Better Offline

Blame the tech industry for the rise of authoritarianism. Blame a news media handicapped by a deference to power and a fear of bias. Blame the fact that our digital lives are unchecked ecological disasters. In this episode, Ed Zitron draws a direct line from the rot of the digital ecosystem for what happened on November 5.

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Recorded live at Web Summit Lisbon, Ed Zitron is joined by William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, who is also the co-founder and president of the Academic-Industry Research Network, to talk about how the incentives of shareholder capitalism and stock buybacks are destroying innovation. 

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Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

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Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Mike Masnick, CEO and Founder of Techdirt, inventor of the Streisand effect, and member of the board of Bluesky to...well...talk about quite literally that. A banger episode.

https://www.techdirt.com/user/mmasnick/ https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social

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LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Daron Acemoglu, MIT Economist and recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, to talk about his daring - and likely effective - plan to tax all digital advertising revenue over $500m at 50% as well as how we might adjust incentives to bring big tech under control.

PAPER: https://shapingwork.mit.edu/research/the-urgent-need-to-tax-digital-advertising/ 

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LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

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Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

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Last week, Prabhakar Raghavan, The Man Who Destroyed Google Search, was removed from his position at Google and made a "Chief Technologist," benching him in favor of a McKinsey-Google Lifer. In this episode, Ed ZItron walks you through how the removal of Prabhakar Raghavan shows that Google is in deep, deep trouble - and may finally be falling apart. 

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LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

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Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

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https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Ed is joined by Paris Marx, author of the Disconnect Blog and the host of Tech Won't Save Us, to talk about the historic - and horrifying - push of hyper-scalers to build out and control vital parts of the world's infrastructure.

Tech Won't Save Us: https://techwontsave.us/episodes

Data Vampires Ep 1: https://techwontsave.us/episode/241_data_vampires_going_hyperscale_episode_1

Data Vampires Ep 2: https://techwontsave.us/episode/243_data_vampires_opposing_data_centers_episode_2

Paris on Twitter: https://x.com/parismarx 

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LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

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Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

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In this episode, Ed is joined in the iHeartRadio studios in New York City by Zephyr Teachout, Fordham Law Professor and Author of "Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money" to talk about corruption, the ways in which we can curb the power of corporations - and why there's renewed hope for a better world.

Zephyr on X: https://x.com/ZephyrTeachout

Zephyr's book: https://www.amazon.com/Break-Em-Up-Recovering-Freedom/dp/125020089X 

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LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

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Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the brewing subprime AI crisis. The entire generative AI market is run on the back of unprofitable tech run at prices subsidized by big tech, and when OpenAI and others have to charge the actual costs underlying their services, there may be terrible consequences.

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LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

https://www.instagram.com/edzitron

https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As of last week, OpenAI is now worth $157 billion - yet below the hood is a far darker story. In this episode, Ed Zitron explains the cold, hard truth - that OpenAI is a terrible business that burns billions of dollars, and its failure to scale its cloud business tells a dark tale about the wider generative AI industry. 

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LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

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Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ed Zitron is joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN and Arielle Garcia, Director of Intelligence at CheckMyAds, for the final episode of Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google. The case alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies."

Here's a great explainer about how this all works from the Better Offline Reddit.

For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/, follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint & follow Arielle at https://x.com/ArielleSGarcia

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LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ 

Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials:

https://twitter.com/edzitron

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https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social

https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.