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Jaceb mashagama is the founder and executive director of the danish thing tank justicia. He lives in copenhagen, denmark, where we recorded this remotely. Wriding on free speech has appeared in the economist, the washington post, foreign policy and other outlets. We talk about the left and the right, different a views on free speech,. Both can be sensorious depending on the particular topic.

Hailed as the “first freedom,” free speech is the bedrock of democracy, and it is subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat.

In this episode, based on the book Free Speech, Michael Shermer and Jacob Mchangama discuss the riveting legal, political, and cultural history of the principle, how much we have gained from it, and how much we stand to lose without it. Mchangama reveals how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. Yet the desire to restrict speech, too, is a constant.