So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast

“Two inflammatory words … one wild drink. Nectar imprisoned in a bottle. Let it out. It is cruel to keep a wild animal locked up.” When artist and illustrator Ralph Steadman wrote those words for the label of Flying Dog Brewery’s “Raging Bitch” Belgian-style IPA, he had no idea that cruel imprisonment would be precisely their fate. In 2009, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission banned the sale of “Raging Bitch” from store shelves in the state because the commission claimed the beer’s name and its label, designed by Steadman, were “detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of the general public.” Any other company might have accepted the commission’s justification for censorship. But Flying Dog Brewery isn’t a company to just roll over. Flying Dog was founded in 1990 by George Stranahan, a close friend of journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who pioneered a style of journalism known as “Gonzo”: first-person, satirical critiques on society and culture. The brewery has always maintained the critical, anti-authoritarian message embodied by Gonzo journalism. So, when Michigan banned the sale of “Raging Bitch,” Flying Dog didn’t back down. That’s not its Gonzo style. Instead, it took the brew ha-ha to court and fought back with a First Amendment lawsuit. We wanted to learn more about Flying Dog’s dog fight in defense of its art. Its lawsuit culminated earlier this year in a resounding legal victory, and the brewery created a First Amendment Society using damages awarded from the lawsuit, thus proving that every dog has its day. So, we headed down to Frederick, Md., where the brewery is located. What’s the story? Nobody had bothered to say. So we would have to drum it up on our own. Free enterprise. The American dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on beer in Frederick. Do it now: pure Gonzo. 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

“Unfortunately, Title IX has really become unmoored from its original intention,” says Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) Executive Director Robert Shibley. Title IX is the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs. The active part of the law is less than 40 words long. But in a forthcoming book entitled “Twisting Title IX,” Shibley argues that these words have been “twisted” by an activist Department of Education to violate the free speech and due process rights of students and faculty members on college campuses. In this episode of “So to Speak,” we talk with Shibley about his new book, and investigate how a short law passed without much fanfare in 1972 only recently ballooned into one of today’s main threats to individual rights on campus. We also learn about those on campus who are fighting back. Plus, we take a listener question about anonymous speech. “Twisting Title IX” will be released on Tuesday, September 27 and is available today for pre-order through Amazon.com. 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

Earlier this year, Jason Riley was “disinvited” from speaking at Virginia Tech due to concerns that his writings on race would spark campus protests. The Wall Street Journal columnist, Fox News commentator, and Manhattan Institute senior fellow wasn’t alone in seeing an invitation to speak on campus be revoked due to concerns that his appearance might prove controversial. He was in distinguished company. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, columnist George Will, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, and hip hop artist Common were all similarly disinvited from speaking on a college campus in recent years. These disinvitations are part of a troubling trend whereby individuals and groups seek to prevent controversial speakers from appearing on campus. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s disinvitation database, since 2000 there have been 312 disinvitation attempts on campus. 128 of them have come since 2012. Our guest on today’s show had a rare disinvitation experience. Jason Riley happened to be reinvited after he blew the whistle on his disinvitation in a column for The Wall Street Journal. The series of events that followed Riley’s disinvitation is a case study not only in the power of mass media to expose risk-averse decision-making that stifles free expression on campus—but also in demonstrating the outsized influence just a few outspoken alumni can have in reversing those decisions. 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

Every year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education puts out a list of the 10 worst colleges for free speech. And this year, surprisingly, half of the schools on the list earned their spot because they threatened faculty’s right to speak out in some way. One institution on that list was Northwestern University. Last year, Northwestern made headlines for its extraordinary attacks on academic freedom on two separate occasions. Once for its 72-day Title IX investigation into Professor Laura Kipnis’ public writings and comments about sexual politics on campus. And on another occasion, for its censorship of a faculty-produced bioethics journal that it feared would damage its medical school’s “brand.” This episode of “So to Speak” is about academic freedom, and our guest is Alice Dreger. Dreger is an historian of medicine and science, a sex researcher, a mainstream writer, and what she calls “an (im)patient advocate.” She also formerly held the position of full professor in Medical Humanities and Bioethics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and she was a guest editor for the bioethics journal that Northwestern sought to censor. In this episode, we speak with Dreger about the importance of academic freedom at Northwestern and beyond, why the corporatization of the modern university threatens free speech on campus, and why we must use the word “formerly” when describing her tenure at Northwestern. 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

His trials began with a police bust at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco in October 1961, and ended with an obscenity conviction in New York in November 1964. Stand-up comedy legend Lenny Bruce underwent 35 months—1,062 days—of nonstop persecution and prosecution for the content of his act. It was 50 years ago this month that an autopsy would report that Bruce died of an overdose of morphine on August 3, 1966. But anyone who knows his story knows it was more complicated than that. Billboard’s Phil Spector wrote in the magazine’s obituary for Bruce that "America's foremost, and certainly most truthful, philosopher died from an overdose of police." This episode of “So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast” commemorates the 50th anniversary of Bruce’s death. We are joined by Ron Collins, a scholar at the University of Washington School of Law who co-authored with David Skover “The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon,” which carefully documents Bruce’s career and free speech struggles. This episode explores the life, trials, and legacy of a man whom George Carlin said “opened the doors for all the guys like me,” and in so doing, became a martyr for free speech in comedy and art. 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

Kelly Carlin, Rain Pryor, and Kitty Bruce are the daughters of the godfathers of comedy. Their fathers, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Lenny Bruce, shaped the stand-up comedy you hear today. If you listen to any of their routines and none of them surprise you, it’s because they influenced every comedian who came later. In this exclusive interview, the daughters speak out for the first time together about their fathers and the censorship fights that all three comedy legends combatted in their quests to stay true to their art. Transcript: https://www.thefire.org/the-daughters-of-comedy-carlin-pryor-bruce/ 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

Nationwide polls on support for free speech are full of contradictions. Research conducted by Gallup, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Newseum Institute earlier this year found widespread support from college students for free speech in the abstract. However, the same poll also found tepid support when students were asked about specifics. According to the poll, a majority of respondents believed colleges should be able to restrict intentionally offensive speech and costumes that stereotype minorities. Another, more recent poll of the general population by the Newseum Institute and USA Today found a similar result. These studies, and others like them, have often confounded those of us in the free speech advocacy business. So, for this week’s show, we decided to send the inimitable Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) summer interns to Independence Mall—adjacent to FIRE’s Philadelphia headquarters—to conduct an unscientific survey of tourists’ attitudes toward free speech and other First Amendment freedoms. Are the polls right? Do Americans generally support free speech ideals, and does that support fall off when, for example, it comes to college campuses and flag burning? If so, why? The results might surprise you. 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

He has a glittering civil liberties résumé: co-founder of Human Rights Watch, president of the Open Society Foundations for nearly 20 years, professor of civil rights law. But before all of that, Aryeh Neier was the executive director of the ACLU during one of its most turbulent moments: when it came to the defense of neo-Nazis trying to exercise their right to free speech and assembly in Skokie, Illinois in 1977. In this week’s episode, we speak with Neier about that time and about his seminal 1979 book, ‘Defending My Enemy: American Nazis, the Skokie Case, and the Risks of Freedom.’ In addition to Skokie, the conversation touches on why the defense of civil liberties shouldn’t be placed on the political spectrum, Neier’s formative years fighting speaker bans on college campuses, and why free speech can’t be blamed for the violence in Weimar Germany, Rwanda, and Bosnia in the 20th century. The conversation also veers toward what Neier sees as one of the greatest threats to free speech today: political correctness. This episode caps off our series on the topic of “defending my enemy,” which explores why people who vehemently oppose certain ideas nonetheless staunchly defend the right of others to express them. The series was inspired by Neier’s book. 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

The 2015–16 school year was a headline-grabbing year for free speech on campus. Even President Barack Obama felt compelled to weigh in on the conversation. Multiple times. In this episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, we chat with FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff and FIRE Director of Policy Research Samantha Harris—two of FIRE’s longest-serving employees—about what made this past year so unique. What were the biggest campus free speech stories? What did we see coming? What took us by surprise? And what do we anticipate for next school year? We tackle these questions and more in this week’s show. 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

Why did a black defense attorney, who fought against segregation in high school and battled racism in the courtroom, volunteer to defend the First Amendment rights of an Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan? David Baugh is a Richmond, Virginia-based attorney, who, while serving on the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, volunteered to defend the Klansman Barry Elton Black’s right to burn a cross at a Klan rally. The case would eventually make its way up to the Supreme Court of the United States and set important First Amendment precedent. Baugh believed Black’s ideas were repugnant. But he also believed strongly in the First Amendment and that the freedoms enshrined in that amendment needed to be protected. “As I was growing up, my mother taught me that a principle or a moral isn’t really yours until it’s tested,” he told us. This is the second episode in our two-part series on the topic of “defending my enemy,” which explores why people who vehemently oppose certain ideas nonetheless staunchly defend the right of others to express them. 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