Episode 41 – Free Speech and Racial Justice: Friends or Foes?
Posted on In May 2020, protests erupted all over the U.S. after a video emerged of a white police officer killing a black man named George Floyd. Millions took to the […]
Special Edition – Suzanne Nossel
Posted onIn this Special Edition, we will zoom in on current challenges to free speech – specifically in the US. With me to discuss this timely subject, I have CEO of […]
Special Edition – Daphne Keller & Kate Klonick
Posted on“Internet Speech Will Never Go Back to Normal,” declared the headline of a recent Atlantic article by law professors Jack Goldsmith and Andrew Keane Woods. The piece argues that the […]
Special Edition – Dunja Mijatović
Posted on Since the coronavirus became a pandemic, governments around the world have adopted a wide range of measures affecting basic human rights. This includes many of the 47 member states […]
Special Edition – Monika Bickert
Posted onThe coronavirus has disrupted life as we know it. Billions of people across the world are caught in varying degrees of lockdowns with severe restrictions on their freedom of movement. […]
Episode 40 – The Age of Human Rights: Tragedy and Triumph
Posted on In 2014, Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam by promoting secular values on his blog Free Saudi […]
Episode 39 – The Totalitarian Temptation – Part II – Der Untergang
Posted onIn November 2019 German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a passionate speech to the German Bundestag. Merkel said “We have freedom of expression in this country…. But freedom of expression has […]
Episode 38 – The Totalitarian Temptation – Part I
Posted on In George Orwell’s 1946 work, “The Prevention of Literature,” he wrote: [O]rganised lying … is … integral to totalitarianism, [and] would … continue even if concentration camps and secret […]
Episode 37 – Expert Opinion – The History of Mass Surveillance, with Andreas Marklund
Posted on In 2013, NSA contractor Edward Snowden sent shockwaves through the American government when he leaked information exposing a number of vast mass surveillance programs providing the U.S. Government and […]
Episode 36 – Expert Opinion – Thomas Healy on how Oliver Wendell Holmes changed the history of free speech in America
Posted on On March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson, the newly elected president, gave his first inaugural address. Jefferson eloquently dismissed the logic behind the Sedition Act of 1798, which had sent […]
Episode 35 – White Man´s Burden: Empire, Liberalism and Censorship
Posted on During the mass protests that have rocked Hong Kong since June 2019, pro-democracy protesters have waved Union Jack flags and been singing God Save the Queen –– a clear […]
Episode 34 – The Age of Reaction: The fall and rise of free speech in 19th century Europe
Posted on The 18th century ended with free speech in full retreat. With the French Revolution, the call for “Enlightenment Now!” was no longer seen as the harbinger of humanity’s inevitable […]
Special Edition – A conversation with Professor David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur
Posted on In this special edition of Clear And Present Danger we leave the past and jump into the present for a discussion on how international human rights standards are relevant […]
Episode 33 – Counter-Revolution: Dutch Patriots, Tom Paine´s Rights of Man and the campaign against Seditious Writings
Posted onFaced with bloody terrorism democratic Europe has often reacted with tough measures. The UK Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act of 2019 criminalizes expressing an opinion that is “supportive” of a […]
Episode 32 – Policing opinion in the French Revolution with Charles Walton
Posted onOn Aug. 26, 1789, France’s National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Article 11 of the Declaration proclaimed: The free communication of ideas […]
Episode 31 – The Old Regime
Posted onIn Nov. 2018, French President Emanuel Macron declared war on “offensive and hateful content” on the internet. Subsequently, France adopted strict laws against both online hate speech and fake news, […]
Episode 30 – Northern Lights, The Scandinavian Press Freedom Breakthrough
Posted onIn the 1760s and 1770s, Sweden and Denmark-Norway shortly became the epicenter of press freedom protections in Enlightenment Europe. In 1766, the Swedish Diet passed the Press Freedom Act, making […]
Episode 29 – The Philosopher King – Enlightened Despotism, part 2, Prussia
Posted onIn his famous essay “What is Enlightenment?” the Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant declared: “[E]nlightenment requires nothing but freedom … to make public use of one’s reason in all matters. Now […]
Episode 28 – Writing on Human Skin – Enlightened Despotism, part I, Russia
Posted on The Enlightenment’s emphasis on science, progress, tolerance and rationality attracted not only philosophers — even absolute monarchs dreamt of “Enlightenment Now.” But how do you incorporate the enlightenment’s revelations […]
Episode 27 – How Enlightening
Posted on After a brief detour into the present, we return to Ground Zero of the Enlightenment in 18th century Europe, with this recap of past episodes and a brief overview […]
Episode 26 – Oslo Freedom Forum Special with Megha Rajagopalan and Yuan Yang
Posted on June 4, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the bloody culmination of the Chinese government’s Tiananmen massacre of pro-democracy students and activists. But all public discussion and memories of […]
Episode 25 – Oslo Freedom Forum Special with Larry Diamond
Posted onToday´s episode is going to be a radical departure from the chronological timeline of the general podcast so far. I´m currently in Oslo for the annual Oslo Freedom Forum, organized […]
Episode 24 – Expert Opinion – Stephen Solomon part two: The Sedition Act
Posted on In 1787, the newly authored U.S. Constitution was sent out to the states for ratification. Despite fierce objections from Anti-Federalists, the Constitution did not include a bill of rights […]
Episode 23 – Expert Opinion – Stephen Solomon part one: The First Amendment
Posted onThe First Amendment of the US Constitution was adopted as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791. This “Great bulwark of liberty” provides that “Congress shall make no law […]
Episode 22 – Fighting Words – Free Speech in 18th Century America, Part II
Posted onIn the second half of the 18th century, American Patriots showed that freedom of the press was a potent weapon against authority. Not even the world’s most formidable empire could […]
Episode 21 – The Bulwark of Liberty – Free Speech in 18th Century America, Part I
Posted on18th century America was impacted and influenced by the so-called Glorious Revolution in the Motherland. And no-one had a bigger impact on American attitudes towards freedom of speech than Cato’s […]
Episode 20 – The Seeds of Enlightenment
Posted on1685 was a watershed year for events that would lead to what we call the Enlightenment. France´s Sun King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and initiated a policy […]
Episode 19 – Expert Opinion – Steven Nadler on Spinoza’s ‘book forged in hell’ and the right to ‘think what you like and say what you think‘
Posted onBaruch Spinoza (also known as Benedict de Spinoza) was born in Amsterdam in 1632. While his given name means “blessing” in both Hebrew and Latin, Spinoza’s “Theological-political treatise” from 1670 […]
Episode 18 – Colonial Dissent: Blasphemy, Libel and Tolerance in 17th Century America
Posted onAmericans are more supportive of free speech than anyother people. 95 % of Americans think it’s “very important” to be able tocriticize the government without censorship and 77% support the […]
Episode 17 — Global Inquisition
Posted on In the 16th Century Spain and Portugal globalized the inquisition by spreading the fight for religious orthodoxy and against heresy, blasphemy and apostasy to the Americas, Africa and Asia […]
Episode 16 – Expert Opinion – Michael Shermer
Posted onIn this episode, we join up with historian of science Dr. Michael Shermer to investigate the cross-fertilization between science and free speech. Michael Shermer is a prolific writer on science, […]
Episode 15 — Paper-bullets and the forgotten martyrs of radical free speech
Posted on Episode 15 returns to Europe and formative events in 17th Century England, where a mostly forgotten group of radicals demanded a written constitution guaranteeing free speech, liberty of conscience, […]
Episode 14 – ‘Universal Peace’: Religious tolerance in the Mughal empire
Posted onEpisode 14 leaves the West and heads to 16th and 17th Century India and the Mughal empire. In particular, the rule of Akbar the Great. A century before John Locke’s […]
Episode 13 – Expert Opinion – Jonathan Haidt
Posted onIn this episode, we do a bit of time travel and leave the 17th century for a discussion of free speech on American college and university campuses today. Our guest […]
Episode 12 – Expert Opinion – Teresa Bejan
Posted onWe enter the early modern age with an expert opinion featuring Teresa Bejan, associate professor at Oriel College, Oxford University and author of “Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of […]
Episode 11: The Great Disruption – Part II
Posted on In episode 11 we continue to survey the wreckage after hurricane Luther was unleashed on Europe with the Reformation. When the Reformation mutated and spread across the continent a […]
Episode 10 – The Great Disruption: Part I – The Printing Press and the Viral Reformation
Posted on The disruptive effects of the internet and social media on the spread of information are unprecedented. Or are they? In episode 10 of Clear and Present Danger, we cover […]
Episode 9 – Expert Opinion – Christine Caldwell Ames
Posted on Our last stop in the Middle Ages is an interview with professor Christine Caldwell Ames, who is an expert on medieval heresy and inquisition in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. […]
Episode 8 – The hounds of God – medieval heretics and inquisitors
Posted onFrom the High Middle Ages, Europe developed into a “persecuting society,” obsessed with stamping out the “cancer” of heresy. But questions about how this was accomplished — and the consequences […]
Episode 7 – Expert Opinion – Peter Adamson
Posted onIn our second expert opinion episode, Jacob Mchangama talks with Peter Adamson, who is a professor of philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and host of the podcast “History […]
Episode 6 – The not-so-Dark Ages, medieval intellectuals, and freethinkers
Posted on In episode 6, we get medieval! Find out why the Middle Ages were as much a period of reason and inquiry as inquisition and superstition. Why was the famous […]
Episode 5 – The Caliphate
Posted onWhy did the medieval Abbasid Caliphs have almost all ancient Greek works of philosophy and science translated into Arabic? How did the long list of medieval Muslim polymaths reconcile abstract […]
Episode 4 – Expert Opinion – Paul Cartledge
Posted onIn our first expert opinion segment, Jacob Mchangama talks to Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University Paul Cartledge. With his intimate knowledge of ancient Greece, we dive deeper […]
Episode 3 – The Age of Persecution
Posted on Why did the polytheist Ancient Romans persecute the followers of the new Jewish sect of “Christians” in the first three centuries AD”? How high was the price that Christians […]
Episode 2 – Liberty or License
Posted onRome was the most powerful empire in antiquity. But were the Romans free to speak truth to power? Did history’s first successful Women’s March take place in Rome? And who […]
Episode 1 – Who wishes to speak
Posted onThe democracy of Ancient Athens was the birthplace of equal and uninhibited speech. Or Isegoria and parrhesia to the Athenians. Jacob Mchangama guides you through how oratory was central to […]