And so on And As devoted listeners know, I have no great love for plaintiff's lawyers.

I wouldn't quite call them hostis humani generis, enemies of all mankind, you know, pirates, but clearly I'm tempted.

The goal of most plaintiff's lawyers, in most cases, at least when they're not bringing

strike suits, is to get away from the dispassionate strictures of the law and in front of the volatile passions of a jury.

Which brings us to a landmark bellwether trial going on right now in Los Angeles County Superior Court over whether social media,

specifically for the moment, Instagram and YouTube,

causes teen addiction or mental health problems. Opening arguments happened earlier this month,

and there's been headline-grabbing testimony from Adam Maseri and Mark Zuckerberg.

I have to hand it to the plaintiff's bar. They've managed to avoid. from Adam Masseri and Mark Zuckerberg.

I have to hand it to the plaintiff's bar.

They've managed to evade all the safeguards that should have kept things from getting this far.

The First Amendment, Section 230,

the, let's say, unreliable bar on junk science in the courtroom.

And they're now right where they want to be in front of a jury, where they can demagogue,

malign, inflame, and divide, all in pursuit of a jackpot verdict.

This is the Tech Policy podcast.

I'm Corbyn Barthold.

Here to break things down for us is Clay Calvert,

professor of law at the University of Florida,

and a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

To be clear, his views don't necessarily line up with mine.

Maybe he can calm me down. Clay, welcome, sir. Corby, thank you for having me. Delight to be with you

...