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We're halfway through August and summer is rapidly coming to a close. But this year, something about the season was different. It's the first year in over 100 years that there hasn't been a definitive song of the summer.
Is the absence of a “2025 song of the summer” just a quirk of this year’s charts or a symptom of a music culture permanently fractured by personalization, speed, and saturation. I called up Anthony Fantano to help me answer this question.
We dive deep into what makes a good song of the summer, how the concept emerged in culture, why we don't have one this year, and what a post song of the summer society might look like.
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A few days ago, 18 year old social media star Lil Tay made over $1 million by launching an OnlyFans shortly after her 18th birthday. The launch generated a massive backlash online, people on the left and the right are calling for OnlyFans to be banned and for the criminalization of porn.
On today's free speech Friday Kat Tenbarge and I break down Lil Tay's rise, what actually went down with her OF launch, and how this viral moment is already being weaponized by both influential Democrat and far right accounts to silence speech, dismantle civil liberties and push dangerous censorship laws that would lead to even more exploitation of women and children.
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Since its launch in 2022, ChatGPT has become the fastest-growing consumer application in history. The tool is embedded in more and more areas of daily life and new research shows that it's also transforming how we write and even speak.
A group of researchers analyzed more than 360,000 YouTube videos and 771,000 podcast episodes from before and after ChatGPT’s release to track the use of ChatGPT-affiliated words like "delve" and "examine."
All of this has major implications. Adam Aleksic is an etymologist who studies the way the internet is reshaping language. His new book Algospeak tackles all of this. He joins me to discuss how ChatGPT and AI is transforming the way we talk, what words we use, and how we communicate.
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The UK's Online Safety Act finally went into effect this week and it has been a massive clusterfuck. Entire forums, websites, communities and essential journalism is being censored. People are being forced to scan their faces to use Spotify and YouTube.
Like all of these terrible censorship bills, the Online Safety Act claims it's about protecting children from the evils of pornographic and “adult” content. But immediately after it went into effect, platforms began classifying nearly all breaking news footage, war coverage, investigative journalism, political protest material and information about reproductive and public health as “explicit” or “harmful" content, thus blocking anyone from under 18 from accessing it.
I break down the fallout from the UK's Online Safety Act and what we could be facing here in the U.S. soon if we don't fight back to protect free speech online.
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The internet has become the primary way that people get public health information. Especially since the pandemic began in 2020, millions of people have turned to platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and newsletters to keep up to date on things like food recalls, infectious disease reports, and more.
But now, CDC social media channels have gone dark, and the agency's public health communication across the internet is being cut off and dismantled. Chiara Eisner is an investigative reporter at NPR and she's been covering the fiasco at the CDC. We talk about the crucial role that the internet plays in public health and why what's happening right now under Trump and RFK and why it might set us back decades.
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The U.S. government is quietly building the largest surveillance system in modern history. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I break down how agencies like ICE, DHS are weaponizing your personal data including tax filings, medical records, license plate scans, and more, to hunt innocent people down across the country.
The Department of Homeland Security is also exploring ways to access IRS data on millions of U.S. citizens "associated with criminal activity" or who have shown support for "terrorism." I break down ICE’s growing surveillance empire, the risks of government data abuse, and the terrifying consequences for civil liberties if we don't fight back.
ProPublica article: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-irs-share-tax-records-ice-dhs-deportations
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Last week, a couple featured on the Jumbotron during a Coldplay concert in Boston went viral for being caught cheating. Within minutes of the video spreading on TikTok and X, users rallied together to identify the couple in the video using AI and facial recognition tools.
Crowdsourced social media investigations are becoming more and more common, and the people conducting them are leveraging increasingly dystopian surveillance tech that police and the feds are using against undocumented immigrants and marginalized groups. Meanwhile, all of our privacy is being eroded.
Jason Koebler from 404 Media joined me to dig into the origins of the surveillance-entertainment economy, how and why it evolved, and what we can do to protect ourselves.
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There's a bill right now in congress called the NO FAKES act that claims it will protect you from deepfakes. "In this new era of AI, we need real laws to protect real people," Rep. Maria Salazar said when announcing the bill. "The NO FAKES Act is simple and sacred: you own your identity, not Big Tech, not scammers, not algorithms."
As usual, none of this is what the law actually does!!!!!
The NO FAKES act is actually an incredibly sloppy and dangerous piece of legislation that could destroy lives, eradicate privacy, and lead to sweeping censorship of journalistic and constitutionally protected speech. There's a reason that major civil liberties orgs are sounding the alarm about this proposed law.
The NO FAKES act is "something that could change the internet forever, harming speech and innovation from here on out," The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently declared.
This bill would be a disaster for online speech and free expression. The Center for Democracy and Technology published an open letter opposing the proposed law. Kate Ruane is the director for the Center for Democracy and Technology's Free Expression Project. She joined this week's episode of my Free Speech Friday series to break down what the NO FAKES act really says and why we need to fight back against it.
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Earlier this month, Sean “Diddy” Combs was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering after a high-profile federal trial. The acquittals show how high profile men accused of sexual abuse and wrongdoing still often escape justice.
Already the outcome is being co-opted by the far right and manosphere spaces who are spinning it as proof that movements like #MeToo are overreaching.
Today we're talking about why the Diddy case was a pivotal moment online and why celebrity trials like this do matter in the political sphere now. To break it all down I brought on Caroline Kwan, a prolific Twitch streamer who covers pop culture and political news, and Kat Tenbarge, a phenomenal independent journalist.
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[FREE SPEECH FRIDAY] For decades, content creators have fought against oppressive copyright law. Copyright claims have been wielded by powerful corporations to take down videos, suppress criticism, and stifle parody through rigid enforcement of online speech.
But now, a troubling shift is unfolding: legal attacks that were once used almost exclusively by powerful media companies, are being weaponized by a big content creator against smaller content creators.
Meredith Rose is a senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge, a non profit promoting freedom of expression and an open internet. She joins me to talk about how copyright law and discussions of fair use are central to the fight over free speech in the digital age!
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After years of hype and promises to destroy the deep state, the Department of Justice and FBI publicly declared there is no “client list” linking Jeffrey Epstein to prominent figures, this week. They also confirmed Epstein died by suicide and said told all of MAGA basically to drop the issue.
Now, MAGA influencers are accusing Trump of a cover up, the right wing internet is in disarray, and it remains unclear what will happen next. The Epstein cover up has been the defining conspiracy on the right linking MAGA factions together.
Will Sommer is a reporter at The Bulwark who covers the right wing internet. He joined me to break down what's going on and what's next for the right.
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[VIDEO ESSAY] --- Anti-Muslim hate is becoming extremely profitable in Silicon Valley as the tech industry pivots towards defense tech and embedding itself with the U.S. war machine. From funding Israeli defense startups to spreading racist conspiracy theories about Zohran Mamdani, VCs like Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire are pushing a new breed of tech militarism.
Defense tech, AI surveillance, and far-right pro-Trump ideologies are merging in the tech world as Silicon Valley’s obsession with profit fuels a dangerous new era of "the war on terror 2.0." Shaun Maguire and others like him will play a leading role in this new landscape, where human rights are obstacles and endless war is the ultimate market opportunity.
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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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This is the first video in my new series on data brokers and the dark history of digital surveillance. I dig into how surveillance capitalism evolved, the companies profiting from intimate details about your life, and how it all began long before the internet.
I reveal the industry's origins from early government tracking systems to invisible surveillance networks fueling ultra-targeted ads. How corporations are able to build data profiles so detailed that they can predict when you’re going to get sick, where you're likely to live, and even discover you're pregnant before your own family.
Let me know what you think in the comments! I worked so hard on this one 🙏
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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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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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VISIT https://joindeleteme.com/taylor20 AND PROTECT YOURSELF TODAY!! Use my code Taylor20 at checkout
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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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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