Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

Why are people buying OpenAI sweatshirts, Claude “Thinking” hats and Palantir chore coats?
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I sat down with Throwing Fits co-host Lawrence Schlossman to unpack the rise and fall of tech company merch. From Apple’s bizarre 1980s catalog lifestyle flop to dot-com bubble eBay relics, the rise and fall of the infamous corporate Patagonia fleece vest, and today’s ultra-hyped drops from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Palantir, we discuss why the most powerful AI companies on earth are suddenly trying to buy their way into high fashion, menswear, and cultural relevance.
We also talk about OpenAI, Anthropic, Palantir, Apple, Meta, Patagonia, Cash App, tech bro fashion, menswear culture and the influencers making AI merchandise aspirational.
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ICE shot a TikTok journalist covering raids in Los Angeles then locked him in desert detention for 300 days (he is still there) with a festering gunshot wound, worms in his drinking water and cockroaches in his cell.
This is the story of Carlitos Ricardo Parias known online as Richard LA or Richard Noticias LA and what it reveals about the war on independent journalism under the guise of "kids online safety" and "cracking down on social media addiction."
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In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I'm joined by Adam Rose, Deputy Director of Advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, to investigate the horrifying case of Richard Parias. Richard is an independent community journalist in Los Angeles who spent months documenting immigration sweeps, neighborhood stories, and ICE activities directly on TikTok and Instagram. 
After being struck by an ICE vehicle, ambushed on a quiet residential street, and shot by a federal agent who juggled his sidearm between hands, Richard found himself trapped in a dystopian legal nightmare. Despite having all criminal charges dropped, federal agents erased surveillance footage of the incident and sent Richard to a sweltering detention facility in the Mojave Desert, where he is still trapped and struggling to get basic medical care. 
Adam's story: https://theintercept.com/2026/08/16/ricardo-parias-ice-detention-journalist-los-angeles/ (PLEASE SHARE!!!!) 
We break down how independent journalism has evolved away from legacy newsrooms into livestreams, citizen journalism, and social media content creators, and how the government is pushing "kids online safety" laws to aggressively unmask journalists, enact real-name ID mandates via "age verification", and sweeping digital censorship laws, all under the guise of child safety.

Small towns across America are revolting against massive AI data centers. 
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 To listen to the full episode and get access to more bonus episodes, an ad-free listening experience, and my weekly newsletter, subscribe to my Patreon or Substack 👇🏻
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In this episode of Power User, journalist Jasmine Sun breaks down her on-the-ground reporting across Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York to uncover why Republicans and Democrats are joining forces to halt Big Tech’s infrastructure expansion.
 
From secret NDAs signed by local officials to skyrocketing electricity bills, strained power grids, and broken economic promises, we examine how the demands of generative AI are affecting local communities. We also dive into the real environmental impacts (from water consumption myths to the real problems related to natural gas) and discuss how the current compute buildout is creating a speculative bubble.
 
Jasmine gets into how distrust of Big Tech is shaping the AI backlash, why previous development failures like Foxconn still influence Midwestern communities, and what the United States can learn from China's approach to AI infrastructure.

A New Law That Could Destroy Open Source Forever 
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To listen to the full episode and get access to more bonus episodes, an ad-free listening experience, and my weekly newsletter, subscribe to my Patreon or Substack 👇🏻
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The US Senate recently introduced the Digital Age Assurance Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that could fundamentally alter how every operating system and internet-connected device works.
 
Under the guise of "protecting children online," this bill threatens to mandate ID verification directly into operating systems (not just social media or the internet, but operating systems themselves). This would impact everything from smartphones to PCs to open-source software like Linux. Obviously, this has huge implications for privacy, free speech, and the future of open-source development. 
 
On this week's Free Speech Friday, I sat down with Laz Pieper and Peter Van Valkenburgh from Coin Center to break down their viral Substack piece, "The Correct Term for Age Verification is Censorship." We dive deep into how turning open-source coders into regulated service providers violates First Amendment rights, how mass identity verification systems are dangerous, why the line between safety mandates and government surveillance is disappearing so fast, and what we can do to stop this law.

The movement to pause AI is gaining momentum, but can anyone actually stop the race toward more powerful artificial intelligence?
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To listen to the full episode and get access to more bonus episodes, an ad-free listening experience, and my weekly newsletter, subscribe to my Patreon or Substack 👇🏻
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In this week's episode of Power User, I’m joined by Washington Post technology journalist Gerrit De Vynck to unpack the growing backlash against AI, the activists calling for a pause on advanced AI development, OpenAI’s decision to slow development of its most advanced models, and the growing political fight over AI data centers.
We break down what the Pause AI movement actually wants, why AI safety activists are worried about superintelligence and rogue AI agents, and whether governments could realistically prevent companies from training increasingly powerful models.
We also discuss the growing grassroots backlash against AI data centers, Bernie Sanders’ role in the AI debate, the national security argument for continuing the AI race, competition with China, and why companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google have very different incentives when it comes to slowing AI development.
Most importantly, we look at a much bigger question: Is the rapid expansion of AI actually inevitable, or could public opposition, regulation and infrastructure constraints meaningfully slow it down??