Offline Thoughts

Like many people during January I completed "Dry January" - a detox we undertake yearly to check that we are still in control of the alcohol we consume (and not the other way around). Is alcohol a drug? Are we all addicted? Do we choose to become lifelong drinkers? A month of clarity helps us answer these questions honestly. Key words: dry January, drinking culture, drugs, functioning alcoholism P...

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse it did - Elon Musk does the Nazi salute. Trump pardons January 6 Capitol building rioters, begins mass deportations, repeals Civil Rights-era legislation, and calls for focus on execution of imprisoned illegal migrants. Key words: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Nazi salute, mass deportations, Great Replacement conspiracy theory Please send your thoughts and...

Bonnie Blue burst onto the national stage with her provocative marketing strategies for her OnlyFans account - recruiting young university students for filmed sexual acts. Most recently she became the internet's most infamous sensation when she allegedly had sex with 1,057 in just twelve hours. Often we are told women who engage in these kinds of extreme actions of self abuse are broken women who...

Surrogacy is booming—but at what cost? This episode looks at the dark side of the industry: the economic coercion of vulnerable women, exploitation in poorer countries, and the shocking ways in which surrogate mothers are treated by commissioning parents and surrogacy agencies. Do couples who can't have children for whatever reason have the right to them? Even when surrogacy isn't commercialised o...

In the early hours of 4 December 2024, 26-year old Luigi Mangione walked up behind UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and shot him dead. What followed was a five-day manhunt for Mangione. What made this case stand out in the public's imagination were many factors - an attractive and wealthy perpetrator from a powerful family, the theatre of the killing (a 3-D printed gun and silencer, engraved bu...

OnlyFans describes itself as a revolutionary platform that gives its creators the freedom to produce highly personalised content for their fans. It should describe itself as a platform for prostitution that lures young women into engaging in activities that will ruin their lives, stigmatise them and trap them in poverty. The stats are clear - the average OnlyFans creator makes $150-180 per month a...

The TikTok ban will come into effect on the 19th of January 2025. Right now, it seems its fate is sealed – the House of Representatives has almost unanimously agreed to pass it under “national security” concerns, Congress has given it the rubber seal of approval, and President Biden has signed off under executive privilege. Despite public opinion being united in their opposition to the passing of...

Often the first thing we want to do is share our good news and accomplishments with the people around us. However, the response we receive is sometimes unexpected - we can be met with ambivalence or negativity where we anticipated praise and encouragement. Recognising that people - even our loved ones - can be limited by their own insecurities, envy and self-limiting beliefs teaches us that someti...

Intersectionality politics tells us that coalitions united around a shared goal are not free of internal power dynamics. It also teaches us that victimhood is complicated - it is possible to be simultaneously both a victim and the oppressor in certain contexts. This episode takes a look at some of those complexities as well as the parallels between the transgender and transracial movements. Please...

The upside of growing up in unsafe environments as a child is that people often grow up to be discerning adults who have a highly attuned ability to read the hidden meanings behind what people say and do. Sometimes this is useful in simply being able to recognise red flags that indicate certain people don't wish us well. Other times this skill serves to keep us safe and to keep danger at bay.

Sometimes we find ourself in a series of bad friendships. We form friendships with people who take from us, treat us poorly, are unkind, or, in the extreme, who that don't wish us well. Although it's easy to play the victim, the truth is more complicated - in some ways we cultivate these friendships and keep these types of friends close because they fulfil some other need we have. That could be th...

Elon Musk is a professional exaggerator and liar. From lying about founding PayPal and Tesla (he didn't), to lying about the death of his son and divorce from his second wife. Looking at his family history we get a little insight into the man - his father had two children with the stepdaughter he raised since she was four years old. What really defines Elon Musk though, is his capacity to wield hi...

The saying goes that there's no such thing as a free lunch - if you are not paying, usually it is because you are the product. Every day we interact with platforms to read articles, share thoughts, upload our posts, make purchases, conduct research or otherwise just leisurely scroll. These platforms often have required billions of dollars of investment and many years of hard work by the brightest...

Few have been through as many public controversies as Kanye West. During the last ten years the public has had a front row seat to Kanye's erratic, impulsive, and emotionally unstable antics. Many of these have not only been deeply offensive to many people, but they have left in their wake a destruction of his personal and business relationships, an alienation of his fanbase, a loss of credibility...

Age gap relationships have existed since the dawn of time. There are many appeals for both parties - often the younger partner is looking for financial provision and protection, and the older partner is looking to hold onto their youth for a little longer. Whilst they're not necessarily always inherently predatory - they often are. Sometimes the younger partner only comes to realise this years lat...

Heterosexuality as the standard, strict gender norms and negative LGBT societal messaging create in LGBT people feelings of shame, self-hatred and a deep desire to conform to the straight world - often at the expense of their own psychological well being. This episodes focuses on the symptoms of internalised homophobia and how to deal with it. Send any questions and comments to offlinethoughts.pod...

Sex, power, and corruption are inextricably linked. Control over others becomes easier when their deepest secrets are at risk of exposure. P Diddy and Jeffrey Epstein are examples of men who used people's vices against them (often through extortion and blackmail), before finally becoming victims of these same vices. They are the tip of the iceberg. Sexual blackmail and extortion is deeply baked in...

While it's generally understood that high-end fashion brands market prestige and status, it’s less obvious how this same manipulation is mirrored in military recruitment, which primarily targets people from low-income backgrounds. Both these industries prey on people's insecurities and their need for self-worth, offering false promises of value and social mobility. By commodifying both goods and l...

Mass psychology is used to shape our beliefs, desires, and actions. Whilst we may be aware that the advertisement and public relations industries are specifically designed to manipulate our desires and behaviours - we sometimes don't realise that propaganda is endemic in our educational system, our politics and that we often don't know that we have been propagandised. Send any questions and commen...

Imposter Syndrome is that nagging feeling that you don’t deserve your achievements—that you’re a fraud, only succeeding due to luck, charm, or being the "best of a bad bunch". For women, people of colour, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, this can be a natural consequence of working in hostile environments with deeply entrenched systemic biases. Either way, the net effect is feelin...

The myth persists that the way to get the love or friendship you desire is by pouring into the person you care about - whether that be energy, emotions or financial resources. Nothing could be further from the truth - it is the giver that becomes entangled in the relationship the more they give, making it near impossible for them to walk away as they fall prey to sunk cost fallacy. Meanwhile, beca...

Jesus, the central figure of the Christian faith was over the course of centuries, white-washed from what he would have looked like - a Middle-Eastern, brown skinned, dark-haired and likely bearded man - to the white Jesus with light hair and light eyes that we know today. This transformation has not been by accident and its effects have not been without deep consequences on the psyche of all Chri...

The occult is experiencing a resurgence - as it always does following periods of social, political and economic instability. People, feeling out of control and desperate for an order to the chaos and hope for the future turn to astrology, fortune tellers, mediums and a whole host of other 'alternative' spiritual practices to fill the void. Whilst on the surface these may seem harmless - that is no...

Sexism is pervasive and infiltrates every aspect of our lives—from language and social norms to the structural infrastructure of our political and legal systems. The ugly truth is that all men are sexist - and that women are complicit in maintaining the sexist order in various ways. Please send your thoughts to offlinethoughts.podcast@gmail.com . SHOW NOTES Articles: Gender study finds 90% of peop...

Following the horrific events on the 29th of July 2024 in Southport where a 17-year-old boy stabbed and killed three girls– a wave of unprecedented xenophobic violence against Muslim people and other people of colour took place. So far, 800 rioters have been arrested and 350 charged. Amid the chao two things are clear – (1) the spread of misinformation (including by figures like Elon Musk, Tommy R...