So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 58 'Lust on Trial' with Amy Werbel May 03, 2018

Show notes

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 Comstock," and the legacy of Comstock's "Comstockery."

Don't forget! Join us on May 8 at the Comedy Cellar in New York City for a live debate: "Is there a campus free speech crisis?" Tickets are now available from comedycellar.com.

www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.orgCall in a question: 215-315-0100

Ep. 57 Exploring threats to a free press with Laura Handman Apr 19, 2018

Show notes

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 us on May 8 at the Comedy Cellar in New York City for a live debate: "Is there a campus free speech crisis?" Tickets are now available from comedycellar.com.

www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.orgCall in a question: 215-315-0100

Ep. 56 Have you been defamed? Apr 05, 2018

Show notes

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: sotospeak@thefire.orgCall in a question: 215-315-0100

Ep. 55 Is there a campus free speech crisis? Mar 27, 2018

Show notes

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 campus are changing" by Sean Stevens and Jonathan Haidt

"White House forum discusses free speech on campus" by Robert Shibley/FIRE

"Gallup/Knight survey sheds light on changing student attitudes about free speech" by Nico Perrino/FIRE

www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.orgCall in a question: 215-315-0100

Ep. 54 Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission Mar 22, 2018

Show notes

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 Colorado's public accommodations law to compel Phillips to create a cake for a gay wedding violates the free speech or free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.

On this episode of So to Speak, we feature a First Amendment Salon debate about the case that occured last month.

Arguing on the side of Masterpiece Cakeshop are Robert Corn-Revere (Davis Wright Tremaine) and Ilya Shapiro (Cato Institute). Arguing on the side of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission are John Paul Schnapper-Casteras (Schnapper-Casteras PLLC) and Sarah Warbelow (Human Rights Campaign). The debate is moderated by American University Law School Professor Stephen Warmiel.

A video version of this and past First Amendment Salon conversations can be found on the Foundation for Individual rights in Education's YouTube page (youtube.com/thefireorg).

www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.orgCall in a question: 215-315-0100

Ep. 53 Bret Weinstein, professor in exile Mar 08, 2018

Show notes

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 to hold his biology course in a public park.

On this episode of So to Speak, we speak with Weinstein about his experience and the state of free speech and inquiry in higher education and beyond.

www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.org Call in a question: 215-315-0100

Ep. 52 The Great Firewall of China Feb 22, 2018

Show notes

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? And why?

For answers, we turn to the experts: "Charlie Smith," the pseudonymous co-founder of anti-censorship group greatfire.org, working secretly in China; Jeremy Goldkorn, a co-founder of the Sinica Podcast and editor of supchina; and Bill Bishop, editor of the popular China policy newsletter Sinocism.

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Ep. 51 University of Alaska President Emeritus Mark Hamilton Feb 08, 2018

Show notes

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 he makes of today's campus free speech controversies. We also explore his illustrious career prior to becoming a university president, where he learned a thing or two about negotiation, talking across lines of difference, and defending the U.S. Constitution.

Hamilton has a master's degree in English literature from Florida State University and taught English at West Point. He also spent 31 years in the U.S. Army, where he negotiated peace deals in El Salvador and Somalia, oversaw U.S. Army recruiting during the "be all you can be" era, and rose to the rank of Major General.

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Ep. 50 Randall Kennedy on 'The Forgotten Origins of the Constitution on Campus' Jan 25, 2018

Show notes

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 of race relations at Harvard Law School, and he is the author of "The Forgotten Origins of the Constitution on Campus." Prior to arriving at Harvard, he was a law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall at the United States Supreme Court.

BONUS: Check out and subscribe to the new FIRE-sponsored podcast, Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech.

www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.org Call in a question: 215-315-0100

Ep. 49 "The Great Dissent" w/ Professor Thomas Healy Jan 11, 2018

Show notes

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 Mind — and Changed the History of Free Speech in America." The book explores how one man who claimed to disdain all constitutional rights ended up breathing new meaning into our first one.

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Email us: sotospeak@thefire.org

Call in a question: 215-315-0100