The right-wing media ecosystem is boosting Spencer Pratt but can he win the LA mayor’s race? Steve Bannon told me yes, calling him “the most Trumpian candidate we’ve ever seen” "Tell him I would endorse him, but I don't want to hurt his chances of winning in LA” www.npr.org/2026/05/21/n...

Google's vision for the future of search is that you don't even really go to websites anymore, ai agents do it for you. (other than wired dot com which you will of course continue to visit obsessively, thank you, please) from @thiccreese.bsky.social

Have you ever heard of a plagiarist who did it just once? I don’t think such a person exists www.npr.org/2026/05/17/n...

what's going on with Truth Predict, you may ask? well: www.wired.com/story/trump-...

Call it the hustle economy, or digital mercenaries, thousands of young people are now spending hours a day fulfilling cash-for-clicks bounties to turn long-form videos into clips. www.npr.org/2026/05/12/n...

Call it the hustle economy, or digital mercenaries, thousands of young people are now spending hours a day fulfilling cash-for-clicks bounties to turn long-form videos into clips. www.npr.org/2026/05/12/n...

The clipping economy: How short-form video 'clippers' are overrunning the internet www.npr.org/2026/05/12/n...

NPR's @bobbyallyn.bsky.social tracked down Polymarket's "headquarters" in Panama City. Why is Polymarket in Panama? "If you're someone trying to enforce a judgement, good luck getting a Panamanian court to do that," one lawyer told him. www.npr.org/2026/05/05/n...

We looked into Polymarket's presence in Panama, obtained its government paperwork and visited its headquarters in Panama City. There was no sign of Polymarket. Nobody had heard of Polymarket there. www.npr.org/2026/05/05/n...

"There is generally a high legal threshold to charge someone with threatening a person based on their language, and legal experts said it would be tough for the Justice Department to build a strong case with just the seashells." www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

NEW: CFTC's lawsuit against Wisconsin, now the 5th state to be sued by the Trump administration, which is trying to prevent states from regulating the prediction market industry. www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...

Had fun chatting prediction market madness on LA’s beloved AirTalk this morning open.spotify.com/episode/2Pfz...

I did an episode of Planet Money w the inimitable @marychilds.bsky.social on the crazy world of prediction market mania. We bet on a Trump speech, talk to Kalshi’s CEO, a former regulator & wonder abt perverse incentives & warping reality etc etc Give it a listen!! open.spotify.com/episode/7jE6...

Today the House Committee on Agriculture held a hearing with the top regulator over markets like “Justin Bieber streams up this week?” and “Will Trump say ‘Sleepy Joe’ at Turning Point USA this week?”

NEW: A Polymarket trader made $300,000 with suspiciously well-timed bets on Biden’s last-minute pardons www.npr.org/2026/04/16/n...

I went on NPR’s It’s Been a Minute to talk all things prediction markets, where the futures betting mania came from, how it’s changing us and where it’s all heading open.spotify.com/episode/0sBE...

"This is not just telling the court what their views are, but trying to put a thumb on the scale for prediction markets," said Todd Phillips, a Georgia State University professor who focuses on financial regulation. www.npr.org/2026/04/02/n...

As they angle for a presidential pardon in television interviews, Sam Bankman-Fried’s law professor parents file “pro se” motions for their adult son, leave voicemails with the judge, and sign documents claiming they're from him in prison.

Juries in both New Mexico and California found social media giants to be liable for harm to children. Today on the show, NPR technology correspondent @bobbyallyn.bsky.social explained both cases and their potential consequences. www.wnyc.org/story/two-ve...

NEW: The jury has just come back with punitive damages following their verdict against Meta and YouTube, awarding plaintiff KGM $3 million for designing social media platforms negligently, bringing total damages to KGM to $6 million.

NEW: After eight days of deliberations, jury in Los Angeles social media trial finds Meta and Google are liable for contributing to the mental health issues of plaintiff KGM through the defective design of its social media platforms, awarding her $3 million in damages.

after $375M verdict today in New Mexico, another jury verdict expected this week in LA, and 2,000 other consolidated cases pending against Meta, this is potentially a really big deal www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/ma...

At social media addiction trial, after seven days of deliberating, the jury says they are having difficulty coming to a consensus on one defendant, and they ask how to move forward. The judge read them instructions to keep deliberating.

just imagine: Google's AI puts a slop headline on a credible source stating the opposite of what happened, causing a prediction market to resolve. handwringing ensues over AI warping reality and the financialization of everything, only after traders have cashed out www.theverge.com/tech/896490/...

Wow: DHS officers taking out Q-tips and swabbing inside the cheeks of people they’re arrested to have their DNA on file?! www.npr.org/2026/03/18/n...

3.5 days into jury delibs at social media addiction trial in LA and jury just asked if there’s evidence of how often plaintiff KGM used Instagram. KGM testified that she used it quite a bit starting at age 9. Jury may see Q as relevant to filling out verdict form on Meta’s potential liability:

Peek into the twisted life of a prediction market trader: Engaging in heated debates on Discord over whether JD Vance said “American made” or “American-made” at his Michigan speech today.

Congress passes law to split China from TikTok. Trump cuts a deal that gives Larry Ellison and Emiratis majority control of TikTok and China keeps minority stake. And for brokering that deal, WSJ now reports, Trump admin gets a $10B fee for service www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-...

Hours into jury deliberations at social media addiction trial and they have questions. They want to see two research surveys that were presented as exhibits, and they asked about a “social media feedback loop” exhibit about when various platform features were introduced.

not one to complain about air travel, but after sitting on the tarmac for hours at JFK, Delta pilot announces that there’s “no routes” to LA and is taxi-ing us back to the terminal ?? how is this a thing ?

“Epstein said, "when hawking came to my island. and said his dream was to go diving … i [duct-taped] his head to a high back chair and loaded him in a private sub, great fun." www.npr.org/2026/03/09/n...

“Epstein said, "when hawking came to my island. and said his dream was to go diving … i [duct-taped] his head to a high back chair and loaded him in a private sub, great fun." www.npr.org/2026/03/09/n...

"Reached by phone, Thomas Florsheim Jr. said he was unaware of the president’s shoe orders." www.wsj.com/style/fashio...

"I mean if you're 40 or 50 and a 9 or a 10 who's 20 years old shows up at an event and is interested in you, she's probably with James O'Keefe." www.npr.org/2026/03/04/n...

Anthropic's lawsuit against the Trump administration: "No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation." www.documentcloud.org/documents/27...

Strait of Hormuz vessels at a standstill has made prediction market traders excited about a more traditional type of futures contract: the price of crude oil. “Geopol” bets related to the Iran war are “printing” and resulting in “free money,” traders are saying on Discord.

Suit over the Khamenei death carveout claims Kalshi has "unclean hands and should not be permitted to invoke policies designed to prevent profiting from death to shield themselves from liability for a market that was, in substance, a trade on that very outcome" www.documentcloud.org/documents/27...

“Yo brother, legal team confirmed that we can’t work with minors rn" is the best way to summarize this article, an impressively deep look at Kalshi and Polymarket's relentless nationwide campaign to recruit college students and get them hooked to prediction markets early.

At the center of the prediction markets boom is a bitter rivalry between two 20-something billionaire fintech bros vying for their companies to be distinct, despite everyone constantly lumping them together "For them, it's existential," a former Kalshi employee told me www.npr.org/2026/03/06/n...

New: I talked to the traders who bet Khamenei would die. One, an Israeli ex-pat, would've won $63,000 before Kalshi froze the bet: “I was booking my trip to Courchevel.” “American commercial immorality on steroids," @chrismurphyct.bsky.social told me www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

"Prediction markets are promoting opportunities to bet on events that can only be seen as a proxy for war or assassination," said former SEC chief of staff Amanda Fischer www.npr.org/2026/03/01/n...

“So this is more or less offering a proxy market on assassination,” Amanda Fischer, a former chief of staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission” www.wsj.com/world/middle...

a masterclass AND a textbook case? this post is giving written by Claude ngl

Trump blacklisting Anthropic from all government contracts is *quite the gift* to David Sacks’ Craft Ventures, a huge investor in Musk’s xAI, which has been trying to elbow out other frontier labs for lucrative government work.

SCOOP: A White House staffer appears to be operating the anonymous pro-Trump X account JohnnyMAGA with nearly 300,000 followers. More here: www.wired.com/story/a-whit...

NEW: A video editor working for MrBeast is accused of trading on insider information on Kalshi, which has fined, suspended and reported the editor to federal regulators in the first public instance of the platform disclosing an insider trading investigation www.npr.org/2026/02/25/n...

NEW: Per source familiar with meeting: Hegseth threatened to terminate Anthropic’s $200M contract by Friday if it does not comply to Trump admin's terms. Amodei reiterated Anthropic’s red lines around AI- powered weapons and domestic surveillance.

Immigration courts by the #’s: - 25% less judges - 400 less legal assistants + clerks - 12 courts lost over half their judges, two have no full time IJs - supervisors spread across several locations We break down a clear picture of what is happening across the country: www.npr.org/2026/02/23/g...

This did not happen. The judge issued a general warning about not recording with smart glasses, but she didn’t “upbraid” or call out Meta’s legal team Bookers: Getting nuances like this right is why talking to reporters who actually witnessed something, not professional pontificators, is important

the tail that wags the dog that caught the car