So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast

Do Ann Coulter's words equal "violence"? Does Emerson College care more about not offending the Chinese Communist Party than protecting student free speech rights? And are faculty political litmus tests back in vogue? FIRE's Alex Morey and Zach Greenberg join the show to discuss the latest in campus censorship. Please support this show by donating to FIRE before the end of the year: thefire.org/su...

Hot on the heels of oral argument in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis , FIRE's Ronnie London and David Hudson join the show to discuss the case, as well as other high profile free speech cases at the Supreme Court this year. Show notes: Transcript Watch the video of the podcast conversation 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis Shurtleff v. City of Boston  Kennedy v. Bremerton School District Gonzalez v. Google LL...

FIRE's new Director of Public Advocacy Aaron Terr and the Cato Institute's Will Duffield join the show to discuss a slew of recent free speech news. California gets it right on rap lyrics but wrong on coronavirus misinformation. One Texas school district repeatedly ventures into book banning. LeBron James spreads "hate speech" misinformation. Is government "jawboning" censorship? And, yes, Elon Mu...

FIRE's Will Creeley and Aaron Terr join the show to discuss a slew of recent free speech news: What do we make of Elon Musk buying Twitter? Is PayPal fining its users $2,500 for promoting "misinformation"? Is New York trying to destroy Twitch? And do public employees in Charlottesville, Va., need to shut their mouths to keep their jobs? Also, how's FIRE's off-campus expansion going? Show notes: Tr...

Do books need a special editor who reads for offensive content? And who gets to decide what's offensive anyway? This week we are joined by authors Kat Rosenfield and Vesper Stamper to discuss censorial trends in book publishing, including the rise of so-called "sensitivity readers" and the sometimes successful campaigns to get books canceled before they are even published. We also explore adjacent...

Does the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protect a private social media company's right to moderate content on its platform? A new ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit says it does not, and that a Texas law preventing viewpoint discrimination on social media platforms is constitutional. The issue is likely bound for the Supreme Court, setting up what is arg...

"Should academic journals appoint themselves social justice gatekeepers?" That is the question journalist and author Jonathan Rauch asks in responding to new ethics guidance from the academic journal Nature Human Behaviour. The journal introduces the guidance by ominously noting that "although academic freedom is fundamental, it is not unbounded." It then goes on to discuss ways it will restrict p...

This Saturday, Sept. 17, is Constitution Day. It was on this day in 1787 that delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed America's Constitution. And while the First Amendment was not ratified until 1791, discussions over the role of free speech and expression in a democratic society were alive long before then. Pepperdine University professor and author Gordon Lloyd joins the show this week...

What can Charles Darwin teach us about dissent? What do the professional basketball careers of Wilt Chamberlain and Rick Barry tell us about conventional wisdom? On today's show, George Mason University Professor Todd Kashdan helps us understand the value of principled dissent: what it is, how to do it, and the pitfalls to avoid. He is the author of " The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and...

Last week, a would-be assassin attacked Salman Rushdie, author of " The Satanic Verses ,"  in an apparent attempt to carry out the infamous fatwa placed on Rushdie's life. Fortunately, Rushdie survived the attack. Vice News Tonight correspondent and " The Fifth Column" podcast co-host Michael Moynihan joins the show to discuss what happened, what it means for free speech, and the history of "The S...

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade , eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States, many people expected states to pass laws restricting access to abortion services. Perhaps less expected was that some lawmakers now seek to pass laws restricting — and criminalizing — speech about abortion services. FIRE Legal Director Will Creeley and FIRE Senior Fellow and fo...

Substack — the popular newsletter and publishing service — has made a name for itself by swimming against the current: As many technology companies devise new ways to censor or moderate content on their platforms, Substack made free speech one of its core values and, in doing so, has attracted bloggers and journalists from across the political spectrum. "While we have content guidelines that allow...

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education proposed new Title IX regulations that, if implemented, would gut essential free speech and due process rights for college students facing sexual misconduct allegations on campus. Joining us to analyze the regulations and their impact are FIRE's executive director and author of the book "Twisting Title IX," Robert Shibley , Allen Harris Law Partner Sama...

"Every advance gay people have made in this country has been the result of the exercise of free expression," argues writer James Kirchick, author of the New York Times bestseller, " Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington ." Transcript: https://www.thefire.org/so-to-speak-podcast-transcript-the-first-amendment-created-gay-america/ www.sotospeakpodcast.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com...

Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights *in Education* becomes the Foundation for Individual Rights *and Expression*. America's leading defender of free speech, due process, and academic freedom in higher education announced it is taking its free speech mission beyond college campuses with a $75 million expansion initiative. FIRE President & CEO Greg Lukianoff and FIRE COO Alisha Glennon join...

In this week's episode of So to Speak, we focus on some of the notable cases of music censorship in America, the formation of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), and the lasting effects of the PMRC's efforts on the music industry. Author Eric Nuzum joins us to discuss his 2001 book, " Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America ." Nuzum illustrates examples of music censorship ranging fro...

Twitter is going to become 8chan . At least, that's what a recent episode of the popular radio program "On the Media" suggests will happen if Elon Musk successfully buys Twitter. Musk promised to bring greater free speech protections to the social media platform. But where Musk sees an opportunity for more freedom, some see the potential for too much freedom. On today's episode of So to Speak: The...

Did you know Hugh Hefner holds the Guinness World Record for owning the largest personal scrapbook collection in the world? When he was not building the global Playboy empire, he spent his Saturdays compiling more than 3,000 scrapbooks, chronicling free speech and press issues during his lifetime. Stuart N. Brotman , professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was granted exclusive access...

Does Disney have free speech rights? And did Florida violate the First Amendment when it punished the company for its political activism? Elon Musk is buying Twitter. What should free speech advocates make of that? Recurring guest and famed First Amendment scholar Robert Corn-Revere is here to break it all down for us. He's a partner at the law firm Davis Wright-Tremaine, a member of FIRE's Adviso...

What is academic freedom? And who polices its boundaries? Our guests on today's show argue that the popular conception of academic freedom has become too closely connected with the concept of free speech. Penn State Professor Michael Bérubé and Portland State Professor Jennifer Ruth are the authors of " It's Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom ." Show notes: Transc...

Konstantin Eggert, a native Muscovite, has reported on Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. He started his reporting career in Moscow in 1990. From 1998-2009, he was senior correspondent, then editor-in-chief, of the BBC Russian Service Moscow bureau. Later he worked for ExxonMobil Russia and Russian media outlets, Kommersant and TV Rain.  Now, living in Lithuania, Eggert is a vocal critic o...

​​The Russian government has purged independent media, banned protests, and shut down social media access. So, do Russians know the truth about the war in Ukraine? Ksenia Turkova is a journalist from Russia who currently works for Voice of America. Before coming to the United States she worked for a number of Russian news outlets, including some that were shut down by the Russian government. She a...

​​"No chief justice in our history has had as much influence on the law of freedom of expression as John Roberts," according to Ronald K.L. Collins and David L. Hudson Jr. They are the authors of a new Brooklyn Law Review article, " The Roberts Court—Its First Amendment Free Expression Jurisprudence: 2005–2021 ." On today's episode of " So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast ," Collins and Hudson re...

On today's episode of " So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast ," we are joined by Robert Corn-Revere and David Hudson to discuss Sarah Palin v. New York Times, a defamation case that has captured national attention. Corn-Revere is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and the author of the new book, "The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder." Hudson is the Justice Robert H. Jackson legal...

On today's episode, we feature a live recording of " So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast " with Jacob Mchangama, author of "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media," in conversation with FIRE's Greg Lukianoff, Sarah McLaughlin, host Nico Perrino, and NYU professor Stephen D. Solomon. The panelists discuss how lessons from free speech movements throughout world history can help explai...