So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast

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

In discussions about free speech issues, you'll often hear people say something to the effect of, "I disapprove of what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." The quote is typically misattributed to the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire. But proper crediting aside, the sentiment it expresses accurately reflects how many free speech advocates go about their work—including Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald is best known as one of the journalists who coordinated the 2013 National Security Agency revelations from whistleblower Edward Snowden. But before he became an award-winning journalist, he was a lawyer. And not just any lawyer: a First Amendment lawyer who, as a gay man of Jewish descent, defended the First Amendment rights of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. This episode kicks off a two-part series on the topic of "defending my enemy" that will explore why people who vehemently oppose certain ideas nonetheless staunchly defend the right of others to express them. Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.org

In 1993, a young Jonathan Rauch published "Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought." It was his response to what he saw as the West's lackluster and apologetic defense of the novelist Salman Rushdie's free speech rights. Since its publication, "Kindly Inquisitors" has never gone out of print and has been described by Foundation for Individual Rights in Education President & CEO Greg Lukianoff as the best modern defense of free speech and by "The Washington Post" columnist George Will as "slender and sharp as a stiletto." In this episode, Nico Perrino sits down with Jonathan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, to talk about his book and its impassioned moral (not legal!) defense of liberal inquiry and criticism. They also discuss the role that free speech played in the gay rights movement, the life story of Frank Kameny, the state of free expression at Jonathan's alma mater (Yale University), and the heroism of Danish newspaperman Flemming Rose. Nico also chats with Greg about FIRE's recent work at Williams College and what happened during Greg's first meeting with Jonathan (hint: it involved comic book superheros). Don't forget to subscribe and rate this podcast! Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.org

"So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast" takes an uncensored look at the world of free expression through personal stories and candid conversations. Tune in on May 5 for the first episode of "So to Speak," featuring Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Jonathan Rauch and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education President & CEO Greg Lukianoff.