Tech Policy Podcast

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

Links:

Social Media Addiction Lawsuits: The Deceptively Flawed Tobacco Analogy

Tech Policy Podcast 347: When Schools Scapegoat Social Media

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

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

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

Host Corbin Barthold offers some end-of-year reflections on the moral panic over kids’ use of social media and AI. Then we revisit Episode 405 (“No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been ‘Solved’,” Apr. 30, 2025), in which Prof. Eric Goldman discusses his paper “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.”
Links:
This Country Banned Social Media for Young Teens. Here’s how They’re Defying It.
Australia’s Social Media Ban Goes Into Effect as Pretty Much Everyone Realizes It’s a Total Mess
The “Segregate-and-Suppress” Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online
Tech Policy Podcast 417: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Is Wreaking Havoc