ai-vision-surging-costs-2026-09-28/
Monologue: The AI Data Center Overbuild
Monologue: The AI Data Center Overbuild Sep 25, 2026 642 In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron talks about how $200bn to $300bn of AI GPUs are sitting in warehouses, how hyperscalers like Microsoft are overstating their AI capacity, and why the AI data center overbuild is magntiudes worse than the Dot Com era fiber buildout.  Where’re All The AI Chips? https://www.wheresyoured.at/wherere-all-the-ai-chips/Dario quote: https://www.
The Hidden Recession Beneath The AI Bubble w/ Paul Kedrosky
The Hidden Recession Beneath The AI Bubble w/ Paul Kedrosky Sep 23, 2026 3278 In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron is joined by economist Paul Kedrosky to talk about how AI is distorting the bond markets to the point that it’s changing the price on US Treasuries, how AI data center economics don’t make sense, and the troubling signs he’s hearing out of Anthropic. https://paulkedrosky.com/The Nick, Dick and Paul Show: https://www.youtube.com/chann
Monologue: Shut The F*ck Up, Dario!
Monologue: Shut The F*ck Up, Dario! Sep 18, 2026 490 In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron delivers a simple message: if Dario Amodei truly believes that Anthropic is building dangerous AI, he should stop any and all cybersecurity model training runs, halt his IPO, limit Claude to only the safest possible functions, or shut the fuck up.Anthropic “80% gross margins” story https://www.ft.com/content/4564e6a5-69e9-40a6-bf0f-a88
Stopping The AI Safety Cult ft. Adam Becker & Cal Newport
Stopping The AI Safety Cult ft. Adam Becker & Cal Newport Sep 16, 2026 3951 Ed Zitron is joined by computer science professor and writer Cal Newport and journalist and astrophysicist Adam Becker to get the word out that the narrative about existential risk from AI is driven by a religious cult of effective altruists and rationalists. AI Is Already In Dangerous Hands newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-already-in-dangerous-hands/ Adamhttps://bsky.app/profile
Monologue: Jacob Coxon and the AI Safety Grift
Monologue: Jacob Coxon and the AI Safety Grift Sep 11, 2026 985 In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs through the nonsensical, pro-AI lab scare campaign driven by former researcher Jacob Coxon, how the media keeps falling for AI safety grifts, and how dangerous AI is already in the wrong hands - those of Anthropic and OpenAI.WIRED interview with Coxon: https://archive.md/2026.09.10-091328/https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-researcher-quits
Managing The Situation
Managing The Situation Sep 9, 2026 1033 In this week’s Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how society continues to manage rather than deal with crises, and how the AI bubble is yet another crisis resulting from a failure to deal with the complexity of the real world.  Last Week’s Newsletter: Hyperscale Normalization https://www.wheresyoured.at/hyperscale-normalization/ This week’s newsletter: Concent
Monologue: Concentration Risk
Monologue: Concentration Risk Sep 4, 2026 626 In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs through how 80% of Anthropic and OpenAI’s enterprise revenues come from the top 1% of its customers, and how the entire AI bubble is a series of different concentration risks supported by venture capital and debt.Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/hyperscale-normalization/Ramp Data: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/comments/1

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