On with Kara Swisher

How to Knock Out Super PACs with Lawrence Lessig

Donnerstag, 5. Februar 2026 · 1 h 02

MP3

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Kara talks to Lawrence Lessig about his fight to end Super PACs — without passing a constitutional amendment or overturning Citizens United.

The Harvard law professor and Equal Citizens (equalcitizens.us) founder was once the internet’s open-access evangelist. 19 years ago, he shifted his focus from intellectual property to institutional corruption, and since then, he’s become one of the country’s sharpest critics of money-driven politics.

Kara and Lessig examine how the tech industry shifted from being led by largely apolitical or "libertarian-light" figures to becoming a sector that actively enables Trump; whether Democrats can capitalize on the Epstein controversy to persuade Trump's voters that he’s not the outsider he claims to be; how engagement-driven AI is tearing democracy apart; and why citizen assemblies are the way to repair it.

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