If you've ever tried to explain, I mentioned I think in my writing that if you've ever tried to explain a viral tweet to someone who's not on Twitter, they will stop you.

I believe I once attempted to explain being dead to someone and I think I got out those two words and I was like, I'm going to go outside.

We're just going to pretend this didn't happen.

I missed being dead and I asked someone about that.

And hopefully the explanation was like, I'm sorry, I don't follow.

I don't follow the being dead problem or I don't know what's going on right now.

You're out, totally out.

I'm John Fabro. Welcome to Offline.

Hey everyone, my guess this week is Jane Kostin, host of the argument and columnist at the New York Times.

So Jane joined us on Potsayf America, the week Elon Musk announced he wanted to buy Twitter and I could immediately tell from our conversation that she shared my love, hate, but mostly hate relationship with Twitter.

I've wanted to have her on offline ever since.

Jane's written some excellent pieces in the Times, not only about why we all need to get over Twitter, but how to grapple with our extremely online existence, including a fascinating argument about the gamification of our online debates, and how that's affecting everything from politics to culture to sports.

Beyond Twitter, Jane and I also talked about shifting ideas of elitism in the United States, why we should pay more attention to the NFL and shows like NCIS,

and why she thinks former high school debaters have destroyed our online discourse.

Though I've had my fair share of conversations about Twitter on this podcast, I have to say this is one of my favorites.

Jane's enthusiasm, be it for Twitter, Michigan football, or masochistic workouts, is infectious.

If you haven't already, I highly encourage you to check out her show, the argument.

As always, if you have questions, comments, or complaints about the show, feel free to email us at offlineatcricket.com. Here's Jane Kostin.

Jane Kostin, welcome to offline.

Thank you so much for having me.

I've been meaning to have you on for a while, because I could tell from your writing and from our conversations that you too believe that our extremely online existence is probably doing us more harm than good, especially those of us who spend time on social media, and especially those of us who spend time on Twitter.

Is that a dear characterization?

...