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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!!!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co ***** Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.cohttps://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0 https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenzhttps://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!!!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!!!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Buy Megan's book: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/bad-company-megan-greenwell
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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!!
DONATE: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/point-of-pride/taylor-lorenz-s-pride-2025-fundraiser-for-point-of-pride
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
Visit https://joindeleteme.com/taylor20 and protect yourself today! Use my code TAYLOR20 at checkout.
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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter:
https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter:
https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
Welcome back to my new series Free Speech Friday! :)
Right now, lawmakers in congress are trying to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a dangerous censorship bill that would give the government unprecedented control over the internet and force platforms to spy on youth.
KOSA claims to make kids "safer" online, but don't let the name fool you. This law would give the government unprecedented power to censor speech across the entire internet in the name of "protecting kids."
From mental health support communities to LGBTQ forums, KOSA endangers the very spaces young people turn to for help, identity, and connection. KOSA isn’t about safety, it's about giving the government unprecedented control over speech.
Ari Cohen is the Lead Counsel for Tech Policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and promoting free speech rights for all Americans. He joined me to break down KOSA and explain the many problems with the proposed law.
If you believe in a free and open internet, please join me in sending a message to your lawmakers right now and tell them to reject KOSA:
https://www.fightforthefuture.org/actions/censorship-wont-make-kids-safe
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
Every week, there’s a new warning: TikTok is poisoning the youth, Facebook is radicalizing your uncle, and the only way to save ourselves is to log off.But what if that’s exactly the opposite of what we should be doing? What if this push to disconnect isn’t about protecting us, but instead about disempowering us?
Aidan Walker is a meme researcher and author of the Substack newsletter How to Do Things With Memes. Today, he joins me to talk about why we shouldn't log off and how the internet, for all its flaws, can be a powerful tool for change.
The reality is that the internet—messy, chaotic, and algorithmically manipulated as it may be—is one of the only spaces where everyday people can assemble, communicate, and exert collective power.
Governments, the media, and people in power want you to stay offline, because a public that is fragmented and disengaged is easier to control. People in power want you to believe that social media is nothing more than an addictive distraction, rather than the battleground where narratives are shaped, movements are built, and institutions are held accountable.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter:
https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
WATCH ALL FREE SPEECH FRIDAY EPISODES ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL
The stated goal of the Take it Down Act is to combat non consensual intimate images (NCII), colloquially known as revenge p**n. This includes things like AI generated nude deep fakes and other explicit imagery shared without a person's consent.
Cracking down on this seems great right? Sadly that's not what this law does. What the Take It Down Act *actually* does is make it so that anyone, at any time, can get content posted about them online that they don't like taken off the internet within 48 hours, no questions asked.
Becca Branum, Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology's Free Expression Project has been fighting this law. She joins me to break down exactly how the Take It Down Act will function and the terrifying ways the Trump administration is already planning to weaponize it.
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter:
https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
Students are using ChatGPT for everything. Parents are freaking out and the media is calling it the end of education as we know it. But are students really outsourcing their minds to machines? Are we witnessing the collapse of critical thinking, or are we just afraid of what change actually looks like?
In this episode, I’m joined by journalist Kat Tenbarge to break down the rise of ChatGPT in schools. We talk about whether school still serves the purpose it claims to and what does academic integrity mean in a world where AI can be used for everything?
***** Buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Subscribe to my newsletter:
https://www.usermag.co
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenzhttps://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
Imagine messaging a friend on Snapchat about how to get abortion pills, or tweeting about reproductive rights and getting fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's only part of what a proposed law in Texas that seeks to criminalize discussing abortion online aims to do. It's called HB5510, and it would essentially criminalize speech about abortion in emails, on websites, in social media posts, and even private messages.
Jennifer Pinsof senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non profit that fights for digital civil liberties, and she's been tracking the proposed law. She joined me to talk about how the law will work, why other states might try to replicate it, and how this will affect you even if you don’t live in Texas.
***** Please buy a subscription to my Tech and Online Culture newsletter, User Magazine to support my work!! 🙏 https://www.usermag.co *****
Jessica Valenti's piece on the law's other dangers that we mentioned in this episode is here: https://jessica.substack.com/p/texas-sb-2880-abortion-travel
If you’ve had your abortion-related content taken down, shadow-banned, or otherwise suppressed by Big Tech platforms, tell us your story here: https://www.eff.org/pages/stop-censoring-abortion
Follow me:
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.cohttps://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0 https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenzhttps://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
For more information on EFF’s work, visit EFF.orgFor digital security and privacy tips for those seeking or providing an abortion, visit https://www.eff.org/issues/reproductive-rights
If you’ve ever wondered why news media obsesses over shoplifting but ignores wage theft, or why media outlets report a "shortage" of prison guards without questioning why we imprison so many people, you've probably encountered copaganda.
In this episode, award-winning civil rights lawyer and author Alec Karakatsanis joins me to discuss his phenomenal new book, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News, and to break down all the ways that our news ecosystem is polluted with pro-police PR.
We talk about how copaganda shapes literally every form of media in the U.S. and warps our perceptions of safety and justice. Alec reveals how these fear-driven narratives are fueling the rise of authoritarian policies, mass incarceration, and deepening inequality.
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaylorLorenz
Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
Follow me on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz
Follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
American police departments are using secretive AI technology to create lifelike AI personas designed to interact with real people online —like protesters and activists— for intelligence gathering.
This tech is becoming more popular amid crackdowns on student protests against the war in Gaza. Leaked presentations reveal AI personas posing as various individuals, from divorced activists to teenage boys, in attempts to infiltrate online communities.
404 Media's Jason Koebler joins me to break down how these AI bots work, how they're being deployed, how to identify them, and what role AI plays in the future of surveillance.
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaylorLorenz
Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
Follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
From middle schoolers riffing on school lunch to kids interviewing political figures, podcasting is no longer just for adults. With high-end mics, massive TikTok followings, and brand deals from major companies, tween podcast hosts are building real media platforms from their bedrooms and local studios.
New York Magazine's EJ Dickson joins me to break down who the major players are in this growing space, including the MD Foodie Boyz, SaltyBoys, GSD Nation, the LOL Pod, and more. These tween stars have loyal fan bases, viral moments, and increasingly, the attention of advertisers looking to reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences.
We examine how kid-led podcasts are mirroring the formats and attitudes of older influencers, from Joe Rogan to the Paul brothers. And how, as more kids turn the mic on themselves and start broadcasting their opinions, jokes, and hot takes to the world, it’s reshaping what media looks like for the next generation.
EJ and I discuss how this trend took off, where it might be going, and what it says about the future of content creation.
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaylorLorenz
Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
Follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
From Ohio to North Dakota, thousands of people have suddenly gotten brand new newspapers delivered to their doorsteps out of the blue. These newspapers are fake news outlets created by the oil and gas industry to influence public opinion in key districts, and they're having a major impact.
Top investigative journalist Miranda Green has been uncovering these schemes. She joins me to talk about how these shady publications are mimicking legitimate local newspapers to spread propaganda and influence public opinion.
The fake outlets are already playing a major role in influencing public opinion and even jury pools, such as in the recent $666 million judgment against Greenpeace related to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Miranda reveals the oil and gas industry's fake news playbook and how it's eroding our news environment.
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaylorLorenz
Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
Follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
Since Trump took office, the official White House social media accounts have been posting a bit… differently. Drew Harwell, my former colleague at The Washington Post, has been covering the Trump White House's digital strategy.
Today, he joins me to unpack the White House's hyper-online social media cruelty, the inner workings of its digital team, how the Trump administration has transformed its traditional press shop into a rapid-response influencer operation, and how the Democratic Party is responding in the online arena.
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.usermag.co
Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaylorLorenz
Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
Follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social
