Tech Policy Podcast

Corbin is signing off as host. To mark the occasion, he and new host Ari Cohn go on one final super rant about the state of social-media and AI regulation. Links: Supreme Court to Hear Violent Video Game Case (https://tinyurl.com/y969cv6r) India’s Republic of Uncles (https://tinyurl.com/22xbx668) Save Us, Digital Cronkite! (https://tinyurl.com/35sess4r)

Judge Glock (Manhattan Institute) joins the show to discuss the past, present, and future of data center construction in the United States. Links: The Surprising Heart of the Data-Center Boom

Dr. Mekhi Dhesi is a space industry executive at Slingshot Aerospace and a space communicator. She joins the show to discuss orbital mechanics, rocket science, black holes, the Fermi paradox, and more. Follow her on Instagram @cosmic_mekhi!

Host Corbin Barthold heads to New York to speak at FIRE’s Free Speech Future event series. The panel features Kmele Foster (The Fifth Column), Nico Perrino (FIRE), and Prof. Christopher Ferguson (Stetson University). Links: Free Speech Future: Episode III – Cycles of Censorship: Emerging Technologies Free Speech Future

From January 9, 2022 (Episode 310): Daphne Keller discusses her paper “Amplification and Its Discontents” with Corbin Barthold and Ari Cohn. Links: Amplification and Its Discontents: Why Regulating the Reach of Online Content Is Hard Tech Policy Podcast 389: The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform

Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff discuss their fantastic new book, The Future of Free Speech . Links: The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy's Most Essential Freedom

TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold, Santana Boulton, and Andy Jung discuss whether AI promotes free speech, why AI outputs are protected free expression, why Anthropic should win its First Amendment lawsuit against the Department of War, and much else besides. Links: AI + 1A: Why the First Amendment Protects Artificial Intelligence Don’t Ban Kids From Using Chatbots Heaven’s Gate—How and When It May Be...

Our host, Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom), speaks on a panel at State of the Net with Joel Thayer (Digital Progress Institute) and Ashkhen Kazaryan (The Future of Free Speech), and Luke Hogg (Foundation for American Innovation). They discuss how the First Amendment should work in a world of algorithms and AI. Links: AI + 1A: Why the First Amendment Protects Artificial Intelligence (Corbin’s new pape...

Host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) deconstructs Justice Barrett’s surprisingly influential concurrence in Moody v. NetChoice . Or: Why the First Amendment protects algorithms and AI.  Links: Moody v. NetChoice The Post-human First Amendment Tech Policy Podcast 286: How Algorithms Can Fight Extremism Tech Policy Podcast 414: Beware the Butlerian Jihad

A landmark bellwether trial in Los Angeles is testing whether Instagram and YouTube can be blamed for teen addiction and mental health problems. Clay Calvert (American Enterprise Institute) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) review the many problems with letting plaintiffs’ lawyers demagogue social media platforms in front of a jury. Links: Social Media Addiction Lawsuits: The Deceptively Flawed To...

Brent Orrell (American Enterprise Institute) discusses the future of work in a world of genius machines. Links: De-Skilling the Knowledge Economy   What Anthropic’s Internal Study Suggests About the Future of Work Did the Canaries Just Die? AI and the Future of Work Looks Bright

Thom Lambert (Mizzou Law) discusses the Trump II administration’s new right antitrust regulators. Stay calm everyone, they just want the discretion to reward friends and punish enemies. Links: ‘New Right’ Antitrust New Right vs. Conservative Antitrust The Limits of Antitrust

Scott Babwah Brennan is the director of NYU’s Center on Technology Policy. Scott and his team have just released their 2025 State Technology Policy Report—a thorough and thoughtful survey and analysis of the tech legislation coming out of statehouses across the country. Scott joins the show to discuss the report and break down how states are shaping the regulatory landscape on AI, child online saf...

Host Corbin Barthold offers some end-of-year reflections on the moral panic over kids’ use of social media and AI. Then we revisit Episode 405 (“No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been ‘Solved’,” Apr. 30, 2025), in which Prof. Eric Goldman discusses his paper “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.” Links: This Country Banned Social Media for Young Teens. Here’...

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

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.

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 definiti...

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? The Global Free Speech Recessi...

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 meta...

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   OpenAI Executives Rattled by Campaigns to Derail For-Profit Restructuring   OpenAI Says Nonprofit Parent Will Own Equity Stake in Company of Over $100 Billion  

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 Talent Recruitment Roulette: Replacing the H-1B Lottery | IFP The Talent Scout...

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 Tec...

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...

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....

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 us...