You are listening to the tech policy podcast. I'm Corbyn Barthold. We're coming up on the end of the year.

This is our last show of 2021. Special welcome to anyone listening to this while relaxing on their winter

break. I was just telling our guest, I have my ugly holiday sweater on. The letters FTC are on a lot of

lips these days. That's thanks mainly to the work of an energetic new chair, Lena Kahn.

Since Kahn took her seat in June, the FTC, or Federal Trade Commission, has revoked earlier

commission policy statements and guidelines, discarded procedural protections for regulated

parties, taken measures against mergers and acquisitions, and consolidated authority in

the chair's office. Here to discuss all things FTC with me is Adam Sella, an attorney advisor to FTC

commissioner, Christine Wilson. I saw Adam speak at a Fed Sock event called the FTC

in the current administration, buckle your seatbelts.

The title of that event gives a pretty good flavor

of how some people and certainly many in the business community

think of the FTC these days.

One thing I learned from watching that event is that

Adam is wicked smart. So I'm very glad to have him on the show today. I will also try to make

him blush by noting that he's only like five years out of law school. So he's a rising star

and a name worth remembering. Adam, welcome.

Thanks for having me.

So the overall theme for today is what's going on at the FTC. We'll be talking about changes in the substantive policies that are going to be pursued,

and we're going to be talking about changes in the procedures that that are going to be pursued and we're going to be talking

about changes in the procedures that the agency will apply. But I'd like to start with changes in

how the commission operates behind the scenes. I think you being an FTC insider can probably

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