Let's face it, we're living on two different internets.

Algorithms have us trapped in our own information bubbles, and if things couldn't get weirder, Elon Musk is basically running the American government, not ideal. I'm John Favro, host of the offline podcast with Max Fisher. Each week, we're breaking out of our digital echo chambers to better understand the tangled web of the internet, from the rise of the manosphere to the media personality shaping our feeds.

It's a deep dive into all things online, but without the trolls and pop-up ads.

Check out offline with John Favreau, wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube.

Hey, this is Alex.

Very quickly, before we get started, this show cannot exist without your problems.

So please head on over to hyperfixedpod.com to submit your problems for us to solve.

That's it. Here's the show.

Hi, I'm Alex Goldman, and this is Hyperfixed.

Each week on our show, listeners write in with their problems, big and small, and I solve them.

Or at least I try.

And if I don't, I at least give a good reason why I can't.

This week, Phoebe's Origin Story.

I get really, like, obsessed by nostalgia from my own childhood.

This is Phoebe.

When I jump on the call with her, I can immediately tell that the world she lives in is not an ordinary one.

Behind her, there's a blue flower hand-painted on the wall and framed

illustrations of anthropomorphic animals, and on a table, a giant mouse head and two bags of

cotton balls for costumes and puppets that she's working on. So when she tells me that she's a

children's book author and illustrator in Bellingham, Washington, it all kind of makes sense.

It looks like Phoebe lives in one of her storybooks.

And unlike you and I, who might be wistful and reminisce about memories that defined our childhood,

...