Think About It

James Baldwin's appeal and admonition ring as true as they did in the 1960s, when the novelist became the country's conscience - and also started to feel like a broken record, repeating a message that white America refused to accept. Rich Blint, an expert on Baldwin at NYC's New School, explains how Baldwin's 1961 novel, Another Country, speaks to us today and what it would mean to heed Baldwin's...

The First Amendment was ratified in 1791. Are we witnessing the death of this hallowed American practice and ideal in today's campus controversies? Professor Robert Cohen is America's foremost historian of the free speech movement. Have we lost our way ? How are today's controversies different from skirmishes and culture wars of the past? Cohen is the author of Freedom's Orator: Mario Savio and th...

Affirmative action is under fire. A lawsuits claims that Asian American students are discriminated against by Harvard's admissions policies, while other minority candidates get a leg up. What is at stake? And how do we best think about this legal issue, playing out in one of America's great symbolic sites for opportunity? Professor Frank Wu is Distinguished Professor at San Francisco's UC Hastings...

And how can the university educate citizens for democracy who know that with certain rights come certain obligations? How is higher education linked to democracy in general? I discuss these and other topics with Amaney Jamal, who is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics at Princeton University and director of the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice. Her most recent book is Of Emp...

Today's news comes from blogs, podcasts, websites in various shades of truth. Are we just listening to stories we agree with, or are we getting a wider range of perspectives than ever before? If there are fewer editors, are we getting access to raw truth, or more craziness? Rosenfeld is University Professor of Law and Comparative Democracy, Justice Sydney L. Robins Professor of Human Rights and Di...

Who changed American universities for the better? Who fought for equality of opportunity, fair access, and more comprehensive curricula? Stefan Bradley, Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and author of Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League, details how Black students' work on campus was as important as the...

"Universities and colleges are the most effective site for practicing the First Amendment in the United States today." Professor Sigal Ben-Porath or the University of Pennsylvania and author of Free Speech on Campus, proposes to find a way for inclusive freedom, where students, faculty and staff rights are respected while allowing all opinions to be voiced. Uli Baer teaches literature and photogra...

Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter tells the dramatic story of a woman cast out of society for adultery and condemned to wear a badge of shame in Puritan New England. Renowned psychologist Carol Gilligan explains that Hawthorne’s masterpiece is America’s most radical novel because it points to a “new truth [that would place] the whole relation between man and woman on a surer grou...

“On or around December 1910, human character changed.” Virginia Woolf’s 1927 masterpiece To The Lighthouse teaches us how to make sense of time. How can it be that years pass and we barely blink an eye, but an afternoon can stretch into near eternity, when we want something, or are denied what we desire? Professor Jared Stark has written about Woolf and taught her work for many years. His most rec...

What stories should we remember, and which ones are we forced to forget? Maxine Hong Kingston's 1975 masterpiece, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, transformed American literature by giving expression to the experience of Chinese Americans. Author and professor Ava Chin has been teaching The Woman Warrior for many years. In this conversation we examine how this gripping coming...

Does America have a problem with censorship? Yes we do, explains Professor Patricia Williams of Columbia University. But censorship becomes a problem first and foremost when the power to silence, suppress or threaten free expression is exercised by the state. When we look at current debates about censorship, things don’t get easy, but they definitely get interesting. Professor Williams is the Jame...

In 2017, Cameron published a widely discussed essay, “I’m a black UChicago graduate. Safe spaces got me through college" in response to the University of Chicago’s letter to its freshmen class that there would be no safe spaces, trigger warnings, or limits of offensive content at the university. Cameron offers thoughtful advice on how to include all students in difficult conversations without shyi...

When they go low, we go...where? "We need more civility" in our political discourse is a frequent complaint lodged by politicians on all sides. Teresa Bejan, who teaches political theory at Oxford University, traces the history of civility from early modern English and American thought, especially in John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Roger Williams. She explains what "mere civility" means, and how it...

The Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe's 1958 Things Fall Apart transformed the world by vividly imagining the story of an African community in English, the language of the colonizers, and yet on its own terms. Manthia Diawara, a Mali-born and European-educated renowned filmmaker and writer himself, explains why Things Fall Apart ranks among the great novels of all time. Uli Baer teaches literature a...

Why does the ACLU defend the alt-right? What else does it do? Join me in a thoughtful conversation with Emerson Sykes, Staff Attorney at the ACLU on Free Speech, Technology, and Privacy, about the important role of the ACLU in upholding everyone's speech rights regardless of political affiliation. Emerson holds degrees from Stanford, New York University, and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton...

Can teaching liberate you from living in a myth? What if racism will never end? In this episode I speak with Professor David Shih at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, who has not only thought and written powerfully about free speech on campus but enacts his understanding of this issue in his teaching. Uli Baer teaches literature and photography as University Professor at New York University....

Can Hate Speech Only Be Countered With More Speech? Nadine Strossen, former President of the ACLU and professor at New York Law School, argues for the essential role of free speech in social justice activism and the limits of regulating speech. Strossen works and teaches in the areas of constitutional law and civil liberties. Uli Baer teaches literature and photography as University Professor at N...

In free democracies, the role of the university is to be an arbiter of truth. They share this critical role with a free press. What is happening with universities in the age of Trump, where the media's role as an arbiter of truth is under severe attack? Join me in a conversation with Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert of the history of fascism at New York University, and a frequent commentator on...

Do the champions of free speech today really represent the liberal values they lay claim to? Jason Stanley is Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and the author of How Fascism Works. In this conversation, he discusses the necessity of taking hate speech and dehumanizing language seriously, the politics of inviting speakers to campus, and privacy as a core aspect of liberal democracies. spec...

The law is not a static thing. In this episode I speak with Luna Martinez, a student at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law who is interested in using the law as a vehicle for social change. Martinez offers a nuanced view of how students think about the campus controversies, and how the law is worthy of careful analysis in order to advance society’s goals. Uli Baer teaches liter...

What’s the relation of free speech, hate speech, and equality in America? How can we make sense of the speech debates in today’s legal and political contexts? David Oppenheimer is Clinical Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Co-Director of the Pro Bono Group, and Director of the Berkeley Comparative Equality and Antidiscrimination Law Study Group. Uli Baer tea...

What are the philosophical assumptions and underpinnings of free speech? Jay Wallace is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and served as co-chair, with Dean Prudence Carter, of the Commission on Free Speech for UC Berkeley. Wallace works in moral philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of law, and philosophy of action. Uli Baer teaches literature and photography...

There must be no middle ground on speech. In this episode I speak with Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and a Distinguished Professor of Law. He is the author of ten books, including The Case Against the Supreme Court (2014) and Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable. Uli Baer teaches literature and photograp...

Where do these controversies start – a deep dive into American politics from the 1960s till today. Ian Haney López is Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. His recent work engages the question of how racial divisions in society and growing wealth inequality in the United States are connected. Uli Baer teaches literature and photography as University Professor at New York Univ...

When the university speaks, what should it say? Universities should never restrict speech, but they should use other ways of expressing their values and opinions. This is the view of Corey Brettschneider, who is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Brown University, where he teaches constitutional law and politics. He is also Visiting Professor of Law at Fordham Law School. Uli Baer...