PODCAST · technology
Tech Policy Podcast
by TechFreedom
Tech policy is at the center of the hottest debates in American law and politics. On the Tech Policy Podcast, host Corbin Barthold discusses the latest developments with some of the tech world's best journalists, lawyers, academics, and more.
Episodes
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440: The Fellas at the Freaking FCC
How far can the government go when a president doesn’t like what a broadcaster says? Host Ari Cohn is joined by Berin Szóka (TechFreedom) and Bob Corn-Revere (FIRE) to unpack the escalating fight between ABC and the FCC. From The View and Jimmy Kimmel to ABC’s broadcast licenses, they examine…
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439: KOSA and the Fight for Anonymous Speech
New host Ari Cohn sits down with Taylor Lorenz to unpack the latest push for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the SCREEN Act, and online age verification. They discuss the free speech and privacy implications of these laws, how government pressure can lead platforms to over-censor, the risks of...
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438: I Hosted 157 Episodes and All I Got Was This Stupid Digital Censorship
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)...
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437: Data Centers Are Good, Actually
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
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436: The Future of Space Exploration
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!
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435: Live: The Perennial Urge to Censor New Technology
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...
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From the Vault: Algorithmic Amplification
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
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434: The Free Speech Recession
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
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433: AI and the First Amendment
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...
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432: Live: The New Frontiers of Speech
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...
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431: Barrett’s Moody Concurrence: Oddly Popular, Wholly Wrong
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…
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430: Social Media on Trial
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…
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429: AI and Jobs
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
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428: New Right Antitrust: Culture War Over Consumer Welfare
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
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427: More State Tech Policy Than You Can Poke a Stick At
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...
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New Year’s Message / From the Vault: Age Verification
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’...
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426: Copyright v. The Internet
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
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425: Social Media Is Always Changing
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.
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424: Meta Beats the Antitrust Regulators
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…
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423: Free Speech Hypocrites
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...
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422: Algorithms Rule the Internet (and Ash Feels Fine)
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...
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421: OpenAI’s Tumultuous Corporate Reboot
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...
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420: Tech and Immigration
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...
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419: Do Tech Optimists Have a Party?
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...
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418: Algorithms, AI, and Product Liability
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.”...
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417: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Is Wreaking Havoc
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!...
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416: Britain Censors the Internet (and More)
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…
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From the Vault: Revising Section 230 Will Silence Marginalized Voices
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 Internet. Links: Revising the Law That Lets Platforms Moderate Content Will Silence Marginalized Voices Free Speech and Tech Policy at the US Supreme...
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415: The State of AI Regulation
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 Tech in the Courts webinar series. Topics include: Why did the AI moratorium die? Activity in the states Regulate outcomes, not models? Next steps…
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414: Beware the Butlerian Jihad
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 AI moratorium, a bogus wrongful death lawsuit against Character AI, the FTC’s campaign of censorship against ad agencies, and the absurdities of...
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413: AI: Things Are About to Get Weird
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...
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412: NASA: Lost in Space?
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...
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411: Live: (Fired?) FTC Commissioners Slaughter & Bedoya
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...
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410: The FTC and Online Speech: What’s Next?
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...
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409: The FTC’s Quixotic Social Media Inquiry
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...
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408: Live: FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez
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...
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407: Google Search Antitrust Remedies
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…
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406: The Take It Down Act (Is a Weapon)
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…
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405: No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been “Solved”
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...
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404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption
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...
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403: The Constitutional Crisis
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/…
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402: Can Trump Fire FTC Commissioners at Will?
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....
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401: Everything NetChoice
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”:...
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400: The Harm the TikTok Ruling Will Do
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:...
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399: What the TikTok Ruling Should Have Said
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…
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398: AI Policy Potpourri (Part Two)
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...
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397: AI Policy Potpourri (Part One)
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 $$$$...
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396: The Cybersecurity Crisis
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...
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395: The Digital Fourth Amendment — With Orin Kerr
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...
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394: Tech and Trump 2.0
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...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Tech policy is at the center of the hottest debates in American law and politics. On the Tech Policy Podcast, host Corbin Barthold discusses the latest developments with some of the tech world's best journalists, lawyers, academics, and more.
HOSTED BY
TechFreedom
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Tech Policy Podcast have?
Tech Policy Podcast currently has 448 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Tech Policy Podcast about?
Tech policy is at the center of the hottest debates in American law and politics. On the Tech Policy Podcast, host Corbin Barthold discusses the latest developments with some of the tech world's best journalists, lawyers, academics, and more.
How often does Tech Policy Podcast release new episodes?
Tech Policy Podcast publishes regularly with 448 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to Tech Policy Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Tech Policy Podcast?
Tech Policy Podcast is created and hosted by TechFreedom.
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