Better Offline - The Better Offline Mailbag

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by producer Sophie Lichterman to answer questions about life, technology, and Better Offline itself. YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more. --- 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/edzitron.com https://www.threads.net/@edzitronSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the Radio 831 podcast, join us, Sanjana Basker, and Tyler McCall.

As we unpack, the trending tropes, fuzzy adaptations, book talk drama, and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests. Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity, and how we love now. Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast Deeply Well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole.

This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. AllZone Media. Hello and welcome to Better Offline. I'm your host Ed Zittron. Today I'm joined by the wonderful Sophie. Lichtenman, who will be overseeing our Q&A episode, our very first one. Sophie, thank you so much for

joining me. Yeah, I'm kind of the Q&A MC over here at Cool Zone Media, as in you need somebody to ask you the questions. And we've had wonderful questions from all of you this week. Thank you so much. We're going to try and do these every couple months, but I love hearing from you. Please post on the Reddit. Please message me. You have my email, Easy at Better Offline.com, and that's EZ atbetteroffline.com for the Canadians and the British who listened to this as well. But Sophie, why don't we take it away? Yeah, I'm just going to jump through some of these questions and, yeah. And like, thank you guys so much for submitting them. Like, we really genuinely appreciate it. It's cool. It's cool. It's cool that you have a podcast where people like you enough where they want to ask you questions. Yeah,

it's sick. All right. I'm going to start with a question from Garrett Smart. Do you think AI is actually useful in any capacity, even as an assisted in the areas of art or programming. If so, why? So when it comes to art, I think that there are new functions like slightly better clone tools as well that I've heard people use, but really this is just a bridge from Photoshop. I will say for the most part, art is not a great one because usually it's just getting rid of the creative side. Programming's a more complex one. So there's an excellent video. I'll link to in the episode notes from the Internet of Bucks that Carl Brown, I think his name is. I really want him on the show. Carl, if you're listening, please come on, where he kind of said

that Generative AI code is different to what software engineering is. Like, software engineering is solving a murder or an investigation far more than Generative AI is just creating code, because software engineering isn't just spouting out code and saying, here we go, we're done. We now have software. Software is a manifold series of different things you have to do. And on top of that, things break when you plug them into other things. And our internet and most software products are built in a patchwork of different things. So software development, the best I've heard is that it can be used in very controlled situations for very specific things. If you're really interested in learning what it can actually do, I recommend Max Wolf and Simon Wilson. I'll link them in the notes as well. But those two are non-hype AI guys. I also really recommend the internet bugs, which again, I'll link as well. There are software development. developers who use this stuff. I don't know about, and actually the internet of bug videos really good as well, because it breaks the whole myth of, oh, Microsoft and Google saying 20 to 30% of their code is written by AI. It's kind of bullshit, as you'd expect, because you can't just

hand off code like this. There's also vibe coding. Vibe coding in and of itself has so many problems in that, yeah, when you create something that works in a way that you literally don't understand by definition, yeah, it's probably going to fucking break. I mean, it will break at some point and you won't know how to fix it other than to poke the machine that build it and say, fix the problem I don't understand. That's a good answer. From Falcon underscore 1983. I'd be interested to hear Ed's process for researching and planning his stuff.

How long does it take to go from an idea to a finished article and podcast? I'm excited to hear the truth for this one. Okay. So Sophie is going to love this. So the answer is several seconds or several days or several weeks. So I'll give you an example. I have an upcoming newsletter that's about 13,000 words long. I'm going to break it into probably two or three episodes.

That thing started with me listening to Jojo Bizarre Adventure. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Music even. Sitting outside, just it was a nice day. I had a smoke. It was like, oh, fuck. I started writing down the most insane notes ever. I then sent that to my editor and my mate Casey, and we talked about it for like a day or two.

And then I get pissed off, like a baby that needs to far. or burp. I sit there being mad at the idea. I message people like, what do you think about that? You ever see this? And they're like, I don't know what you're talking about, Ed. I don't understand what you're talking about. What do you mean? And then I'll then in explaining it to them, I'll actually come up with the idea. And then I will sit down and I will write for several hours. And I will write for several hours straight. I will research as I'm writing. There will be stuff that I pick up along the way in my day that I'm reading and I'll go, this kind of makes me feel annoyed or feels like it slots in. And then I will go through a full. So the 13,000 one took me about

three days, probably three days, about three hours each, bits and pieces. And I'm researching as I go. That's a big part of my process, which sounds insane. But it's mostly because I'm trying to explain it to myself as I go, which works pretty well. It makes the things a little long, but I mean, that's why you listen to the podcast. Then there will be situations like with Giant Bomb. So the Giant Bomb episodes that came out last week. So that one came together in a few minutes. I was like, I messaged Dan Reichert over there and said, hey, look, I would love to do an episode with you guys and just came together quickly. Same with like Karen Howe. And so it really is a tapestry of different things. There will be times when I ping friends and just say, hey, look, what do you think about this

idea? And I will shoot the shit with them for a few hours and something will come out. That's why I mentioned Casey Kegawa a lot. He's one of my closest friends and we ideate a lot because we both brainworms. So yeah, I don't know if anyone else in the world writes like this. It makes me sound insane, but I really enjoy it and I feel better at the end. Like it feels like I really build something. It's, it's cool. I like doing it. The monologs are insane in that those usually take me about 10 minutes of pacing around thinking and then about 20 minutes of writing, then I record straight because I like the monologs. The monologs, the monologs. The monologs, I think I have more fun with than anything else because they're so low. They're low velocity, low pressure. I love doing them. And I always say, I'll just do five minutes that comes out as 10. Oh, really should do a monologue this week. I love your monologues. Oh, they're the best. I really do enjoy them. I love that you were like, yeah, I'll try it. And then you were like, I had so much fun doing this. It's like, it's because it's low pressure. You can tell, but you can tell. That's why they're so, that's why they're so good. Because if you were doing them out of like, oh, obligatory.

to rant as opposed to like I actually like doing and then it's just not as interesting in my opinion yeah you can tell you can tell as like a as like a a podcast for a producer of many podcasts you can tell when somebody's phoning it in yeah I don't think I have it in me to phone it in I get no you don't I get I mean the man who killed Google searched you know from last monologue sorry two monologs back even when we're recording this yeah was literally that came from me being pissed off about like I was trying to phone in a she and newsletter It was like super not she didn't use that podcast. And it was super early and better offline.

So I had no process. I was just like, just constantly worried every week. Yeah. Not anymore though. Now I feast on content. Yeah, you caught the podcast illness. Oh, yeah.

The Evans Madness. Let's do another one. From Logan. My question is, how do you see the copyright lawsuits playing out? and its effect on generative AI in the tech industry. Do you have faith that creators will win and copyrighted content will need to be pulled from these models

severely hindering their performance? I think that it's going to be... It's a good question. It's going to be weird and confusing right up until it isn't. So I don't think you're going to have like a unilateral win in any of these cases. It's never that clean, it's never that easy. But I think what is most likely to happen is there's going to be a win and then there will be a massive settlement, but that settlement will be used in the future to break these machines. If they lose these things and there is ever like a precedent set that says, and I'm not a lawyer I've realized, but, and they say, okay, this is the thing where, this, this proves that feeding into the models is a violation of copyright, let's just say, they can't untrain these things. They cannot do it. You cannot untrain a model.

Once a model is trained, it's done. There are stages to them they could probably revert back to from what I understand, but you can't just be like, okay, remove all pictures of Scooby-Doo. Remove all pictures of Garfield. And another important detail is the model developers don't really understand how these things work themselves. They're still working it out. It's why there's so many questions they have when it's like they get where they're like, oh yeah, yeah, it just be very complex to remove.

The answer is they don't know how. Open AI, like a year ago, said they were going to make a media central thing. We could opt out of stuff. Just never happened. No one checked. On the less fun level, it will probably be a big settlement. On the funny level will be, the judge says, yeah, you have to amend your models. There is no amending these models.

They will have to spend tens, hundreds of millions of dollars to retrain anything that has used there. There will be some that refused to. I would not be surprised if Elon Musk. If even ordered just goes, oh, yeah, that's not epic or base. still want to not going to do it. And, and no one is going to, like, no one's going to out sue him. Open AI is far more scared of that. Anthropic, extremely weak to that. And on top of that, any of these lawsuits prevailing will fuck Open AI's non-profit situation, which is already pretty fucked. Like, there are so many weak points in these companies that people don't realize.

And there's always, there's always hope. Never give up hope that these assholes can get crushed. Another podcast from some SNL, late night comedy guy, not, Quite unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends, me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group? The worst? Yeah. Me.

Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The yard herds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yard. They're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle aged, one erection.

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So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex?

Dating at 45. How hard can it be? Getting naked at 50 with the new guy. That one's kind of hard, no? Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong and Wilfridell from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast.

We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our... severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough.

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So make sure to tune in a pod meets twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to Pod Meets Tworld on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. From M-A. I think it's M-E-L-A. I'm sorry if it's not Mela. Question.

I'm a teacher. Any thoughts on AI being implemented in the classroom specifically in public schools? We talk about it pretty often because it constantly getting marketed as a tool, but it is mostly in the context of students learning on it to write research, but not about how it is being marketed to schools. Yeah, so I don't know this subject in depth, but I'll say this. I've heard of people using it for lesson plans. Teachers, and if you're not a teacher and you hear this, teachers have to like buy all their own shit and they need to do all their own work. They get basically no support. So I wouldn't be surprised if the, if Open AI or one of these companies tries to push in and be like, oh, it's a teacher's system.

And it's a rare case where like, maybe it kind of helps, but I think after a certain point, if you're making a lesson plan with chat GPT, you're no longer fucking teaching. I think you're just representing someone else's information and hoping it works. I worry about administrations in poorly funded education departments just being like, okay, yeah, let's just shove this in here. I think the worries that people have over the whole like, oh, kids are just going to be handed to GPT and told to go nuts. I don't think that will happen just because, well, Google's already trying to do that with Gemini. They're already trying to give Gemini to kids. I don't think that that's going to last as long as people think because at some point, a child is going to hurt themselves because of one of these things or hurt someone else. And as much as we love our unrestrained capitalism in this country and the world at large,

there comes a point where that kind of stuff fucks you in Europe. Like Europe will unhinge their jaw and swallow open AI whole. And the same with Google, if they do anything with kids and AI in a way they don't like. Over here, you're going to see some tests. But the fun about the thing is it can't do the teaching part. It can do the, hi, I want to finish my homework for me. but the actual lesson instruction, no, and nor is there a situation where they're just going to sit kids down in front of it because, I don't know, how would that even, I mean, sure, in some dystopian future, we just handle a laptop and chat GPT and say, go nuts, but on a practical level, I just don't see that happening. And if, I guess you could say, then there are the Duma's out there or say, or the Department of Education can force grok onto everything. If you think in that way, if you constantly pull yourself in the Dumerous direction, yeah, anything. can literally happen ever. Any time, anything terrible can happen. I think you are going to see a lot of

departments push teachers to learn this stuff to the point of your question. I think when it becomes student-facing, that's when things are going to get a little bit weird and a little bit crazier, because another thing to think about, how well do you think conservatives will react to their child being plunked in front of chat GPT or grok or what have you? And grok or chat GPT tells them that like black people should have the same rights as white people. They're going to hate that. They're going to be furious at that idea. They're going to say that they're being given a woke education. And there is only so much amendments you can do to a system prompt before you entirely break it, as proven by the fact that Grock talked about white genocide or

the Boers at nauseam the other day. Shout out to Kylie Roberson, went on Chris Hayes to talk about that. But yeah, it's a mix. It's really, it's a question of how far this hype cycle goes and for how long? Because if it lasts another two or three years, somewhere it's going to happen, but I don't see that happening at all. Yeah, I know it's really kind of gnarly for teachers when they can so easily tell that students

are just using AI to turn in homework. I mean, somebody's going to create something that is like a plagiarism tracker, but it's like an AI tracker at some point. You'd have to imagine. And those already exist, and they're already dinging students for, And I think that there is a wider problem with the old chat GPT essay writing thing, which is we don't teach children to write.

Correct. I remember when I was at Penn State, I had a group project. If any of you're listening, I'm very sorry, your writing sucked. I had a group project with like seniors and juniors, and I was the sophomore at the time. And he was like an 18 page, 18 page double spaced essay. And everyone's writing was different, but the same kind of bad. And it kind of mirrored the shitty writing of chat GPT. It's the kind of intro body conclusion slop.

We taught people to write like this and we graded them based on this writing. We don't because we think, oh, not everyone can write. Actually, they can. I fully believe they can if given media to consume and encouragement and have good writers teach them. Because we do not prioritize communication as, in fact, I think it is a word of thing. We don't prioritize teaching people communication at all. people are using chat GPT to mediate conflict because we don't have any kind of institutionalized mental health. I don't mean like institutions. I mean like making people do mental health stuff.

We don't have any kind of classes to teach people conflict resolution. And we also don't teach people how to fucking communicate. We romanticize, especially in college, this kind of overstuffed architect in the matrix style, indubitably bullshit, which is about making yourself sound smart rather than actually communicating an intelligent point. this is a natural weak point for things like chat GPT, which is entirely about sounding smart without being smart. So, I mean,

I'm actually shocked that teachers can't tell when chat GPT is writing, because I've been able to 100% notice when I get that slob. It's a really certain kind of echoing nothing behind it. There's no, I'm not even being kind of condescending. I mean, there is a way it writes.

There is a way that Claude writes as well. It always goes like, that's a really good point. Yeah. Yeah, there's usually some kind of like, indeed, that is great. Yeah, exactly. Like, there's some, like, really strange or like an unusually awkward punctuation as well that you can just tell. And it doesn't feel right.

And but again, if we have teachers that don't know how to write who don't know what good writing is, they just, and again, that is a, well, not again, I didn't say this yet, but there is also likely not the institutional support for teachers either. So it's just we create these weak systems that get exploited. And none of this is a business model for chat GPT either. Like they got 16.5 million, I think, from Cal State University system. It's like that's still losing the money. And already people are trying to get rid of it. It's just, it's also sickening. It's a mess.

Let's go to a fun question. From Nora, do you have a piece of tech you wish had been successful but wasn't? or that you wish was widely influential but didn't turn out that way. I would love to know your answer to this question. So my one is the PlayStation Vita. So the PlayStation Vita was this little gaming console that Sony did. It was PlayStation 3 era, I think it was. It was so cool.

It was like a step up from the PlayStation portable. The graphics were good. It had this weird touchscreen on the back that you could use. It really wasn't a great idea, but it was like they were trying stuff. It was also just a great form factor, great weight. great games. Really great. Same with the PSP.

And I get why it didn't take off. And I think we are getting there. There's the GPD Win 4, which is like a little gaming PC handheld. It kind of feels like it, but it's too chunky. I think in the next few years you might actually see growth in this

because good Lord is that... I love the mobile gaming PCs. I'm for the show, actually. I'm playing with an Asus Rog Ally X, which is really cool. We are probably five to ten years away. from what I'm dreaming of, which is a super thin one that's kind of like a Nintendo Switch, but a powerful gaming PC. But I wish the PSVita had done better, because we would have seen

this quicker. We would have seen a push for smaller silicon, for batteries, like there would have been just more money going into it. But again, maybe it didn't get there because the tech wasn't ready. I still loved it. I still really loved it. And I really love that form factor as well. And the big thing, I guess I'm saying is it's not just do these things, exist, it's, like, Sony is very good at ergonomic stuff. I love their controllers. Like, that was what really made it as well. It was just, I missed, I miss that. And I'm sure there's some, if you are a listener who played with the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita homebrew scene, love you. Please email me. I'd love to talk about it. I miss it. It's cool as shit.

Raymond Wong, who used to write at Inversa did a lot about it as well. It's just, I guess the part of tech I'm missing is, well, that never really took off, is these power awful portable handhelds. And we're so close. We're so close. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel the cosmos. It's going to be wonderful when it gets here. There was a article that I read a couple days ago from Vice. That was probably, you know, not an original piece from Vice, no offense to Vice. That was like, your pets could one day be able to talk to you with AI. And I just, like, that to me was one. You've been talking. you're talking about, and there's a question that talks about the AI bubble burst, which is what this is leading into.

You've talked about that. That is such an indicator to me that I'm like, come on, come on. Come on. Yeah. Come on, guys. Part of the joy of pets is that they can't communicate with us and we have to show them extra love and affection. I know. We have to understand their needs without fully understanding them that we have to be empathetic and caring about them. The idea that also, I don't want to hear what Babu thinks of me. I think he loves me, but, no, he loves me. I think he loves me. I think Howell is the one My cat who kind of like stays in my office mostly He is the one who I think he's probably

Got some mean things to say He loves me but he also hits me in the face sometimes So Yeah I mean like I think Anderson would Would not trade me for a piece of string cheese But my my newest rescue dog Truman I mean I'd love for us to know When she'd be like that

I'm scared of that But also I don't want to hear that she would trade me For a piece of string cheese which I'm pretty sure she would at this point. And I understand it. What if my dog's racist? I mean, come on.

What if your dog has, like, really bad taste in television? Yeah. Oh, God. What if your dog is just annoying? What if your dog just, like, hums? Yeah. What if your dog's sitting there, like, kind of going, hmm? Yeah.

Just, like, makes, like, weird mouth. Like, there's just, otherwise, like, my pets are beautiful and wonderful. I love them so much, and they make my life so good. They really are angels. Yeah, exactly. Can you imagine? I know. I don't need to.

Well, I mean, Babu talks to me anyway. I can understand almost everything that my dogs communicate to me. Nice. And that's great. And that's where it needs to stay. I think Babu can understand me for sure. Yeah. Because I have tons of videos to be saying, Babu, what do you want?

And he meows at me. I'm saying, really? He goes, meow. Yeah, he does. We're talking. That's what I'm telling myself. Like, Anderson can understand. She's right behind me.

staring at you actually. The legend. Yeah. Yeah, she's perfect. But, like, I think she is more self-aware about what's going on in the world than most humans. Yeah. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah.

Anyways, from Justin. This was leading into the AI bubble burst thing. As the AA bubble bursts, what will become of the many mediocre customers who have become overly reliant on it for just about everything? That's a great question. I think the first thing they're going to find out is they're not reliant on it at all. But that is the first thing they're going to discover is that they were never reliant on this stuff. I also think that in the event that they were reliant on it, they'll choose one of the many open source models. And because large language models are not going to disappear.

It's not like open AI dies tomorrow. Large language models will not. The hype cycle dies, they will not die. There are on-device models. Nvidia is putting out like a $3,000, I think it's the DGX box they're doing that can run large language. which models of a certain parameters, like, it's very doable. And there are going to be people who just go, I didn't, I never really needed this. Yeah, there are going to be those who say, oh, well, I use chat GPD for this, that, and the other.

ChatGPT.com all forward to copilot. Like, you're going to have access to one of these fucking things. You're just going to find out what happens when people are not told to use this stuff, when people naturally use it. And I think you can kind of see what will happen there based on the user numbers for these companies outside of OpenAI. They can barely muster up the combined active users of like a free to play game that sells your information to the Chinese. Like I think that so much of this demand is artificial too. And I think that it's curiosity. People are like, oh, I hear about this constantly.

I should try it out. And then, yeah, people are ultimately a bit lazy. I know I can be. And they're like, oh, I'm in an argument with my mate. What do I do about it? How do I deal with the argument with my friend? Chat GPT? And there will be that.

People use it for that. But I also think that, again, that's not a business model. And people will not care for that. So I think the future will be large language models with heavy usage limits. And premium ones that no one pays for, really, that are just way more expensive. And I really do think OpenAI eventually cops it. I think they get absorbed into Microsoft because we don't really have antitrust right now. So I think they'll just get.

paying for premium AI? Sadly. So they're paying, Open AI gets like billions of dollars through this. But it's like people, organizations buying it. And you have people, think about it like this.

If every single news outlet everywhere, forever, for two years straight or more has said, chat GPT, AI, generative AI, chat GPT. Yeah, billions of dollars of revenue. Sure. People will shove money into something if they are told to. And on top of that, you have tons of business idiots who are just like, yeah, I need to put AI in my business.

And I have the podcast that's coming up. I actually believe our economy is run by a lot of people who don't do any work. So this shit seems like magic. Of course they'll buy it for their entire organization. They don't know what the fuck they're doing. Yeah, sure. Put chat GPT and everything. That's how that works.

Ooh, here we go. And I think that when it goes away, or chat GPT does, I think that we'll probably see just the kind of very boring large language model industry. And it just won't, it won't be as prevalent. You won't hear about it as much. And it'll actually be better for the tech, I think, all told. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk, to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. There's that worst singer in the group? The worst? Yeah. Me.

Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard yard, but they're open to change. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open.

Since you guys are middle aged. One erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Fray. friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hum me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora.

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Hey, I'm DeAnna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with DeAnamoreva,

where I call on my GenX squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex?

Dating at 45. How can it be getting naked at 50 with a new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public.

Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of My Cultura Podcast Network available on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong and Wilfridell from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV. who now have covered Dancing with the Stars. Traders.

And we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough.

Did people not like it? Like what was just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion at the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists to a bunch of ha, ooh, ha, ha, ooh, ha, who. Again, we are experts.

So make sure to tune into Pod Meets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back from, I'm going to try to get this right, P-8-N-T-B-A-L-L-N-X-J. I think I did that. I think they're trying to say paintball AnxJ All right The question is

Ed What are your favorite activities That have nothing to do with tech? Okay So I have a local basketball court I've been going to on my own And I've been playing basketball on my own Which sounds very sad

But no way it does it I do a shit ton of fitness So last year I've lost a ton of weight I'm down like buck 65 now muscle, it's great. So I work out a lot. The reason I don't bring up lifting is because that's tech. My tonal is a tech thing. Basketball is not. It's me, my music and hoop him. And I'll tell you, I am one of the worst shooters of all time. I am so bad at it. But I really like rebounding and I really

like the cardio thing because I needed a cardio level to go because my boxing was kind of stalling. So I really enjoyed just like running around for half an hour like catching a ball in the air and shooting it and then like it bouncing up a bag. you. You will demolish me more than that. I have the cardio. I have the cardio, but I'm like, how tall are you? I'm five foot three on a good day. Okay, yeah, I might, I might be right. I'm five, nine. I was, I was captain of my varsity basketball team. Oh, then you'll demolish me then. Okay, you will, you will send me to hell. You'll be able to actually get the ball in the hoop, which is my one problem. But I really like that, and I really like, um, barbecue. So I have two

pellet smokers, which I realize to some listeners who do like the wood chunks is kind of considered param, but fuck you, you purist bastard. But I love making ribs. I love making tri-tip. I hate making brisket. It was a few years ago. I really fucked up tritip. I love tri-tips. My try-tips incredible as well. I really enjoy that. I do use some tech things. I have a combustion thermometer, but really is just a giant's steel thing full of smoke that I watch. And it's great. And it honestly has been really good for me. And it allows me to cook for people, which I love doing.

And yeah, and when I'm waiting for stuff to cook, I will stand watching TV outside, bouncing the basketball around, catching it in the air. I just, I have some weird habits, as you can probably guess, but I really enjoy, like, being bad at basketball. I honestly have not enjoyed being bad at something. Do you like to watch basketball? I'm getting there. I'm still learning the people. I know that, like, James Hardin is constantly at strip clubs or being traded. I hate him.

My brother played against him in high school. He's been an asshole since he was a child. Yeah, and he seems to, like, enjoy, like, tricking people into doing fouls. But I'd just, I'd like him more if he was ruder, like, if he was more of a heel, if he, like, was like, nah, the fans a bit. Yeah, I mean, prop Ian and I can teach you. I would love to learn basketball. Yeah. You're a Laker fan, by the way.

Cool. are. I like the Lakers. It's good. You've been assigned. Baseball as well. I really enjoy baseball. I got into baseball a few years ago. I really enjoy going to baseball. Don't really enjoy watching it on TV. Like I can, but I need to like have a reason I'm there. Like it needs to be like a, like an LDS or something. I'm like a Dodgers, Padres Mets fan. It's a whole mess. I'm really, I'm more of a game. I'm like the Rob low wearing the NFL hat guy. I'm just like, I'm here for the game. But I really do. I'm I really enjoy baseball. And with that in mind, I also enjoy, but haven't been for a while, going to a batting cage.

I really enjoy batting cages. There's just, especially when you're on the computer all the time, you're looking at screens all the time, and you just go and you hit a ball that's, like, thrown at you at 70 miles an hour. It's very difficult, but again, really enjoy it. How do you feel about, like, mini golf and, like, the driving range? I do. I like mini golf. Never done the driving range, though.

I like mini golf a lot. Minigolf is great. You know, I don't like that, like, what's it called? The like, Yossified, like, driving range where there's... Oh, Top Golf? Yeah, I really don't enjoy Top Golf. Oh. It's just unenjoyable.

I've never, like, really known where you'd go. I guess it just felt like a driving range to me, and it's like, I like mini golf. I think mini golf's fun and silly. I like, like, a really, like, old school mini golf course that you know has been there forever. And, like, it's kind of shit. It's shit in the tech. And there's, like, no tech. It's just, like, really.

really bad, like wooden, wooden art, and it's just hilarious. You're not sure if it's meant to go in a certain place, but you keep playing anywhere. Do you like bowling? No. So I have a coordination of disability called dyspraxia, which is really weird. I realize basketball has honestly been an exploration of how prevalent that is in my life, though, because I could not dribble the ball when I started. Like, I physically could not.

I would get maybe three or four bounces before I drop it. Now I can run at full speed up and down the court, dribbling, changing hands. I can turn around, I can grab the ball in the air. So it's been this weird exploration. So bowling might be one of those things where maybe if I try it more. I don't know. The sticking your fingers into dirty holes thing is... I can...

We all been there, but it's one of those things where six months ago I'd have said no, but the basketball side, again, on screens all day. So, like, my achievements are all typing. But, like, being able to grab a ball out of the air, being able to actually rebound successfully, thrilling. I really enjoy it. And it's, like, something where I can't look at a screen. I have to look at where I'm going to miss next.

I'm telling, I'm going to text Ian in prop right now. We're going to give you a full basketball education. I would love that. I would genuinely love that. Casey Kigawa, friend of the show, got me into baseball in the same way. That's how I get into sport. I also do watch the NFL, but I think saying I love it. like the Raiders is a stretch. It's like attending a year's long class action suit. That was the

weirdest thing that's ever coming out of your mouth. The Raiders. I know, I know locationally, sure, but like to actually like the Raiders, you have to be a specific type of person, which you are not. Well, the funny thing is, is Areef Hassan from 60 Minut'Jill football podcast I do, laughed at me once because he asked on the pod, he said, why'd you get into the Raiders? I was like, oh, I lived in Oakland at the time, and the season ticket's really cheap. And he just goes, You got into a football team because of market conditions. And that is something that will haunt me for the rest of my life because it's true. However, the team might be good this year, maybe.

Yeah. But I haven't had hope before, so who cares? Yeah. Oh, and also the show Jojo's Bizarro Adventure. That's another thing I really like. You don't want to get me talking about that too much. Is that what the question about Jojo is? Yeah, you can skip that.

I was like, I don't know what that is. I'm not going to ask that. I would have to explain a bunch of stuff. I'm not. I was like that went over my head. I'll ask one more serious one and then we'll do the cats. Sounds good. All right.

Which one do I want to ask? That's serious. Oh, this comes from Eric. How the fuck is anyone supposed to make anything cool and make a living under music anymore? I quit touring to be with my kid, but all the avenues I was going to explore and crumble under my feet. I think that's a good question. I think that's like music, but it's also just like, how the fuck are you supposed to create anything anymore? I think the thing that the problem is that it was never really a good way of making money before

and the internet had this explosion of where it was good to, it was good to make money for a beer, but there were only so many people who could. I mean, IHot Radio and Cool Zone came to me and I did the podcast because they could pay. Like I wouldn't have done, like the idea of starting a podcast and like building an audience and selling ads sounds nightmarish to me. I can't imagine being a musician right now. It seems the way that musicians I know are making money are skipping streaming services, doing a shit ton of touring, doing merch, like kind of old school measures. I know these aren't really good answers. I can only sing. I can't play any musical instruments. I wish I could. I've never toured with anyone or have experience with that. But my general thing

with creators right now is, and the only really good advice I've ever had is find whatever is easiest than do that. The reason I do my newsletter is, though they're very long, I enjoy doing it and it isn't, it's work, I guess, but it comes very naturally. I don't do anything that doesn't. I find ways to streamline things that I don't like doing, like I think anyone does, and I obviously run like a PR firm and another thing. So I like, I need to make sure my time is used well. But the big thing is, is I don't know how anyone does anything independently anymore. The newsletter, I think I could have monetized, but the best advice I got there was from Drew, Drew Fairweather, so I'm married to the sea, the shares. It was just keep creating stuff, which I know is

deeply unsatisfying, but the mistake that people get pulled into is they're like, okay, so I've got Patreon, I've got this, what platforms am I on? I'm on the platform, on this platform, are my posting to social, am I posting to LinkedIn, my own, am I on Instagram, do I have Instagram clips to have this? All of that time could be spent making something. And indeed, this is advice that I got from Sophie and Robert failure, just fucking record. Just go for it. You will never be perfect.

You will never be able to do a flawless episode or flawless product. What will come through is that you care about doing it and you're actually fucking doing it. Because so many people get obsessed with the social media of it or with the push it like with the, I must hit content every week in this way and this perfect way with all these clips.

They must resemble another content creator. When it really comes down to it is just push it out. try stuff. Another great bit of advice I got was from wonderful Matt Weinberger. I used to be a business insider, great editor, great writer. And he said, look to hit singles rather than home runs. You want to just keep putting stuff out regularly enough that you get feedback, that you get the natural feeling of what bangs before you even finish it. That way, it will have more mass appeal because you'll learn more from people's reaction and from creating stuff than you ever will from doing a perfect social.

campaign from following the right people from having enough retreat treats and this. The beginning sucks. When I started, I already had somewhat of a following, ironically from PR. I can only recommend just creating more. I realize this is kind of an unsatisfying answer, but there are no good ones here. There's discovery sucks on everything now, even for popular stuff. When I started his podcast, he was like, I'm terrible. And I'm like, keep doing it. You're not. Now we enjoy it. Yeah. Now I enjoy it.

Now they have to tell me to do less. That's true. Last question from Carolina, they say, I have an underlining curiosity to hear what your cat's favorite toys are and if they like churu. Is that how you pronounce that? Churu is this paste that you hand cat. It's this goop. I have yet to give my cats the goop.

Yeah. So Babu, Poki, Howl doesn't really like, I am his toy. He comes and sits on me, he bites my hand occasionally, he purrs, he lies down. He's a big, big softies. Same with Tingis Pinguish Pinguish. Tingis Pingu's favorite toy is each other. They chase each other, two Bengals, they just bolt around the house. They don't do it much.

I have one of those cat wheels. Barbu will go and run on it for 15 seconds. He will walk over, meow, run on it, get ahead of steam, and then stop, and then sit down on him. They like the classic dangly toys. like to jump. Barbo, we have like a river in the wall where we put something very high, like one of the dangly ones. And Barbo will just do these insane like six foot tall jumps. Oh, he loves it. He loves it. And yes, of course, boxes. Anytime I get a box, they get, they want to get in that. They want to play in the box. The twist tie things. I get cheap toys for

them because they seem just as happy. Another thing is, this isn't really a toy. But but I got one of these donut beds for the cats, and they didn't use it for a year, and then one day I found, in the space of 24 hours, all three of them trying the donut hole in the middle. That's great. Now Pingu's mostly uses it. I have never tried giving them churu.

I am now going to get some churu and try just because... Have you tried one of those, like, glove brushes? My best friend's cats. I go to their house and I just sit there with the brush, and they're just so happy. I get one of them. and I use it a few times and it never seems to

there is always more hair so I think I need to get a deeper grooming thing for the brush it's not even for the grooming Oh they love it They love it yeah I pull that thing out sometimes when Pinguis

I don't know he looks particularly cute Yeah And I just go and pick I go and like pick him up And sit down and start like grooming him like Blofeld but with a giant kind of like blue spiky glove Looks very sinister

But he really He really, Pingus is the sweetie. He's the sweetest of them. All of them are, I'm blessed with my beautiful cats. And my friends as well, but like my cats really, I genuinely believe that cats echo something about their owners. So if you have someone with like super dysfunctional cats, there's a reason.

Yeah. Like that. Yeah, I feel that way about my dogs. They are me and I am them. Well, they're wonderful dogs. I, I've yet to meet them though. One day I will. You will.

I have to make it to work. Yeah. You will. Well. But yeah, I'm going to get Chiru after this. I've actually have some because they gave it to me to. Thought you were going to say you were eating some. No, somebody gave somebody when I, when I, they was like trying to it was, it's like a in like a like a, like a pill, pill hiding for like pill. Pil, Pied. It's like a thing. Somebody gave it to me as like a thing. But it turns out, um, Truman will eat a, eat a pill out of my hand just all a card. She doesn't need the true. Perfect dog.

She's angel. She's a good girl. Well, yeah. You did the mailbag. You did the QA. Did the mail bag. We will do another one of these in maybe a month or two. I love doing this.

I love hearing from all of you. And genuinely, thank you to all the listeners who reach out regularly. Because if I say so much as something negative about myself, you are all very reassuring and you refuse to accept it. I love you all genuinely. I'm blessed to have you. So thank you for listening.

And yeah, until next time, Sophie, thank you for being on with me. Of course. Of course. I can't wait to teach you more about basketball. Prof and Ian are the group chat has decided you're in the club. You made it. Hell yeah. I'll look forward to it. Thank you for listening, everyone. Thank you for listening to Better Offline. The editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song is Mattersowski. You can check out more of his music and audio projects at Mattisowski.com. M-A-T-T-O-S-O-S-K-I.com. You can email me at E-Z at Betteroffline.com or visit. Visit betteroffline.com to find more podcast links and, of course, my newsletter.

I also really recommend you go to chat. Dot. Where's your ed.at to visit the Discord and go to our slash Better Offline to check out our Reddit. Thank you so much for listening. Better Offline is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com. Or check us out on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends.

Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Norsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a merry man.

They holding Kay Michelle back from fighting Drew. Pinky has financial issues. On the podcast, Reality with the King, I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real House Wise franchise. The drama, the alliances, and the T everybody's talking about. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Joey Dardano, and on my new podcast, Hope From a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me.

This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst. advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to help from Hippocrite Wednesdays on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the Radio 831 podcast, join us, Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall, as we unpack all the trending tropes, fuzzy adaptations, book talk drama, and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests. Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity,

and how we love now. Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.