Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron on Enshittification and the Rot Economy
Better Offline12 Marras 2025

Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron on Enshittification and the Rot Economy

This week’s Better Offline is a recording of a panel held by Clarion West in Seattle earlier this year with Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron, discussing enshittification, The Rot Economy, and the destruction of modern tech platforms, moderated by Whitney Beltrán.

Cory Doctorow: https://craphound.com/
Whitney Beltrán: https://brightwhitney.com/

Get involved with Clarion West: https://www.clarionwest.org/get-involved/give/

Clarion West is a nonprofit literary organization that runs an acclaimed six-week residential workshop every summer, online classes and workshops, one-day and weekend workshops, a reading series every summer, and other events throughout the year. At Clarion West, you’ll be among award-winning and best-selling writers in science fiction, fantasy, games, horror, and more. Our workshops and classes are taught by world-class instructors from across the field of speculative fiction. Wherever you may be in your career, whether novice or sage, we offer a diverse listing of classes that is packed with valuable information to take your writing to the next level.

Want to support me? Get $10 off a year’s subscription to my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/w08jbm4jwg it would mean a lot!

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/@edzitron

Email Me: ez@betteroffline.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaksot(216)

How To Argue With An AI Booster, Part One

How To Argue With An AI Booster, Part One

In part one of this week's three-part Better Offline Guide To Arguing With AI Boosters, Ed Zitron walks you through why AI is nothing like the early days of the internet, why it isn’t the early days o...

10 Syys 202535min

Monologue: Tech Skepticism Is Going Mainstream

Monologue: Tech Skepticism Is Going Mainstream

In this week’s Better Offline monologue, Ed walks you through how tech and business skepticism has begun to go mainstream, and how it can be the force to push back against the Rot Economy.Ed On CNN: h...

5 Syys 202513min

The Black Market for AI GPUs with Steve Burke

The Black Market for AI GPUs with Steve Burke

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about the black market for AI GPUs in China - and how Bloomberg suspiciously forced YouTube to take his video down. Premium N...

3 Syys 202537min

Monologue: What If I'm Right?

Monologue: What If I'm Right?

In this week’s Better Offline monologue, Ed considers what would happen if he’s right about the AI bubble bursting - and the consequences of three years of myth-peddling journalism and markets addicte...

29 Elo 202520min

Radio Better Offline: Kyle Barr, Alex Cranz & Michael Fisher

Radio Better Offline: Kyle Barr, Alex Cranz & Michael Fisher

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of one of iHeartRadio's satellite studios in New York city. Ed is joined by Kyle Barr of Gizmodo, freelance writer Alex Cranz and c...

27 Elo 20251h 8min

Exclusive: How GPT-5 Actually Works

Exclusive: How GPT-5 Actually Works

In a bonus third episode, Ed Zitron reports exclusively on how OpenAI’s new "router-based" ChatGPT-5 makes it impossible for the company to cache the static prompt for any model or tool it uses every ...

22 Elo 202528min

The AI Money Trap, Part Two

The AI Money Trap, Part Two

In part two of this week's two-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how America’s economic growth has become dependent on Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta’s AI capital expenditures - and...

21 Elo 202541min

The AI Money Trap, Part One

The AI Money Trap, Part One

In part one of this week's two-part Better Offline, Ed Zitron walks you through how AI startups’ overstuffed valuations make them impossible targets for acquisition or IPO - and how this may cause las...

20 Elo 202541min