As a holiday treat, we bring you a new conversation with author and Organized Money alum Cory Doctorow about his new book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. Recorded earlier this year at a live book event, David asks Cory to expand on the thesis of the book: that digital platforms are now locked in a cycle of decay, seeing our technology become less intuitive, less useful, and less private. For Cory, this cycle is a choice, driven by government policy favoring lax antitrust enforcement, strong digital rights management, and wholesale regulatory capture.

In this wide ranging conversation they discuss how market consolidation and DRM has shifted the balance of power away from workers, who are no longer able to defend themselves with the technology they are forced to use. They also get into the history of digital rights management, why Cory isn't on Audible, algorithmic pricing, and how coalition building and policy change might just be the way out of the enshitification cycle.

Organized Money will be back in the new year. Thanks for listening!

The Warner Bros. deal could decimate the film industry in California, and yet almost no state-level politicians have spoken out about it. Today on the show, Matt and David talk to a California gubernatorial candidate who has vocally opposed the deal: Tom Steyer. Tom is a former financier, 2020 presidential candidate, and billionaire, who happens to be the most vocally anti-monopoly candidate in the race. Tom's background in business and personal wealth makes him an unusual candidate, but it also gives him a sense of how money and competition work than most candidates with anti-monopoly policies. We talk with him about why he opposes the Warner Bros. deal, how to reign in utility boards, housing regulation, and what, exactly, "affordability" means. This is our last regular episode of Organized Money for 2025, but we'll have a special episode recorded live for you next week, and see you again in the new year.

College sports is a multibillion dollar business, but until a few years ago the athletes didn't see a penny of it. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA, the organization that governs college sports, had violated antitrust laws, and athletes gained the right to monetize their appearances and endorsements. This year, for the first time, athletes will receive revenue sharing from NCAA, the result of another lawsuit.

After decades of generating billions for everyone but themselves, athletes are finally starting to share in the value they create. So why is this moment being described as a crisis, with new legislation in Congress that would once again restrict what athletes can earn?

Today on the show Matt and David talk with Katie Van Dyck, Senior Legal Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and former Attorney Advisor at the Federal Trade Commission, about the NCAA and whether this so-called crisis is really an effort to turn back the clock to a time when student athletes had far less bargaining power and influence in the very fields where they compete.

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