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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

Something happened in 2016 that led Democrats to campaign on unpopular issues. Researcher Simon Bazelon digs into extensive polling data—and on-the-ground-results from tight races—to explain where elites steered us off course, how we can neutralize Trump’s advantages, and why voters might not actually want radical change. Then, he and Jon discuss the pitfalls of an attention economy that gives clicks but NOT votes to viral, trendy policies.

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.

Have the Democrats Decided to Win?

Will the AI bubble pop or will AI permanently reshape our society? Jon sits down with Stephen Witt, an investigative journalist and author of “The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip” to talk about Stephen’s dire warning in the New York Times about an AI prompt that could end the world. The two discuss the data centers taking over towns across America (and propping up our economy), young people’s quickly evolving relationship to “chat,” and what hope they both have — more than you would expect — for our AI future.

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.

Is AI Too Big to Fail or Too Dangerous to Succeed?

Chris Hayes, MSNBC host and author of The Siren’s Call, returns to Offline to talk about Democrats’ posting problem…they’re too afraid of controversy, too stingey with their appearences, and too focused on fundraising. Have the content firehoses diluted cancel culture? What’s the secret to Zohran Mamdani’s press strategy? Is John Fetterman the Democrats’ John McCain—and is there a lesson to learn in that?Also: 

Offline is now coming out Saturdays. Thank you for sharing your weekend with us!

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.

Democrats Need to Care About Getting Attention

Being an American right now is a wild ride. Every day brings a new controversy, with breathless media narratives and the same loud voices rushing in to score political points. Then another Truth Social post drops and the circus moves on. But all that noise is drowning out the actual story. On Crooked Media’s new podcast Runaway Country, veteran journalist Alex Wagner talks to the voices at the center of the headlines: from the fringes of the resistance, to the marrow of MAGA, to the many people who’ve found themselves smack-dab in the crosshairs of a fight they never asked for. Because if you want to understand our unreal times, you’ve got to talk to the very real people who are experiencing it all first-hand. Join Alex as she brings together the stories of everyday Americans trapped in our national car with no brakes, alongside conversations with some of the smartest thinkers in politics. Buckle up, this road could lead anywhere.

New episodes every Thursday wherever you get your podcasts, and @RunawayCountryWithAlexWagner on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe, so you don’t miss an episode.

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.

Introducing: Runaway Country with Alex Wagner

53% of American men are now dying before the age of 75—and that trend is getting worse. Clinical psychologist Zac Seidler, Director of Men's Health Research at Movember, joins Offline to delve into how men misconstrue wellness in an increasingly digital world. Zac's work exposes how male influencers, podcasters, and cultural and political figures are shaping young men's views on masculinity, their relationships, and their overall health and wellbeing. But first! Jon opens up about teaching his own sons about strength and pride, and the myriad ways someone like George Retes is a better role model than the second most powerful elected official in the United States.

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.

Are Men Okay?

Cass Sunstein, Harvard professor and author of the new book On Liberalism: in Defense of Freedom, joins Offline to examine whether small-l "liberal" values like freedom, human rights, and the rule of law will be able to survive an illiberal president. Cass compares and contrasts what Trump and Vance are doing with the actions of the Bush and Reagan administrations, debates whether liberalism is a strong enough antidote to fascism, and reveals his #1 pop obsession.

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.

Is America Still a Liberal Nation?

Should protests be about expression or persuasion? What makes for an effective protest? And is it still possible for protests to effect change in a fractured, algorithmic media environment? Jon talks to Dr. Omar Wasow, a professor at UC-Berkeley, about his famous study on the effectiveness of civil rights protests in the 1960s. They discuss why the protests of the early 60s led to more political change than those of the later 60s, why the media environment of that era is much closer to our current environment than we realize, and why Dr. King and John Lewis focused on storytelling and dramatizing the injustice of the moment. But first: Jon discusses the shutdown fight and why we need a big grassroots political movement to wake the rest of this country up. 

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.

Dramatize the Injustice

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.

How Trump, Memes, and Algorithms Transformed The Way We Speak

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.

Inside the MAGA Reaction to Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

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.
 

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can The Left Reclaim America's Story?

R. F. Kuang, bestselling author of Yellowface, joins Offline to discuss cultural appropriation, the flatness of social media friendships and feedback, and the tortured relationship between literature and technology. Kuang recounts how pandemic doomscrolling destroyed her attention span, the book she wrote as a result, and how she’s reclaimed her focus and social life since. But first! Jon is FINALLY back from his two weeks of paternity leave — he and Max break down how Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy ran their campaigns like a 2016 meme war. Then, they compare the unsettling voice of AI Dean Phillips to the unsettling voice of human Dean Phillips, and unpack why no one is happy with Substack these days.

 

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.

Were Trump’s Opponents Too Online? Plus, R. F. Kuang on Her Twitter Era Novel

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