Offline with Jon Favreau Crooked Media

We did it folks! Jurors for Trump’s hush money trial are getting to read their resistance tweets to his face as Meta’s crackdown on news is slowly asphyxiating conservative media. Jon and Max celebrate the good news, and then dive into the much more somber topic of dating in the Internet Age. It turns out Gen Z is abandoning dating apps in favor of social media and the “old school” approach of meeting people in person. Then, Max interviews blogger Jenny Livingston about what it’s like to learn you’re going to live 50 more years, thanks to a new drug that’s working miracles for her and many other people with cystic fibrosis.

Is FOMO the only thing keeping you on social media? Have we already reached peak artificial intelligence? And are Max and Jon too old to enjoy Glorb, a Spongebob Squarepants AI that’s become the hottest rapper on the internet? The guys cheer on the nosedive of Trump’s media company stocks, break down the latest research in why your friends want you to quit social media, and answer mailbag questions like “will Jon ever stop getting in Twitter fights?”

Are college educated Democrats going to cost Joe Biden the election? Eitan Hersh, a Political Science professor at Tufts, joins Offline to take a closer look at “political hobbyists,” aka people who think that getting involved in politics means following the news and forming political opinions. Eitan’s book, Politics is for Power, lays out a roadmap for folks who are tired of online takes and ready to get involved in politics at the community level—where engagement could make a real impact. He and Jon talk about what organizing looks like in every day life, and how the most important activism is the kind you probably won’t find on social media.

Dr. Laurie Santos, Yale University's “Happiness Professor,” joins Offline to lay out a scientific guide to finding happiness. On her podcast The Happiness Lab and in her course Psychology and the Good Life (the most popular in Yale’s 300 year history), Laurie educates people on the way our brains lie about what makes us happy and helps them reorient their priorities to find genuine happiness. She sits down with Jon to talk about the root causes of declining happiness among young people, why in-person interaction is a crucial part of being human, and why putting others before ourselves makes us happier than fulfilling what we think we want. But first! Jon and Max are surprised to learn they agree with Ron DeSantis and break down the ridiculous conspiracy theories that have taken over Twitter after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore.

Eric Klinenberg, sociologist at New York University, joins Offline to discuss why our failure to process 2020 may lead to another disastrous Trump term. His newest book, 2020, breaks down the year that reshaped our politics, unveiled cracks in our society, and transformed the ways we live, work, and interact with each other. Eric and Jon unpack how Trump’s Covid-era leadership politicized public health and left Americans to fend for themselves. They discuss how to best address widespread resentment and institutional distrust, and consider how to grapple with the lasting effects of a year we’d rather forget.

Kate Middleton sightings have dipped below UFO sightings, and the internet is having a heyday! It’s conspiracy theory week at Offline, with Max and Jon offering up their own takes on the missing Princess of Wales. Then, they break down the latest developments of the House’s proposed TikTok ban––including content creators’ ludicrous theories behind what’s really going on. To cap it off, Max sits down with Vox Senior Correspondent, Dylan Matthews, to talk through a new UFO report from the Pentagon. They tell the story of how UFOs were mainstreamed by an otherworldly alliance between the drummer of Blink-182, a former Senate Majority Leader, and the New York Times.