Because it's a holiday week I'm re-running one of my favorite episodes from last year.

I spoke to content creator Brad Podray‬ about the problem with “Kindness Influencers” and whether charity for content is ethical. We talk MrBeast, viral giveaways, and the difference between actual kindness vs kindness for the camera.

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Can a meme really get you deported? This week’s Free Speech Friday, is on Mads Mikkelsen, a Norwegian tourist allegedly kicked out of the country over a viral JD Vance meme saved to his phone. His story comes as tensions over speech rights at our borders are under greater threat. 

I break down what's going on and dig into the U.S. government's growing use of border screenings to police political speech. From increased surveillance to ideological questioning at customs, journalists, activists, visitors and citizens are experiencing a drastic chilling effect on free expression. The border is quickly becoming the front line in the government's war on free speech. 

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Private equity has quietly been gutting major sectors of the American economy, from healthcare, to housing, retail, our news media, and more. The industry is a multi trillion-dollar powerhouse that ultimately shapes all of our lives. 

Journalist Megan Greenwell has been covering the rise of Private Equity, and her new book reveals how private equity takeovers have disrupted industries, eroded job security, and undermined essential services across our country. 

Megan joined me to dig into the rise of private equity, how and why it has  infiltrated every aspect of American life, and what average people can do about it. 

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Buy Megan's book: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/bad-company-megan-greenwell

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Announcement!! I'm going to start uploading my video essays to this feed so people can watch them on Spotify or listen to them via podcasting apps. I will try to upload one video essay a month, always on a Monday. Hope you enjoy them! 

A new form of techno-spirituality is spreading like wildfire across the internet. Thousands of people are claiming that ChatGPT is sentient and that the AI is a type of all knowing God, or that it has been sent from the future or an alien civilization to save us.

Is this a new form of religion or mass psychosis? In this video, I deep into the rise of ChatGPT/AI worship and unpack how decades of pop culture influences have primed us to view technology as God-like. I dig into how tech became fused with spirituality, Silicon Valley founder worship, what the academic research on this topic says, and how we can stop more people from falling victim to this cycle before it's too late.

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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.

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DONATE TO POINT OF PRIDE: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/point-of-pride/taylor-lorenz-s-pride-2025-fundraiser-for-point-of-pride

For years, Pride Month meant rainbows on everything, in storefronts, on sneakers, burger wrappers, and an endless array of t-shirts and merch. But this June, After a decade of cashing in on queer identity, corporations are pulling back. From the aisles of Target and the Instagram feeds of big brands, the rainbow logos are gone, the merch shelves are empty.

Matt Bernstein is a podcaster, cultural critic, and content creator who covers LGBTQ issues and he's been covering this transformation. He joined me to talk about the rise and fall of rainbow capitalism, the history of the commodification of queer identity, and why this year everything has gotten so beige.

I know that there is a lot going on in the world right now, but Point of Pride is a trans-led nonprofit that makes gender-affirming care more accessible for the trans and gender diverse community.

The organization directly helps trans people obtain things like financial aid for surgery, electrolysis, HRT or free binders and shape wear.

Since 2016, Point of Pride has helped more than 29,000 trans people in all 50 states get the care they need and deserve.Trans people are finding it harder and harder to access crucial, life saving gender care right now.

When you donate to Point of Pride your money goes directly to funding these efforts and helping to build a future filled with safety, joy, and possibility for all trans people. Please donate today, every single dollar counts!!

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Over the past week tech people, right wing figures and the media have been freaking out about Waymos being set on fire in downtown Los Angeles. The Waymos were burned during last weekend’s protests against ICE. 

A lot of people online seem deeply confused about the burnings of the cars. So, I'm going to break down why there's so much anti-Waymo sentiment, the rise of surveillance technology at protests, and how it all affects free speech. 

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Last week we witnessed the public blowout between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. After pouring hundreds of millions into Trump’s campaign and serving as a special adviser on the “Department of Government Efficiency" Musk is now on the outs with Trump and his future within the MAGA movement is uncertain.

Brace Belden is the co-host of the podcast TrueAnon and has been covering Elon and the right wing internet universe for years. He joined me to break down Musk's rise in the MAGA world, the big blowup, what this fracturing means for the right going forward, and what's next for Elon.

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Welcome back to Free Speech Friday!

All across the internet, 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 major 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.

Eric's paper on age verification: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5208739

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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.

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