Better Offline
Hosted by Ed Zitron · 18 decoded episodes · newest Oct 7, 2026
<p>Better Offline is a weekly show exploring the tech industry’s influence and manipulation of society - and interrogating the growth-at-all-costs future that tech’s elite wants to build. </p> <p>Combining narrative-form storytelling, one-on-one interviews and panel-based discussions, Better Offline cuts through the buzzwords and obfuscation of the tech industry, investigating and evaluating the schemes and scams of everyone from cryptocurrency scumbags to the greediest of the venture capital elite. Tech industry veteran Ed Zitron and a dynamic coterie of guests will help listeners understand the who, how and why of how tech’s most powerful players are changing the world - for better or for worse.</p>
Episodes 18
- Oct 7, 2026 · 1h 6mNVIDIA’s AI boom faces a circular-financing testThe episode connects opaque AI financing, GPU scarcity, tax policy, and infrastructure commitments to the risks facing companies and consumers if the boom collapses.
- Oct 2, 2026 · 12 minAnthropic’s compute bill exposes AI’s financing riskThe episode argues that Anthropic’s enormous long-term infrastructure commitments could depend on sustained annual fundraising from an already strained bond market.
- Sep 30, 2026 · 16 minAnthropic’s losses expose the economics of AI scaleAnthropic’s reported losses and high cost of revenue raise broader questions about whether frontier AI businesses can become financially sustainable.
- Sep 25, 2026 · 19 minAI’s chip glut may be hiding in plain sightIf hundreds of billions of dollars in AI hardware cannot run, the infrastructure boom may be building capacity before demand exists.
- Sep 23, 2026 · 1h 13mAI spending props up growth while recession risks accumulateThe episode argues that AI infrastructure investment may be masking weak productivity while increasing exposure to debt, power constraints, and financial shocks.
- Sep 18, 2026 · 17 minAmodei’s AI warnings face a test of corporate responsibilityThe episode asks whether a company can credibly warn about AI’s dangers while continuing to develop, deploy, and commercialize the technology.
- Sep 16, 2026 · 1h 24mHow rationalist ideas shaped the AI raceThe episode examines how speculative beliefs about superintelligence moved from online communities into institutions and incentives driving frontier AI development.
- Sep 11, 2026 · 22 minAI safety warnings distract from companies’ concrete failuresThe episode argues that weak security, poor training, and reckless deployment pose more immediate risks than speculative claims about autonomous systems.
- Sep 9, 2026 · 22 minAI’s losses test the limits of crisis managementThe episode asks whether familiar startup comparisons conceal an AI business model that requires unusually large and potentially unsustainable capital.
- Sep 4, 2026 · 15 minAI’s growth rests on a dangerously concentrated customer baseThe episode argues that AI’s apparent expansion may depend on a narrow, financially fragile network of customers, infrastructure providers, investors, and lenders.
- Sep 2, 2026 · 54 minThe case against calling AI output artAs generative systems flood culture with effortless content, the episode asks whether artistic value depends on intention, authorship, and hard-won understanding.
- Aug 28, 2026 · 14 minNvidia’s concentrated growth tests the AI boomThe episode argues that Nvidia’s record performance may depend on a fragile ecosystem of concentrated customers, rising debt, and relentless investment.