Just in time for Pride month, Marsha Blackburn and the Heritage Foundation's anti-LGBTQ censorship is back (now supported by OpenAI). SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is back, and this time, the White House is reportedly negotiating a deal to pass it in exchange for federal preemption of state AI laws. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I break down why KOSA is...
Jun 12, 2026•33 min
Exposing The Dark Money Machine Behind AI Propaganda SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz I break down my investigation into a network of pro-AI and anti-AI meme accounts that I found were secretly being run and funded by OpenAI, Palantir, and Andreessen Horowitz's big $125M super PAC and dark money group. I reveal how these accounts operated, who is connected to them, why they promoted both sides of t...
Jun 10, 2026•21 min
Are you on a government watchlist just for criticizing AI? SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon for bonus episodes, monthly Q&A livestreams, and more: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz A shocking new investigation from The Intercept reveals that police are tracking seemingly anyone who expresses skepticism or anger about the tech industry online. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, journalist Sam Biddle joins me to dive deep into...
Jun 05, 2026•18 min
Are AI data centers destroying the environment, driving up power bills, and consuming massive amounts of water, or is the backlash overblown? SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon for bonus episodes, monthly Q&A livestreams, and more: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz In this episode of Power User, I sit down with Wired senior climate and energy reporter Molly Taft to unpack the AI data center boom. We discuss how AI infrastructure a...
Jun 03, 2026•48 min
What if you woke up tomorrow and completely lost access to your bank account, credit cards, PayPal, and Venmo, all because of something you posted online? SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon for bonus episodes, monthly Q&A livestreams, and more: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz In this episode of Free Speech Friday, Rainey Reitman, advisor at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and author of the new book "Transaction Denied" ...
May 29, 2026•29 min
Have you noticed your social media feeds suddenly flooding with terrifying content about AI existential risk? From TikTok clips warning about "AI psychosis" to viral YouTube shorts claiming chatbots are pushing people to the brink, the anti-AI movement has taken over the internet... But what if these "anti-AI" influencers aren't actually what they seem? SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon for bonus episodes, monthly Q&A livestrea...
May 27, 2026•45 min
Elon Musk has evolved far beyond a billionaire CEO. SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon for bonus episodes, monthly Q&A livestreams, and more: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz According to political theorists Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, Musk has created an entirely new ideology called “Muskism” — a system where technology companies merge with state power, AI shapes politics, and billionaires become more powerful than governme...
May 22, 2026•36 min
What happens if AI becomes smarter than humans at most jobs? SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon for bonus episodes, monthly Q&A livestreams, and more: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz Researchers, economists, and top AI executives are increasingly warning about the rise of a “permanent underclass”, a future where millions of workers lose not just their jobs, but their economic value altogether. In this episode of Power User, I si...
May 20, 2026•52 min
What’s really driving the growing backlash against AI and Silicon Valley? Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co From burning data centers to celebrating an attack on Sam Altman’s house, the anti‑tech backlash has escalated. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with journalist and author Brian Merchant to unpack the rise of anti AI sentiment, the growing anger tow...
May 15, 2026•42 min
Ben Shapiro’s Media Empire Is Collapsing Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co For the last decade, Ben Shapiro and The Daily Wire dominated the digital landscape. From Facebook to chart-topping podcasts, they seemed untouchable. But in 2025, the data tells a different story. With a 90% drop in YouTube views, massive layoffs, and the high-profile exit of CEO Jeremy Boreing, t...
May 13, 2026•44 min
What if everything you've been told about technological progress is a lie? Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co AI is changing society faster than ever, but resistance to technology is not new. For this week's Free Speech Friday I spoke with academic Thomas Dekeyser, author of Techno Negative, about the history of anti-technology movements, from the Luddites smashing machine...
May 08, 2026•38 min
The Lie Created To Strip Your Rights Online Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co In March, a CNN investigation into a "Global Academy" of 62 million men allegedly drugging and assaulting women broke the internet. But the most viral story of the year was built on a foundation of misleading statistics and bad journalism. Journalist Kat Tenbarge joins me to debunk the "62 Milli...
May 06, 2026•56 min
Should AI be protected by free speech laws? Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with Corbin K. Barthold, Internet Policy Counsel at Tech Freedom, to discuss one of the most controversial legal papers of the year: "Why the First Amendment Protects Artificial Intelligence." While many are calling for strict AI regulation to pr...
May 01, 2026•39 min
There’s a hidden social hierarchy on the internet Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co Is your Instagram "low class"? While we like to think of the internet as a universal playground, a new digital class war is emerging. From the way you use filters to the number of emojis in your bio, your digital habits are increasingly signaling your socioeconomic status to the world. In ...
Apr 29, 2026•46 min
[PATREON PREVIEW] Is Geese a Psyop? How the Music Industry Fakes Virality Subscribe to my Patreon to get this and other bonus Power User podcast episodes!! Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co The Brooklyn band Geese has sparked a massive "industry plant" controversy in 2026 after their album Getting Killed and a sold-out tour led to accusations of being a digital "psyop". W...
Apr 27, 2026•7 min
The Billionaire Who Built a Private Surveillance State Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co Sports arenas and concert venues are becoming high-tech surveillance "deep states." In this video, I dive into the explosive Wired report by Noah Shachtman and Robert Silverman that reveals how the owner of a ton of NYC concert venues and sports arenas uses facial recognition and priv...
Apr 24, 2026•24 min
AI companies are secretly waging a massive PR campaign targeting women. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co In the past year, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta have launched an aggressive PR campaign to rebrand artificial intelligence for women, especially mothers and teen girls. Suddenly AI isn't an existential threat or a labor displacement machine. It's a "lifestyle ac...
Apr 22, 2026•1 hr 1 min
Is Silicon Valley actually making progress, or are they just breaking the world for profit? Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I’m joined by legal scholar and surveillance expert Albert Fox Cahn to dismantle the "Move Fast and Break Things" ethos that has dominated tech for a decade. From the multibillion-dollar failure of the Metav...
Apr 17, 2026•30 min
Iranian LEGO videos mocking the US government are taking over the internet. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co We are living in an era where global internet culture and meme warfare are just as influential as traditional media and LEGOs are being used to create the most effective messaging around the US-Iran war. I sat down with Areeba Fatima, a journalist for Dropsite N...
Apr 15, 2026•35 min
Are we losing our right to online privacy entirely? Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sat down with Cindy Cohn, former head of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and author of the new book Privacy's Defender. We dive deep into the secret history of the early internet, the terrifying reality of mass online surveillance by th...
Apr 10, 2026•33 min
Skibidi Toilet changed how storytelling works on YouTube. But behind the scenes, things got messy. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co Back in 2023, a creator named Alexey (better known as DaFuqBoom) launched a super weird, viral series about a singing head in a toilet called Skibidi Toilet. It went viral and quickly became one of the most popular online series to ever e...
Apr 08, 2026•33 min
AI Surveillance is taking over our schools. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co Kent Myrtle, a Wichita bus driver, has been blowing the whistle on AI-powered cameras being installed on school buses. From Wichita to Massachusetts, school districts are partnering with companies like Samsara and BusPatrol to implement "real-time monitoring" and "hazard detection." But is this actual...
Apr 03, 2026•30 min
Kyle Chayka is a writer for the New Yorker, and on this week's Power User he joins me to break down the rise of AI fruit slop dramas. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co Millions and millions of TikTok users are tuning into an AI generated short form show called Fruit Love Island. On the show, AI generated fruits kiss, date, fight, and make up. The show has amassed an overnight f...
Apr 01, 2026•28 min
[SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE] Why the internet is trying to "end" Chappell Roan. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co Twitch streamer and cultural commentator Caroline Kwan joins me to break down the massive viral controversy surrounding Chappell Roan. What started as a passing interaction at a hotel breakfast in Brazil has morphed into a multi-platform smear campaign led by TikTokers, ...
Mar 30, 2026•40 min
Everything you've been told about the "social media addiction" trial is wrong. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co Everyone is celebrating the $400 million fine against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, but it's a massive win for Big Tech. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, journalist Kat Tenbarge and I debunk a slew of misinformation about the landmark "social media addiction" trials i...
Mar 27, 2026•51 min
This show created one of the fastest fandoms ever. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co Over the past few months, a series born from a niche, self-published Canadian romance novel became one of the biggest cultural phenomenons on the internet. In this episode of Power User, I dive deep into the explosive rise of the Heated Rivalry fandom and why it has the internet in a chokehold. Fa...
Mar 25, 2026•41 min
The Internet Is Being Deleted. Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co We are witnessing a massive, systematic erasure of digital history. From war crime investigations to grassroots activism and historical archives, the "permanent" web is vanishing. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I break down the escalating censorship from Big Tech and governments that is burning our collective...
Mar 20, 2026•47 min
Why Does The Internet Think Every Famous Person Is A Clone? The Jim Carrey Clone Conspiracy Explained Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co After his appearance at the Cesar Awards in Paris, the internet exploded with a bizarre theory: Jim Carrey had been replaced by a clone or body double. TikTok, X, and conspiracy communities are convinced something is off, from his face to his mann...
Mar 18, 2026•31 min
What is Section 230 and why is everyone trying to kill it? Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co In the latest episode of my Section 230 mini-series I’m joined by Mike Masnick, founder of Techdirt and host of the amazing Section 230 podcast Otherwise Objectionable. Mike breaks down how the whole drama around Section 230 began, and how this extremely inconsequential law became vilif...
Mar 16, 2026•49 min
BUY COLA CORP APPAREL: https://www.thecolacorporation.com (None of this is sponsored, I just really want people to support him!!!!) Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co What happens when the government doesn't like your t-shirts? Joe, founder of Cola Corporation, has dealt with DMCA takedowns, letters from the LAPD, shipments seized by US Customs and Border Protection, and bans fr...
Mar 13, 2026•42 min
