Free Kiwis!

In their latest dialogue, Michael and James discuss whether an email sent by Grant Robertson in his capacity as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago breached the institutional neutrality provision introduced into the Education and Training Act just last year. Michael also asks James about the second rounds of the Peruvian and Colombian presidential elections, as well as both countries'...

James talks to Fred Attenborough, Research Manager at the UK Committee for Academic Freedom, about the recent ruling in a landmark academic freedom case, University of Sussex vs. Office for Students. Will the ruling fatally weaken the Office for Students, which the new UK academic freedom legislation empowers to regulate universities, before the the new academic freedom regime even gets going? Fre...

Mitchell Palmer is an economist at the Adam Smith Institute. We talked to him about his journey from Auckland to London via Singapore and Oxford; how to reform the UK student loan system; and the recent past and near future of the ACT Party.  Mitchell's report on student loans: https://www.adamsmith.org/research/credit-crunch Peter Ainsworth's IEA report on student loans: https://iea.org...

Sarah McLaughlin is Senior Scholar, Global Expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). We talked to her about threats to free speech from various quarters (including the Trumpian right, the progressive left, the CCP and UAE) and about how to build a healthy and consistent free speech culture. Sarah was in New Zealand courtesy of the NZ  Free Speech Union. Sarah's...

Ilana Redstone is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne. She talked to James about the state of sociology, 'the certainty trap' of ideological extremism, and how much of today's progressive extremism can be traced back to the civil rights era. Ilana's book *The Certainty Trap*: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Certainty-Trap-Question-Ourselv...

Michael Ben-Gad is Professor of Economics at City St. George's University in London. He talks to James about a student campaign against him, the roots of some modern students' intolerance, and his recent research paper linking public debt and immigration.  Michael's paper 'On the Political Economy of Deficit Bias and Immigration': https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.111...

Abhishek Saha, Professor of Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London, has taken a close interest in free speech and academic freedom issues. In this episode he tells James about a case that is currently before the UK High Court which will have major implication for how academic freedom is regulated.

In this episode we talk to the Wizard of New Zealand about how he got his start in wizardry, the Fun Revolution, the humourlessness of Maoists, being engaged for 25 years, *Erewhon,* Anglicanism, the King in Parliament, why tea breaks are essential to proper warfare, grammar school, anarchism, how to avoid becoming too dependent on the state, red telephone booths, whether wizards actually practice...

Helen Joyce is Director of Advocacy for Sex Matters, a UK organisation that advocates for sex-based rights. She has held this position since leaving her senior editorial role at The Economist in 2022. We talked to her about bathrooms, sex differences, whether feminism paved the way for transwomen in female sports, whether men should hold the door open for women, and how we might balance the rights...

A dialogue on the shooting of Charlie Kirk and its aftermath, including Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air.

Nathan Seuili is a former pastor who has worked for several years for the NZ Free Speech Union. He has now left the FSU to found a new organization, PILLAR, which is dedicated to Protecting Individual Life, Liberty And Rights. In a wide-ranging conversation, we talked about Nathan's free speech journey; hierarchy, Christianity, and gender in Samoan culture; and how Christians dedicated to ind...

David Webb is a lawyer and a spokesperson for The Opportunities Party on their Citizens' Voice policy. We talked to him about the party's plan for citizens' assemblies, the benefits and drawbacks of referenda, and how we could improve MMP. TOP's citizens' voice page: https://www.top.org.nz/citizens-voice James' article with Geoff Neal: Politicians are disconnected fro...

Musa al-Gharbi is an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. He was the Communications Director at Heterodox Academy from 2016 to 2020. I talked to Musa about growing up in a military family, being cancelled by Fox News, who 'symbolic capitalists' are, the extent to which Donald Trump is comparable to an alligator, and what the future...

Doug Elliffe is a professor of psychology at the University of Auckland. We talked to him about whether crows know what's good for them, the Listener letter and its fallout, and how to foster a culture of free inquiry at New Zealand universities.

In this episode we are once again joined by our regular correspondent from the Free Speech Union (and the New Zealand Initiative), Steph Martin. We debrief about the FSU's panel events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on institutional neutrality and the draft academic freedom legislation. We also talk about that legislation (part of the Education and Training Amendment Bill No. 2), an...

Henare Parata is a teacher of te reo and mātauranga Māori. He has also been involved with The Opportunities Party (TOP), and is a well-known presence on X as @TeHenare. We talked to him about mātauranga Māori and science, what pre-colonial Māori society was really like, and where his favourite marae is.

Brandon McMurtrie is a PhD student in psychology at Massey University, where he studies political polarization. He is also a keen Substacker, X-user, and hunter. We talked to him about polarization; whether the way we're currently talking about mental health might have some downsides; psychological research on left- (and right-) wing authoritarianism; and why he goes hunting. Pew Research on...

Dr James Lindsay was one of the perpetrators of the 'Sokal Squared' hoax, and is the co-author of Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody and of How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide. We asked him who his favourite post-modern thinker is, whether he went crazy on Twitter, and what he m...

Damien Grant is a Stuff columnist and the Principal of Waterstone Insolvency. We talked to him about occupational licensing, free speech, Trump's likely impact on the Anglosphere, and New Zealand's COVID response. Damien's column about Janet Dickson: https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360573233/damien-grant-how-real-estate-agent-lost-her-career-over-90-minute-course about COVID: https:...

Frances Widdowson was a professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary until 2021, when the university fired her. Frances gives us her account of the circumstances of her dismissal. She also talks to us about ideas such as 'land-based knowledge' (which she has long criticized) and about the controversy over Canada's residential schools. Frances' website: https://wokeacademy.inf...

The Law Commission recently put out a consultation paper on whether the law relating to 'hate crime' should be changed, and if so how. The Commission considers whether the current 'sentence aggravation' model (in which hatred may be factored into sentencing as an aggravating factor) should be replaced by a new, specific offence of 'hate crime.' But how should 'ha...

Cody Ellingham is a Kiwi writer, photographer, and Bitcoin enthusiast who's currently based in Kamakura, Japan. We asked him to explain Bitcoin to us and tell us about the Bitcoin scene in New Zealand. Lyn Alden, Broken Money: https://www.amazon.com.au/Broken-Money-Financial-System-Failing/dp/B0CG8985FR Angela Redish, Bimetallism: https://www.cambridge.org/nz/universitypress/subjects/economic...

Alan Davison is Academic Lead at the Governance and Public Affairs Centre at the Australian Catholic University, and was until recently Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. He co-founded the Permission to Think series on Josh Szeps' Uncomfortable Conversations podcast. He is also President of the Australian Free Speech Union. We talked to Alan about post-mo...

Dr Peter Boghossian is a freelance philosopher and former academic. He was jointly responsible for the 'Sokal squared' hoax, as a result of which he was investigated by his then-employer, Portland State University, for research misconduct. He later left the university and now travels the world engaging bystanders in 'street epistemology' - open, reasonable conversations on a ra...

Nigel Biggar is an emeritus professor at Oxford University, where he was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology. He is also an Anglican priest. His most recent book is  Colonialism. A Moral Reckoning (2023). We talked to Prof. Biggar about the how to assess the British Empire and about the roots of our universities' ongoing travails.  Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning: https://www.amazo...