Tech Policy Podcast

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

Alice Marwick (UNC-Chapel Hill) discusses her new paper, “Child Online Safety Legislation: A Primer.” If you’re wondering, the article Corbin quotes at the top of the show is Zephyr Teachout, Ending Big Tech’s Child Exploitation (Compact Magazine) (https://tinyurl.com/mjn4k7m8). Topics include: - Moral panic in the technical sense - The Kids Online Safety Act: not about kids, not about safety - Once more, with feeling: correlation is not causation - “Harmful content”: no one knows what it means, but it’s provocative - Care about kids? Center them, not technology Links: Child Online Safety Legislation: A Primer (https://tinyurl.com/3v42d3ee) Tech Policy Podcast #342: Save the Children (From State Social Media Laws) (https://tinyurl.com/mrx8vc7v)

Transcribed - Published: 10 July 2024

Berin Szóka (TechFreedom) and James Dunstan (TechFreedom) discuss the FCC’s recent orders on Title II common-carrier regulation and digital discrimination. Topics include: - A hundred years of telecom law in four minutes - The craziest story in the history of federal regulation - FCC: Huzzah for crappy Internet (like in Europe)! - SCOTUS: Congress must tackle major questions! - Disparate treatment vs. disparate impact - The FCC crams an elephant in a mousehole Links: Zombie FCC vs. Schoolhouse-Rock Supreme Court (https://tinyurl.com/5d22jhm7) FCC Revives Common Carriage for the Internet (https://tinyurl.com/r4fn7ck3) TechFreedom’s brief in the digital discrimination litigation (https://tinyurl.com/29hmny7a) TechFreedom’s comments in the FCC’s Title II proceeding (https://tinyurl.com/us2u4ysj) Net Neutrality Legislation: A Framework for Consensus (https://tinyurl.com/yc54b4ff)

Transcribed - Published: 1 July 2024

Arnold Kling discusses his recent article in Reason magazine, “Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning Work.” Topics include: - Why central planning is impossible - The importance of prices - What is AI good for? - Will AI know us better than we know ourselves? - What markets will AI disrupt? - Social media and tribal gang-sign flashing - The myopia of the revanchist right Links: Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning Work (https://tinyurl.com/ukwyj2du) David Brin’s Transparent Society Revisited (https://tinyurl.com/yh9cs3s4) Mir McLuhanism (https://tinyurl.com/3w3twpsx) The Revanchist Right (https://tinyurl.com/m48map9z) Tech Policy Podcast 368: How the Government Gets Your Data (https://tinyurl.com/2r6kwvw2)

Transcribed - Published: 21 June 2024

Renée DiResta (Stanford Internet Observatory) discusses her new book, Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality. Topics include: - Social media influencers: the new media elite - How do ideas take root? - Influencers as exploiters of asymmetries - Bullshit: an investigation - Could platforms have stopped Stop the Steal? - Fixing the expert class - Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent - The future of social media Links: Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality (https://tinyurl.com/y66h4us5) Influencers, Bullshitters, and How We Lost a Shared Reality (https://tinyurl.com/2bc8am93) Renée DiResta at Politics and Prose (DC), June 13 (https://tinyurl.com/pm4cvaya) Renée DiResta at the Commonwealth Club (SF), June 17 (https://tinyurl.com/h62tkb3p) The New Media Goliaths (Noema) (https://tinyurl.com/29p7rjxr) Agents of Influence newsletter (https://tinyurl.com/44zstpty) Tech Policy Podcast 293: The Supply of Renée DiResta Should Be Infinite (https://tinyurl.com/59k265aa)

Transcribed - Published: 11 June 2024

From January 10, 2022 (Episode 309): Joseph Uscinski (University of Miami) argues that the internet is not increasing the prevalence of conspiracy theories. Links: Don’t Blame Social Media for Conspiracy Theories—They Would Still Flourish Without It (https://tinyurl.com/whz5a9uk)

Transcribed - Published: 30 May 2024

Robert Atkinson is president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. He joins the show to discuss his new book, Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths About Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy, co-authored with David Moschella. Topics include: - Tech panic: speeding-uppers vs. slowing-downers - Tech and privacy: try living in an analogue village! - The wicked problem of content moderation - Is tech progress bad for the middle class? - Is tech driving market concentration? - “Industrial planning”: dirty words? Links: Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths about Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy (https://tinyurl.com/p93fypz5)

Transcribed - Published: 20 May 2024

Richard Morrison (Competitive Enterprise Institute) joins the show, in a crossover episode with the Free the Economy podcast. Topics include: - The history of podcasts - The rise of micro media (find a thousand true fans!) - Performative tech doomerism - The idleness of romanticizing the past - The quest for online community - Conservatives in the Technium Links: Free the Economy (https://tinyurl.com/38r6jw7t) Why Conservatism Failed (https://tinyurl.com/yru444f5) The Quest for a Better Online “Community” (https://tinyurl.com/5f8twhny)

Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2024

It’s the episode you’ve been waiting for: TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold and Ari Cohn talk about pornography and free expression. Topics include: - The Founding Fathers: epic porn fiends (j/k) - Obscenity law, a brief history - Do conservatives still want to ban James Joyce? - “I know it when I see it”—Worst. Legal standard. Ever. - Is there a moral case against porn? (Spoiler alert: No) - The Fifth Circuit botches internet speech law Links: Tech Policy Podcast #360: Red States vs. Every SCOTUS Internet Precedent (https://tinyurl.com/4y4fwb9j) A Reagan Judge, The First Amendment, And The Eternal War Against Pornography (https://tinyurl.com/2ba82bbe) Texas Legislature Convinced First Amendment Simply Does Not Exist (https://tinyurl.com/4x8vyjkh) Is Porn Harmful? The Evidence, the Myths and the Unknowns (https://tinyurl.com/59fzrxvd)

Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2024

Ryan Scirocco is the spacesuit business development lead at Collins Aerospace. Collins, an RTX business, is, along with its partners ILC Dover and Oceaneering, developing a new generation of spacesuits for NASA. Ryan discusses everything that goes into keeping people alive in a freezing zero-gravity vacuum far outside the biosphere. Topics include: - A spacesuit is a mini-spaceship - Space: it wants to kill you - Spacesuit history - What’s new? No more mirrors! - Testing spacesuits on the vomit comet - The ISS, the Moon, and beyond Links: Collins Aerospace Completes Key Spacesuit Testing Milestone (https://tinyurl.com/3nphfunp) Space Symposium (https://tinyurl.com/yh27xsfc) Tech Policy Podcast #349: The State of Space Exploration (https://tinyurl.com/yns72nwm)

Transcribed - Published: 11 April 2024

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses, in exquisite detail, the First Amendment problems with H.R. 7521, the House bill to ban TikTok. Topics include: - Your First Amendment right to read crazy shit - TikTok ban bros: throwing spaghetti at the wall - Foreign broadcast-ownership rules: so passé - “iT’S nOT sPEech, It’S CoNDuCt” - H.R. 7521: Least. Tailored. Law. Ever. - Banning media: it’s what the other guys do - McCarthyism: so hot right now Links: A Breakdown of the Bizarre Factions Fighting Over the TikTok Ban Bill (https://tinyurl.com/yc25nbb9) Tech Policy Podcast #344: TikTok and the First Amendment (https://tinyurl.com/5n7kd9f7) Tech Policy Podcast #368: How the Government Gets Your Data (https://tinyurl.com/bdf5e25a) Tech Policy Podcast #289: The History, Use, and Abuse of the Fairness Doctrine (https://tinyurl.com/dp98arda) The only thing Congress can agree on is to ban TikTok!? (https://tinyurl.com/3fk954ye)

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2024

Daphne Keller (Stanford Cyber Policy Center) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the Supreme Court oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri (government jawboning of social media platforms) and the NetChoice cases (state content moderation laws). Links: Six Things About Jawboning (https://tinyurl.com/4jhbkhy7) The Lies the 5th Circuit Told You About the Government ‘Pressuring Social Media to Censor’ (https://tinyurl.com/cbr4thke) Tech Policy Podcast #350: When the Government Yells at Social Media (https://tinyurl.com/3c4p3scr) FAQs About the NetChoice Cases at the Supreme Court, Part 1 (https://tinyurl.com/384a97wt) FAQs About the NetChoice Cases at the Supreme Court, Part 2 (https://tinyurl.com/4phs2h6c) The Long Reach of Taamneh: Carriage and Removal Requirements for Internet Platforms (https://tinyurl.com/4x9cnj87) God Help Us, but Brett Kavanaugh Could Save the First Amendment (https://tinyurl.com/bddbrk4h) ‘Orwellian’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means (https://tinyurl.com/4bfurjj3)

Transcribed - Published: 25 March 2024

Samuel Hammond (Foundation for American Innovation) discusses his essays on “AI and Leviathan.” Can government institutions cope with the coming technological disruption of AI? Topics include: - AI’s trajectory - New Deal agencies in an AI world - Public Choice Theory vs. the AI juggernaut - Uber and micro-regime changes - Government as a network of smart contracts - Techno-totalitarianism vs. techno-feudalism - AI Renaissance city states? - Collapse as a feature, not a bug - A techno-optimist’s revealed preferences Links: AI and Leviathan: Part I (https://tinyurl.com/cttzfpcx) AI and Leviathan: Part II (https://tinyurl.com/cn6kc57x) AI and Leviathan: Part III (https://tinyurl.com/4frwprt9) Where is This All Heading? (https://tinyurl.com/nm3np3xj) AI: Dumb human to Einstein in a heartbeat (https://tinyurl.com/yuxcc8pf) Tech Policy Podcast #337: China and Domestic Surveillance (https://tinyurl.com/3eyeyn72) Tech Policy Podcast #327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (https://tinyurl.com/5esaaksf)

Transcribed - Published: 13 March 2024

Byron Tau (NOTUS) discusses his new book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State. Topics include: - Some history: four generations of data brokers - The continuing evolution of data collection and technological surveillance - The great danger: data fusion / comprehensive data profiles - Why won’t Congress regulate government data use? - National security vs. privacy - Should we fear a social credit system? Links: Means of Control (http://tinyurl.com/4cjfd4su) NOTUS (http://tinyurl.com/2nkspacp) X: @ByronTau (http://tinyurl.com/yk2jbbwz) Tech Policy Podcast #337: China and Domestic Surveillance (http://tinyurl.com/3eyeyn72)

Transcribed - Published: 4 March 2024

Brandon Gorrell (Pirate Wires) joins the show to discuss The White Pill, his optimistic (and mind-blowing) newsletter covering “the frontiers of tech, science, space, and more.” Topics include: - Combatting the overwhelming negativity on social media. - Lasers are amazing. - Why space exploration? - Did the Big Bang really happen? - The Pirate Wires brand — beautiful vibe! - Breaking the New York Times / NPR decel monoculture. - Advances in IVF. Links: The White Pill (http://tinyurl.com/bdeb2bh9)

Transcribed - Published: 22 February 2024

It’s a big picture episode! One day (soon?), technology will enable convenient, low-cost gender transition. What does that say about human “nature”? What are the implications for society? What are (some) people getting so upset about? Jason Kuznicki (TechFreedom) joins the show to discuss. Gender as Essence and as Economic Choice (http://tinyurl.com/2p9byb5d) Cosmos + Taxis issue on gender (including articles by Nathan P. Goodman and by Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak) (http://tinyurl.com/2p9byb5d) Pacification (Jason’s Substack) (http://tinyurl.com/yeycjzj) Tech Policy Podcast #327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (2022 Big Picture Episode) (http://tinyurl.com/5esaaksf) Tech Policy Podcast #301: The Realignment (2021 Big Picture Episode) (http://tinyurl.com/4b5we4vb)

Transcribed - Published: 14 February 2024

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Leigh Beadon (Techdirt) join the show to discuss their new report on the Internet’s (beneficial!) effect on art, entertainment, and culture. The Sky Is Rising: 2024 Edition (http://tinyurl.com/5adh8nbs) Rather than Destroying Culture, the Internet Has Saved the Content Industries (http://tinyurl.com/2v7w7p3j) Filterworld Is a Confused Critique of Algorithms (http://tinyurl.com/2h6k54tr)

Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2024

Liza Goitein (Brennan Center) joins the show to discuss the FISA Section 702 surveillance program. Why is it so contentious? Why is it such a hot topic now? Why and how should it be changed? And what does the Fourth Amendment have to say about it? Liza explains! Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): A Resource Page (http://tinyurl.com/5n792mru) How Congress Learned to Live with Warrantless Surveillance (for Now) (http://tinyurl.com/3v28pxtf) Tech Policy Podcast #339: Will Tech Swallow the Fourth Amendment? (http://tinyurl.com/mt95s3cm)

Transcribed - Published: 24 January 2024

TechFreedom’s Ari Cohn and Corbin Barthold discuss whether AI is going to spark an “infocalypse,” bring about the “collapse of reality,” and destroy our elections. Is AI about to “flood” our “screens” with “misinformation” that’s “dangerous to democracy”? Notwithstanding these quotes from recent press stories, the answer is probably no. Ari’s Senate testimony (http://tinyurl.com/y22uvkch) What the Doomsayers Get Wrong About Deepfakes (http://tinyurl.com/2p8kwdc9) Scott Brennen + Matt Perault paper (http://tinyurl.com/33pc6hcz) Tech Policy Podcast #358: Information Animals Fighting Information Wars (http://tinyurl.com/38a4dxdf) Tech Policy Podcast #359: Your Right to Lie — With Jeff Kosseff (http://tinyurl.com/mh88szjt)

Transcribed - Published: 11 January 2024

From February 16, 2021 (Episode 284): Martin Gurri (Mercatus Center) discusses his book The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium. The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium (http://tinyurl.com/7tfedcbu) Reality Comes Knocking (http://tinyurl.com/mvptdyk8)

Transcribed - Published: 28 December 2023

From March 2, 2022 (Episode 313): Robert Atkinson (Information Technology and Innovation Foundation) discusses the leftwing push to turn broadband into a heavily regulated utility. Anticorporate Broadband Populists’ Real Agenda: Destroy the Current Private-Sector System (http://tinyurl.com/mp2n87f2) FCC Revives Common Carriage for the Internet (http://tinyurl.com/35tj6ffc) Zombie FCC vs. Schoolhouse-Rock Supreme Court (http://tinyurl.com/2s4jhc2n) A Thankfully Doomed Mistake (http://tinyurl.com/2mtjcnxr) The Elephant in the Ethernet Port (http://tinyurl.com/ymvetuvy)

Transcribed - Published: 19 December 2023

Blake Reid (Colorado Law) and Berin Szóka (TechFreedom) join the show to discuss the constitutional and policy implications of applying common carrier rules at different layers of the “tech stack.” Should broadband providers be forced to carry content? Should social media platforms? How about both? Or neither? Maybe the former, but not the latter? How about the latter, but not the former? . . . Wait, stop. That last one is nonsense. Tune in to find out why. The Greatest Internet Law Chart Ever (https://tinyurl.com/3w6rbhbz) Uncommon Carriage (https://tinyurl.com/yfh46aez) The Conservative Bias Panic Comes for Gmail’s Spam Detection (https://tinyurl.com/mryrcvha) The Republican Project to Break Your Email Account (https://tinyurl.com/36bdkzcc) US Telecom (D.C. Cir. 2017) (https://tinyurl.com/bdmskx67) Carlin Communications (9th Cir. 1987) (https://tinyurl.com/mubxsfan)

Transcribed - Published: 11 December 2023

Brian Frye (Kentucky Law) joins the show to say bananas stuff about artificial intelligence, the history of authorship, the economics of copyright, why we’re all misunderstanding plagiarism, the mysteries of free will, and more. Apologia Pro Plagio Suo (https://tinyurl.com/2vmyh2bt) Should Using an AI Text Generator to Produce Academic Writing Be Plagiarism? (https://tinyurl.com/4zj3wjhx) Plagiarize This Paper (https://tinyurl.com/kk6hjdpk) How About Using AI To Determine Whether Or Not Something Is Creative Enough To Get Copyright Protection (https://tinyurl.com/yjs77unu) AI and the Nature of Literary Creativity (https://tinyurl.com/3ruct4yz)

Transcribed - Published: 29 November 2023