Talking free speech with Lex Fridman

Covering everything from Cancel Culture to Kid Cosmic, and why I got so depressed writing my latest book

Last week, I took a quick trip down to Austin to talk with Lex Fridman about my forthcoming book, co-authored with Rikki Schlott and with a foreword by Jonathan Haidt, “The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution.” We discuss the book, FIRE, freedom of speech, the “rhetorical fortresses” we’ve created that prevent us from arguing toward truth, and — surprisingly — the Book of Job.

During the course of the podcast, I was happy to be able to squeeze in mentions of FIRE’s College Free Speech Rankings, our Campus Disinvitation and Scholars Under Fire databases, as well as our documentaries “Can We Take a Joke?” and “Mighty Ira.” I also mentioned some of my recent favorite books including “Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us” by Evan Mandery, Francis Fukuyama’s great “The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution,” and “Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment” by Robert Wright. 

Our far-ranging conversation even led to shout-outs to Depeche Mode, the Amazon series “Fleabag” and the under-appreciated cartoon “Kid Cosmic.” 

It even includes some not-so-modest proposals for how to turn X or other social media platforms into forums for truth seeking rather than just Cancel Culture and cat videos.

You can check out the episode in full below, or on Spotify, Apple, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts! 

SHOT FOR THE ROAD

In my previous “shot for the road” I linked to a video I did for the Wall Street Journal opinion video page about our College Free Speech Rankings — and particularly Harvard’s dead-last placement. After receiving blowback from Harvard alumni and faculty, I decided to take the opportunity to address some of those arguments directly on Lex’s show.