Offline with Jon Favreau - Podcast Rankings and reviews

Excellent podcast about the trials tribulations and challenges of social media, with some actual tangible recommendations. While the podcast is hosted by someone who is a political liberal, the insights and conversation provided are presented in a way that it can be enjoyed by people of any or no political persuasion if they are interested in the subject matter of how to assess and address social media and do what we can to mitigate its harmful effects.

I like Pod Save, but it has been delightfully refreshing to hear the talented Favreau interact in depth with people outside the DNC echo chamber. Favreau does an incredible job facilitating a fun, informative conversation that draws out interesting ideas and stories from an eclectic range of guests. I look forward to hearing from interesting people from diverse ideologies.

As someone who writes about the importance of friendship and in-person human connection in the age of likes and retweets, I was delighted to see Jon take on such a vital topic. I love Pod Save America as much as the next progressive, but the truth is that the future of our democracy depends on our relationships with each other, not just our relationship with Washington, which is why Offline is so important. We need to talk more about what social media and technology are doing to our brains—and our hearts. We need to spend more time IRL with our friends. Have listened to every episode so far and will keep listening! Thanks Jon and team!

Jon has a way of chatting with people about tough topics that makes it easier to digest. His good humor and interview style is fun to listen to and I learn a lot! It’s basically all the good parts of PSA but in a longer format and a deep dive on one topic. Five stars!!

This podcast used to be quite good but in the last few months it has become 2 millennial white guys complaining about social media and telling people to educate themselves with "better sources" yet never deigning to tell anyone what those better sources are. They make fun of TikTokers for ignorance yet don't point to anything better. Increasingly feels like they're just attacking 14-year-old girls in TikTok fandoms they don't understand

This podcast has been a very helpful tool in my staying cognizant of the effects that the internet has on myself and society.

As a note of criticism, I am finding the show unlistenable as of late because of Max’s constant laughing throughout every episode. I understand that the show has a loose, casual style, which I do appreciate about Crooked Media podcasts in general, but this laughing is just way too persistent, and it lasts several seconds each time… a drawn out “a-HAH-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh” multiple times a minute gets so grating to hear, no matter who is doing it. He laughs at every little passing joke that Jon Favreau makes. Jon can be a funny guy, but sorry to say, not every single joke is laugh-out-loud funny, as Max’s laughing would suggest.

Because this is an audio medium, I would think the producers and hosts would be more conscious of things like this and recognize the value of minimizing anything that amounts to repetitive noise as this does. It feels petty to being saying it, and maybe I’m alone in feeling this way, but unfortunately I just can’t unhear it now, and it’s become like nails on a chalkboard to me. Not because Max’s laugh in particular is annoying, but simply because it is so constant, and anyone laughing that constantly would be annoying. He literally laughs out loud multiple times per minute, but it just seems like an annoying habit, rather than genuine laughter, and it’s become too distracting.

It’s a shame because I love the subject matter that Max, Jon, and their guests discuss, and I think all of them including Max are very insightful. I just can’t subject my ears to this forced laughter anymore.