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YouTube pulled in 2 million views a day following its launch in 2005. Today, it boasts more than 2.5 billion active monthly users and ranks second in global web traffic. How has this massive video-sharing site affected us psychologically, culturally, and politically? These are the questions director Alex Winter explores in his new documentary The YouTube Effect. Watch the conversation between Winter and Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller on YouTube or Facebook this Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. They'll talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of YouTube; bipartisan calls for social media regulation; and what role YouTube may have played in the speech suppression campaign that occurred during the pandemic.

A Tennessee high school suspended a junior for three days as punishment for a series of playful Instagram posts lampooning the principal. According to a new lawsuit, that suspension was unconstitutional.

Q&A with a comedian who has entertained audiences with his bad taste and unapologetically libertarian tirades for nearly 30 years. https://reason.com/video/2023/08/02/doug-stanhope-everything-annoys-me-equally/ _________ No comedian is as idiosyncratic and outspoken about their politics and their habits as Doug Stanhope, who dresses exclusively in Goodwill castoffs and has written irresistibly weird and readable books about everything from helping his terminally ill mother commit suicide to celebrating the on-the-road debauchery that ended in his getting happily married. Stanhope has entertained audiences with his bad taste and unapologetically libertarian tirades for nearly 30 years. In the early 2000s, he cohosted The Man Show with Joe Rogan, including an episode where he entered a boxing ring against disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding and took a bit of a beating. Reason caught up with Stanhope at FreedomFest, an annual event held this year in Memphis, where he performed a characteristically uncensored set that had the audience alternately groaning and laughing. We talked about why he's dreading the presidential election season, how he survived COVID's effect on touring, what he likes about psychedelics, and why he prefers creative independence over mainstream acceptance.

If someone says “God bless you” to you after a sneeze, is it a microaggression? We asked college students and here’s what they think.

Watch the full replay of Nick Gillespie's conversation with psychologist Jean Twenge and Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown: youtube.com/watch?v=xHebMKg2T1Y

Watch the full replay of Nick Gillespie's conversation with psychologist Jean Twenge and Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown: youtube.com/watch?v=xHebMKg2T1Y

"They're threatening this guy with 175 years in prison for doing basically the same thing that every national security journalist does every day," Matt Taibbi says of Julian Assange.

Watch the full replay of Nick Gillespie's conversation with psychologist Jean Twenge and Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown: youtube.com/watch?v=xHebMKg2T1Y

"This relationship was not only tolerated, but that it was ongoing, regular, and collusive," @mtaibbi says of the government influence revealed in the Twitter Files.

Federal Senior Living & Hospice: where your final years are active, dignified, and pretty much permanent. https://reason.com/video/2023/07/28/d-c-s-premier-elder-care-community/ --------- Nestled in the heart of the nation's capital, Federal Senior Living & Hospice offers every resident a fully independent lifestyle. With a staff of over 2 million spread across hundreds of agencies, you're free to abdicate your constitutional responsibilities to highly incentivized lobbyists, career bureaucrats, and college interns. Our members enjoy perks that your constituents can only dream of, including voting privileges, custom transportation, teleprompters, handrails, generous compensation packages, speechwriters, hordes of lobbyists, countless opportunities for graft and nepotism, and an annual taxpayer-funded allowance of more than $1 million. Take advantage of our luxurious on-site amenities, like restaurants, pools, gyms, members-only elevators, and substantially weakened insider trading restrictions. Or maybe you'd just like to relax and unwind in your personal furnished living area away from constituents, microphones, and the uncomfortable truth surrounding your voting record and declining cognitive abilities. There's no reason to worry about continuity of care, as we carefully gerrymander your district, guaranteeing you'll have a home here for perpetuity. We strive to give our residents the freedom to enact policies that will benefit their own generation for decades to come. Some of our residents may become disoriented, confused, forgetful, or even completely out of touch with the world. At Federal Senior Living & Hospice, we honestly don't give a damn. If you have a pulse, you have a vote. What better way to spend your twilight years than dictating regulation for highly technical, cutting-edge, billion-dollar industries that affect the lives of millions?

“There’s always 'demon X' that they’re warning audiences away from,” says Matt Taibbi. "So it's anti-vaxxer, right? Or domestic violent extremist or insurrectionist or anything."

A recent poll found that 44 percent of millennials want to criminalize misgendering people, betraying a censorial attitude that has been building among some young people for years. Many millennials also feel left behind economically, especially compared to baby boomers. Can millennials and boomers ever get along? Join us on YouTube this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern, when Reason's Nick Gillespie, Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown, and psychologist Jean Twenge will discuss whether there's a new generation gap and, if so, whether it can ever be closed.

Politicians like Sen. Patty Murray want to save Social Security by “asking the rich to finally pay their fair share” but why should one generation have to pay for the retirement of another? Social Security is set to be depleted by 2033, which is why we should scrap the program entirely and let Americans save for their own retirement.

The maverick journalist talks Twitter Files, the end of the anti-government left, Donald Trump, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. https://reason.com/video/2023/07/26/matt-taibbi-how-the-left-lost-its-mind/ 00:00 Introduction 3:20 The Twitter files 7:35 Suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story 12:35 The anti-proliferation regime 16:26 Russiagate and the preemptive war against Trump 22:25 Conservatives and liberals flip stances on Russia 24:36 Leaving Rolling Stone for Substack 29:26 Matt’s Substack audience 30:40 Young liberals and progressives are turning against free speech 34:17 Breaking with identity politics 38:12 Support for prosecuting Julian Assange 41:52 The eternal villain 44:06 Similarities between RFK Jr. and Trump 46:50 Distrust in government due to COVID 51:11 Race relations and policing 54:14 Binary nature of media ________ Before Matt Taibbi was sparring with Democratic members of Congress on Capitol Hill earlier this year over the Twitter Files, he was a darling of the progressive left, appearing regularly on shows like Democracy Now! and others hosted by Bill Moyers and Rachel Maddow. Though he was always a fierce critic of the Democratic establishment, the rise of Donald Trump suddenly meant that anyone nominally left of center—including progressive journalists like Taibbi—was expected to support Hillary Clinton unconditionally. So when he attacked her as a sellout, argued that the Russiagate narrative was mostly bullshit, and equated the manipulative tactics of right and left media personalities, progressives gave him the cold shoulder. Elected Democrats started treating him like a puppet of the right. In 2020, Taibbi started publishing his work on Substack and quickly became one of the platform's most popular writers, earning far more than he ever did at Rolling Stone, where he had been chief political reporter. He became even more of a pariah by publishing exhaustive reports that documented how the government sought to control what was said on Twitter about COVID-19 and efforts by Russia to influence U.S. elections. Congressional Democrats unconvincingly pilloried him as a fake journalist, an apologist for Vladimir Putin, and a stooge for Elon Musk. I caught up with Taibbi at FreedomFest, an annual gathering held this year in Memphis, to talk about the new challenges to free speech, why legacy media is dying, and how identity politics are poisoning political discourse.

The Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh and attorney Francis Menton debate immigration policy. ----- The Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh and attorney Francis Menton debate the resolution, "The U.S. should have free immigration except for those who pose a security threat or have a serious contagious disease." Taking the affirmative is Nowrasteh, the director of economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute where most of his work has focused on immigration. He's the co-author (with Benjamin Powell) of Wretched Refuse?: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions. A native of Southern California, Nowrasteh received a master's degree in economic history from the London School of Economics. Taking the negative is Menton who writes at manhattancontrarian.comand was a litigation partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP before retiring in December 2015 after more than 40 years with the firm. The debate was held at New York City's Sheen Center and hosted byThe Soho Forum, which receives fiscal sponsorship from Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishesReason.

Using civil forfeiture, cops can take your assets without the government convicting you of a crime.

According to IRS whistleblowers, the Department of Justice handled Hunter Biden’s tax investigation differently from any other case.

"The reason for redacting the whole email was to save Anthony Fauci's face after that exchange with Rand Paul," says Matt Ridley, co-author of "Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19." Watch the full replay of Ridley's conversation with Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller: youtube.com/watch?v=l_sXcRyKBFM

Newly revealed documents show that the authors of the influential "Proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2" paper privately suspected the virus might have originated in a lab despite their public statements to the contrary. Science journalist Matt Ridley dissects the latest developments. Watch the full replay of Ridley's conversation with Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller: youtube.com/watch?v=l_sXcRyKBFM

Mike Rowe talks about why teenagers aren’t working and why we shouldn’t belittle minimum wage jobs.

The FDA recently approved over-the-counter birth control, but here's the catch. They’ve only approved one type. Women want options, not just Opill.

"The lack of transparency has been truly shocking," says Matt Ridley, co-author of "Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19." Watch the full replay of Ridley's conversation with Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller: youtube.com/watch?v=l_sXcRyKBFM

What’s the difference between a welder and a surgeon? Both pay well, but the welder graduates with no debt.

Mike Rowe says the reason people get into trades like plumbing has changed.

A widely cited paper dismissing the COVID lab leak theory "expressed conclusions that were not based on sound science or in fact," wrote the authors of a recent House of Representatives committee report entitled "The Proximal Origin of a Cover-Up." "The question is why," ask the authors. For a deep exploration of that question and the wider implications of its possible answers, join Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller to discuss the lab leak theory with Matt Ridley, science writer and co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, this Thursday at 1:30 pm ET.