The World in Time / Lapham’s Quarterly

“The compulsion to silence others is as old as the urge to speak,” historian Eric Berkowitz writes in Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News, “because speech—words, images, expression itself—exerts power…Even in countries where free expression is cherished, we often forget that forgoing censorship requires the embrace of discord as a fair price for the general good. Tolerance is risky. Suppression, on the other hand, is logical—and across history, it has been the norm.” In this episode of The World in Time, Lewis H. Lapham and Berkowitz discuss this history and consider the future of censorship and free speech. Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Eric Berkowitz, author of “Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News.” Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Simon Winchester, author of “Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World.” Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

“I think we do ourselves a disservice,” Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Alan Taylor says on the latest episode of The World in Time, speaking about his book American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783–1850, “if we romanticize the origins of United States and cast it as some sort of political utopia from which we have fallen. I think we’d do a lot better if we’d see that division and disagreement have been in place in the United States from the start.” Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Alan Taylor, author of American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783–1850. Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

“Life is on the move, today as in the past,” journalist Sonia Shah writes in her book The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move. “For centuries, we’ve suppressed the fact of the migration instinct, demonizing it as a harbinger of terror. We’ve constructed a story about our past, our bodies, and the natural world in which migration is the anomaly. It’s an illusion. And once it falls, the entire world shifts.” This week on the podcast, Lewis H. Lapham and Shah discuss the many movements that define life on Earth, the naming trends that created the idea of invasive species, and the hope that the next great migration might be one we finally embrace as a fact of humanity and the natural world. Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Sonia Shah, author of The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move. Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Louis Menand, author of “The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War.” Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Nathaniel Rich, author of “Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade.” Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Dennis C. Rasmussen author of “Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders.” Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Richard Thompson Ford, author of “Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History.” Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with Lance Morrow, author of “God and Mammon: Chronicles of American Money.” Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with David S. Brown, author of “The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams.” Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.