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 AI and the End of the World More Thoughts on AI Richard’s Free the Economy po...
Jul 10, 2025•59 min•Ep. 413
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 Roadster location in space Tech Policy Podcast 372: Spacesuits! Tech Policy Podcast 349: The State of Space Exploration Foster The People - Lost In Space...
Jul 01, 2025•57 min•Ep. 412
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 Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 2 SCOTUS Should Not Hand Sweeping Removal Powers to this President Supreme Court order in Wilcox v. NLRB Tech Policy Podcast 410: The FTC and Online Spee...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 411
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 Tech Policy Podcast 406: The Take It Down Act (Is a Weapon) Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0 Tech Policy Podcast 322: FTC Commissioner Noah ...
Jun 12, 2025•49 min•Ep. 410
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...
Jun 02, 2025•58 min•Ep. 409
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 ...
May 23, 2025•45 min•Ep. 408
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 Tech Policy Podcast 393: Herbert Hovenkamp on the ...
May 14, 2025•50 min•Ep. 407
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 The Take It Down Act Isn’t...
May 07, 2025•56 min•Ep. 406
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” App...
Apr 30, 2025•49 min•Ep. 405
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 Tech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End Encryption The UK’s state-funded anti-encryption propaganda The UK Has A Voyeuristic New Propaganda Campaign Against Encryption...
Apr 17, 2025•53 min•Ep. 404
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 Trump v. J.G.G. (SCOTUS) Noem v. Abrego Garcia (4th Cir.) Trump docket w/ CourtListener links The Constitutional Crisis Is Here...
Apr 10, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 403
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 The Executive Power of Removal Will the ...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 402
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. Ca...
Mar 24, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 401
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 Harvard Law School Rappaport Forum: TikTok and Free Speech The National Security Internet Tech Policy Podcast 399: What the TikTok Ruling Should Have Said...
Mar 10, 2025•59 min•Ep. 400
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 Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0 Tech Policy Podcast 371: So You Want to Ban TikTok Tech Policy Podcast 344: TikTok and the First Amendment...
Mar 03, 2025•52 min•Ep. 399
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 The European Commission’...
Feb 24, 2025•51 min•Ep. 398
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 Dwarkesh Patel on fully automated firms Trump Signs AI and Tech Executive Orders Some Simple Lesso...
Feb 17, 2025•43 min•Ep. 397
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 How Chinese Hackers Graduated From Clumsy Corporate Thieves to Military Weapons...
Feb 03, 2025•57 min•Ep. 396
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 Tech Policy Podcast 368: How the Gov...
Jan 23, 2025•51 min•Ep. 395
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 Tech Pol...
Jan 13, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 394
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 Five Decisions Illustrate How Section 230 Is Fading Fast...
Dec 30, 2024•1 hr 4 min
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 Antitrust Policy After Biden Structural Antitrust Relief Against Digital Platforms Breaking Up Google Would Be a Big Mistake What Big Tech Antitrust Gets Wrong...
Dec 17, 2024•57 min•Ep. 393
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" Baptists, Bootleggers & Electronic Cigarett...
Dec 09, 2024•56 min•Ep. 392
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 Some (Slightly Biased) Thoughts on the ...
Dec 02, 2024•41 min•Ep. 391
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 Tech Policy Pod...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 390
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 D...
Nov 07, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 389
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 Arsenal of Democracy The Harris Broadband Rollout Has Bee...
Oct 31, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 388
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 Tech Policy Podcast 381: American Techno-Industrial Leadership — With Noah Smith Tech Policy Podcast 327: The...
Oct 25, 2024•52 min
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...
Oct 17, 2024•53 min•Ep. 387
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? Tech Policy Podcast 311: Administrative Law, and Why You Should Care...
Oct 03, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 386
