Good podcast

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[FREE SPEECH FRIDAY]

Since last year, Meta, Apple, and other big tech platforms have been mass removing content related to ICE. From deleting Facebook groups who criticize ICE agents to removing apps from the app store that allow citizens to report ICE in their neighborhood, it's becoming harder to criticize ICE online.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), is suing the government in order to get these Facebook groups and apps restored. Colin McDonnell, an attorney at FIRE joins me to break down these seminal lawsuits, how they're taking on the government, and why it's so crucial to protect free expression online.

We discuss how DOJ and DHS officials, including Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, successfully pressured Apple and Facebook to remove an ICE-tracking app and a Chicago-based Facebook group with nearly 100,000 members. Colin breaks down why FIRE is suing the government , whether recording law enforcement in public is protected speech or dangerous "doxing" , and the chilling rumors of a secret ICE protester database

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2026-02-27
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Kids Are Being Taught By ChatGPT: Inside A $65K AI School

Would you pay $65,000 to have ChatGPT teach your kids?

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404 Media reporter Emmanuel Maiberg joins to discuss the disturbing truth behind Alpha School, an AI-powered private school that has been getting massive hype from mainstream media. While Alpha School promises parents that kids can complete their core education in just two hours a day, leaked internal documents reveal the very chaotic reality behind tech industry buzzwords.

Alpha School charges up to $65,000 a year while openly aiming for a "no human in the loop" model to entirely eliminate human teachers. We discuss how their generative AI systems constantly hallucinate, creating illogical lesson plans and tests that treat kids like tech guinea pigs.

Even more alarming is the massive data harvesting and surveillance. Alpha School utilizes software that monitors students' screens, web cameras, microphones, and mouse movements, acting essentially as boss-ware for children.

We also expose how video recordings of students have been left unsecured in open Google Drive links and how the school's AI scrapes educational material from platforms like IXL and Albert.io, leading to disabled accounts and terms of service violations.

Read the 404 Media article: https://www.404media.co/students-are-being-treated-like-guinea-pigs-inside-an-ai-powered-private-school/

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2026-02-25
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Why The Internet Is Broken

FOSTA/SESTA shows what happens when you "reform" and chip away at Section 230.

Welcome back to my Section 230 mini-series, where I break down the most important and misunderstood law about the internet!!

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FOSTA-SESTA was the first major amendment and carve-out to Section 230. While the law claimed to be about "cracking down on big tech" and making the internet "safer for children," the result was the mass deplatforming of sex workers and marginalized people online.

Activist and adult industry content creator Siri Dahl joins me to discuss how FOSTA-SESTA forced sex workers into incredibly unsafe environments and increased censorship across the board. We dive into the shutdown of Backpage, Tumblr banning all adult content, and how organizations like Morality in Media are pushing a moral panic that lawmakers (and the left!!) have bought into. We also cover how Big Tech has backed these Section 230 "reform" efforts.

If we don't understand the devastating effects of FOSTA-SESTA, we are doomed to repeat them with new bills like the Sunset Section 230 Act or Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). We must protect Section 230 at all costs!

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2026-02-23
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The Body Camera Propaganda Playbook

Democrats just handed ICE exactly what ICE asked for.

[FREE SPEECH FRIDAY]

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Body cameras were supposed to hold police accountable. So why is police violence still rising? Why are cops almost never convicted using body cam footage? And why are Democrats (the same politicians who just tripled the ICE budget) now demanding that ICE agents wear body cameras?

In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with Alec Karakatsanis, lawyer and author of the fantastic book Copaganda, to uncover the hidden history of police body cameras. While body cams are presented as a technological fix to deeply rooted institutional problems, they actually have the opposite effect.

We talk about how the multi-billion dollar police surveillance industry originally struggled to get funding for these cameras, how Steven Spielberg donated money to put cameras on cops, how the narrative completely shifted, and how Big Tech is cashing in.

Big Tech interest groups and reactionary non-profits are spending millions to push mass surveillance and censorship laws. My work is 100% self-funded. This series is not backed by any advertisers or tech giants.

If you value my reporting, please, please support my work ???

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We break down:

How the police surveillance industry lobbied for body cameras for years before Ferguson, and why they desperately wanted them

The brilliant marketing switch that rebranded body cams from a police surveillance tool into an "accountability and transparency" reform

Why body camera footage is used every single day to prosecute poor people in courtrooms across America, but almost never used against the police

How Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and the Democratic Party helped sell this surveillance expansion to liberals

Why the DOJ's own research shows body cameras do NOT reduce police misconduct or violence

How ICE agents who killed Alex Preti and René Good were already filming themselves and were celebrated by their bosses

The AI, facial recognition, and predictive policing data being harvested from body cam footage right now

Why demanding body cams on ICE is a distraction from real accountability and actually gives ICE more money and power

How Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Kristi Noem all ended up on the same side of this debate

The parallel between body cam propaganda and Democrat-backed internet surveillance laws

2026-02-20
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Dumbphone Owners Have Lost Their Minds: The Logging Off Industrial Complex

Are dumb phones actually the solution to our anxieties, or are they a $400 scam built on a moral panic?

~~~~~~~~~~

My work is 100% self-funded and this series is not backed by any advertisers or tech giants. If you value my reporting, please, please support my channel:

Join the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz

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~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the past few years, a massive industry has emerged around dumb phones and the concept of logging off. From $400 minimalist dumb phones to influencers selling digital detox courses, logging off has become big business. Schools are banning phones. Politicians are blaming screen time. Media outlets are calling Gen Z ?addicted.?But is ditching your smartphone actually the answer? In this video, I sat down with WIRED journalist Elana Klein to unpack the rise of the logging-off movement. We discuss how reasonable concerns over screen time have metastasized into a consumer movement selling $400 minimalist dumb phones for millions in profit. We also dive deep into the anti-smartphone moral panic , which is heavily pushed by reactionary politicians and legacy media. We explore the history of our relationship with the internet, from the tech optimism of the early 2010s and the algorithmic shift in 2016 , to the dangerous reality of school phone bans that are leading to AI surveillance and increased police interactions for students.We also talk about the concept of "smartphone addiction," what it really means, and why your issues with technology are often manifestations of much larger societal problems.

Elana's piece: https://www.wired.com/story/dumbphone-owners-have-literally-lost-their-minds

The Man Who Created the Internet's Most Important Law: Sen. Wyden Reveals What Big Tech Won't Tell You

Sen. Ron Wyden speaks about Section 230, internet freedom, free speech, and how Trump is pushing big tech's policies.

Big Tech interest groups and reactionary non-profits are spending millions to try to get Section 230 revoked. My work is 100% self-funded. This series is not backed by any advertisers or tech giants. If you value this reporting, please, please support the channel:

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Section 230 is one of the most important, and most misunderstood, laws in the history of the internet. In this episode of my Section 230 mini series, I sit down with Senator Ron Wyden, one of the original co authors of Section 230, to break down what the law actually does, why it exists, and what would happen if it were repealed.

Section 230 protects user generated content and ensures platforms are not treated as the speaker of everything posted online. Without it, social media platforms, forums, comment sections, Wikipedia, Reddit, and any website that hosted user generated content could be sued out of existence.

There is growing political pressure to "reform" aka dismantle Section 230 entirely. If you care about online privacy, free speech, data surveillance, algorithm accountability, Big Tech regulation, or the future of the internet, I hope you'll watch!

This is part two of my Section 230 deep dive series taking place every Monday.

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We cover:

? What Section 230 really says

? Why both the left and right are attacking it

? Whether repealing 230 would protect kids

? The truth about Big Tech and liability

? Identity verification and online privacy

? Surveillance advertising and algorithm regulation

? What free speech online actually means

? Why generative AI is not covered by Section 230

2026-02-16
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Internet Censorship Crusade

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is pushing a bill that would END free speech on the internet, and he has absolutely no idea what he's talking about.

[FREE SPEECH FRIDAY]

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Section 230 is one of the most important laws in the history of the internet. It is often called ?the law that created the internet? because it protects websites, forums, blogs, comment sections, Wikipedia, and every platform that hosts user-generated content.

But for some reason, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt wants it gone. Yesterday, he released a video following backlash from his talk last week in congress, where he called on Senators to repeal Section 230.

Almost every single thing he said in his response video was factually wrong.

For this week's Free Speech Friday episode, I'm debunking Gordon-Levitt's crusade against Section 230 and unpacking how repealing Section 230 would actually mass-censor the internet, wipe out indie platforms, destroy LGBTQ and marginalized online spaces, and hand total monopoly power over to Meta, Google, and powerful billionaires.

I also break down the far-right groups like Morality in Media and The Heritage Foundation, which has made Section 230 repeal core to their Project 2025 tech policy agenda. If Section 230 is repealed, the cost of defending user speech could jump from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per lawsuit. It would wipe out small communities overnight and leave only Big Tech corporations with buildings full of lawyers.

Mike Masnick?s brilliant takedown of JGL?s claims on TechDirt: https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/12/joseph-gordon-levitt-goes-to-washington-dc-gets-section-230-completely-backwards/

Support independent tech journalism!

Big Tech interest groups and reactionary non-profits are spending millions to try to get Section 230 revoked. My work is 100% self-funded. This series is not backed by any advertisers or tech giants. If you value this reporting, please, please support the channel:

Join the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz

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Follow me:

In this video I cover:

What Section 230 actually says

The publisher vs platform myth

Why Section 230 was created after Stratton Oakmont v Prodigy

How FOSTA SESTA changed Section 230

Why repeal would increase censorship

How lawsuits would silence speech

Why big tech companies can survive without 230 but small platforms cannot

The real way to regulate big tech through antitrust and data privacy

2026-02-13
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White Women Are MAGA Internet's Newest Enemy

White women have long been a core voting bloc for conservatives, so why are right wing media figures suddenly obsessed with attacking them?

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In this episode, Crooked Media Hysteria's Erin Ryan joins me to break down the growing hatred towards white women in MAGA spaces and conservative media.

From the massive hate campaigns against Amber Heard and Blake Lively, to smearing women like Renee Good during today's ICE protests in Minneapolis, to so-called "Karens" and accusations of hysteria, to the idea of "toxic empathy," we unpack why white women who step outside their assigned role have become such a powerful political target.

We discuss the demonization of "Wine Moms" and "Childless Cat Ladies" in relation to the rise of the trad-wife fantasy. We explore why conservative media is obsessed with controlling white women and why this demographic is trending away from the Republican party. We also examine how these narratives are used to justify regressive policies around reproduction, education, marriage, and bodily autonomy.

We discuss why scapegoating white women in particular works, why it?s so effective, and what it reveals about a movement that needs the most privileged women to be silent and compliant.

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We cover:

? The origins of "white woman" as an insult?from both the left and right

? Why MAGA is strategically attacking their own voting base

? The "toxic empathy" narrative and why caring is now considered dangerous

? How this keeps conservative women in line through fear

? The connection to attacks on IVF, surrogacy, and reproductive freedom

? Why passport bros and the manosphere hate white women specifically

? What this reveals about the MAGA vision for women in America

2026-02-11
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They Are Trying To Kill The Internet As We Know It

? URGENT: Section 230 is under attack and it affects EVERY person who uses the internet. This is part 1 of my deep-dive series exposing the truth about the most important internet law ever created.

Support my independent journalism:? Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz ?? Substack: https://www.usermag.co

Every single time you leave a comment, post a review, or send a message, you are being protected by a law called Section 230, and right now, politicians on both sides of the aisle are trying to destroy it.

Section 230 is the legal foundation for the modern internet. It?s why websites can host comments, forums, reviews, group chats, marketplaces, and social platforms without being sued into oblivion. It?s why Wikipedia exists.

In this video, I break down what Section 230 actually is, why it was created, and how it shaped the internet as we know it. I uncover the forgotten history of the internet, from the early legal battles of CompuServe and Prodigy to the landmark Zeran v. AOL ruling.

I explore why the "Big Tech" narrative is a lie, how repealing Section 230 would actually crush small creators and marginalized communities, and why recent efforts like FOSTA-SESTA have already been a disaster for human rights, marginalized communities, small forums, nonprofits, and independent creators.

Despite what politicians and pundits claim, NONE of this is about protecting big tech companies. The fight over Section 230 is about who controls online speech, who gets a voice, and whether the internet remains an open space for all of us, or becomes a tightly controlled AI-surveilled hellscape dominated by censorship and corporate consolidation.

This is the first episode in my entirely self-funded and self-produced multi-part series on Section 230. I dive deep into internet history, free expression and the growing push for mass online censorship. If you care about free speech, online communities, privacy, or the future of the internet (which you should!!!), this fight affects YOU, whether you realize it or not.

Subscribe for the rest of the series, support my work below, and stay informed about the laws quietly shaping your digital life!

Resources: https://www.whatissection230.org https://badinternetbills.com https://www.stoponlineidchecks.org

Support my channel ? My Section 230 educational series is 100% self-funded and self-produced.

?? Substack: https://www.usermag.co Follow me:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz Instagram (alt): https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenzBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social Covered in this video:What is Section 230 How CompuServe and Prodigy created the internet as we know itHow Section 230 protects ordinary users, not corporationsWhy both political parties are lying about this lawThe real reasons politicians want Section 230 goneWhy Big Tech SUPPORTS weakening Section 230How Section 230 protects marginalized communities, sex workers, LGBTQ groups, and reproductive justice activistsWhat you can do RIGHT NOW to fight back

2026-02-09
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The UK Is A Dystopia, And We're Next

The UK is rapidly becoming one of the most aggressive surveillance states in the democratic world, and many don't even realize it's happening.

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[FREE SPEECH FRIDAY]

The UK has officially slid into a dystopian surveillance state, and the rest of the world is next. On this week's Free Speech Friday The Kavernackle joined me to discuss the terrifying reality of the Online Safety Act, the push for mandatory Digital ID, and how the UK is leading the global charge toward authoritarianism and mass surveillance.

From banning VPNs to arresting citizens for social media posts, the British government is dismantling privacy under the guise of "safety." We break down how liberals like Keir Starmer are spearheading these mass surveillance programs and why the "Blitz Spirit" mentality has altered the way so many in the UK understand nationalism and privacy.

The mass surveillance framework being built in London is coming to the US, as the crackdown on free speech is spreading across the globe.

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In this video, we cover:

The Online Safety Act: How the new laws can force you to scan your face to access basic websites.

Why the UK is trying to ban VPNs and remove online anonymity.

How "hate speech" laws are weaponized against political dissent and pro-Palestine protests.

Why British culture is uniquely susceptible to authoritarian overreach.

Why US Democrats are adopting the exact same censorship playbook as Kier Starmer and Tony Blair.

UK surveillance laws

Online Safety Act explained

Digital ID and age verification

Facial recognition online

VPN bans

Free speech crackdowns

Tech censorship

Mass data collection

2026-02-06
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Content Creation Has Become a Pyramid Scheme

The MLM industry has rebranded for the TikTok era. Now, instead of hawking LuLaRoe leggings, women are paying $500 for PDFs on how to become micro influencers.

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The "hustle economy" is no longer about selling essential oils or leggings to your neighbors. A new wave of multi-level marketing-style schemes has taken over Instagram and TikTok.

Digital courses specifically targeting young mothers with the promise of "passive income" and "financial freedom" by becoming a content creator have become pervasive.

In this episode, I sit down with Caroline Moss (founder of "Gee Thanks, Just Bought It") to break down how content creation became the new digital pyramid scheme. We expose the dark reality of the influencer economy, the rise of Faceless Marketing scams, and why so many women are buying $500 PDFs just to turn around and sell that same PDF to someone else.

We talk about influencer saturation, the use of ChatGPT to write generic "chaos mama" scripts, the rise of "course core" and the heartbreaking reality that most of these creators are making absolutely zero dollars.

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https://www.instagram.com/geethanksjustboughtitpod

In This Video:

The evolution of MLMs.

Why "Faceless Marketing" is the new trap for introverts.

Selling courses about selling courses.

The role of ChatGPT in generating low-quality influencer content.

Why viral views don't equal a paycheck.

The psychology of targeting stay-at-home moms.

The origins of the mommy blogger world, Heather Armstrong aka "Dooce"

2026-02-04
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[PATREON PREVIEW] The Powerful Subreddit Upending Twitch: The Rise and Fall of Livestream Fail

To listen to the full episode and get other bonus content subscribe to my Patreon or Substack!

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For a decade, r/LiveStreamFail (LSF) has been the "beating heart" of Twitch culture, but at what cost?

One former reddit moderator went viral recently for posting a wild video addressed to Reddit's CEO, where he talks about the secret power he wielded in his role as moderator of Livestream Fail, a subreddit that catalogs news about the biggest streamers on Twitch for the parasocial fans who follow their every move.

But how did the Livestream Fail subreddit emerge, how did it become so influential, and how has its role in online culture evolved? Journalist Steven Asarch joins me to answer these questions. He's been covering the world of Livestream Fail for a decade.

From Destiny, to Asmongold, to Hasan Piker, LSF helps Twitch scandals break through on Elon Musk?s X ecosystem. Steven and I discuss how this viral clip culture actually works and how it can be weaponized. We talk about how the subreddit evolved from an "edgelord paradise" centered on Ice Poseidon to a political weapon used against progressive and women creators.

Steven explains the subreddit's origins and lore, and we reveal the truth about "clip farming," how billionaires are paying for right-wing rage bait, and how 30-second clips are fueling the alt-right pipeline.

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2026-02-02
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Can You Sue For Social Media Addiction?

The Internet as we know it is on trial. A major suit claiming social media addiction could give the government unprecedented power.

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A landmark lawsuit in California claims that social media giants like Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat are intentionally designing their platforms to be addictive, causing severe mental health issues in minors. But is this really about protecting children, or is it a backdoor to destroy the free and open web? Experts say this lawsuit would set a dangerous legal precedent that gives the government total authority to regulate, censor, and control online content.

I sat down with journalist Liz Nolan Brown to break down the bellwether case that could end Section 230 protections and force Big Tech to work with the government to censor the internet like never before. We discuss the controversial claims of "social media addiction," the lack of scientific evidence linking apps to depression, and why this moral panic is similar to that surrounding the telephone decades ago.

Ultimately, this lawsuit is about who controls the internet and whether the government should have the power to control 100% of what we see and read online.

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Topics covered:

The "Kagome" lawsuit against Meta, Google, and TikTok

Does social media cause depression and anxiety?

The threat to Section 230 and free speech

Why "design defects" are the new legal weapon

The history of moral panics in technology

online privacy and surveillance

government control of the internet

2026-01-30
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Why Everyone Is Becoming Chinese Online w/ Caroline Kwan

China is winning the culture war: From "galvanized square steel" to drinking hot water, why is the entire internet suddenly looking more Chinese?

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Over the past year, a massive cultural shift has taken place. From China-maxxing memes to TikTok migrations, Chinese tech, culture, and lifestyle have become aspirational in a way no one could have predicted a decade ago.

Twitch streamer and pop culture commentator Caroline Kwan joins me to break down how and why the internet became Chinese.

We discuss what these memes actually mean, and why US politicians are panicking. We talk about the TikTok ban, RedNote, Chinese tech dominance, cultural soft power, high speed rail, American decline, surveillance hypocrisy, and why Gen Z no longer believes what they were told.

We also talk about why American propaganda on China is collapsing in real time, and what that says about the future of politics, culture, and power in the 21st century.

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Topics Covered:

"China Maxxing" and "You met me at a very Chinese time" memes.

Why Gen Z is moving to Red Note (Xiaohongshu) after the TikTok ban.

The contrast between US infrastructure (crumbling) and China (high-speed rail).

The truth about the "Made in China" stigma vs. modern quality.

Why US anti-China propaganda is backfiring.

2026-01-28
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Why Conservatives Hate Brooklyn Beckham [PATREON PREVIEW]

TO LISTEN TO THIS FULL EPISODE, SUBSCRIBE ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz

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Last week, Brooklyn Beckham, the 26 year old son of Victoria and David Beckham, posted a 7 slide essay on Instagram Stories, accusing his parents of controlling his entire life and disrespecting his wife Nicola Peltz. Immediately, he was hit with a tidal wave of backlash.

Right wingers have pounced on this drama, with Candace Owens, House in Habit, and others pushing the idea that Nicola Pelz is yet another "Meghan Markle" and that Brooklyn is "Prince Harry 2.0," yet another privileged son being manipulated by an evil woman into betraying his family.

Kat Tenbarge joined me to break down what Brooklyn actually said, how tabloids and influencers are distorting the story, why Nicola Peltz was instantly cast as the villain, and what it reveals about how society reacts when men set boundaries with powerful families.

We discuss boy mom culture, media manipulation, and why cutting off family still triggers moral panic. We also talk about how PR machines operate, how smear campaigns are constructed, and why the public constantly blames women for men's choices.

While this seems like your standard celebrity drama, it actually reveals a lot about how our culture treats men, the normalization of gender-based violence and how propaganda works in the digital age.

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2026-01-26
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How The Government Tracks Your Life

[FREE SPEECH FRIDAY]

Every single moment that you're online, you're feeding the data harvesting industry. Corporations then sell that data to the government, allowing them to target you for online speech, protesting, and more.

Now, the government wants to build a single centralized platform where U.S. spy agencies and the government can easily buy highly private information about millions of people. Documents obtained by The Intercept reveal that the U.S. is seeking to establish a "one stop shop" for the U.S. government to buy American's most sensitive data. This sort of surveillance is a massive threat to free speech and expression.

***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! ? https://www.usermag.co *****

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[This episode originally aired in June 2025]

2026-01-23
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Why Everyone Is Suddenly Obsessed With 2016

Matt Bernstein, Kat Tenbarge and I dig into what the 2016 nostalgia is really about.

Why is everyone suddenly obsessed with 2016? Hyper-saturated Instagram photos are back. The Snapchat puppy filter is everywhere again. Nostalgic edits are flooding TikTok. From the "King Kylie" era to Harambe, it feels like we?re collectively regressing.

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But was 2016 really ?the last good year?? I wanted to understand why this particular moment looms so large in our cultural memory, so I called up my friends Matt Bernstein and Kat Tenbarge to discuss.

Kat is an incredible journalist and the author of Spitfire News, and Matt is an iconic podcast host and content creator. We re-examined the defining moments of 2016, talk about the old days of YouTube, why boomers don't get the nostalgia, and why 2016 has become such a powerful focal point.

We unpack what this fixation on 2016 reveals about today's internet, culture, and politics nearly a decade later.

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In this video, we cover:

The revival of 2016 aesthetics on TikTok.

Why people romanticize the pre-Trump/early-Trump era.

The impact of 2016 internet humor on today's culture.

The rise of the content creator industry.

Why it's all Gen Z and Millennials who are getting nostalgic while older generations don't seem to care.

2026-01-21
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Tech Billionaires Want Us Dead

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For decades, tech billionaires have sold us a shiny future powered by AI. But what if the future they?re building doesn?t include us? A disturbing ideology has quietly come to dominate Silicon Valley: the belief that we need to dispose of the flawed, biological human race in order to give birth to a superior AI intelligence that will ultimately replace us. Tech billionaires are already investing in the technology and infrastructure to make this happen.

I dove deep into how these ideas, known as TESCREAL, took hold, who?s funding them, who the power players are in this new movement, how they've been quietly prepping the public to accept this fate for years, how TESCREAL, pro-extinction beliefs are already shaping how the most powerful companies on Earth operate, and how real, human workers are paying the price for all these decisions.

If you're feeling uneasy about AI hype, billionaire bunker ?prepper? culture, and getting the sense that AI technology is moving way too fast, you have probably seen evidence of these extreme beliefs manifesting in the world already.

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2026-01-19
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ICE's New Surveillance System Can Follow You Everywhere

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ICE just bought a massively powerful new surveillance system that can monitor every single phone in your neighborhood, track the movements of those devices and their owners over time, and follow you home from work and to other locations.

Joe Cox at 404 Media broke the story of these new ICE systems called Tangles and Webloc. He joined me to break down how this new ICE tech works, what these systems do, why the online advertising market is secretly dangerous, and how we can fight back.

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2026-01-16
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Ashley St Clair's Political Awakening: Trans Rights, AI, and Elon Musk

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Until recently, Ashley St Clair was a star in the conservative influencer world. She built a large and powerful following by leaning into culture-war rhetoric and boosting MAGA policies. She worked for Charlie Kirk?s Turning Point USA and gained national attention by publishing an anti trans Children?s book. She was welcomed into the upper echelons of right-wing media and activism, and her proximity to power on the right deepened when she began a relationship with Elon Musk, who she later had a child with.

But lately, Ashley?s public posture has begun to shift. After Grok, Elon Musk?s AI chatbot, began to flood the internet with nonconsensual deepfake content undressing Ashley and countless other women (and children), she became increasingly outspoken in her criticisms of Musk and unchecked AI development.

In her posts, Ashley has also suggested that some of her other earlier views on things like trans rights, have changed.

I sat down with Ashley to talk about how she got her start in conservative influencing, Maga 1.0 vs MAGA 2.0, the right wing internet pipeline, Elon Musk, and how her positions on issues like LGBTQ rights, healthcare, and immigration have changed.

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2026-01-14
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Congress Is Pushing Another Internet Censorship Law: The SCREEN Act

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Every week it feels like Congress cooks up a new bad internet law. This week we're diving deep into the SCREEN Act. Framed as a child safety bill, this law is an insidious trojan horse for mass censorship and surveillance.

It's been getting a lot of traction thanks to its backing from extreme far right groups and the religious right, and Democrats are now signing on board claiming the law will protect kids online.

In reality, this law could end up forcing you to scan your face to access websites, ban VPNs, and more. To break it all down Michael Stabile, director of public policy at the Free Speech Coalition, joined me. Mike has been fighting these censorship laws on the state level and has been in the rooms in state legislatures where a lot of these debates are taking place.

We get nitty gritty into how the SCREEN Act works, what it does, how it came to fruition, what sets it apart from some of these other child safety laws, and why we need to band together to kill it!

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2026-01-09
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ICE Is Treating Immigration Raids Like Content

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Since Trump took office, ICE has rapidly transformed itself from an under the radar agency into an influencer-style media machine, churning out non-stop viral videos of tactical operations and immigration raids.

ICE's ability to dominate the internet has come to serve as a blueprint for other Trump administration agencies, and their relentless focus on virality is already reshaping public opinion on immigrants.

Drew Harwell is a reporter at The Washington Post and he recently published an investigation into ICE's social media blitz. He joins me to:

Reveal the inside information he uncovered about how ICE's internet meme team operates

Expose what ICE's internal chat logs reveal about their approach to the internet

The Gen Z clip farming operation ICE is employing

Break down how a previously under the radar federal law enforcement group became an ?influencer-style media machine?

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2026-01-07
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4Chan's Battle to Stop the UK From Censoring the Global Internet

<<< Free Speech Friday!!! >>>

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A few months ago, the UK's Online Safety Act went into effect, causing chaos across the internet. The UK government has censored information about police violence, silenced protesters, banned the subreddit for War Crimes, and effectively removed dozens of forums for everything from new motherhood advice to alcoholic anonymous treatment communities.

While the big tech companies have rolled over and complied with the law, a small, unlikely group of platforms is fighting back. These platforms include Kiwi Farms, Gab, and 4Chan, and they're waging a legal battle that could reshape the entire global internet.

Preston Byrne is the lawyer representing these platforms in their fight against the UK government and the EU's Digital Services Act, a similar "online safety" law that's led to significant censorship. A fierce free speech defender, Byrne is making the legal case that UK and EU regulators do not have the right to censor American's speech in America.

He joined me to discuss the global battle he's undertaken and how some of the worst websites online might just save the internet for all of us.

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2026-01-02
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The Insane Overnight Rise of Clavicular: the black-pilled Gen Z looksmaxxer taking over the internet

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Over the past few months, a 19 year old Looksmaxxing livestreamer called Clavicular has become inescapable online, collaborating with an ever growing cadre of massive influencers and conservative online figures. Just last week, he made headlines for running a man over with his Cybertruck on Christmas eve.

It's rare to see someone blow up so quickly near overnight, but I think Clavicular's rise reveals a lot about the current state of online culture and the growing influence of a Nick Fuentes-adjacent black-pilled nihilistic zoomer ideology that seems to be spreading across the internet.

Jarvis Johnson is a YouTuber and friend of mine, and we have been texting about Clavicular's rise for months. So I brought him on to go deep on who exactly Clavicular is, where he came from, how he blew up, and what his rise reveals about the state of the internet and Zoomer politics.

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2025-12-31
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[BONUS] Why Everything Feels Life or Death Now

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Why has everyone become so obsessed with game shows where the losers die!? Over the past decade, ?The Hunger Games? became a multibillion-dollar media franchise. Netflix?s ?Squid Game? took off, and MrBeast's challenges are growing increasingly deadly.

Teddy Brown is a freelance writer for the New Yorker. He wrote a fantastic review of The Running Man, a movie starring Glen Powell where game show contestants must survive 30 days while being hunted down by professional assassins.

He has been studying our obsession with deadly game shows. He joined me to chart the rise of deadly entertainment and discuss what the shifting stakes of game shows reveals about the current state of culture, the national mood, and where entertainment is heading.

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2025-12-29
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Is This The End of The Open Web?

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>>> Free Speech Friday <<<

Across the U.S. parents and lawmakers are calling for tech companies to verify users' ages online. They frame these efforts as a smart, reasonable, and harmless way to keep kids safe. But that's not what age verification does!!!

Age verification efforts are a massive threat to privacy, freedom, and the very idea of an open web. No one knows this better than Eric Goldman. He is the associate dean for research at Santa Clara University School of Law and co-Director of the High Tech Law Institute.

He recently wrote a fantastic paper on age verification, soon to be published in the Stanford Technology Law Review. Today he's joining me for Free Speech Friday to talk about how age verification works online and how it's all ultimately a trojan horse for government control, surveillance, and censorship.

(This episode originally ran in June)

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2025-12-26
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Elon Musk's God Complex

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As Elon Musk's influence has grown, so too has a darker, more troubling side of his persona: his rampant egomania.

Faiz Siddiqui is a former colleague of mine at The Washington Post and he's the author of the new book Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk.

In this episode of Power User we break down exactly how Musk's narcissism has evolved throughout his career, and the key moments that reveal just how deeply Elon's self-obsession has shaped his life and the future he claims to build.

(This episode originally ran in June)

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2025-12-24
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Is There A Vibe Shift in Silicon Valley? [PATREON EXCLUSIVE]

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Over the past few years, Silicon Valley startups have been becoming more and more dystopian. Crypto, gambling, AI friends, and other products that sound like they've been ripped from Black Mirror. But lately, there's been a little bit of backlash.

Marc Andreessen tried to dunk on the Pope asking for safety in AI development and got dragged, and more founders are talking about building things with purpose. Is Silicon Valley having a vibe shift?

John Coogan is the host of TBPN, a daily live show that's like sports center for the tech world. He is the go-to guy for what's going on in Silicon Valley. He joined me to discuss current Silicon Valley founder mindsets, what current trends are coming out of the tech world that you probably haven't heard of yet, and what the rightward shift in Silicon Valley really reveals.

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2025-12-22
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Social Media Addiction Isn't Real? Here is What's Really Happening

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<<< FREE SPEECH FRIDAY>>>

People cannot stop claiming they are "addicted" to social media. Lawmakers continue to compare social media use to drug or alcohol addictions, while the media pushes an addiction framework for quitting social media.

But last week, a big new research paper dropped that debunks all of these narratives. The studies found that not only are a lot of our perceptions around social media and addiction completely wrong, just framing social media use as addiction *itself*is actually extremely harmful and makes it even HARDER to moderate your use of tech products.

Ian Anderson is one of the researchers at the California Institute of Technology who conducted the study. He's joined me today to break down what the research on social media and addiction actually says, how the media's framing of technology use as addiction is causing enormous harm, and what we can all do to actually fight back against big tech. He also gives tips on how to cut down on your own social media use.

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2025-12-19
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How Charlie Kirk Memes Are Radicalizing Gen Z w/ Ryan Broderick

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After Charlie Kirk was killed in front of a crowd of students in Utah, right wing influencers and pundits claimed that his killing would result in millions of Charlie Kirks. Almost immediately, mini me Charlie Kirk clones began cropping up, and far right Gen Z influencers began attempting to mimic Charlie's viral debate formats.

But pretty soon, things went off the rails. Hardly a month after Charlie died, his widow Erika Kirk was pictured giving an awkwardly close embrace to JD Vance in skin tight pleather pants. Donld Trump all but forgot Charlie existed, and very quickly, Charlie became a meme.

Ryan Broderick is an online culture journalist and he's been covering The Great Kirkification. He joined me to talk about the rise of Charlie Kirk slop and what it's morphing into. Because as fun as it is to laugh at absurd memes featuring Charlie Kirk's face plastered into some mpreg emoji, the whole thing has taken a sharp turn lately and is now funneling a lot of people right back into the far right.

We dig into this new hyper online esoteric form of Naziism, explain the lore behind the mythical city of Agartha, and explain what all of this says about the current state of the internet, politics, and culture.

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2025-12-17
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The Global Internet Is Dying: America Is Repeating China's Biggest Mistake

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IT'S FREE SPEECH FRIDAY!!!!!

For years, the United States villainized China for its restrictive internet landscape and mass censorship of online speech. But lately, things are changing. The U.S. and other western countries are careening towards authoritarianism and seeking to pass laws that mandate invasive surveillance and extreme censorship of online speech.

The pattern is very similar to what we saw in China and have seen in other authoritarian countries. Mass censorship and surveillance is ushered in with justifications about "child online safety," governments seeking to ban VPNs, removing anonymity from the web, constructing walled gardens, and so on.

James Griffiths is a Hong Kong based journalist who has covered China for over a decade. He is the author of the book The Great Firewall of China: How to build and control an alternative version of the internet. He joined me to talk about what China's internet is really like, the mass erosion of free speech on the western internet, and why the situation we're in right now is so dangerous.

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2025-12-12
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Everyone Is Wrong About The Olivia Nuzzi RFK Scandal w/ Kat Tenbarge

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Recently, journalist Olivia Nuzzi has been at the center of the biggest political media scandal in years. A star journalist for New York Magazine, it was revealed that Nuzzi had secretly had a torrid love affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after profiling him for the magazine.

She came out of hiding this month to announce a new job at Vanity Fair and release her book, American Canto, about the whole experience. But within days of re-emerging she was once again at the center of a full blown firestorm after her ex fiance, political journalist Ryan Lizza, began to release Nuzzi's intimate text messages on his Substack.

Now, she's been fired by Vanity Fair and all of the media has been excoriating her for her blatant violations of journalistic ethics. But what about the men in this story? Journalist Kat Tenbarge joins me to break down Olivia Nuzzi's journey from teenage pop star to top political reporter to her relationship with RFK Jr, the Ryan Lizza saga, what's actually going on, and why we both think MSM news reporters are missing the real story underneath the whole saga.

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2025-12-10
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Congress Is About to Break the Internet

>>> FREE SPEECH FRIDAY <<<

KOSA Won?t Just Silence LGBTQ Voices; It Will Also Be Used To Hide Abortion Info From The Internet

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On Tuesday, members of the House of Representatives gathered for a big hearing called Legislative Solutions to Protect Children and Teens Online. The hearing was the latest attempt by lawmakers to force through a slate of horrifying surveillance laws that would censor the internet, strip the ability to freely access information, and cause great harm to children, especially marginalized youth. The mainstream media has been covering none of this.

Kate Ruane is a director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, and she testified this Tuesday in front of congress about these evil laws. Today, she joins me to break down what's going on in congress, what these proposed laws would do, and why we're at such a crucial moment when it comes to preserving privacy and free expression on the internet.

Read up via the links below and call your representatives today and tell them to stop The SCREEN Act, kill The App Store Accountability Act, and kill the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

Heritage Foundation Says That Of Course GOP Will Use KOSA To Censor LGBTQ Content

Why The Fuck Are Democrats Helping Build MAGA?s Censorship Machine With KOSA?

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2025-12-05
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The Radicalization Pipeline Nobody Sees Coming

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Lately, growing swaths of the online left have embraced a messaging strategy known broadly as Dark Woke. While traditional Democrats still try to reach across the aisle and find common ground with conservatives, more on the left are becoming comfortable embracing outright bigotry, slurs, hateful rhetoric, dunking on conservatives, and going full "dark woke."

Twitch streamer SeanDaBlack has been covering the rise of this culture, and he joined me to talk about the rise of "woke" culture in America, how social justice movements have been warped by the internet, what Dark Woke really means and whether it's a winning strategy to counter Trump's online dominance.

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2025-12-03
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None Of This is About Online Safety

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For decades, the Eelam Tamil ethnic group in Sri Lanka has been persecuted. They are dealing with ongoing occupation by the Sri Lankan government, which has also incited violence against Muslims in the country.

As tensions have escalated, the government has cracked down on speech, leaning hard into online censorship to censor anyone who questions the authority of the Sri Lankan government.

The government has banned social media, passed a restrictive "online safety act" and sought to enact strict controls over what can be said online, all under the guise of "online safety" and curbing "misinformation."

ArunAnnow has been covering the persecution of the Eelam Tamil people and the atrocities of the Sri Lankan government. He's an independent journalist and content creator. Today he's joining me to talk about the situation in Sri Lanka and how their "online safety" crusade is serving as a blueprint for authoritarian U.S. laws.

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https://grief-stricken-winds.com/

Grief-Stricken Winds Documentary Website:

News Sources/Orgs:

https://x.com/TamilGuardian

https://x.com/JDSLanka

https://x.com/lankafiles

https://x.com/PEARL_Action

People to Follow:

https://x.com/kumanan93

https://x.com/ambikasat

https://x.com/JeraThampi

Other Resources:

https://ptsrilanka.org

2025-11-28
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The MAGA Twitter Apocalypse w/ Charlie Warzel

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Over the weekend, Twitter descended into complete and utter chaos. Elon Musk rolled out a feature called ?About This Account? that allowed people to click on the profile of an X user and see exactly what country the account was created in, where its user is currently based, and how many times the username has been changed.

Dozens of major accounts masquerading as ?America First? or ?MAGA? were identified as originating in places like India, Pakistan, Russia, or Nigeria, engagement farming to earn money through X's creator revenue program, available to those who purchase a blue check.

Charlie Warzel is a longtime technology writer at The Atlantic who has been covering this rollout. Today he's joining me to discuss whether the "about this account" feature is truly 9/11 for pro MAGA accounts, how our internet is being warped by inauthentic activity, whether this truly signifies the end of the social web, and what comes next.

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2025-11-26
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[PATREON PREVIEW] How Zohran Won The Internet w/ the Creators 4 Zohran Founders

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Since Kamala Harris lost the election, there's been an endless debate among the Democrats on how to best reach young people online. Many centrists have claimed liberals need a "Joe Rogan of the left" and by left they usually mean center right. Others have leaned into memes and shitposting like Gavin Newsom.

Zohran Mamdani didn't do any of that and he won young voters, and especially young men, in a landslide. His digital strategy leaned into creator-style content and leveraged a ton of influencers, but in a way that felt natural, organic and centered his policies, which were the real engine behind his success.

Part of his success was due to Creators For Zohran, an influencer-led coalition aimed at boosting Zohran's messaging online, and Emilia Rowland, Zohran's new media and creator partnerships advisor, who led creator partnerships for Mamdani's campaign.

Emilia, along with Aiden Kohn Murphy and Alexis Williams, co-founders of Creators for Zohran, joined me to pull back the curtain on the work they did with Zohran, talk about what made his creator strategy so effective, and discuss how to build relevance and mobilize people in an increasingly fractured online world.

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2025-11-24
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The Most Depraved Commentary I've Ever Heard

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Right now, there's a clip going viral from former Obama White House aide and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz that is so appalling and depraved it's hard to believe it's real.

But many people are missing the most dangerous part of her commentary. Her comments reveal exactly what the ruling class in America wants to do to online speech, and why we need to fight back so hard to protect our online freedoms.

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2025-11-21
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The Epstein Saga Is Sending the Internet Into Chaos w/ Brace Belden

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Jeffrey Epstein is back in the news after a massive new cache of emails and text messages was released last week. Now, Congress is set to send to Trump legislation to compel the Justice Department to release even more records. The whole saga has become a messy political fight that?s causing chaos in the MAGA movement and warping the right wing internet.

No one knows the Epstein saga more than my friend Brace Belden, co-host of the Trueanon podcast and one of the internet's foremost experts on Epstein and MAGA influencers.

He joins me to break down what this latest Epstein cache reveals, the real tea on Donald Trump and Bill Clinton's relationship, and how off this Epstein stuff might impact Trump and the influencers in his movement going forward.

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2025-11-19
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The Government Is Spying on College Football Games

FREE SPEECH FRIDAY

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The Department of Homeland Security has deployed a powerful surveillance tool at college football games, and that's not the only place where they're using it. If you were one of the thousands of people who attended the Old Miss vs Georgia game a few weeks ago, a DHS system could have been monitoring you.

At that game and others schools have been using a little-known Department of Homeland Security platform called the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN). FOIAball, a newsletter reporting on college football and public records, got a hold of documents related to this surveillance effort.

All of this information and monitoring is now being fed into facial recognition systems, as those systems of surveillance expand. And, HSIN isn't just being used at concerts and game days, it's not being deployed against protesters, activists, and peaceful crowds.

Story on FOIAball: https://www.foiaball.com/p/dhs-college-football-hsin-surveillance-ole-miss-ohio-state

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2025-11-14
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How Sydney Sweeney Lost The Culture War

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Sydney Sweeney just had one of the worst box office weekends of all time. Her new movie Christy, about a female boxer, made barely over $1 million, making it one of the worst-performing films of all time,

This disastrous flop comes on the heels of yet another culture war controversy that she was at the center of, stemming from a viral GQ interview, and now she's locked in a bitter feud with Zendaya, her co-star on Euphoria, the HBO show that arguably skyrocketed her to stardom.

So all of this begs the question: can Sydney Sweeny survive becoming an avatar for the culture war? Why does every viral moment now become a referendum on politics? Kat Tenbarge joins me to discuss!

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2025-11-12
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He Was Tortured in an Israeli Prison for Speaking Out

FREE SPEECH FRIDAY

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Tommy Marcus, better known online as Quentin Quarantino online, first became famous during the early days of the pandemic. He posted timely memes and news roundups, but what started as a funny Instagram account quickly turned into a massive fundraising machine. Tommy got more involved in activism and political causes and began using his platform to raise money for humanitarian issues and injustice around the world.

A few months ago, he joined an aid boat headed to Gaza, hoping to deliver supplies to people caught in the ongoing crisis. His ship was intercepted just miles off the coast and the IDF abducted him and fellow activists before holding them in a notorious Israeli super prison. Tommy, one of the few Jewish activists on the boat, was tortured and abused by the IDF.

He finally made it out and is speaking about the experience for the first time. He opens up about how the experience affected him and changed his beliefs about power, justice, and the United States sanction of the slaughter in Palestine.

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2025-11-07
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Why Every Hit Pop Song Sounds the Same Now

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Did you know that hit songs in the late 1950s were regularly about gruesome death? Or that a US vice president wrote a number one hit? Chris Dalla Riva is one of my favorite music journalists out there. He writes the substack Can't Get Much Higher where he publishes pieces on the intersection of music and data.

A couple years ago he embarked on a quest to listen to every single number 2 hit from the last six decades, and wrote about what he learned in his new book Uncharted Territory. The book is part celebration, part takedown of popular music, and also provides new ways to think about your favorite songs, genres, and artists. This book is genuinely so good and changed the way I think about so many songs and just how different periods in history were reflected in the music from their time.

Chris joined me this week to discuss the past half a century of number 1 hits and what they say about our culture, political system and world at large.

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2025-11-05
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The New Legal Fight to Destroy Super PACs Forever

FREE SPEECH FRIDAY

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For the first time in fifteen years, there?s a real shot at ending billionaire control of American politics.

A groundbreaking legal effort spearheaded by Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, backed by an unlikely coalition of billionaires like Mark Cuban and Reid Hoffman, is taking direct aim at the legal foundation that created Super PACs.

I'm going to be covering this legal fight closely. Larry Lessig joined me on this week's Free Speech Friday to break down his legal fight, where things stand, and what needs to happen next in order to win this fight.

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2025-10-31
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Has Taylor Swift Finally Peaked? Why Billionaires Can't Make Good Art

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Over the past two decades, Taylor Swift has dominated the pop charts and risen to the pinnacle of mainstream fame. She has amassed a $2 billion fortune, won 14 Grammy Awards, sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, headlined the highest-grossing concert tour in history, and built a vast real-estate and music catalog empire.

But lately, the backlash to Swift is growing louder. She has been criticized for her silence on major political issues, for palling around with Trump supporters, her carbon footprint, and many are calling her latest album a flop.

All of this raises the question, has Taylor Swift peaked, not just in popularity, but in cultural authority? Or is this just another cynical reinvention that she'll use to amass even more money and power? Journalist and Swiftie Kat Tenbarge joined me to discuss it all.

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2025-10-29
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A Woman Streamer Was Assaulted, Is Twitch To Blame?

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FREE SPEECH FRIDAY

Last weekend, popular cosplay Twitch streamer Emiru was assaulted at a meet-and-greet during Twitchcon. A man cut across several meet and greet lines and attempted to grab her for a kiss. The incident was obviously a catastrophic failure when it comes to keeping women creators safe

But, after the Emiru incident, tons of big content creators began piling on on Twitter, pushing out of context clips attempting to show lax security at the event and calling for Dan Clancy's resignation. They began weaponizing the attack on a woman creator to push their own reactionary agendas.

Kat Tenbarge has been covering gender-based violence for nearly a decade and she joined me this week to break down what exactly went down at Twitchcon, why more security doesn't exactly lead to more safety for women, and what the true issue at the heart of all of this is. These attacks on women creators silence women and prevent them from speaking and expressing themselves freely.

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2025-10-24
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Can Twitch Survive? CEO Dan Clancy at Twitchcon

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As live-streaming becomes an increasingly dominant form of entertainment, Twitch is at a crossroads. Dan Clancy is the CEO of Twitch, and I sat down with him this weekend at Twitchcon to discuss how Twitch is evolving, its broader role in the creator economy over the next 10 years, competition from Hollywood, AI, and how he thinks about balancing streamers' creative freedom with safety concerns. Here's our interview.

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2025-10-22
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Fighting For LGBTQ Rights is Terrorism Now: NSPM-7 Explained w/ Ken Klippenstein

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Welcome back to Free Speech Friday!

Recently, Trump signed a little-noticed national security directive identifying a slew of views like ?anti-Christian? and ?anti-American? beliefs as indicators of "radical left violence" and terrorism. The directive is called NSPM-7.

NSPM-7carries serious implications for freedom of speech and opens the door to dangerous levels of censorship. In NSPM-7, Trump directs the Justice Department, the FBI, and other national security agencies to fight his version of political violence, retooling a network of Joint Terrorism Task Forces to focus on ?leftist? political violence in America.

Ken Klippenstein has been covering all this. He joined me today to break down NSPM-7 and what it means for speech in America. Under the new directive, anyone expressing views that could be construed as any of the following, could be classified by the government as a terrorist:

anti-Americanism,

anti-capitalism,

anti-Christianity,

support for the overthrow of the United States Government,

extremism on migration,

extremism on race,

extremism on gender

hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family,

hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and

hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.

Ken's story: https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs

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2025-10-17
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Hasan Piker and the Future No One Is Ready For

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Hasan Piker has never abused his dog, but you'd never know that from the video clips spreading all over the internet. The backlash that Piker is facing shows the consequences of a world where everyone is constantly being recorded and our internet is built to reward outrage and controversy.

In this episode, I dive into the recent viral conspiracy and false claims about Piker and Kaya, unpacking how a single, out-of-context clip spiraled into a full-blown harassment campaign, fueled by bad actors and politically motivated smear tactics.

I unpack how the Hasan Piker dog collar incident is a warning sign of a dystopian future where 24/7 video surveillance merges with online outrage farming. As AI and algorithmic amplification make it easier to manipulate and weaponize video, the problems influencers face today will soon affect us all.

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2025-10-15
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[PATREON PREVIEW] How Raunchy AI Country Songs Took Over The Internet

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We're facing a tsunami of AI-generated music that is rapidly transforming the digital soundscape and expanding far beyond Spotify. It's already beginning to dominate platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, and other major streaming services. Generative tools are able to produce entire songs complete with realistic vocals, melodies, and high production quality. AI artists are flooding recommendation algorithms and trending charts.

Kieran Press Reynolds is a writer at Pitchfork, and he's been covering all of this. He joined me to talk about the rise of AI music and what deepfake vocals, manufactured sounds and this flood of AI generated content means for the future of the music industry and the role music plays in our culture.

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