The Chatbot Will See You Now: Big Tech In Therapy

Spirit Airlines is dead, and everyone is pointing fingers: Was it the war in Iran that killed Spirit? Joe Biden's Justice Department? Antitrust regulation? Jet fuel? Lina Khan!?? Today on the show we demystify Spirit's demise with William J. McGee, Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project. William is a long-time consumer advocate in the air travel space and has watched as the deregulation project which began in the 1970s has slowly whittled down competition, forming our current aviation oligopoly. William walks us through all the factors that lead to Spirit's liquidation, from jet fuel, to pricing squeeze from the big 4 airlines, to Trump's proposed bailout and creditors seeking a payout. Despite the popular narratives you might hear on CNBC, Spirit's undoing was multifaceted with history of blame going back 50 years, and many killers working in concert. Check out the white paper How to Fix Flying: A New Approach to Regulating the Airline Industry, by William McGee and Ganesh Sitaraman

Ashley Keller is a pioneer in getting corporations to pay up. As an attorney and founding partner of the firm Keller Postman, only recently he pioneered an influential mass arbitration strategy, argued a case against Monsanto at the Supreme Court, and is fighting Google on behalf of several states in a major ad tech antitrust case. Keller is also an avowed conservative and originalist. For him, there's no contradiction between fighting for conservative principles and antitrust enforcement.Today on the show, Matt and David talk to Keller about the conservative case for antitrust, the dangers of corporate power, and his legal worldview. They go into detail on his current work against Google and the programmatic ad market, and  his recent appearance at The Supreme Court, and get his take on the Live Nation Ticketmaster case. They also discuss the role of plaintiff's lawyers in the legal ecosystem, and get into some big picture legal questions about antitrust enforcement from an originalist perspective. 

Today on the show Matt and David are joined by Linda Michaels, a psychologist and co-founder of the Psychotherapy Action Network, to discuss all the creepy ways technology companies are weaseling themselves into your therapist's office. From matching services like BetterHelp, to PMC middlemen, and potentially dangerous therapy chatbots, tech companies are seeking to exploit your therapist (and you) by using therapy data for advertising and AI training. They also discuss the business of psychology, and in our One Piece Of Good News segment for the week, the progress that has been made in states like Illinois, which could serve as a model for the nation. 

Yet another consequence of the war in Iran is a looming supply shock in plastics. Plastics, which are derived from oil byproducts, are everywhere, but their origins remain somewhat mysterious to the average consumer. Today on the show we demystify the plastics industry with Beth Gardiner, author of the new book Plastic Inc.: The Secret History and Shocking Future of Big Oil's Biggest Bet an expose of the industry that underlies modern consumer culture. Together with Matt and David, they discuss where plastics come from, how they are made, and how the situation in Iran will affect the supply chain. They also get into the major players, the semi-scam that is recycling, and whether non fossil fuel alternatives are a viable solution in a world that is already up to its knees in plastic. 

Matt and David are live from a conference room in Chicago to break down the Live Nation Ticketmaster verdict! Live Nation was just found to be an illegal monopoly in a dramatic jury trial which saw the Trump administration drop out of the case with a surprise settlement. The states picked up the baton from there. Matt and David cover the decision, the history of Ticketmaster’s tangles with Pearl Jam and the Justice Department, and how the current case played out, and what the decision means for the future of Ticketmaster, and the antitrust movement. 

On March 17th, the candidate Daniel Biss defeated 15 other democratic challengers in the primary election for Illinois' 9th Congressional District. It was one of the most closely watched in the country, in which Biss, and other candidates, were up against millions of dollars in ad spending from dark money super pacs like "Elect Chicago Women", and "Chicago Progressive Partnership". These vaguely-named pacs were all fronts for AIPAC, the big-spending Pro-Israel lobbying group which threw money and ads at various candidates, in hopes of electing Laura Fine, who eventually came in third. Biss won by putting AIPAC, and their influence, at the center of his campaign. Today on the show Matt and David talk with Biss about what it's like to go up against the AIPAC lobbying machine, how these pacs used their vast resources to distort the race in real time, and what the democrats should do if they take back congress in the upcoming midterms. 

Ever since the US and Israel began bombing Iran, the Strait Of Hormuz has become the most watched shipping lane in the world economy. The strait itself is just a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf Of Oman, but much of the world's oil and other crucial material, such as industrial helium, flow through it. Now, after weeks of bombing and retaliation, the strait is gummed up, with hundreds of ships stranded, little traffic, and no end in sight. We're already seeing prices at the pump begin to spike, and the stock market has cooled, but according to our guest, we haven't actually felt any true material shocks, yet. Today on the show Matt and David talk with Salvatore Mercogliano, former merchant marine, maritime history professor at Campbell University, and host of the popular What's Going on With Shipping? on Youtube. Together they break down what's happening, why the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump are only a precursor to actual shortages, and what to look for as we begin to feel the supply chain pinch. 

With the federal government largely stepping back from antitrust enforcement, who's picking up the slack? California Attorney General Rob Bonta makes the case that state attorneys general are filling the void,  and he's got the caseload to prove it. David and Matt speak with Bonta about his remarkable portfolio of active fights: the Ticketmaster/Live Nation trial (which the states pressed forward with after the DOJ settled), a price-fixing case against Amazon, social media addiction suits against Meta and TikTok, and a challenge to the Nexstar/TEGNA local TV merger that could give a single broadcaster control over news in 70% of American households. Bonta doesn’t shy away from describing what he sees in DC as corruption. He also has a direct message for anyone in Hollywood nervous about the Paramount/Warner Brothers investigation: it's not illegal to talk to his office and they want to hear from you.

As bombs started to fall on Iran, some Americans cashed in by placing bets on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi. These bets paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to users who almost certainly had inside information about the exact timing of the attacks. Similar bets were made on the assassination of Iran's Ayatollah, turning an act of murder into a commodity.As these markets have come to embrace acts of violence, often rife with insider trading, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut has introduced legislation to curb betting on government actions and similar events. His bill, Banning Event Trading on Sensitive Operations and Federal Functions, or the BETS OFF Act, was introduced this past Tuesday.Today on the show, Matt and David talk to Sen. Murphy about the problem of prediction markets, both political and moral. They also get into the war in Iran, its rudderless trajectory, and the Pentagon’s $200 billion request to continue fighting, perhaps indefinitely. Finally, they discuss how to get out of the morass we have found ourselves in as a country that seems to keep making big, bad decisions, and ask whether Trump and the war are just symptoms of a larger problem plaguing America.

In a shocking turn of events, the federal government settled their longstanding anti-trust action against Live Nation after a week of in-court proceedings. This process was described as “mind-boggling” by the judge, and surprised counsel on both sides along with many states’ attorneys generals who are also suing Live Nation. Today on the show we break down the case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster (which it acquired back in 2010) with two guests: Gigi Liman, who is reporting on the trail for bigtechontrial.com, and Tommy Dorfman, a live music promoter who has been in litigation with Live Nation for over a decade. Together with Matt and David they break down the proceedings, how Live Nation uses mafia-like tactics to secure its monopoly, and where the case goes from here as states pick up the prosecutorial baton from a compromised federal justice department.