Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed Zitron is joined in studio by Mia Sato of The Verge and Dave Lee of Bloomberg to talk how companies like TikTok and Google change the web with their incentives, the nihilism of Pop Mart's viral Labubus, and why people are more game to pay independent writers.

Mia Sato, The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/authors/mia-sato
https://bsky.app/profile/miasato.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/miasato.2/

Story around “dupes”
https://www.theverge.com/cs/features/709635/knock-it-off

Story around “Labubus”
https://www.theverge.com/analysis/710047/labubu-pop-mart-blind-boxes-scarcity-marketing

Dave Lee, Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AWQ3soOJK0Y/dave-lee
https://x.com/DaveLeeBBG
https://bsky.app/profile/davelee.me

Story around Google and AI
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-28/google-is-reaping-the-rewards-of-its-unfair-ai-advantage?srnd=undefined

Google “Web Guide”
https://blog.google/products/search/web-guide-labs/

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