Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

Is social media actually destroying a generation, or are we in the middle of a massive political moral panic? For this week's Free Speech Friday I sat down with one of the world's leading researchers studying young people, technology, and mental health to answer one question: Did social media really create a generation-wide mental health crisis? SUPPORT MY WORK:  Buy a paid subscription to...

Are we living through the dawn of a permanent Surveillance Summer? SUPPORT MY WORK:  Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co             Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz       Kylie Jenner is the new face of Meta's AI smart glasses and suddenly, mass surveillance is a fashion trend. Influencers are declaring a "hot surveillance summer," West Village fashio...

Most people hand their ID to a bouncer without thinking twice. But what if your local bar was monitoring way more than your age? SUPPORT MY WORK:  Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co            Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz       Cydney Hayes is a tech and business reporter at the Gazetteer SF.and she joins me for this week's Free Speech Friday...

The internet has entered a terrifying new era where reality itself has become a marketplace. Adam Aleksic (Etymology Nerd) & Aidan Walker join me to break it all down. SUPPORT MY WORK:  Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at ⁠ usermag.co ⁠           Support my work on Patreon: ⁠ http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz ⁠     Pump Fun GO is a new service that lets anyone pay anyone to do anything,...

The Kids Act Could End Internet Freedom As We Know It.  SUPPORT MY WORK:  Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co          Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz      A massive new package of legislation, dubbed the "Kids Act," is moving through Congress with unprecedented speed. The package is a broad-based censorship and surveillance scheme that will...

SpaceX just pulled off the biggest IPO in history and made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. But is it all built on a fantasy? SUPPORT MY WORK:  Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co         Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz   In this week's episode of Power User, I sit down with Ryan Mac, the main New York Times reporter covering SpaceX a...

Subscribe to my Patreon or newsletter to listen to the full episode! SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz Over the past few months, Peter Thiel has become fully infatuated with Argentina. He bought a house there, enrolled his kids in school, has been attending local soccer matches, playing chess with loc...

Hasan Piker On The Terrifying Future Of Internet Surveillance SUPPORT MY WORK:  Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co        Support my work on Patreon: patreon.com/taylorlorenz   Hasan Piker joined me for this week's Free Speech Friday for a wide-ranging conversation about online censorship, government surveillance, digital ID laws, Section 230, TikTok, KOSA, free speech, the...

Why is Kalshi suddenly everywhere?  SUPPORT MY WORK:  Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co        Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz   Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have become one of the most powerful forces in American media, politics, and culture. In this episode of Power User, I sit down with NPR's Bobby Allyn, the country's to...

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...

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 da...

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...

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...

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, Rai...

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:  Bu...

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 technol...

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...

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,...

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 dif...

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 T...

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 w...

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 yea...

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 t...

[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&quot...

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 Rober...