Why TikTok matters
September 29, 2025
1 hr 3 min
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727 of 775
September 29, 2025
Why TikTok matters
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Gray Area Episodes Around September 29, 2025
Episode 727 of 775 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
Why TikTok matters
Summary
This week, Sean talks with Emily Baker-White, author of Every Screen on the Planet, about why TikTok feels uniquely addictive, how it turned social media into a push-not-pull entertainment feed, and what happens when human editors inside the company can override the algorithm.
A few days after they spoke, TikTok was in the headlines again. So they jumped on a follow-up call to unpack the latest twists in the saga of who will ultimately control the app's US-operations.
Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)
Guest: Emily Baker-White, reporter and author of Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over TikTok
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