Tech Policy Podcast

Pamela Samuelson (UC Berkeley) discusses the Supreme Court oral argument in Cox v. Sony, a copyright case that could have major ramifications for the internet. Links: Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment (https://tinyurl.com/ycyy37yf)

Transcribed - Published: 11 December 2025

Corbin heads over to the Techdirt Podcast, hosted by the one and only Mike Masnick, for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of social media.

Transcribed - Published: 2 December 2025

Geoff Manne (ICLE) returns! He and Corbin break down a judge’s ruling (politely) laughing the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit against Meta out of court. Topics include: - The bizarro world of antitrust trash tweeting - “‘Antitrust’ means what I want it to mean!” - Back in reality: a straightforward ruling - Maybe Zuck just . . . knows what he’s doing? - Users want what they want ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - Does your market definition pass the laugh test? Links: Tech Policy Podcast 384: The Facebook Antitrust Case (https://tinyurl.com/58xdw5xz) Tech Policy Podcast 393: Herbert Hovenkamp on the State of Antitrust Law (https://tinyurl.com/ye7yn88k)

Transcribed - Published: 20 November 2025

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) survey the Trump administration’s many attacks on the First Amendment. Topics include: - Law firms you should no longer hire - Political opponents = terror groups?! - Brendan Carr is a lap dog - Jawboning rebrand: it’s “outreach”! - Terrorizing foreign students is bad Links: What if the Big Law Firms Hadn’t Caved to Trump? (https://tinyurl.com/3fzyve5c) The Global Free Speech Recession (https://tinyurl.com/2p9jbtek) Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0 (https://tinyurl.com/3crnmuvd)

Transcribed - Published: 13 November 2025

She’s back! Former host Ash Kazaryan (Future of Free Speech) returns for a wide-ranging discussion about powerful algorithms, attacks on Section 230, and much, much more. Topics include: - Ash: this is your life! - In defense of tHe aLGoRitHm - In defense of Section 230 - Once more: Anderson v. TikTok is so bad - Has information gotten too cheap? - Why Evangelicals should love AI - Why every platform has a metamorphosis - Let’s get cancelled Links: I Built This Algo Brick by Brick (https://tinyurl.com/mr454njj) The Bedrock Principle (https://tinyurl.com/mk8dssnp) Neural Viz (https://tinyurl.com/2rkx22dt) Tech Policy Podcast 417: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Is Wreaking Havoc (https://tinyurl.com/3e5yypzp) TPP From the Vault: Revising Section 230 Will Silence Marginalized Voices (https://tinyurl.com/ytc76ccw) TPP From the Vault: Why Section 230 Matters (https://tinyurl.com/2wuzhe7y)

Transcribed - Published: 3 November 2025

Sri Muppidi (The Information) discusses OpenAI’s effort to overhaul its corporate structure—and the resulting power struggle over the company’s future. Links: OpenAI Says Its Business Will Burn $115 Billion Through 2029 (https://tinyurl.com/4bh3pxnm) OpenAI Executives Rattled by Campaigns to Derail For-Profit Restructuring (https://tinyurl.com/y2z6fx6d) OpenAI Says Nonprofit Parent Will Own Equity Stake in Company of Over $100 Billion (https://tinyurl.com/4hhft5tx)

Transcribed - Published: 22 October 2025

Jeremy Neufeld (Institute for Progress) discusses how our immigration system works, why high-skilled immigrants are so important to the tech sector, what’s wrong with the Trump administration’s H-1B reforms, why America is so complacent about competing for global talent, and more. Links: Trump’s H-1B Changes Won’t Work (https://tinyurl.com/mpccn29y) Talent Recruitment Roulette: Replacing the H-1B Lottery | IFP (https://tinyurl.com/t5yxcxsz) The Talent Scout State | IFP (https://tinyurl.com/2ftcdfnu) Tech Policy Podcast 317: Making Progress (https://tinyurl.com/nrm3vs7j)

Transcribed - Published: 6 October 2025

Adam Kovacevich (Chamber of Progress) discusses the populist / anti-tech turn in politics, and what can be done about it. Topics include: - How did we get here? - Tech optimists: There are dozens of us! - Beware ThE gROupS - If there’s a crisis, maybe act like it? - Duct tape and bubble gum - The great relearning - We’re so doomed - We’re so not doomed Links: Tech Policy Podcast 403: The Constitutional Crisis (https://tinyurl.com/jxm6sene) Tech Policy Podcast 388: The Abundance Agenda (https://tinyurl.com/6cmmaz2k) Tech Policy Podcast 355: Conservative Futurism (https://tinyurl.com/mspwp85t) Tech Policy Podcast 301: The Realignment (https://tinyurl.com/3ry5m57u)

Transcribed - Published: 24 September 2025

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and Tom Kurland (Patterson Belknap) discuss the spate of product-liability lawsuits against social-media and AI companies. Topics include: - A tort law primer - The ballad of Helen Palsgraf - Causation, shmausation - Speech =/= product - Ideas are powerful. (That’s the point!) - “Addiction.” You keep using that word … - ♪ Junk science ♪ - AI, suicide, and you Links: Tech Policy Podcast 414: Beware the Butlerian Jihad (https://tinyurl.com/38h8ymsm) Tech Policy Podcast 347: When Schools Scapegoat Social Media (https://tinyurl.com/2d4h54w7) Tech Policy Podcast 310: Algorithmic Amplification (https://tinyurl.com/44srprp6)

Transcribed - Published: 15 September 2025

Host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses why Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is wrong, how it muddies First Amendment law, and how it is already causing wider harm. Topics include: - FSC v. Paxton: a result-oriented ruling - A credulous court - PoRn iS sCArY - Ashcroft v. ACLU is sitting right there! - tEcH Is ScARy - RIP First Amendment 101 - The porn-to-social media litigation pipeline - States cite FSC v. Paxton 1,000 times Links: Tech Policy Podcast 373: Porn and the First Amendment (https://tinyurl.com/3yepfzdh)

Transcribed - Published: 4 September 2025

Shoshana Weissmann (R Street) discusses the disastrous Online Safety Act, the growth of censorship in the UK, and more. Topics include: - Protect the children, they said . . . - The SpongeBob videos must stop - Solve problems? Or just shut people up? - How dare you comply with our law! - Age verification in practice - Peter Kyle: polite demagogue - Let’s kill KOSA - UK: global speech police? - “Rights”: you keep using that word . . . Links: U.K.’s Online Safety Act Censors the Internet—A Preview of U.S. Proposals (https://tinyurl.com/hbeeyr7k) Tech Policy Podcast 405: No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been “Solved” (https://tinyurl.com/bdfd7vrb) Tech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/4evtwv8z) Tech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/4x6nbvss) Tech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks) (https://tinyurl.com/275z8bsh)

Transcribed - Published: 25 August 2025

From November 8, 2020 (Episode 279): Billy Easley sits down with former host Ashkhen Kazaryan. They remind us of the value of the free and open Internet. Links: Revising the Law That Lets Platforms Moderate Content Will Silence Marginalized Voices (https://tinyurl.com/f555unze) Free Speech and Tech Policy at the US Supreme Court, 2025 (AEI Event) (https://tinyurl.com/scer4rh8)

Transcribed - Published: 13 August 2025

Matt Perault (a16z) joins Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) for a wide-ranging discussion of AI bills, AI laws, and AI vibes. Part of the WLF-TechFreedom Tech in the Courts webinar series. Topics include: - Why did the AI moratorium die? - Activity in the states - Regulate outcomes, not models? - Next steps in Congress - “Transparency”: so hot right now - The AI panic - Lawsuits Links: Recorded Tech in the Courts Webinar—The State of AI Regulation (https://tinyurl.com/mwk83rp7)

Transcribed - Published: 4 August 2025

Our host, Corbin Barthold, heads over to So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast. He talks with Nico Perrino and Ari Cohn of FIRE about the death of the AI moratorium, a bogus wrongful death lawsuit against Complexity AI, the FTC’s campaign of censorship against ad agencies, and the absurdities of Europe’s Digital Services Act. Links: Shownotes, courtesy of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast (https://tinyurl.com/6zwcbzjb)

Transcribed - Published: 21 July 2025

Richard Morrison (Competitive Enterprise Institute) joins the show for a Big Picture Episode on how AI could affect art, culture, and politics. Topics include: - Take your Zyn and LSD - Don’t rock out to this AI band - What is AI slop? (What is art?!) - Cultural elites hardest hit - A brief history of tech panics - Ban the prompt theory! - The AI civil rights movement - AI as counterculture Links: Big Yowie, AI social media influencer (https://tinyurl.com/mbndnr7t) AI and the End of the World (https://tinyurl.com/4her9h6z) More Thoughts on AI (https://tinyurl.com/mtyy95sd) Richard’s Free the Economy podcast (https://tinyurl.com/3fknft56) Tech Policy Podcast 366: Tech, Gender, and Freedom (2023/24 Big Picture Episode) (https://tinyurl.com/33hfj45r) Tech Policy Podcast 327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (2022 Big Picture Episode) (https://tinyurl.com/4n2kenur) Tech Policy Podcast 301: The Realignment (2021 Big Picture Episode) (https://tinyurl.com/3ry5m57u)

Transcribed - Published: 10 July 2025

TechFreedom’s Jim Dunstan and Corbin Barthold discuss the NASA administrator vacancy, the Artemis program, the NASA budget, SpaceX and Blue Origin, the moon and Mars, the FAA and NEPA, space regulatory sandboxes, and more. Links: “A Blueprint to Launch”: Regulatory Sandboxes for Outer Space (https://tinyurl.com/3fvca2e7) Roadster location in space (https://tinyurl.com/ybrhx4uy) Tech Policy Podcast 372: Spacesuits! (https://tinyurl.com/25hs5bfz) Tech Policy Podcast 349: The State of Space Exploration (https://tinyurl.com/vu89pyez) Foster The People - Lost In Space (https://tinyurl.com/mwpsv4ry)

Transcribed - Published: 1 July 2025

FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter, Alvaro Bedoya, and Bill Kovacic speak with hosts Bilal Sayyed and Jessica Melugin at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Summit: Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC & DOJ Interference in Media and Speech. Links: Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 1 (https://tinyurl.com/3v4d7txu) Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 2 (https://tinyurl.com/ycxdzdme) SCOTUS Should Not Hand Sweeping Removal Powers to this President (https://tinyurl.com/34wcpyrt) Supreme Court order in Wilcox v. NLRB (https://tinyurl.com/mth9mytj) Tech Policy Podcast 410: The FTC and Online Speech: What’s Next? (https://tinyurl.com/y4kczekr) Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC's Quixotic Social Media Inquiry (https://tinyurl.com/3wcxj53e) Tech Policy Podcast 402: Can Trump Fire FTC Commissioners at Will? (https://tinyurl.com/jr3t44t6)

Transcribed - Published: 23 June 2025

Maneesha Mithal (Wilson Sonsini) discusses the FTC’s investigation of social media companies. What’s going on behind the scenes? What’s the FTC likely to do now? How can platforms prepare? How much damage to the First Amendment can the FTC inflict? We cover all this and more. Links: Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC’s Quixotic Social Media Inquiry (https://tinyurl.com/5n97sh7d) Tech Policy Podcast 406: The Take It Down Act (Is a Weapon) (https://tinyurl.com/45h26nu9) Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0 (https://tinyurl.com/28tu6bnb) Tech Policy Podcast 322: FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips (https://tinyurl.com/392p2fw5) Appeals Court: Yeah, Of Course Ken Paxton’s Investigation Into Media Matters Was Bullshit (https://tinyurl.com/59aznm55)

Transcribed - Published: 12 June 2025

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Santana Boulton (TechFreedom) discuss the FTC’s “Inquiry on Tech Censorship.” Topics include: - What are we doing here? - The myth surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop - Does the FTC know how terms of service work? - Does the FTC know how cartels work? - Content moderation is pro-free speech - Jawboning on steroids Links: Copia Institute FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/y6r2b82f) TechFreedom FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/mccbwa2h) Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Twitter And Hunter Biden’s Laptop (https://tinyurl.com/685fjmk8) Moderating Eating Disorder Content Is Harder Than You Think (https://tinyurl.com/r37nvnjb) Why Is The Republican Party Obsessed With Social Media? (https://tinyurl.com/bdec2u9w)

Transcribed - Published: 2 June 2025

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez speaks with TechFreedom President Berin Szóka at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Forum: Constitutional Limits on FTC, FCC, and DOJ Interference in Media and Speech. Topics include: - Nice broadcast license. Would be a pity if … - Section 230 is good, actually - Agency independence is good, actually - How do you litigate regulation-by-threat? - Edge providers =/= common carriers - Jawboning versus jaw 👏 boning 👏 - Skidmore is for experts Links: Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 1 (https://tinyurl.com/bp6fuudc) Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 2 (https://tinyurl.com/2f8k558k)

Transcribed - Published: 23 May 2025

Vidushi Dyall (Chamber of Progress) discusses the remedies phase of the Google search antitrust trial. Will Judge Mehta order Google to sell Chrome? To license its search data? To stop paying Apple for default status? And: With AI advancing rapidly, why are we talking about any of this? Sorry about Corbin’s sound quality! He’ll be back in front of a proper microphone next episode. Links: Tech Policy Podcast 353: The Google Search Antitrust Trial (https://tinyurl.com/mryvmrce) Tech Policy Podcast 393: Herbert Hovenkamp on the State of Antitrust Law (https://tinyurl.com/3nzh2e8d)

Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2025

Jess Miers (Akron Law) discusses the problems with the Take It Down Act—the federal bill that (ostensibly) targets non-consensual intimate imagery. Topics include: - What does Take It Down (claim) to do? - FFS, enforce the laws you have! - “Sexually explicit content” (in a normal world) - Brendan Carr is a preview of things to come - Amy Klobuchar is asleep - Is the “it” in Take It Down “all adult content”? - The censorship administration Links: Jess’s Bluesky thread on Take It Down (https://tinyurl.com/33ud5xsa) The Take It Down Act Isn’t a law, It’s a Weapon (https://tinyurl.com/yc32xnac) Tech Policy Podcast 403: The Constitutional Crisis (https://tinyurl.com/yujf2p9e) Tech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/bdz48xs7)

Transcribed - Published: 7 May 2025

Eric Goldman (Santa Clara Law) discusses his new paper, “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.” Topics include: - The many kinds of online age-verification law - Age verification as an information problem - Fancy tech as deus ex machina - Data collection today; state surveillance tomorrow - What about devices and app stores? - The internet and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - Child safety: it takes a village - The parental consent nightmare Links: The “Segregate-and-Suppress” Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online (https://tinyurl.com/3dex3c3z) Age-Verification Laws Are a Verified Mistake (https://tinyurl.com/3j4b2kbn) Tech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks) (https://tinyurl.com/3kaemmw7)

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2025

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses the recent spate of attacks on end-to-end encryption—and free speech more broadly—in the United Kingdom and United States. Links: U.K. Orders Apple to Let It Spy on Users’ Encrypted Accounts (https://tinyurl.com/mr3rkckd) Tech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/26waj4bn) The UK’s state-funded anti-encryption propaganda (https://tinyurl.com/29f3xynf) The UK Has A Voyeuristic New Propaganda Campaign Against Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/2xfcpw8k)

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2025

Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez (Law & Chaos) discuss the Trump administration’s renditions to El Salvador, its purges of Justice Department lawyers, and other heinous things you should worry about. Links: Law & Chaos (https://tinyurl.com/yykzstaa) Trump v. J.G.G. (SCOTUS) (https://tinyurl.com/35uj7s2f) Noem v. Abrego Garcia (4th Cir.) (https://tinyurl.com/4u3u43ak) Trump docket w/ CourtListener links (https://tinyurl.com/y9ys95x6) The Constitutional Crisis Is Here (https://tinyurl.com/4947kfkd)

Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2025

In a crossover episode with the Rethinking Antitrust podcast, Bilal Sayyed (TechFreedom) questions our host, Corbin Barthold, about the presidential removal power, Humphrey’s Executor, the FTC, the Trump administration, and the Roberts Court. Note: This episode was recorded just before the D.C. Circuit issued an interlocutory order addressing the president’s removal power as to the NLRB and the MSPB. That order is in the links. Links: Rethinking Antitrust (https://tinyurl.com/ftz798ym) The Executive Power of Removal (https://tinyurl.com/3j8r6j9t) Will the Supreme Court Face Down Trump or Flinch? (https://tinyurl.com/862sntrz) The D.C. Circuit’s post-recording order (https://tinyurl.com/44k68arw)

Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025

Chris Marchese, NetChoice’s director of litigation, discusses the many, many lawsuits NetChoice has brought to defend free speech on the Internet. Topics include: - Texas’s HB 20: time to create a 100,000 page record - NetChoice speaks for you! - California’s building code for the Internet - “Addictive”: you keep using that word . . . - Targeting social media = targeting the little guy - Age-gating the Web: bad idea then; bad idea now Links: Second preliminary-injunction order in NetChoice v. Bonta (N.D. Cal.) (https://tinyurl.com/mr2e3h5r) Tech Policy Podcast 383: SCOTUS Internet Non-Law (https://tinyurl.com/2284wy8s)

Transcribed - Published: 24 March 2025

Anupam Chander (Georgetown Law) discusses the many bad precedents—legal, geopolitical, and otherwise—that we’ll be living with in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the TikTok ban. Links: TikTok v. Garland Opens the Door to Global Censorship (https://tinyurl.com/4p7s35s6) Harvard Law School Rappaport Forum: TikTok and Free Speech (https://tinyurl.com/3br5fvna) The National Security Internet (https://tinyurl.com/2p9zv4wa) Tech Policy Podcast 399: What the TikTok Ruling Should Have Said (https://tinyurl.com/42rhc3m4)

Transcribed - Published: 10 March 2025

Jeffrey Fisher (Stanford Law) argued the TikTok case before the Supreme Court, on behalf of a group of U.S. TikTok users. He and host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the SCOTUS TikTok ruling that should have been. Links: U.S. TikTok Petitioners’ Opening Supreme Court Brief (https://tinyurl.com/yxuws736) Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0 (https://tinyurl.com/28tu6bnb) Tech Policy Podcast 371: So You Want to Ban TikTok (https://tinyurl.com/3thv6wmf) Tech Policy Podcast 344: TikTok and the First Amendment (https://tinyurl.com/yc6h2vyp)

Transcribed - Published: 3 March 2025

TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold, Andy Jung, and Santana Boulton continue their discussion of the many, many things going on in AI innovation, competition, and regulation. Topics include: - The Lina Khan AI crackdown (that we averted) - What’s next for the FTC and AI? - (More) AI culture war - 600 state AI bills (might be 600 too many) - Blackpilled about Europe - Micromanaged deregulation (is not a thing) - Will the EU become unaligned? Links: Don’t California My Texas: Stargate Edition (https://tinyurl.com/3t85ay79) The European Commission’s (Anti)Competitiveness Compass (https://tinyurl.com/57y82j5f) How Liberal Democracy Might Lose the 21st Century (https://tinyurl.com/3zusc46f) Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0 (https://tinyurl.com/28tu6bnb)

Transcribed - Published: 24 February 2025

TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold, Andy Jung, and Santana Boulton take you on a tour of the many, many things going on in AI innovation, competition, and regulation. Topics include: - First signs of AI escape velocity? - Automated luxury libertarianism - The Trumpian vibe shift - AI culture war - The AI $$$$ bonfire - The one-week DeepSeek freakout - Is regulation futile? Links: Tyler Cowen on OpenAI’s Deep Research (https://tinyurl.com/mukeekp3) Dwarkesh Patel on fully automated firms (https://tinyurl.com/y6a6m2dh) Trump Signs AI and Tech Executive Orders (https://tinyurl.com/2a46hd5m) Some Simple Lessons From China’s Big AI Breakthrough (https://tinyurl.com/2s3rtffd) Tech Giants Double Down on Their Massive AI Spending (https://tinyurl.com/9jaxade8)

Transcribed - Published: 17 February 2025

Maggie Miller (Politico) discusses the Chinese Communist Party’s sweeping cyberwar on the United States. Topics include: - What is Salt Typhoon? - The CCP is on the phone - Holiday break > national security - Volt Typhoon (it gets worse!) - Is the Trump team taking this seriously? - Save CISA! - The CCP ♥️ the Thucydides Trap Links: We Need to Talk About Salt Typhoon (https://tinyurl.com/yc8kjrw6) How Chinese Hackers Graduated From Clumsy Corporate Thieves to Military Weapons (https://tinyurl.com/yhs57at6)

Transcribed - Published: 3 February 2025

Orin Kerr (Stanford Law) discusses his new book “The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World.” Topics include: - The un-original Fourth Amendment - Should crooks just not carry smartphones? - Do originalists cheat on the 4A? - SCOTUS 4A rulings as equilibrium adjustment - Content vs. metadata - The mosaic theory (is unworkable) - Applying the 4A to tomorrow’s tech today Links: The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World (https://tinyurl.com/34uy6nxf) Tech Policy Podcast 368: How the Government Gets Your Data (https://tinyurl.com/2r6kwvw2) Tech Policy Podcast 339: Will Tech Swallow the Fourth Amendment? (https://tinyurl.com/ybrukhj6) Tech Policy Podcast 294: Border Searches of Digital Devices (https://tinyurl.com/4rmf7w82)

Transcribed - Published: 23 January 2025

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) preview the biggest tech policy issues of the Trump II administration. Topics include: - TikTok ban: still unconstitutional - Trump’s bonkers TikTok brief - Was it worth it, Brendan Carr? - Obsolete rules for obsolete TV networks - Carr & Sec. 230: not how any of this works - Andrew Ferguson plays MAGA Mad Libs - Ferg & antitrust: not how any of this works - KOSA rises from the crypt Links: Tech Policy Podcast 344: TikTok and the First Amendment (https://tinyurl.com/yc6h2vyp) Tech Policy Podcast 371: So You Want to Ban TikTok (https://tinyurl.com/3thv6wmf) Christopher Terry’s Carr/Fox FOIA request (https://tinyurl.com/f4exh3a9) The Incoming FCC Chair Is Threatening to Censor Views He Doesn’t Like (https://tinyurl.com/wa3j7u9z) Andrew Ferguson’s FTC enforcement priorities (https://tinyurl.com/ms6a33z3) The Trump II FCC and FTC Will Use Any Stick to Beat a Dog (https://tinyurl.com/yd4jyerm)

Transcribed - Published: 13 January 2025

From October 31, 2022 (Episode 331): Emma Llansó discusses the history and importance of Section 230. Links: The Third Circuit’s Section 230 Decision In Anderson v. TikTok Is Pure Poppycock (https://tinyurl.com/37e32dtz) Five Decisions Illustrate How Section 230 Is Fading Fast (https://tinyurl.com/48y2ytap)

Transcribed - Published: 30 December 2024

Herbert Hovenkamp (Penn Law and Wharton) shares his thoughts on the progressive antitrust movement, the government’s antitrust campaign against Big Tech, the 2023 Merger Guidelines, the famous tech antitrust cases of the past, and more. Links: Charting Antitrust’s Future (https://tinyurl.com/yc2e2bcw) Antitrust Policy After Biden (https://tinyurl.com/4fttkvm7) Structural Antitrust Relief Against Digital Platforms (https://tinyurl.com/bddwb9r4) Breaking Up Google Would Be a Big Mistake (https://tinyurl.com/ytt5mjv9) What Big Tech Antitrust Gets Wrong (https://tinyurl.com/cs7k776s)

Transcribed - Published: 17 December 2024

Jonathan Adler (Case Western Law) and Ari Cohn (FIRE) discuss the FDA’s war on vaping and the Supreme Court case FDA v. Wages and White Lion Investments. Topics include: - The (comparative) health case for vaping - Yet another moral panic - Kids take risks! - The bungling FDA - A disappointing oral argument - Fine points of administrative law - Will the Trump admin switch course? Links: En Banc Fifth Circuit Rejects FDA's Vaping Regulation "Surprise Switcheroo" (https://tinyurl.com/ms6rckk5) Baptists, Bootleggers & Electronic Cigarettes (https://tinyurl.com/4ds598w2) Uneducating Americans on Vaping (https://tinyurl.com/ytzpdcy5) The Food & Drug Administration Has a Vaping Problem (https://tinyurl.com/ms3ac5d5) More Evidence that Bans on Flavored Vaping Products May Increase Teen Smoking (https://tinyurl.com/bdhmzmz9) Speech Regulation and Tobacco Harm Reduction (https://tinyurl.com/25pcp83s)

Transcribed - Published: 9 December 2024

Samantha Lai (Carnegie Endowment) discusses the state of federated social media (Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, etc.). Topics include: - A map of the fediverse - What makes Bluesky new? - Tools for tiny moderators - Turning the dial of centralization - “Community” or “echo chamber”? - Will one platform “win” the fediverse? - The beauty of exit - The beauty of the unknown Links: Online Safety and the “Great Decentralization” – The Perils and Promises of Federated Social Media (https://tinyurl.com/4xsecdz5) Some (Slightly Biased) Thoughts on the State of Decentralized Social Media (https://tinyurl.com/5adexvvp) Dot Social with Mike McCue (https://tinyurl.com/2wuu7jb6) Tech Policy Podcast 358: Information Animals Fighting Information Wars (https://tinyurl.com/48d7zpy4) Tech Policy Podcast 352: Yoel Roth on the Future of Content Moderation (https://tinyurl.com/524sxe9c)

Transcribed - Published: 2 December 2024

Geoff Manne (International Center for Law & Economics) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Topics include: - The DoJ’s case: five weird tricks - Apple: closed from the start - Let’s talk about green bubbles … - Refusal to deal or exclusionary conduct? - A well-defined product market (for once) - Triple-bank-shot antitrust liability (eww) - DoJ-designed smartphones: what could go wrong! Links: Lina Khan’s Norm-Busting Legacy (https://tinyurl.com/yc6yjhky) Tech Policy Podcast 384: The Facebook Antitrust Case (https://tinyurl.com/yhycxy88) Tech Policy Podcast 357: The Amazon Antitrust Case (https://tinyurl.com/2s4xz9xs) Tech Policy Podcast 353: The Google Search Antitrust Trial (https://tinyurl.com/mryvmrce) Tech Policy Podcast 302: Epic v. Apple (https://tinyurl.com/39chu42b)

Transcribed - Published: 20 November 2024

Daphne Keller (Stanford Cyber Policy Center) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) have a wide-ranging conversation about the impact of the EU’s Digital Services Act on content moderation, the costs and benefits of platform transparency, the pervasiveness of complexity, the work of James C. Scott, Germans’ abiding thirst for data, the Burmese heroin trade, and more. For more, see Daphne’s recent article in Lawfare, “The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform.” Topics include: - Big Tech and the DSA - Daphne the investigative reporter - A court case for every comment removal - The EU: bean counter of human dignity - James C. Scott appreciation day - What does the DSA mean for the fediverse? - Capitalism as a force for quantification - Daphne’s metaphysics Links: The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform (https://tinyurl.com/4ke3d3yw) The Humpty Dance (https://tinyurl.com/32mvj7kv)

Transcribed - Published: 7 November 2024

Marshall Kosloff (The Realignment) discusses the abundance agenda—what it is, what it could achieve, how it applies in various policy areas, how to build a political coalition around it, how to implement it, and more. Topics include: - Abundance of what? - Energy policy: wtf is going on - Fixing defense procurement - Fixing state capacity - Building an abundance coalition - Culture war forever? - Abundance after the 2024 election Links: The Realignment (https://tinyurl.com/c6f5wv5v) Arsenal of Democracy (https://tinyurl.com/3a5phwd6) The Harris Broadband Rollout Has Been a Fiasco (https://tinyurl.com/298khahk) The White House Bet Big on Intel. Will It Backfire? (https://tinyurl.com/hdnt4vpd) (Still) Against Degrowth (https://tinyurl.com/mr36sn6r) Tech Policy Podcast 381: American Techno-Industrial Leadership — With Noah Smith (https://tinyurl.com/3we33yrt)

Transcribed - Published: 31 October 2024

From April 12, 2022 (Episode 317): Alec Stapp discusses the work, goals, and philosophy of his innovative new think tank, Institute for Progress. Topics include: - Metascience: the key field you’ve never heard of - Tech industry 🤝 policy wonks - Alec’s theory of change - How to evangelize for progress - Baby making music (j/k not j/k) - The need for an abundance agenda Links: Institute for Progress (https://ifp.org/) Tech Policy Podcast 381: American Techno-Industrial Leadership — With Noah Smith (https://tinyurl.com/3we33yrt) Tech Policy Podcast 327: The Collapse of Complex Societies — With Joseph Tainter (https://tinyurl.com/48v8d6u9)

Transcribed - Published: 25 October 2024

Paul Grewal (Coinbase) takes us on a deep dive into all aspects of crypto regulation, litigation, and legislation. A crossover episode with the Washington Legal Foundation / TechFreedom Tech in the Courts series. Topics include: - The elevator pitch for crypto - Securities law: it’s not the New Deal anymore - The inconsistent SEC - SEC v. Coinbase / Coinbase v. SEC - Operation Choke Point 2.0 - The need for crypto legislation - Central bank digital currencies (are dumb) - Satoshi Nakamoto: a $68 billion mystery Links: Keep Crypto Free (https://tinyurl.com/yjcv3c36) Coinbase’s Petition for Rulemaking to the SEC (https://tinyurl.com/yck9echm) Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, and Crypto Is in Its Crosshairs (https://tinyurl.com/44jz2afv) Tech Policy Podcast 312: Web3 (https://tinyurl.com/2t6yuf5p)

Transcribed - Published: 17 October 2024

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) provides a guided tour of the Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine. Topics include: - Major questions: an introduction - No one knows what it means, but it’s provocative - Is major questions new? - Stories we tell about Congress - Welcome to the kludgeocracy - Politics vs. expertise - The Supreme Court cannot save us Links: West Virginia v. EPA: Sound and Fury, Signifying What? (https://tinyurl.com/3ttysrjx) Tech Policy Podcast 311: Administrative Law, and Why You Should Care (https://tinyurl.com/bdvnynbc)

Transcribed - Published: 3 October 2024

Sayash Kapoor (Princeton) discusses the incoherence of precise p(doom) predictions and the pervasiveness of AI “snake oil.” Check out his and Arvind Narayanan’s new book, AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference. Topics include: - What’s a prediction, really? - p(doom): your guess is as good as anyone’s - Freakishly chaotic creatures (us, that is) - AI can’t predict the impact of AI - Gaming AI with invisible ink - Life is luck—let’s act like it - Superintelligence (us, that is) - The bitter lesson - AI danger: sweat the small stuff Links: AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference (https://tinyurl.com/4v3byma9) AI Existential Risk Probabilities Are Too Unreliable to Inform Policy (https://tinyurl.com/fdrcu5s6) AI Snake Oil (Substack) (https://tinyurl.com/2chwfrka)

Transcribed - Published: 23 September 2024

Geoff Manne (International Center for Law & Economics) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the many, many flaws in the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit against Meta (Facebook). A crossover episode with the Washington Legal Foundation / TechFreedom Tech in the Courts series. Topics include: - The ontology of Facebook - Social networking: it’s not 2008 anymore - The FTC’s made-up market - The WhatsApp Catch-22 - Has Facebook been enshittified? - Product design by government: bad idea! - Growing startups: hard, actually Links: The Feds Unfriend Facebook: Why the FTC’s Meta Antitrust Case Should Fail (https://tinyurl.com/k988vjn8) Tech Policy Podcast 357: The Amazon Antitrust Case (https://tinyurl.com/2s4xz9xs) Tech Policy Podcast 353: The Google Search Antitrust Trial (https://tinyurl.com/mryvmrce) Tech Policy Podcast 302: Epic v. Apple (https://tinyurl.com/39chu42b)

Transcribed - Published: 9 September 2024

TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold, Ari Cohn, and Santana Boulton partake in a summer doldrums bitchfest about recent and upcoming Supreme Court internet speech cases. Topics include: - SCOTUS ducks in Moody v. NetChoice - Hey, let’s *not* reward bad-faith legislating - Justice Kagan: progressive traitor (and we love it) - Justice Alito is mad - What’s next for online speech? - SCOTUS ducks in Murthy v. Missouri - Judge Terry Doughty: incompetent boob - The censorship industrial complex that wasn’t - SCOTUS takes up Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton - Texas tries to age-gate XXX - Is porn getting more extreme? - The seven dirty words Links: Tech Policy Podcast 350: When the Government Yells at Social Media (https://tinyurl.com/5c7wmuj4) Tech Policy Podcast 373: Porn and the First Amendment (https://tinyurl.com/2p86rm47) Project 2025 Co-Author Caught Admitting Secret Conservative Plan to Ban Porn (https://tinyurl.com/4vmmy3rr)

Transcribed - Published: 27 August 2024

Is AI a miracle? A threat? Will it free us? Enslave us? Both? Neither? What’s the future of AI and governance? AI and art? AI and elections? AI and social media? AI and the economy? AI and the world? Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast: AI and Everything. On this special episode, we present highlights from more than a year of conversations with leading experts on the state of the AI revolution. Featuring Adam Thierer, Samuel Hammond, Liza Lin, Arnold Kling, Brian Frye, Joseph Tainter, James Pethokoukis, Robert Atkinson, Alice Marwick, and Ari Cohn. Links: Tech Policy Podcast 327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (https://tinyurl.com/48v8d6u9) Tech Policy Podcast 337: China and Domestic Surveillance (https://tinyurl.com/33x7syb7) Tech Policy Podcast 346: Who’s Afraid of Artificial Intelligence? (https://tinyurl.com/2s3b6f42) Tech Policy Podcast 355: Conservative Futurism (https://tinyurl.com/2p9mj7kr) Tech Policy Podcast 361: AI, Art, Copyright, and the Life of Brian (https://tinyurl.com/4hvus7kh) Tech Policy Podcast 363: AI and Elections (https://tinyurl.com/ay3cpztr) Tech Policy Podcast 369: AI and State Capacity (https://tinyurl.com/3ubm2ku6) Tech Policy Podcast 375: Tech Facts and Fallacies (https://tinyurl.com/4azkjp25) Tech Policy Podcast 377: AI and Wicked Problems (https://tinyurl.com/mw9b33ws)

Transcribed - Published: 13 August 2024

Noah Smith (Noahpinion Substack) discusses techno-industrial competition with China and Russia. Topics include: - American industry: we’re #2 :( - Allies: no longer a luxury - NEPA sucks - A brief lesson about nickel - The death of state capacity: greatly exaggerated? - Will information destroy liberalism? - Clowns to the left, clowns to the right - Hey, let’s *not* be divided and poor Links: Noahpinion (Substack) (https://tinyurl.com/asry5zej) People are realizing that the Arsenal of Democracy is gone (https://tinyurl.com/mvfm5252) Happy fun Cold War 2 update (https://tinyurl.com/msf29mze) Three holes in the U.S.’ economic strategy against China (https://tinyurl.com/7vyb7tzy) How liberal democracy might lose the 21st century (https://tinyurl.com/3zusc46f) Liberalism is losing the information war (https://tinyurl.com/r9duzw72)

Transcribed - Published: 1 August 2024

Brandon Kirk Williams (Lawrence Livermore) discusses quantum computing—the science behind it, its potential applications, the geopolitics surrounding it, and more. Links: The U.S. Must Win the Quantum Computing Race. History Shows How to Do It (https://tinyurl.com/4bkeua8n) The U.S. Needs a Strategy for the Second Quantum Revolution (https://tinyurl.com/2wst3xp8)

Transcribed - Published: 22 July 2024