Downright Dangerous Opinions | Peter Boghossian & Lionel Shriver

Bestselling author & journalist Lionel Shriver is known for her “under-expressed, unpopular, or downright dangerous” views. She is the author of more than two dozen novels, but her latest book is more personal. In “Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction,” Lionel presents a collection of her most provocative material on topics ranging from religion and mortality to gender and immigration. As a novelist, Lionel is an advocate for artistic freedom. She recently described censorship in the publishing industry in her Roger Scruton lecture at Oxford, titled “When Cowed Creatives Capitulate: Conformity and Bad Art.” She is particularly critical of the loss of beauty, style, and wit in modern fiction due to “rectitudinous, censorious, and sanctimonious” ideologies. Lionel’s novels include “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” which the BBC adapted to film, and New York Times bestsellers “Should We Stay or Should We Go,” “So Much for That,” and “The Post-Birthday World.” She is a columnist for The Spectator and her articles have been published by The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, and The Economist, among others. Watch this episode on YouTube.