Tech Policy Podcast

433: AI and the First Amendment

07 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold, Santana Boulton, and Andy Jung discuss whether AI promotes free speech, why AI outputs are protected free expression,...

432: Live: The New Frontiers of Speech

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Our host, Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom), speaks on a panel at State of the Net with Joel Thayer (Digital Progress Institute) and Ashkhen Kazaryan (The...

431: Barrett’s Moody Concurrence: Oddly Popular, Wholly Wrong

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) deconstructs Justice Barrett’s surprisingly influential concurrence in Moody v. NetChoice. Or: Why the First Amen...

430: Social Media on Trial

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A landmark bellwether trial in Los Angeles is testing whether Instagram and YouTube can be blamed for teen addiction and mental health problems. Clay ...

429: AI and Jobs

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Brent Orrell (American Enterprise Institute) discusses the future of work in a world of genius machines.Links:De-Skilling the Knowledge Economy What ...

428: New Right Antitrust: Culture War Over Consumer Welfare

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Thom Lambert (Mizzou Law) discusses the Trump II administration’s new right antitrust regulators. Stay calm everyone, they just want the discretion ...

427: More State Tech Policy Than You Can Poke a Stick At

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

New Year’s Message / From the Vault: Age Verification

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 (“N...

426: Copyright v. The Internet

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pamela Samuelson (UC Berkeley) discusses the Supreme Court oral argument in Cox v. Sony, a copyright case that could have major ramifications for the ...

425: Social Media Is Always Changing

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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.

424: Meta Beats the Antitrust Regulators

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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.To...

423: Free Speech Hypocrites

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) survey the Trump administration’s many attacks on the First Amendment.Topics include:Law firm...

422: Algorithms Rule the Internet (and Ash Feels Fine)

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

She’s back! Former host Ash Kazaryan (Future of Free Speech) returns for a wide-ranging discussion about powerful algorithms, attacks on Section 230...

421: OpenAI’s Tumultuous Corporate Reboot

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sri Muppidi (The Information) discusses OpenAI’s effort to overhaul its corporate structure—and the resulting power struggle over the company’s ...

420: Tech and Immigration

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jeremy Neufeld (Institute for Progress) discusses how our immigration system works, why high-skilled immigrants are so important to the tech sector, w...

419: Do Tech Optimists Have a Party?

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

418: Algorithms, AI, and Product Liability

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and Tom Kurland (Patterson Belknap) discuss the spate of product-liability lawsuits against social-media and AI companies.Topics inclu...

417: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Is Wreaking Havoc

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses why Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is wrong, how it muddies First Amendment law, and how it is already c...

416: Britain Censors the Internet (and More)

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Shoshana Weissmann (R Street) discusses the disastrous Online Safety Act, the growth of censorship in the UK, and more.Topics include:Protect the chil...

From the Vault: Revising Section 230 Will Silence Marginalized Voices

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From November 8, 2020 (Episode 279): Billy Easley sits down with former host Ashkhen Kazaryan. They remind us of the value of the free and open Intern...

415: The State of AI Regulation

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Perault (a16z) joins Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) for a wide-ranging discussion of AI bills, AI laws, and AI vibes. Part of the WLF-TechFreedom ...

414: Beware the Butlerian Jihad

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our host, Corbin Barthold, heads over to So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast. He talks with Nico Perrino and Ari Cohn of FIRE about the death of the ...

413: AI: Things Are About to Get Weird

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Morrison (Competitive Enterprise Institute) joins the show for a Big Picture Episode on how AI could affect art, culture, and politics.Topics ...

412: NASA: Lost in Space?

01 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

TechFreedom’s Jim Dunstan and Corbin Barthold discuss the NASA administrator vacancy, the  Artemis program, the NASA budget, SpaceX and Blue Origin...

411: Live: (Fired?) FTC Commissioners Slaughter & Bedoya

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter, Alvaro Bedoya, and Bill Kovacic speak with hosts Bilal Sayyed and Jessica Melugin at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI P...

410: The FTC and Online Speech: What’s Next?

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Maneesha Mithal (Wilson Sonsini) discusses the FTC’s investigation of social media companies. What’s going on behind the scenes? What’s the FTC ...

409: The FTC’s Quixotic Social Media Inquiry

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Santana Boulton (TechFreedom) discuss the FTC’s “Inquiry on Tech Censorship.”Topics include:What are we doing here?T...

408: Live: FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez speaks with TechFreedom President Berin Szóka at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Forum: Constitutional Limits on FTC, F...

407: Google Search Antitrust Remedies

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vidushi Dyall (Chamber of Progress) discusses the remedies phase of the Google search antitrust trial. Will Judge Mehta order Google to sell Chrome? T...

406: The Take It Down Act (Is a Weapon)

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jess Miers (Akron Law) discusses the problems with the Take It Down Act—the federal bill that (ostensibly) targets non-consensual intimate imagery.T...

405: No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been “Solved”

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Goldman (Santa Clara Law) discusses his new paper, “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.”Topics inclu...

404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses the recent spate of attacks on end-to-end encryption—and free speech more broadly—in the United Kingdom an...

403: The Constitutional Crisis

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez (Law & Chaos) discuss the Trump administration’s renditions to El Salvador, its purges of Justice Department lawyers, and ...

402: Can Trump Fire FTC Commissioners at Will?

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a crossover episode with the Rethinking Antitrust podcast, Bilal Sayyed (TechFreedom) questions our host, Corbin Barthold, about the presidential r...

401: Everything NetChoice

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Marchese, NetChoice’s director of litigation, discusses the many, many lawsuits NetChoice has brought to defend free speech on the Internet.To...

400: The Harm the TikTok Ruling Will Do

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anupam Chander (Georgetown Law) discusses the many bad precedents—legal, geopolitical, and otherwise—that we’ll be living with in the wake of th...

399: What the TikTok Ruling Should Have Said

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

398: AI Policy Potpourri (Part Two)

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold, Andy Jung, and Santana Boulton continue their discussion of the many, many things going on in AI innovation, competit...

397: AI Policy Potpourri (Part One)

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, an...

396: The Cybersecurity Crisis

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Maggie Miller (Politico) discusses the Chinese Communist Party’s sweeping cyberwar on the United States.Topics include:What is Salt Typhoon?The CCP ...

395: The Digital Fourth Amendment — With Orin Kerr

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Orin Kerr (Stanford Law) discusses his new book “The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World.”Topics include:The un-ori...

394: Tech and Trump 2.0

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) preview the biggest tech policy issues of the Trump II administration.Topics include:TikTok ban: sti...

From the Vault: Why Section 230 Matters

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From October 31, 2022 (Episode 331): Emma Llansó discusses the history and importance of Section 230.Links:The Third Circuit’s Section 230 Decision...

393: Herbert Hovenkamp on the State of Antitrust Law

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Herbert Hovenkamp (Penn Law and Wharton) shares his thoughts on the progressive antitrust movement, the government’s antitrust campaign against Big ...

392: Vaping Heads to SCOTUS

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 Investm...

391: Dispatch from the Fediverse

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Samantha Lai (Carnegie Endowment) discusses the state of federated social media (Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, etc.).Topics include:A map of the fediver...

390: The Apple Antitrust Case

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Geoff Manne (International Center for Law & Economics) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit again...

389: The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform — With Daphne Keller

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Daphne Keller (Stanford Cyber Policy Center) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) have a wide-ranging conversation about the impact of the EU’s Digital...

388: The Abundance Agenda — With Marshall Kosloff

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Marshall Kosloff (The Realignment) discusses the abundance agenda—what it is, what it could achieve, how it applies in various policy areas, how to ...

From the Vault: Progress — With Alec Stapp

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From April 12, 2022 (Episode 317): Alec Stapp discusses the work, goals, and philosophy of his innovative new think tank, Institute for Progress.Topic...

387: Crypto Regulation — With Paul Grewal

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Grewal (Coinbase) takes us on a deep dive into all aspects of crypto regulation, litigation, and legislation. A crossover episode with the Washin...

386: Major Questions About Major Questions

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) provides a guided tour of the Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine.Topics include:Major questions: an introduction...

385: AI Snake Oil

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sayash Kapoor (Princeton) discusses the incoherence of precise p(doom) predictions and the pervasiveness of AI “snake oil.” Check out his and Arvi...

384: The Facebook Antitrust Case

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Geoff Manne (International Center for Law & Economics) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the many, many flaws in the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit...

383: SCOTUS Internet Non-Law

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold, Ari Cohn, and Santana Boulton partake in a summer doldrums bitchfest about recent and upcoming Supreme Court internet...

382: AI and Everything

13 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

381: American Techno-Industrial Leadership — With Noah Smith

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Noah Smith (Noahpinion Substack) discusses techno-industrial competition with China and Russia.Topics include:American industry: we’re #2 :( Allies...

380: Quantum Computing

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Brandon Kirk Williams (Lawrence Livermore) discusses quantum computing—the science behind it, its potential applications, the geopolitics surroundin...

379: Child Online Safety Legislation as Bright Shiny Object

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alice Marwick (UNC-Chapel Hill) discusses her new paper, “Child Online Safety Legislation: A Primer.”If you’re wondering, the article Corbin quo...

378: Broadband Regulation at the Zombie FCC

01 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Berin Szóka (TechFreedom) and James Dunstan (TechFreedom) discuss the FCC’s recent orders on Title II common-carrier regulation and digital discrim...

377: AI and Wicked Problems

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Arnold Kling discusses his recent article in Reason magazine, “Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning Work.”Topics include:Why...

376: Influencer, Algorithm, Crowd — With Renée DiResta

11 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Renée DiResta (Stanford Internet Observatory) discusses her new book, Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality.Topics include:Social m...

From the Vault: Conspiracy Theories and the Internet

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From January 10, 2022 (Episode 309): Joseph Uscinski (University of Miami) argues that the internet is not increasing the prevalence of conspiracy the...

375: Tech Facts and Fallacies

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Atkinson is president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. He joins the show to discuss his new book, Technology Fears and Sc...

374: Politics and Technological Change

09 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Morrison (Competitive Enterprise Institute) joins the show, in a crossover episode with the Free the Economy podcast.Topics include:The histor...

#373: Porn and the First Amendment

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the episode you’ve been waiting for: TechFreedom’s Corbin Barthold and Ari Cohn talk about pornography and free expression.Topics include:T...

#372: Spacesuits!

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan Scirocco is the spacesuit business development lead at Collins Aerospace. Collins, an RTX business, is, along with its partners ILC Dover and Oce...

#371: So You Want to Ban TikTok

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses, in exquisite detail, the First Amendment problems with H.R. 7521, the House bill to ban TikTok.Topics include...

#370: The SCOTUS Internet-Speech Law Apocalypse — With Daphne Keller

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Daphne Keller (Stanford Cyber Policy Center) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the Supreme Court oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri (governme...

#369: AI and State Capacity

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Samuel Hammond (Foundation for American Innovation) discusses his essays on “AI and Leviathan.” Can government institutions cope with the coming t...

#368: How the Government Gets Your Data

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Byron Tau (NOTUS) discusses his new book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance Stat...

#367: The White Pill

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Brandon Gorrell (Pirate Wires) joins the show to discuss The White Pill, his optimistic (and mind-blowing) newsletter covering “the frontiers of tec...

#366: Tech, Gender, and Freedom

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a big picture episode! One day (soon?), technology will enable convenient, low-cost gender transition. What does that say about human “nature...

#365: Is the Internet Killing Culture? (No. Don’t Be Stupid.)

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Leigh Beadon (Techdirt) join the show to discuss their new report on the Internet’s (beneficial!) effect on art, enterta...

#364: Will No One Rid Us of This Warrantless Surveillance?

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 topi...

#363: AI and Elections

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

TechFreedom’s Ari Cohn and Corbin Barthold discuss whether AI is going to spark an “infocalypse,” bring about the “collapse of reality,” and...

From the Vault: The Revolt of the Public — With Martin Gurri

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 Ne...

From the Vault: Responding to the Broadband Populists

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From March 2, 2022 (Episode 313): Robert Atkinson (Information Technology and Innovation Foundation) discusses the leftwing push to turn broadband int...

#362: Common Carrier Rules, the Tech Stack, and You

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blake Reid (Colorado Law) and Berin Szóka (TechFreedom) join the show to discuss the constitutional and policy implications of applying common carrie...

#361: AI, Art, Copyright, and the Life of Brian

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brian Frye (Kentucky Law) joins the show to say bananas stuff about artificial intelligence, the history of authorship, the economics of copyright, wh...

#360: Red States vs. Every SCOTUS Internet Precedent

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Host Corbin Barthold discusses the campaign by states like Arkansas, Texas, and Utah to age-gate the Internet. As Corbin explains, these states are ta...

#359: Your Right to Lie — With Jeff Kosseff

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jeff Kosseff (Naval Academy) joins the show to discuss his new book Liar in a Crowded Theater, a defense of your First Amendment right to speak falsel...

#358: Information Animals Fighting Information Wars

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alicia Wanless (Carnegie Endowment) joins the show to discuss the links between information and technology, information competition through history, t...

#357: The Amazon Antitrust Case

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Geoff Manne, president and founder of the International Center for Law & Economics, and host Corbin Barthold, internet policy counsel at TechFreedom, ...

#356: The UK Targets End-to-End Encryption

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Crackdowns on Encrypted Messaging Don’t ‘Help the Children’The UK Online Safety Bill Must Not Violate Our Rights to Free Speech and Private Comm...

#355: Conservative Futurism

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were PromisedFaster, Please!Power and Progress Is a Wrongheaded Critique of Tech Progress...

#354: Online Age Verification (Sucks)

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Fundamental Problems with Social Media Age-Verification LegislationTexas Legislature Convinced First Amendment Simply Does Not ExistLeak of Califo...

#353: The Google Search Antitrust Trial

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Judge Mehta’s summary judgment orderEurope’s Antitrust Demagogues Shake Down Google

#352: Yoel Roth on the Future of Content Moderation

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Content Moderation’s Legalism ProblemCollective Security in a Federated WorldTech Policy Podcast #345: Content Moderation Around the WorldIn Interne...

#351: The End of Chevron Deference?

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dissed Podcast: Lady Justice Isn’t BlindPacific Legal Foundation’s amicus brief in Loper BrightTechFreedom’s amicus brief in Loper BrightChevron...

#350: When the Government Yells at Social Media

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ari Cohn, Free Speech Counsel at TechFreedom, joins the show to discuss Missouri v. Biden, the tricky relationship between the First Amendment and gov...

#349: The State of Space Exploration

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Berger’s Ars Technica profileLiftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceXJim Dunstan’s new paper on space regulationJ...

#348: The State of Space Regulation

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Read Jim’s new paper on space regulationCatch Jim’s July 13 testimony before the House Committee on Science, Space, and TechnologyTech Policy Podc...

#347: When Schools Scapegoat Social Media

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Walter Olson’s profileFollow Walter on TwitterCourts Should Reject School Districts’ Suits to Childproof the Internet

#346: Who’s Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Thierer profileAdam’s work:Microsoft’s New AI Regulatory Framework & the Coming Battle over Computational ControlWhat If Everything You’ve ...

#345: Content Moderation Around the World

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Daphne Keller profile pageAgustina Del Campo profile pageSlide deck for the Digital India Act.Daphne’s Lawfare article, “The Three-Body Problem: P...

#344: TikTok and the First Amendment

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many legislators and policymakers want to ban TikTok from the United States. They claim that the wildly popular social media platform endangers Americ...

#343: China and National Security

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What does China’s rise as a tech power mean for American national security? Jimmy Quinn, a writer for National Review, joins the show to discuss. He...

#342: Save the Children (From State Social Media Laws)

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

State governments are passing laws that seek to protect kids from social media. But maybe what we really need is to protect kids—and the Internet—...

#341: The FTC Tries to Shape the Market

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Federal Trade Commission is making a lot of headlines. Much of that news revolves around the agency’s notable antitrust cases—such as its effo...