Offline with Jon Favreau

What would you do if your son texted you in the middle of the night that he'd stumbled upon a bizarre castle lorded over by a creepy man? For Jon Ronson, the journalist and bestselling author of So You've Been Publicly Shamed and The Psychopath Test , the answer is simple: write a book about it. The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men is an empathetic, humorous, and startling investiga...

Frances Haugen became one of the most influential whistleblowers in tech history when she revealed in 2021 that Facebook knew the havoc it was wreaking—addicting teenagers, derailing politics, fomenting ethnic violence—and chose to do very little about it. Now the subject of Aaron Sorkin’s new movie, "The Social Reckoning ," Frances joins Offline to reflect on what she learned trying to change Fac...

Erin Brockovich has spent three decades helping communities fight the biggest corporations and cruelest environmental injustices, inspiring an Oscar-winning movie along the way. Her latest cause is also her biggest: AI data centers and their insidious arrival to communities across the country.  After scores of people wrote to her about the alarming influx of hyperscale projects, Erin launched Broc...

From underground compounds to planet-fleeing rockets, tech oligarchs and the MAGA elite aren’t just anticipating an apocalypse—they’re hastening it. Author and climate activist Naomi Klein sits down with Jon to discuss End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World , her new book with Astra Taylor.  She and Jon trace the connection between the religious right, Silicon Valley elite, and nati...

Is AI sending us spiraling towards an apocalypse, or upwards towards utopia? How can such a new technology inspire such diametrically opposing viewpoints?  To understand the dissonance, Jon sits down with Helen Toner, the Executive Director of Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology–and one of the OpenAI board members who voted to oust Sam Altman in 2023.  She shares her firsthand...

Max Fisher returns to Offline to face the robot apocalypse with Jon. The two discuss Jacob Coxon, the AI researcher who publicly resigned from Anthropic this week, the terrifying claims coming from those working in AI that the technology may kill us all, and what it'll take for politicians to actually attempt to regulate the fast-moving technology.  But first: Jon shares an exciting announcement a...

Americans don’t trust the government anymore. Annie Lowery, Atlantic staff writer and author of the new book The Time Tax , joins Offline to identify the culprit: a plodding, vindictive, racist bureaucracy that people must navigate to get government services and benefits. The paperwork, lines and emotional strain—just to feed your kids or renew your driver’s license––adds up to a “time tax” that f...

Is the right wing’s depiction of academia NOT a complete caricature? Fromer Bates College professor—and current Atlantic staff writer—Tyler Austin Harper joins Offline to break down the legacy of Woke 1 in higher education.  Tyler’s recent essay, "Confessions of a Token Black Professor" argues that academia’s social justice fixation is just a bandaid for much larger institutional problems; he and...

Every election cycle the question inevitably comes up - will Texas flip? But the biggest story in Texas isn't whether the state will turn blue. It's how the people who live there are redefining what Texas politics looks like.  Jen, Mitch, and Errin travel across the state to explore immigration, education, faith, and the changing priorities of Texas voters through the voices of the people living t...

Can the internet foster productive debate in the rage-bait era? Jubilee founder and CEO Jason Y. Lee joins Offline to talk about his company’s massive YouTube channel, known for its viral political debates in series like Surrounded and Middle Ground .  He and Jon talk about the moral quandary of platforming people like Charlie Kirk, what young people find so captivating about these conflict-ridden...

Is economic populism the key to Democrats retaking power in 2026 and 2028? Faiz Shakir, political strategist and founder of the media organization More Perfect Union, joins Offline to make his case that progressive populists are just as—if not MORE—electable than center left candidates.  He and Jon break down Abdul El-Sayed’s primary win in Michigan, how the progressive movement has evolved since...

What happens when you turn your entire life over to AI for a year? Could it take over your emails or learn to mow your lawn? Would it replace your doctor or even your partner? Tech journalist Joanna Stern joins Offline to talk about her new book , I Am Not a Robot , where she embarked on that experiment, integrating AI into (almost) every aspect of her life for 365 days. She and Jon discuss what s...

Was Andrew Yang ahead of his time? When he ran for president in 2020 on a platform of universal basic income and the threat of AI job displacement, people didn’t take him seriously.  Now, Andrew's got even more ideas on AI and UBI, how our political system should deal with it all, and whether it can be done with only two parties. He and Jon discuss how the Forward Party’s independent candidates co...

What lessons have Democrats learned from the Graham Platner debacle…and what are their chances of finally unseating Senator Susan Collins with a campaign timeline that’s evaporating faster than you can say Harris-Walz 2024? Alex Seitz-Wald, deputy editor of The Midcoast Villager in Maine, joins Offline to explain how Platner’s scandal-plagued campaign was perceived online vs. on the ground, and wh...

What exactly is happening inside CBS News, and how much is Bari Weiss to blame? How are journalists at CNN feeling about becoming the Ellisons' next target? And what has corporate consolidation done to the media? Oliver Darcy, founder and writer of Status and former senior media reporter for CNN, joins Offline to break it all down. He and Jon also discuss Comcast's announcement that it may spin of...

AI is creating a crisis of agency where people are becoming paranoid that they’re being manipulated, suckered, and ultimately replaced. Charlie Warzel joins Offline to elaborate on his Atlantic essay, “The Feeling of Control Slipping Away,” which illustrates the myriad ways AI is driving people insane. He and Jon talk about whether human creativity is endangered, if AI is anything more than a corp...

Progressives are highly critical of America, and for good reason. But we are losing more than problematic idols and ideals when we abandon patriotism. Jerusalem Demsas, founder and editor of “The Argument,” argues that if we’re going to save America, we’ll have to start loving it first.  She joins Offline to explain how liberals have ceded patriotism to the right, why No Kings is starting to fix t...

Ever heard a popular TikToker wax poetic about who they’re voting for? They might be getting paid…and not disclosing by whom. Kyle Tharp, author of the Chaotic Era newsletter, joins Offline to discuss the emergence of pay-for-play political influencers and whether Democrats have made any progress in figuring out the internet. He and Jon talk about the decline of Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire, the...

Who are the men who want women to be quiet? Author and Atlantic staff writer Helen Lewis argues it’s nearly everyone on the right. She joins Offline to make the case that “masculinism” and its mission to reestablish the primacy of men is what unites conservatives more than anything else…except maybe Donald Trump. In reporting her most recent cover story, Helen spoke with so-called intellectuals an...

Sonja Lyubomirsky, happiness researcher and author of How to Feel Loved , joins Offline to explain the secret to living a contented life—and why the internet makes it so damn hard. If everyone we love and seek to impress is reachable at all times…why are Americans getting less happy, year after year? Sonja and Jon chat about how social media curation may be seeping offline, the ways our digital li...

Does political violence ever help a social cause? Zayd Ayers Dohrn, playwright and host of Crooked's "Mother Country Radicals," joins Offline to discuss the complicated legacy of radical activism in America. In his new book, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young , Zayd dives even deeper into the morally ambiguous decisions made by his parents...two founding members of the notorious Weather Undergro...

Why is Palantir, the former employer of congressional candidate Alex Bores, currently running attack ads against him...for working at Palantir? New York Assemblymember Alex Bores joins Offline to explain why his stance on AI has made him a target for the biggest dark money super PAC in the country. Then, he and Jon discuss what AI regulation could actually look like if we had a competent governmen...

Cal Newport, computer scientist and author of Deep Work, joins Offline to explain why we need a revolution in cognitive fitness, and how AI is going to get in the way. Cal and Jon explore how smartphones and AI are destroying our ability to concentrate, how our attention spans are a third of what they were just twenty years ago, and how we can practice “deep work” in our constantly interrupted dig...

Megan Garber, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the new book Screen People , joins Offline to explain how we’re no longer just an audience for the media we consume; we’re also actors and producers in an endless show of our own creation. She and Jon discuss the corrosive nature of an internet filled with “main characters,” whether it’s possible to overcome screen person syndrome, and why o...

With Pope Leo XIV stepping up his criticisms of the Trump administration this month, the president is out for blood...and not the transubstantiated kind. Christopher Hale, author of the Letters from Leo newsletter, joins Offline to explain the real threat this woke offline pope poses to MAGA. He and Jon discuss why the head of the Catholic Church is so obsessed with AI, how the Democratic Party sh...