How should we think about speech rights in the age of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics? On today’s episode of So to Speak , we are joined by First Amendment scholars Ronald Collins and David Skover. They are the authors of the new book, Robotica: Speech Rights & Artificial Intelligence . From the printing press to the internet, advances in communications technology often upset the established order and spawn demands for censorship. There is little reason to suspect advances in artif...
Aug 09, 2018•58 min
On this episode of So to Speak , we chat with lawyer and free speech activist Jacob Mchangama . He is the founder and CEO of the Danish think tank Justitia , a visiting fellow at FIRE, and host of Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech . Mchangama is also the author of the lead essay for the Cato Institute’s June Cato Unbound online debate on the topic of “ how censorship crosses borders .” Our conversation focuses on the origins of Mchangama’s interest in free speech issues, the 200...
Jul 25, 2018•1 hr 33 min
Supreme Court review: Kennedy, Kavanaugh, and “weaponizing the First Amendment” On this episode of So to Speak , we discuss President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court and what it might mean for the First Amendment. We also review Anthony Kennedy’s legacy, the free speech cases from this past Supreme Court term, and Justice Elena Kagan’s contention that some of her colleagues are “weaponizing the First Amendment.” The guests on today’s show are: Paul...
Jul 11, 2018•1 hr 28 min
On today’s episode of So to Speak , we take a trip down memory lane. We are joined by FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff, Samantha Harris, and Will Creeley to discuss memorable cases from FIRE’s 19-year history. You can watch a video of this conversation on FIRE’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/thefireorg). www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: [email protected] Call in a question: 215-315-0100...
Jun 27, 2018•38 min
The United States is unique in its protection of what some might label “hate speech.” Of course, certain expression is unprotected, like incitement to imminent lawless action and true threats. But expression that is deemed merely offensive or hateful is generally protected. On this episode of So to Speak , we welcome back to the show former ACLU president and New York Law Professor Nadine Strossen. She is the author of “ HATE: Why We Should Resist It With Free Speech, Not Censorship .” In this n...
Jun 13, 2018•1 hr 24 min
In February, Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber announced that he will distribute copies of “ Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech ” to all Princeton students and faculty as part of the university’s annual “Pre-read” program. On this episode of So to Speak , our guest is Princeton University Professor Keith Whittington , who is the author of “Speak Freely.” We discuss the latest campus free speech news at Princeton and across the county. We are also joined by ...
May 30, 2018•1 hr
Is there a campus free speech crisis? In March, FIRE staff discussed the question . On today’s episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast , we put the question to others and feature audio from a live debate that occurred on May 8 in New York City. New York magazine’s Andrew Sullivan and New York University’s Jonathan Haidt argue, yes, there is a campus free speech crisis. PEN America’s Suzanne Nossel and Acadia University’s Jeffrey Sachs argue, no, there is not. Freethink’s Kmele Foster mod...
May 16, 2018•1 hr 50 min
Anthony Comstock is a name that has become synonymous with censorship in America. In 1873, he founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and his career led to the confiscation or incineration of more than 3 million pieces of allegedly “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” material. On this episode of So to Speak , we speak with Fashion Institute of Technology Professor Amy Werbel about her new book, “ Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Coms...
May 03, 2018•1 hr 10 min
What are the greatest threats to a free press in America, and how have they changed in recent years? On this episode of So to Speak , we speak with Laura R. Handman , who is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine and a co-chair of the firm’s appellate practice. For 30 years, she has worked on free press issues ranging from defamation to reporter’s privilege. Her media clients include National Public Radio, Atlantic Media, Dow Jones, The Economist, Amazon, Bloomberg, and many more. Don’t forget! Join...
Apr 19, 2018•1 hr 9 min
In January, President Donald Trump called America’s libel laws “a sham and a disgrace.” Are they? On this episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast , we sit down with Ballard Spahr Senior Counsel Lee Levine to discuss what America’s libel “laws” really are — and are not. www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: [email protected] Call in a question: 215-315-0100...
Apr 05, 2018•58 min
Is there a campus free speech crisis? On this episode of So to Speak , Nico Perrino is joined by FIRE’s Will Creeley and Samantha Harris to discuss this simmering question. Watch the video of this podcast recording: youtu.be/uoO6TCAQpaE Additional reading: “ The ‘campus free speech crisis’ is a myth. Here are the facts. ” by Jeffrey Adam Sachs “ Everything we think about the political correctness debate is wrong ” by Matthew Yglesias “ The skeptics are wrong: Attitudes about free speech on campu...
Mar 27, 2018•50 min
In 2012, a same-sex couple entered Masterpiece Cakeshop and asked its owner, Jack Phillips, to create a cake for their wedding reception in Denver, Colorado. Phillips declined the request, reportedly telling the couple, “Sorry guys, I don’t make cakes for same-sex weddings.” That brief, 20-second exchange eventually found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court , where it is now the subject of one of the most controversial First Amendment cases in years. The issue before the court is whether applying ...
Mar 22, 2018•1 hr 32 min
Former Evergreen State College Professor Bret Weinstein describes himself as a “professor in exile.” The evolutionary biologist left Evergreen last September in the fallout from the controversy surrounding the school’s planned Day of Absence programming. Weinstein’s objection to the programming led fifty students to disrupt his class and demand his resignation. The backlash became so intense that Evergreen’s chief of police told him she could not protect him from protesters. As a result, he had ...
Mar 08, 2018•1 hr 26 min
Most Americans are familiar with The Great Wall of China. Fewer are familiar with the Great Firewall of China. The Firewall blocks vast expanses of the world’s web content — and it’s just one of the tools the Chinese government uses to monitor, censor, and even manipulate what its approximately 1.4 billion citizens see online. On this episode of So to Speak , we explore one of the most extensive and effective censorship systems ever devised by a government. How does the Chinese government do it?...
Feb 22, 2018•40 min
In 2001, University of Alaska president Mark Hamilton made national headlines when he wrote a sternly worded memo declaring that freedom of speech on campus “CANNOT BE QUALIFIED” [emphasis original]. Hamilton retired from his position as University of Alaska president in 2010. However, his memo lives on in FIRE lore as the gold standard for a university president's response to a campus free speech controversy. On this episode of So to Speak , we talk with Hamilton about his famous memo and what ...
Feb 08, 2018•58 min
Has the history of how our constitutional rights came to be protected on campus been forgotten? Professor Randall L. Kennedy believes it has. It’s a history even he wasn’t familiar with until recently. On this episode of So to Speak, Professor Kennedy explains how civil rights activists in the 1950s and 60s secured early victories for free speech, due process, and public assembly on high school and college campuses. Professor Kennedy teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation...
Jan 25, 2018•1 hr 32 min
Was our modern First Amendment born out of a chance encounter on a train bound for Boston in 1918? On this episode of So to Speak , we speak with Seton Hall Law Professor Thomas Healy . He argues that Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ unlikely run-in with Judge Learned Hand in the summer of 1918 set off a series of events that culminated in a new trajectory for the First Amendment in America. Professor Healy is the author of “ The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His M...
Jan 11, 2018•1 hr 3 min
Did the founders intend for the First Amendment to protect as much speech as it does today? University of Richmond Assistant Professor of Law Jud Campbell argues probably not. He is the author of an article recently published in The Yale Law Journal that Cass Sunstein says “might well be the most illuminating work on the original understanding of free speech in a generation.” In “Natural Rights and the First Amendment,” professor Campbell argues that the founders’ understanding of the freedoms o...
Dec 28, 2017•1 hr 7 min
The Institute for Justice doesn’t litigate your typical First Amendment cases. They don’t take cases involving protest bans, controversial speakers, or political dissent. Instead, the libertarian, public-interest law firm takes cases often ascribed to the margins of First Amendment concerns by the public and even some judges: cases involving occupational speech, commercial speech, and campaign finance. On this episode of So to Speak , we speak with IJ President and General Counsel Scott Bullock ...
Dec 13, 2017•56 min
Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (1917) might be the most important free speech case you’ve never heard of. In his now largely forgotten decision in the case, then Southern District of New York Judge Learned Hand rejected the United States postmaster general’s arguments for refusing to mail Masses magazine. The magazine was staunchly opposed to World War I and the compulsory military draft. The postmaster general argued that the recently passed Espionage Act gave him the authority to deny the mag...
Nov 30, 2017•1 hr 58 min
Harvard University professor and FIRE Advisory Council member Steven Pinker is a rockstar academic. He has written 10 books, many of which are bestsellers, including most recently “ The Better Angels of our Nature ” and “ The Sense of Style .” On this episode of So to Speak , we chat with professor Pinker about free speech, free inquiry, taboo, dangerous ideas, and, of course, his forthcoming book on the Enlightenment: “ Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress .” ...
Nov 15, 2017•41 min
Nowhere have the campus free speech debates been as intense as at the University of California, Berkeley — the home of the Free Speech Movement. Violent protests against one speaker. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in security costs to protect another. Speaking invitations extended and then (maybe?) rescinded. And that’s just this year. On this episode of So to Speak, we revisit the events surrounding the 1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement to see if the university’s storied past can teach us an...
Nov 02, 2017•55 min
Is the modern college campus suffering from a decline in viewpoint diversity? Do American universities prepare students for life in a politically divided democracy, or might they be teaching habits of thought that will add to America's political divisions? Does political orthodoxy reduce the quality of research, scholarship, and education? Heterodox Academy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education conducted a live panel discussion at New York University in New York City on Tuesday, ...
Oct 19, 2017•1 hr 26 min
The experts are calling it the free speech debate of the next decade: Who makes the rules for what people can say — and see — on the web? And who pays the price when “The Delete Squad” gets it wrong? On today’s episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, FIRE’s Alex Morey talks to experts on all sides of the issue, from the Facebook team working to keep the social network uncensored — but also safe — for users, to directors at Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Committee to Protect Jour...
Oct 05, 2017•44 min
The British free speech invasion is here. Our friends from the current affairs magazine spiked have traveled across the pond to host “Unsafe Space,” an all-star free speech tour of American college campuses. On today’s episode of So to Speak, we catch up with spiked editors Tom Slater and Ella Whelan in New Jersey to chat about the tour, which kicks off next week in Washington, D.C. We also discuss developments overseas, including spiked’s latest free speech rankings of campuses in the United Ki...
Sep 21, 2017•48 min
Would Isaac Newton succeed on the modern college campus? The genius who discovered the laws of motion, but who also obsessed over alchemy, was introverted and prone to unpredictable mood swings. Scholars believe he may have had autism, which is one of the many neurological conditions that contribute to “neurodiversity” in the world. And according to one new theory, the way modern colleges regulate speech is particularly chilling for neurodivergent people, like Newton, who are estimated to make u...
Sep 07, 2017•52 min
Last week, Judge Richard Posner suddenly retired from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after nearly 36 years on the bench. The 1981 President Reagan appointee authored over 3,300 judicial opinions during his tenure and is widely considered one of the most vocal, provocative, and influential appellate court judges of all time. On today’s episode of So to Speak, we hear Judge Posner’s candid thoughts on the First Amendment as we play for you a conversation he had with Professor Geoffrey Stone...
Sep 05, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Nadine Strossen knows the dangers of Nazism. Her father was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp one day before he was scheduled to be sterilized. If American soldiers arrived a day later, Strossen would never become the first female president of the ACLU. She wouldn’t even be alive. After Charlottesville, there has been vigorous debate about the so-called limits of free speech. Should white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideologies enjoy full First Amendment rights? And if so, should civi...
Aug 22, 2017•1 hr 8 min
Fredrik deBoer has been in and around academia his entire life. He’s a fourth generation Ph.D. who has blogged about education issues since 2008. Writing from a socialist perspective, he regularly tackles campus free speech debates. Last month, deBoer wrote a piece for The Los Angeles Times arguing that recent efforts to shut down conservative speakers on campus have contributed to an environment where 58 percent of Republicans say colleges have a negative effect on the country. On today’s episo...
Aug 10, 2017•1 hr
During the summer of 1919, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis changed his mind about free speech. Earlier that year, he voted to uphold the conviction of Charles Schenck for opposing the military draft. A year later, he was the lone dissenter in a case dealing with nearly the same issue. In 1927, he wrote what some consider to be the greatest defense of free speech ever penned by a Supreme Court justice in the case Whitney v. California. Why did Brandeis change his mind? On today’s episod...
Jul 27, 2017•1 hr 4 min
