So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 165 Title IX gets twisted again Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

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 Samantha Harris, and Brooklyn College professor KC Johnson.

Show notes:

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Ep. 164 'The First Amendment created gay America' Jun 23, 2022

Show notes

"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

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Ep. 163 The new FIRE Jun 06, 2022

Show notes

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 the show to discuss how the organization is changing and why.

Transcript:

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Ep. 162 "Parental Advisory" and music censorship with Eric Nuzum May 26, 2022

Show notes

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 from the Reconstruction era, when Southerners were prevented from publicly singing pro-Confederate ballads, to 1967, when the network that aired televised live performances by The Doors and The Rolling Stones asked the bands to alter their lyrics. Nuzum also discusses the PMRC's "Filthy Fifteen"; Senate hearings featuring John Denver, Frank Zappa, and Dee Snider; post-9/11 radio censorship; and more recent controversies involving the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials.

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Ep. 161 What did 'On the Media' get wrong about free speech … again? May 09, 2022

Show notes

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 Free Speech Podcast, Matt Taibbi, Nadine Strossen, and Amna Khalid discuss what "On the Media" got wrong and what they got really wrong in their episode "Ghost in the Machine." (No, "On the Media," Twitter will not become a platform for child pornography.)

This is the second time we have addressed bad free speech arguments from "On the Media." The first time was last September, when this same group responded to the episode, "Constitutionally Speaking."

Matt Taibbi is the author of four New York Times bestselling books. He writes a popular Substack newsletter, TK News.

Nadine Strossen is a professor of law, emerita at New York Law School and served for 17 years as the president of the ACLU.

Amna Khalid is an associate professor of history at Carleton College and the host of a new podcast called "Banished."

Transcript

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Ep. 160 Hugh Hefner, free speech scrapbooker May 05, 2022

Show notes

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 to Hefner's scrapbooks. On today's episode, he talks about what he found and about his new book, "The First Amendment Lives On: Conversations Commemorating Hugh M. Hefner's Legacy of Enduring Free Speech and Free Press Values."

Show notes:

Transcript

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Ep. 159 Disney and Elon Musk Apr 26, 2022

Show notes

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 Advisory Council, and the author of "The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder: The First Amendment and the Censor's Dilemma."

Show notes:

Transcript
Subscribe to First Amendment News
"Punishing Disney for Opposing Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law poses Serious First Amendment Problems" by Robert Corn-Revere
Open letter to Elon Musk from Greg Lukianoff on preserving free expression on social media
Press Release: "Elon Musk to Acquire Twitter"
Electronic Frontier Foundation: "Twitter Has a New Owner. Here's What He Should Do."

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Ep. 158 What is academic freedom? Apr 21, 2022

Show notes

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:

Transcript
The AAUP's 1915 and 1940 statements on academic freedom
The AAUP's "On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes"
"When Professors' Speech Is Disqualifying" by Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth
"Democracy, Expertise, and Academic Freedom: A First Amendment Jurisprudence for the Modern State" by Robert C. Post
"How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding of 'Race'" by David Reich
SUNY Fredonia: Philosophy Professor Suspended for Philosophizing About Pedophilia, the Stephen Kershnar case
"Hate Speech and the Limits of Free Expression," Kenyon College panel featuring Ulrich Baer (video)

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Ep. 157 Former BBC bureau chief Konstantin Eggert and what you need to know about censorship in Russia Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

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 of the Putin regime and has more than a few thoughts on censorship in Russia: specifically, how it compares to Soviet censorship, the decline of independent media in the country, Russian history, and the war in Ukraine.

Eggert currently works for a German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.

Show notes:

Transcript
Eggert on Twitter: @kvoneggert
Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union

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Ep. 156 What Russians don't know about the war in Ukraine  Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

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 also spent time as a radio host in Ukraine.

On today's episode of "So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast," Turkova shares her reporting on Russian censorship and the war in Ukraine, as well as some of her firsthand experiences as a reporter in the country.

Transcript

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