Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - Details, episodes & analysis

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Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

Taylor Lorenz

Technology

Frequency: 1 episode/4d. Total Eps: 236

Taylor Lorenz explores how technology and the internet are upending our lives and the world around us. Each week, she explores everything from online fame to emerging platforms, viral phenomena, the creator economy, and much more. Tune in every Wednesday for regular episodes and every Friday for "Free Speech Friday," her series on tech policy and the fight for civil liberties online.

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Data updated on 14/11/2026

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🇺🇸 USA - technology
15/11/2026
#40
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🇺🇸 USA - technology
14/11/2026
#45
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🇺🇸 USA - technology
05/11/2026
#43
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🇺🇸 USA - technology
04/11/2026
#41
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🇺🇸 USA - technology
03/11/2026
#40
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🇺🇸 USA - technology
02/11/2026
#40
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - technology
01/11/2026
#50
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🇺🇸 USA - technology
01/11/2026
#39
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - technology
31/10/2026
#49
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🇺🇸 USA - technology
31/10/2026
#39
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http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz
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https://www.patreon.com/c/taylorlorenz
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https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz
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https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0
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Score global : 38%

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The Nvidia Scandal Is Bigger Than Anyone Realized

Friday, November 13, 2026 • Duration 23:07

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A massive covert influence network of fake social media accounts was caught defending Nvidia, praising CEO Jensen Huang, and attacking critics of US chip exports to China. Then, over 100 accounts suddenly vanished.

Now, a new investigation has uncovered ties between this coordinated campaign and an Israeli influence operation previously implicated in other covert online campaigns.

Investigative journalist Tyler Johnson, founder of The Midas Project, joins me for this week's Free Speech Friday to reveal how he uncovered the network, who's operating the fake accounts, and why the scandal raises serious questions about corporate propaganda, artificial intelligence, and political influence.

The investigation identified fake personas posing as ordinary Americans, from nurses and artists to sports fans and parents, while promoting Nvidia, defending Jensen Huang amid his latest controversy, and targeting critics of the company's China chip sales.

The network wasn't limited to X. Similar accounts also appeared on Reddit, Bluesky, Yahoo Finance, and StockTwits. Some posts contained apparent AI-generated content, while others accidentally exposed prompts seemingly intended for ChatGPT.

NOTE: this episode was recorded on Tuesday before Jensen resigned.

Tyler's story: https://x.com/TheMidasProj/status/2120212290385707321

In this episode, we discuss:

How fake Nvidia supporters were discovered on social media
Why Jensen Huang and Nvidia became the focus of an influence campaign
The fight over US chip exports to China and the future of AI
How fake accounts targeted AI policy critics and American lawmakers
The connections to Israeli influence firms Koyos Tech and Intellact
How ChatGPT and human account operators may be generating fake engagement
Why some of these accounts also promoted unrelated political causes
Who might be funding these covert influence operations
Why sophisticated online propaganda is becoming harder to detect
What this scandal reveals about the future of AI policy and online manipulation

Subscribe to User Magazine for independent reporting on technology and internet culture: https://usermag.co

Support independent journalism and Free Speech Friday by becoming a paid subscriber: https://www.patreon.com/c/taylorlorenz

#Nvidia #JensenHuang #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #TechNews

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Jensen Huang's Chinese Spy Scandal Is Getting Worse

Wednesday, November 11, 2026 • Duration 32:52

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is caught in the center of one of the biggest corporate, geopolitical, and personal scandals in Silicon Valley history.

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Jensen Huang was allegedly involved with a Chinese spy, potentially leaking crucial information and inciting a national security crisis. Stephen Witt, the author of Jensen Huang's biography The Thinking Machine, joins me on this week's Power User to explain what really happened and what it could mean for the future of NVIDIA and the AI industry.

Jensen Huang spent decades building NVIDIA into one of the most powerful companies in the world. He also cultivated an image as a devoted husband, father, and disciplined tech executive. But after admitting to cheating on his wife of roughly 40 years, Huang is facing scrutiny over his alleged relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed whom U.S. intelligence officials reportedly suspect of working for China.

NVIDIA's board has launched an independent investigation, Congress is demanding answers, and major questions remain about whether Chinese intelligence targeted one of the most influential figures in artificial intelligence.

In this episode of Power User, I speak with Stephen Witt, New Yorker writer and author of The Thinking Machine, who spent years reporting on Jensen Huang's life, interviewing him, and investigating NVIDIA's rise to power.

We discuss:

Jensen Huang's extraordinary rise from immigrant childhood to AI billionaire
How he met his wife Lori and built NVIDIA with her support
The alleged affair with Alice Huang and the Chinese espionage allegations

The Media Lied About Meta's $25 Billion Verdict

Friday, October 30, 2026 • Duration 29:49

The Government Just Found a New Way to Censor You

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Meta was ordered to pay a staggering $25 billion in a New Mexico lawsuit. But nothing about this landmark case is about protecting consumers. Instead, it's about the government gaining censorship powers over online speech.

In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with Trace Mitchell, lead counsel for technology and free expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), to unpack the $25 billion Meta verdict and its potentially devastating implications for online free speech.

The New Mexico case has largely been portrayed as a privacy and consumer protection victory. But that's completely false.

Trace explains how state attorneys general are increasingly using consumer protection laws to censor what people can say online, why these legal tactics encourage social media companies to censor more speech, and how politicians across the political spectrum are using government power to pressure tech platforms to censor content that they don't like.

We also discuss government jawboning, First Amendment protections, Facebook censorship, the role of automated content moderation, the future of Section 230, and why the consequences of this lawsuit extend far beyond Meta and Mark Zuckerberg.

In this episode

Why New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25 billion
How the verdict could have reached $219 billion
Why this lawsuit raises serious First Amendment questions
How consumer protection laws can be used to pressure social media companies

Why the Internet Almost Broke Last Week: The Vulnerability Apocalypse Is Here

Wednesday, October 28, 2026 • Duration 21:50

The internet just experienced one of its worst weeks for cybersecurity in recent history.

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Dubbed "Black October" or the "Vulnerability Apocalypse," researchers uncovered critical zero-day flaws in the foundational software that powers over 70% of the web, including PHP, Node.js, and major certificate authorities, right as a wave of hacks hit popular cloud hosting platforms and developer tools.

In this episode of Power User, I sit down with Cooper Quintin, Senior Staff Technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), to break down what actually happened during Black October, how frontier AI models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are supercharging both bug discovery and cyberattacks, and why the internet is going to become a much more chaotic place before it gets safer.

We also dive into why banning open-weight and open-source AI models would be a disaster for digital defense, the hidden dangers of giving new AI agents access to your browser and bank accounts, the crisis of underfunded open-source maintainers holding up the entire web, and the cybersecurity risks of the "vibe coding" boom.

Read the EFF's Cybersecurity Guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/computer-security-about-get-lot-worse-heres-what-you-can-do

Subscribe to User Mag on Substack: https://usermag.co

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Why Governments Want Your ID to Browse the Web

Friday, October 23, 2026 • Duration 45:44

Why is online age verification so dangerous?

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Online age verification laws and mandatory digital ID bills are sweeping across the US, UK, Europe, and Australia under the guise of protecting children online. On this episode of Free Speech Friday, I'm joined by two of my favorite tech policy experts, Jennifer Huddleston and David Inserra from the Cato Institute to break down the massive hidden costs of online age verification, mass surveillance, and the death of internet anonymity.

For most of the internet's history, you could browse websites, watch videos, and join online communities without linking your government ID or biometric face scan to everything you read and post. Today, legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, Australia's under-16 social media ban, and state-level age verification mandates are changing the free internet forever.

We dive deep into why these youth online safety laws don't just affect kids, they harm adults, cause massive data breaches like the 60,000 leaked Discord IDs and the Tea app breach), crush small independent forums, entrench Big Tech monopolies like Meta, and pave the way for mass censorship.

Read the full piece from Cato here: https://www.cato.org/briefing-paper/online-age-verification-has-guaranteed-costs-uncertain-benefits

The Real Reason Instagram Feels Worse: The Case Against Social Media Doomerism

Wednesday, October 21, 2026 • Duration 38:20

Is "enshittification" real, or are we just refusing to take accountability for our own screen time?

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In this episode of Power User, I sat down with NYC-based cyber ethnographer, designer, and NYU professor Ruby Thelot to debate his viral and controversial Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) essay, "Enshittification Isn't Real".

While Cory Doctorow's famous theory of enshittification argues that tech platforms inevitably decay as they extract value from users and businesses, Ruby argues that when it comes to social media, the data tells a completely different story. We dive deep into American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) polling, the myth of platform "lock-in," and why he thinks blaming Big Tech algorithms disempowers everyday internet users.

Plus, we get into a heated debate over the rise of "paratechnology" (buying hardware like the Brick or apps like Opal to restrict your own phone use), why people are returning to single-purpose devices like the iPod, why you should stop using Instagram to text your friends, and how the bipartisan push for "Kids Online Safety" laws and age verification is a Trojan horse that helps Meta harvest more data while destroying anonymous free speech online.

🔥 Support Power User: I have no ongoing advertisers on this channel, so every dollar of your support makes a massive difference!

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter or join the Patreon below to keep independent tech journalism alive:

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Everything You Know About Police Body Cameras Is Wrong

Friday, October 16, 2026 • Duration 29:57

Before you call for more body cameras watch this!!

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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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The Billionaire Tech Cult That Just Collapsed

Wednesday, October 14, 2026 • Duration 28:26

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Some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest tech elites have a radical new dream, to abandon modern democracy completely and build their own sovereign nations. At the heart of this movement is a millionaire VC named Balaji Srinivasan and his vision for what he calls the "Network State".

In this episode of Power User, I speak with freelance journalist Sam Venis about his firsthand reporting at Balaji's Network School. We expose what really happened inside Balaji’s experimental new government set up inside Forest City, a massive, abandoned ghost city in Malaysia. From aggressive NDAs and toxic black mold to clashes with local governments and authoritarian power trips, Sam breaks down his firsthand investigation into tech’s most bizarre and dangerous exit strategy.

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AI Spy Towers And Mass Surveillance Tech Coming To Your Town Next

Friday, October 9, 2026 • Duration 48:56

Have you noticed surveillance cameras appearing in your community?

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For decades, the US-Mexico border has served as a proving ground for invasive, next-generation surveillance tech like AI surveillance towers, cameras hidden in traffic cones, license plate readers, drones, and spy balloons.

Now, those same tools, autonomous AI watchtowers, hidden license plate readers (ALPRs), thermal imaging trucks, and military aerostat blimps, are moving into domestic US cities, suburbs, and neighborhoods.

On this week's episode of Free Speech Friday, I’m joined by Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to discuss his reporting on border surveillance and the expanding systems that track people’s movements.

Dave explains what he found during his latest trip along the border, how Anduril’s AI-powered surveillance towers operate, and why people living in border communities are caught in these systems. We also discuss Flock Safety, Axon, automated license plate readers, and the connections between local police surveillance and federal immigration enforcement.

Who can access the data? How is it used? And what happens when technology promoted as a way to catch criminals is used to investigate protesters or monitor ordinary people?

In this conversation, we cover:• AI border surveillance and the “virtual wall”• License plate readers concealed in roadside objects• Surveillance balloons, thermal cameras, and police drones• How military technology moves into domestic policing• Phone location data brokers and social media monitoring• Privacy, free speech, and the “nothing to hide” argument• Public records requests and community efforts to challenge surveillance

People Are Secretly Dating AI And Wont Stop: Everything You Know About AI Girlfriends Is Wrong:

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 • Duration 35:09

Why are so many people falling in love with ChatGPT, and what do sensational headlines about AI relationships leave out?

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In this episode of Power User I speak with technology journalist Bridget Todd about AI companions, chatbot romance, emotional attachment, and the Big Tech companies behind these increasingly intimate interactions.

Bridget’s new audiobook, Love at First Prompt, explores how people use AI for friendship, romance, grief, and emotional support. In this episode, she shares what she learned from interviewing dozens of AI companion users and why the viral ChatGPT marriage story was MUCH more complex than it appeared.

We also discuss loneliness, AI girlfriends and boyfriends, privacy, chatbot sycophancy, and the risks facing vulnerable users. Who profits from artificial intimacy? Can AI offer comfort without replacing human relationships? And are proposed chatbot restrictions addressing the problems people actually face?

Bridget also discusses how AI figured into her own grieving process, and we talk about what the growing AI intimacy business means for adult content creators, human labor, and digital rights.

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Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

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Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other56

Patreon6

Instagram3

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other56

Patreon6

Instagram3

Apple Podcasts

Spotify