In Lieu of Fun

Wherein we are joined by Windsor Mann, with whom I look for the bright side of a possible Trump win. Spoiler alert: We find none.

Wherein Anastasiia Lapatina and I shoot the shit over morning coffee and afternoon wine--and Ava makes it very hard for Nastya to talk.

Wherein former Rep. Tom Malinowski joins me to discuss his efforts to win Polish- and Ukrainian-American voters over to Kamala Harris's side, the resistance to this message among a traditional GOP constituency, and his anxieties about our politics more generally and social media, in particular.

Wherein I am joined by the estimable Dave Willner, who helped build the content moderation system at Meta, who talks me through how and why Facebook has squelched my open letter to former Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov, and why my appeal has fallen into a black hole--and how his scheme of using large language models to scale content moderation might do a better job.

Wherein I am joined by the estimable Jordan Ellenberg, whose daytime cover is as a math professor at the University of Wisconsin, but who secretly controls the weather.

Wherein the estimable Jon Rauch and I stare straight at the asteroid coming straight for Earth.

Wherein I talk to the estimable Alan Rozenshtein, whose name I willfully and consistently mispronounce, about the vice presidential debate--which he hasn't watched--the dockworkers' strike, and the California AI bill.

Wherein I have my morning coffee with my friend Nastya, and her baby Ava, who are enjoying an afternoon glass of wine and bottle of milk in Kyiv. We talk about Nastya's ongoing projects for Lawfare and on Substack, President Zelensky's visit last week to the United States, and US-Ukrainian relations and misunderstandings.

Wherein I am joined by the estimable Renee DiResta, who explains why AI disinformation is not the end of democracy but also not a problem to ignore.