In Lieu of Fun

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 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.

Wherein I am joined by the estimable Lindsay Chervinsky to discuss her new book on the John Adams presidency: "Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic."

She is an Africa analyst and daughter of Kenya, a painter, a missionary child and former Evangelical. She is also a self-described "Bulwark superfan." Oh and she's funny. Very funny.

You know my colleague Anna Bower as a fabulous courts reporter and chronicler of the Trump Trials. But Anna has a secret, second life: She is also crazed Swifty. And she's here to talk about the emerging fight between the Swifties and the Trumpists.