Offline with Jon Favreau - Season 1 / Year 2022

To open Offline's new feed, Jon interviews Kara Swisher, Silicon Valley's most feared and respected journalist. The two discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine — how it marks the first true conflict of the internet age, why Putin is losing the misinformation battle, and what makes Zelensky a compelling online hero. Kara also gives Jon insight into Big Tech's most important founders and teaches him a few interview tricks to use as Offline continues.

Recorded live from the podcast stage at South by Southwest, Jon is joined by acclaimed television writer Greg Daniels, creator of ‘The Office' and ‘Parks and Rec.' The two talk about Greg's latest show ‘Upload,' which just premiered its second season on Amazon Video. Jon asks Greg what inspired him to write a show about the digital afterlife, how likely that future may actually be, and what he thinks of ‘The Office's' lasting impact.

This week, Jon is joined by the technology reporter Taylor Lorenz. Covering what she calls "communication and connection," Taylor has written extensively about the content creator economy, changing media ecosystems, TikTok, and more. The two talk about some of Taylor's recent stories, break down why she left the New York Times for the Washington Post, and discuss what journalism in our internet-first age requires of writers and media publications.

This week, Jon is joined by YouTube sensation and former late night host Lilly Singh. Discussing her new book "Be a Triangle," Jon asks Lilly how she recently got her life "into shape," what being the first on late night meant to her, why she decided to delete social media off of her phone, and how she learned to be alone with her thoughts."Be a Triangle" goes on sale April 5th. Find it wherever your buy books.

Today, Jon is joined by Samantha Bee. Previously The Daily Show's longest-ever correspondent and now host of the Emmy-award winning Full Frontal on TBS, Sam Bee has been talking politics — and cracking jokes — since the early years of the Bush administration. She joins Jon to talk about how she's burned out from our worsening political discourse and offer some motherly advice for future Oscars attendees.

Jon is joined by Ev Williams, Co-Founder and former CEO of Twitter. The two discuss Twitter's early years, including the design decisions behind some of the app's most important features. They dive into the promise of Twitter and attempt to make sense of what's changed. Ev also talks about Twitter's newest board member and largest shareholder, Elon Musk, and if Donald Trump should be allowed back on.

Lauren Williams, former Editor-in-Chief of Vox, sits down with Jon to talk about launching Capital B News, a new local-national nonprofit news organization that centers Black voices. Together, they discuss how the murder of George Floyd inspired a "great reckoning" in newsrooms; how her new organization is aiming to rebuild trust in the black community by providing high-quality, local reporting; and the ways the media has failed people of color in its coverage of Critical Race Theory.

Russian propaganda expert Peter Pomerantsev is a journalist and former Russian television producer who talks to Jon about the distortion of truth and reality inside Putin's Russia. Jon asks Peter about his recent interview with Ukrainian President Zelensky, how Putin's propaganda apparatus is reaching a crossroads, and how the Trump/Murdoch propaganda machine mirrors a lot of what he's seen in Russia.

Renee DiResta is an expert on tech policy, influence operations, and algorithms, managing research at the Stanford Internet Observatory. She joins Jon to break down Elon Musk buying Twitter, explaining his envisioned reforms and making the case that Elon Musk fundamentally misunderstands free speech on the internet.

Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC's All in with Chris Hayes, sits down with Jon to talk about the ways the internet has reshaped what we can hear online, creating an era of mass fame. Pulling from his New Yorker essay "On the Internet, We're Always Famous," Chris explains his distinction between attention and recognition and makes the case that this new era isn't just bad for our society, it's bad for our souls.

Dr. Anna Lembke, Stanford Psychiatrist and author of "Dopamine Nation," joins Jon to talk how smartphones, social media, and the internet have fundamentally changed the way our brains process pleasure. Making the case that phones are similarly addictive to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, she teaches Jon how we can reset our brains to have a healthier relationship with our phones and the world around us.

Ben Collins covers disinformation, extremism, and the internet for NBC News. This week, he's reported on the shooting in Buffalo, combing through the killer's chat logs to make sense of the internet's role in his radicalization. He sits down with Jon to make sense of it all, explaining the ways sites like 4Chan serve as breeding grounds for extremism and what it's going to take for us to face this hate and violence head on.

Congressman Ro Khanna, Silicon Valley's most progressive representative, joins Jon to talk about where tech went wrong and how we can get it back on course. Providing legislative solutions, he teaches Jon how we can use technology to create economic opportunity and a functioning, healthy, multiracial democracy.

Anya Kamenetz, author of "The Art of Screen Time" and NPR education reporter, talks with Jon about what a healthy amount of screen time looks like for our kids. She teaches Jon the leading research, talks about the how pandemic changed her understanding of screen time, and offers a road map for raising kind, thoughtful kids in an increasingly online world.

Kevin Roose, technology columnist at the New York Times, answers all your crypto questions. What's an NFT? Is Bitcoin bad for the environment? Does our economy run on vibes? Sharing perspectives from crypto's biggest skeptics, but also its biggest proponents, Kevin joins Jon to make the case that crypto isn't scary, it's just terribly explained.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jennifer Senior talks about the internet's original right-wing troll: Steve Bannon. Would the MAGA movement exist without Bannon? Would Bannon exist without the internet? Jennifer recently published an unsparing profile of Steve Bannon in The Atlantic. He granted her a ton of access, even inviting her to his father's funeral. She sits down with Jon to talk about what she saw and how Bannon weaponized the internet to fuel the January 6th insurrection.

Last week, Nitasha Tiku, Tech Culture reporter for The Washington Post, broke the story of a Google engineer who claimed the company's artificial intelligence chatbot, LaMDA, was sentient. She joins Jon to give a first-hand account of what the Google engineer saw inside its chatbot and make the case that the real fear shouldn't be whether AI is alive, but whether it's real enough to fool us.

Emma Lembke is encouraging teens to rethink their relationship with the internet. In June 2020, she founded the Log Off Movement, a teen-led project that provides resources to reduce screen time, community support, and advocates for legislative action to protect children online. Emma joins Jon to talk about Gen Z's relationship with the internet, what it's doing to their mental health, and creative ways she and her peers are taking back control.

Matt Ball joins Jon to explain The Metaverse. What is it? Does it matter? Are we doomed to live in a virtual reality controlled by Mark Zuckerberg? Pulling from his new book, Matt talks about some unexpected ways the Metaverse could help us improve our offline reality.

Jane Coaston, columnist at the New York Times and host of "The Argument," joins Jon to talk through her Twitter addiction. They discuss the gamification of online conversation, how former high school debaters ruined the internet, and why we should all spend less time on Twitter and more time watching NCIS.

Jon finally lives up to the mission of the show and takes some time offline. In his stead, guest host Charlie Warzel, writer of The Atlantic's "Galaxy Brain," talks to technologist Michael Sacasas about how the internet became a doom loop. Together, they explore why we all feel "stuck" online, how the internet forces us to dwell on the past, and how individuals can regain their agency through strategic silence.

Professor Scott Galloway joins Jon to make the case that TikTok is unlike any social media platform we've ever seen. Overnight, TikTok became the world's most visited website and now, Scott argues, it's powerful data collection, addictive algorithm, and it's owner — the Chinese company ByteDance — are raising questions about the dangers the platform poses to the United States.

Tara McGowan, one of the Democratic party's most innovate digital strategists, joins Jon to talk about ways Democrats are fighting back against the MAGA Movement's control of the internet. They discuss what impact, if any, political advertising has in an online era, why John Fetterman's tweets are so damn good, and why they're fed up with Democrat's annoying fundraising emails.

Katie Couric, former host of The Today Show and CBS Evening News anchor, tells the story of how the internet changed journalism and politics. She talks to Jon about her famous sit-down with then-Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, what she learned as co-chair of the Aspen Institute's Commission on Information Disorder, and why she's excited to let her voice emerge as she manages her own news outlet, Katie Couric Media. As a bonus: halfway through Katie flips the Offline script and interviews Jon.

YouTuber Natalie Wynn, better known as ContraPoints, may be the internet's most persuasive political commentator. Known for her carefully produced, elaborate video essays, Natalie has an uncanny ability to attract and de-radicalize viewers with reactionary, right wing politics. She sits down with Jon to talk about the importance of style in political persuasion, explain how the internet became fascist in 2017, and teach what it takes to actually change minds online.

Max Fisher's new book "The Chaos Machine" was written with Offline's audience in mind. He sits down with Jon to talk about what his interviews with researchers, psychologists, while blowers, and Silicon Valley executives taught him about social media's effects on our brains, our culture, and our politics. Tracing the creation of the Facebook newsfeed to the election of Donald Trump, he argues the the fundamental design of social media platforms themselves have literally rewired our brains.

Jon looks back on interviews with Stephen Colbert, Roxane Gay, Monica Lewinsky, Hank Green, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Chris Hayes, and more to see what lessons we've learned plumbing the depths of the internet.

Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa faces 100 years in prison stemming from what she says are illegitimate charges, but that hasn't stopped her mission of exposing political malfeasance and lies in her home country of the Philippines. She joined David to talk about immigrating to the US as a child and later returning to the Philippines where she built a career, technology's corrosive impact on journalism and democracy, founding Rappler and finding herself a government target, and maintaining hope as she fights corruption and disinformation through her journalism.

Derek Thompson, writer of Work in Progress at The Atlantic and host of Plain English, joins Jon to talk about the future of remote work. Is remote work good or bad? Is it here to stay? How can we make it work for all of us? Derek offers up his perspective, makes the case that "quiet quitting" is a fake trend, and talks about why he's hopeful that, despite America's "bad vibes," we'll be able to figure this all out.

Rachel Maddow, longtime MSNBC anchor, joins Jon to to talk about her new podcast "Ultra," which details an all-but-forgotten ring-wing plot to overthrow American democracy — not in 2022, but in 1940. Though the context has changed, Rachel argues that the tactics and strategies to defeat have fascism have not and that we can learn from those who defeated the threat the first time.

Anand Giridharadas joins Jon to talk about his new book, The Persuaders, which hit shelves this week. Anand makes the case that, even in our era of extreme polarization, persuasion isn't dead and shares how many persuaders he talked to — including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — are successfully changing minds. The two talk about Russian trolls, Hillary Clinton, and what marriage counseling can teach us about American politics.

Andrew Marantz, staff writer at the New Yorker and expert in online extremism, joins Offline to talk about the radicalization of the artist formerly known as Kanye. Marantz's recent article, "Kanye West's Parler Games" follows the mogul's indignant attempt to buy a lawless corner of the internet, and he joins Jon to discuss West's runaway journey to the alt-right, the truth about free speech absolutism, and the darkest corners of the internet.

Nilay Patel, Editor-in-Chief of The Verge and host of the Decoder podcast, talks with Jon about Elon Musk's newest and thorniest business venture: purchasing Twitter. In a recent article, "Welcome to Hell, Elon," Patel describes the quandary that awaits the Tesla founder and argues that Musk has made a historic mistake. He joins Offline to talk Musks' misguided free speech promises, the limits of technical solutions to political problems, and the hubris of an internet troll-turned-King Twit.

Dr. Lynn Vavreck, professor of political scientist at UCLA and contributing columnist to The Upshot at The New York Times, sits down with Jon to talk about 2022 midterms. After 2020, Lynn and her colleagues interviewed over 500,000 voters, leading them to conclude that our politics aren't just polarized, but calcified. She argues that calcification has placed our politics on a knife's edge, raising the stakes of every election and that 2022 was the biggest case of calcification we've seen yet.

Beth Goldberg joins Offline to discuss her work at Jigsaw, the misinformation-tackling team at Google that's been called "the Internet's justice league." Goldberg walks Jon through the dos and don'ts of drawing your Q Anon cousins, election-denying uncles, and vaccine-skeptic grandmas out of their conspiracy rabbit holes this Thanksgiving. By pre-bunking, seeding doubt, and listening with compassion, together we can hash it all out.

This week, a Crooked Media crossover event as Brian Beutler, host of Positively Dreadful, sits down with Jon to talk all the things Democrats could learn from Republicans. Yep, you read that right. Brian makes the case that when it comes to messaging, Democrats should be less shy and spend more energy drawing attention to Republican scandals and controversies — just like the GOP did for Hillary's emails, the migrant caravan, or crime. He talks to Jon about the obstacles in front of the Democratic party, what will matter to swing voters in 2024, and how the Republican Party is already on the hunt for the next Benghazi. 

Ian Bogost, author and professor at Washington University in St. Louis, talks with Jon about the demise of online social networks. In a recent Atlantic article, "The Age of Social Media Is Ending," Bogost examines the platforms' dipping trajectory and argues that people just aren't meant to talk to each other this much. He joins Offline to elaborate on how Twitter, Instagram and TikTok have sacrificed connection for content, friendship for sponsorship––and why a cultural shift in how we interact with these platforms may be closer than we think.

Rebecca Jennings, senior correspondent at Vox, talks with Jon about the year's most chronically online conversations––those seemingly innocuous threads and videos that, for some reason, got people up in arms. Jennings' recent article "Every ‘chronically online' conversation is the same," describes the predictability of people being vilified on social media, and she joins Offline to discuss how much of our thirst for drama is really a thirst for punishment.