Regulatory power, examined at working depth.
RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast treats regulation as a working system, not an abstraction. Experts test rules against courts, agencies, startups, children’s safety, property rights, and regulatory review.
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RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast is a serious forum for people who want regulatory arguments slowed down enough to see their moving parts. The show’s recent run is heavy on technology policy, administrative law, and the boundary between public protection and private choice. It spends real time on AI. Episodes consider age verification, AI companions, federal AI strategy, state legislation, safety coalitions, startup policy, and the difficulty of writing rules for a general-purpose technology whose risks are not shared by every coalition in the debate. The conversations are not casual tech chatter. They are legal and policy discussions in which speakers ask what a law is for, what problem it names, and whether the institution writing it can actually solve that problem. That same habit carries into environmental regulation. A WOTUS episode turns the Clean Water Act into a dispute over agency authority, Supreme Court commands, private property, wetlands, surface-water connection, and the practical meaning of regulatory clarity. The Little Tech series gives the show another lane. It tests claims about startup policy, Silicon Valley ideology, venture capital influence, Big Tech, acquisitions, IPO barriers, and whether overregulation can narrow the future before entrepreneurs have a chance to build it. The pacing is measured. Guests are allowed to make long arguments, and moderators usually guide by reframing the stakes rather than forcing quick confrontation. There is dry humor, but the dominant mood is analytic. The show’s best moments come when a technical phrase becomes a real-world question: how a founder, property owner, agency, or state legislature would actually live with the rule being proposed. It is not built for listeners seeking partisan speed or tidy conclusions. It is built for listeners who want the legal theory, institutional incentives, and implementation problems placed on the table together.
Made for: For listeners who follow law, public policy, technology regulation, administrative agencies, and the practical consequences of federal and state rulemaking. It especially suits people comfortable with technical detail and long expert answers.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by treating regulation as doctrine, economics, institutional behavior, and lived consequence at once. It gives guests enough room to trace how a policy claim survives contact with agencies, courts, startups, states, and regulated people.
The Regulatory Transparency Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort dedicated to fostering discussion and a better understanding of regulatory policies. On RTP’s Fourth Branch Podcast, leading experts discuss the pros and cons of government regulations and explain how they affect everyday life for Americans.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
A specialist forum that makes regulatory authority, legal limits and the policy choices inside technical rules easier to follow.
RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast turns regulatory policy into a series of arguments about authority, evidence and institutional judgment. Moderated panels and focused interviews bring legal and policy specialists to questions ranging from White House benefit-cost review and Clean…
The Supreme Court rules; you stay for the argument over whether the agencies listened.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
AI companions pull age verification into a child-protection debate over law, liberty, and machine-like relationships.
RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast turns the age-verification debate toward AI companions, with Libby Dickinson steering Professor Kevin Frazier, Claire Morrell, Jennifer Huddleston, and Graham Dufault through what these bills are trying to do.
A policy roundtable on the Trump AI order, coalition politics, and the fight over federal rules.
RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast takes on an AI policy roundtable built around President Donald Trump's executive order, "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence," with Libby Dickinson steering Kevin Frazier, Neil Chilson, and Charlie Bullock through the…
A clear look at the ongoing WOTUS fight and the agencies' response to Sackett.
The episode takes up the long-running fight over waters of the United States, with Matthew Sautel moderating a discussion with Charles Yates and Darren Bax about the EPA, the U.S.
A policy conversation that starts in a garage and ends with power concentration.
RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast opens from a modest tech agenda and widens into a sharper question about where innovation begins, how it spreads, and who captures the gains.
A measured case for giving innovation enough room to surprise regulators.
This single-episode review frames the little tech agenda as a practical test of what innovation policy is meant to protect. Kevin pushes Jennifer to step back from individual rules, and she lays out a light-touch U.S.
A measured discussion of how a 10-year AI preemption rule could reshape state regulatory choices.
AI preemption comes through as a fight over governmental reach. A 10-year limit on state AI regulation could stretch well beyond foundation models, depending on how the bill defines AI models, AI systems, and automated decision systems.
A careful look at how White House review weighs evidence, distribution, and judgment.
This Fourth Branch episode frames White House review as a practical debate over what regulation can be measured and what still depends on judgment.
Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson debate Canadian politics, from Alberta separatism to Ottawa's bureaucracy.
Robert Evans, Katie Stoll, and Cody Johnston build fake conspiracies and mock right-wing media.
Jonah Goldberg's literate, dry-witted arguments about politics and ideas.
Experts discuss FEC rules on campaign funding and recent changes to the Democratic presidential ticket.
The Regulatory Transparency Project hosts a webinar moderated by Paul Wray, featuring economists Don Kinkle and Susan Dudley.
A panel of experts discusses the impact and updates on the Major Questions Doctrine two years after the Supreme Court's West Virginia v.
A panel discussion on whether the President has the authority to shut down the Department of Education, featuring experts and moderated by a former Department of Education official.
Experts discuss regulatory challenges and lessons for rebuilding California after the Pacific Palisades fire.
Experts debate a proposed 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation, recently passed by the House.
RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast examines the age verification debate in the age of AI with Libby Dickinson, Kevin Frazier, Claire Morrell, Jennifer Huddleston, and Graham Dufault.
RTP’s Fourth Branch Podcast episode “Tech Roundup Episode 29 - An AI Roundup of 2025 and What Lies Ahead for 2026” centers on President Donald Trump’s executive order on AI and the 2025 state-federal regulatory fight.
Matthew Sautel hosts Charles Yates and Darren Bax on RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast to discuss the EPA and U.S.
Political scientist Dave links his seven-year Wired archive project to Silicon Valley’s recurring claim that government cannot keep pace with innovation.
RTP’s Fourth Branch Podcast with Sam expands “little tech” into “little manufacturing,” using the SBA, the Mittelstand, and German industrial recovery as reference points.
Kate Tamrello says each additional state privacy law can cost $15,000–$60,000 to comply with, against a seed-stage startup’s average $55,000 monthly budget.
Jennifer says U.S.
RTP’s Fourth Branch Podcast guest Sam, a former FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director, argues that regulation can support Little Tech when rules are clear.
A webinar panel discusses the metrics and methods used in White House regulatory review, featuring experts Don Kinkle and Susan Dudley.