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Many people believe that free speech is dead (or on life support) in higher education. My guest for this episode—Assistant Professor of Business, Matt Burgess—disagrees, arguing instead that not only is one’s speech freer in higher education than many other places, but that freedom may strengthen as political polarization burns itself out. Matt and I also discuss why higher education would be advised to reform itself and how integrity and principled stances remain good signals of integrity and sincere engagement. Our conversation in this episode is based on Matt’s wonderful article of the same title.

Matthew Burgess is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Wyoming. He works on issues related to economic growth futures and their implications for the environment and society, political polarization of environmental issues, and mathematical modeling of human-environment systems, especially as it relates to natural resource management and conservation. He runs the Substack newsletter Guided Civic Revival and podcast Grounded, Not Divided.

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#36 | Matt Burgess | Your speech is freer than you think