Welcome to the very first tech policy podcast, your source for policy raves and rants from

Tech Freedom, your Washington, D.C. advocate for the

freedom to tinker and innovate. I'm Evan Swartzraber, your host. Now, there are many reasons why

you may be listening to this. You're a nerd. You got an email from my mother. You have nothing

better to listen to. But however you got here, we're just happy to have you. As this is our first

episode, you might be wondering who we are and what we do. On today's show, we're just happy to have you. As this is our first episode, you might be wondering who we

are and what we do. On today's show, we'll tell you. My guest is founder and president of

Tech Freedom, Baron Soka, and he might just have something to say about it. So, Baron, what is

Tech Freedom, and why should anyone care? Well, it's a DC think tank dedicated to lowercase T, lowercase F,

tech freedom. That's a very common concept. You may hear that term in the tech world, but certainly

you hear people talking about it all the time. It's the idea that the government really shouldn't

be telling people what they can and can't do on the internet with new technologies

without very good reasons. Our work really is to balance the needs of law enforcement with privacy,

the needs of consumers and consumer protection, with the advantages that come from innovation,

and to be a voice in general for saying that the government's role should be as narrow as possible

and that we should be careful about interfering with new ways of doing things that people in Washington or state capitals don't really understand.

So if we had to sum up tech freedom and with a couple of terms, would it be accurate to say

permissionless innovation and regulatory humility?

Yes.

It's almost as if you're the communications director for tech freedom.

Well, now that you've spoiled the surprise, I'll go to my next question.

How long have you been think tanking?

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