Free Kiwis!
Episodes
Ilana Redstone
21 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Ilana Redstone is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne. She talked to James about the state of sociology...
Michael Ben-Gad
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Ben-Gad is Professor of Economics at City St. George's University in London. He talks to James about a student campaign against him, the ...
Abhishek Saha on the University of Sussex vs the Office for Students
15 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Abhishek Saha, Professor of Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London, has taken a close interest in free speech and academic freedom issues. In ...
The Wizard of New Zealand
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we talk to the Wizard of New Zealand about how he got his start in wizardry, the Fun Revolution, the humourlessness of Maoists, being ...
Helen Joyce
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Joyce is Director of Advocacy for Sex Matters, a UK organisation that advocates for sex-based rights. She has held this position since leaving h...
Dialogue on the shooting of Charlie Kirk
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A dialogue on the shooting of Charlie Kirk and its aftermath, including Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air.
Nathan Seuili
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nathan Seuili is a former pastor who has worked for several years for the NZ Free Speech Union. He has now left the FSU to found a new organization, P...
David Webb
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
David Webb is a lawyer and a spokesperson for The Opportunities Party on their Citizens' Voice policy. We talked to him about the party's pl...
Musa al-Gharbi
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Musa al-Gharbi is an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. He was the Communications Director a...
Doug Elliffe
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Doug Elliffe is a professor of psychology at the University of Auckland. We talked to him about whether crows know what's good for them, the List...
Institutional neutrality and the academic freedom legislation, with Steph Martin
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we are once again joined by our regular correspondent from the Free Speech Union (and the New Zealand Initiative), Steph Martin. We de...
Henare Parata
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Henare Parata is a teacher of te reo and mātauranga Māori. He has also been involved with The Opportunities Party (TOP), and is a well-known presenc...
Brandon McMurtrie
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brandon McMurtrie is a PhD student in psychology at Massey University, where he studies political polarization. He is also a keen Substacker, X-user, ...
James Lindsay
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr James Lindsay was one of the perpetrators of the 'Sokal Squared' hoax, and is the co-author of Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship...
Damien Grant
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Damien Grant is a Stuff columnist and the Principal of Waterstone Insolvency. We talked to him about occupational licensing, free speech, Trump's...
Frances Widdowson
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Frances Widdowson was a professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary until 2021, when the university fired her. Frances gives us her account of the ...
'Hate crime' and VUW's new academic freedom policy, with Steph Martin
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Law Commission recently put out a consultation paper on whether the law relating to 'hate crime' should be changed, and if so how. The C...
Cody Ellingham
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cody Ellingham is a Kiwi writer, photographer, and Bitcoin enthusiast who's currently based in Kamakura, Japan.We asked him to explain Bitcoin to...
Alan Davison
08 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alan Davison is Academic Lead at the Governance and Public Affairs Centre at the Australian Catholic University, and was until recently Dean of Arts a...
Peter Boghossian
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Peter Boghossian is a freelance philosopher and former academic. He was jointly responsible for the 'Sokal squared' hoax, as a result of ...
Nigel Biggar
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nigel Biggar is an emeritus professor at Oxford University, where he was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology. He is also an Anglican pries...
VUW's new academic freedom policy, with Stephanie Martin
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Only a few days after its Senate voted down the University of Auckland's 'academic freedom' policy, Victoria University of Wellington h...
Toby Young
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Toby Young is the founder of the Free Speech Union and The Daily Sceptic, an associate editor of The Spectator, and a former associate editor at Quill...
Peter Ridd
23 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Ridd was formerly head of the Physics Programme and the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Queensland. We asked him how a...
VUW free speech event debrief (FKs! Dialogues 5)
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The morning after Victoria University of WELLINGTON's free speech event, Michael and James met to discuss the event, including both its set-up an...
Jonathan Rauch
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Rauch is a US writer whose books include The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 (2018); Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Go...
Free speech at VUW (FKs! Dialogues 4)
05 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A conversation about Victoria University of Wellington Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith's decision to postpone his original panel on free speech and abo...
Cynical Theories (Book Club 3)
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The topic of our third Free Kiwis! book club was Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay's book Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Every...
Graham Linehan
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Graham Linehan is the co-creator of Father Ted and other popular UK comedy series. We talked to him about Ted's origins, comedy in a time of cens...
Eric Kaufmann
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham. He talked to Michael about whether the Amish will inherit the earth, whether w...
Iona Italia
18 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Iona Italia is Managing Editor of Quillette and a former Editor-in-Chief of Areo. We talked to her about her life and career; the virtues of letter-wr...
Jonathan Sumption
11 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lord Sumption is a historian and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018. He is also a widely-respected com...
Melissa Derby
12 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Melissa Derby is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Waikato, where she teaches at the Tauranga campus. We talked to her about why s...
Rodney Hide
12 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rodney Hide entered parliament in 1996, was elected leader of the ACT party in 2004, and was appointed Minister for Local government in 2008 in the fi...
Te Maire Tau
27 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Prof. Te Maire Tau is Pou Whakarae at the Ngāi Tahu Centre at the University of Canterbury. We talked to him about Māori traditional knowledge and (...
Nadine Strossen
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nadine Strossen is Professor Emerita at the New York Law School, a past national President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a member o...
Kathleen Stock
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Recent events in Auckland have reminded us that a tiny minority of radical activists are determined to shut down the speech of so-called TERFs ('...
David Lillis
04 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. David Lillis is a statistician and data scientist who has worked for the Royal Society of New Zealand, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, a...
Nick Matzke
02 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Nick Matzke is Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. We talked to him about what phylogenetic biogeography is; his...
Roger Openshaw
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Roger Openshaw is Emeritus Professor of Education at Massey University. We drew on his rich knowledge of NZ educational history as we discussed the ch...
Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (FK! Book Club 2)
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this second Free Kiwis! book club, we were joined by Dane Giraud of the NZ Free Speech Union to discuss our previous guest Jacob Mchangama's b...
The Coddling of the Kiwi Mind? (FKs Reviews #1)
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On many American university campuses over the last few years speakers have been shouted down, students and professors say they are walking on eggshell...
Eric Crampton
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Eric Crampton is Chief Economist at the New Zealand Initiative. We talked to him about how much Kiwis know about their political system, and how m...
David Rozado
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Rozado is an Associate Professor of Information Technology at Otago Polytechnic. One of his interests is in word frequencies and word associatio...
Catherine Healy
20 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Catherine Healy is a spokesperson and founding member of the New Zealand Sex Workers' Collective. We talked to her about all aspects of sex ...
Paul Moon
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Prof. Paul Moon teaches at the Auckland University of Technology and is the author of a score of books. We talked to him about the Treaty of Waitangi,...
Jacob Mchangama
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jacob Mchangama is a lawyer, writer, and the founding Director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think tank. Has history, at least in the West, been a c...
Jonathan Ayling (Free Speech Union)
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The New Zealand Free Speech Union recently released its first annual free speech ranking of the country's universities. We talked to the NZFSU&ap...
Elizabeth Rata
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Rata is a professor in the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. We talked to her about the nature of science; ...
Catherine Churchman: China, South-East Asia, New Zealand (Episode 25)
21 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Catherine Churchman is Lecturer in the Asian Studies Programme in the School of Languages and Cultures. We talked about the mysterious bronze drum...
Jeremy Waldron, The Harm in Hate Speech roundtable (Free Kiwis! Book Club #1)
21 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael, James, and two guests discuss distinguished Kiwi legal philosopher Jeremy Waldron's book The Harm in Hate Speech and his conception of h...
Dane Giraud (Episode 15)
27 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dane Giraud is a comedy writer with a background in performance (music and acting). He's also an active member both of the NZ Jewish community an...
Kendall Clements (Episode 20)
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Prof. Kendall Clements is a leading fish biologist who teaches at Auckland University. He has also contributed to the ongoing debate about science and...
Dialogue 2: Truth, Science, and Narrative
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do we mean by scientific truth? And how is it different to what we mean when we say a story rings true? Michael and James try to figure this out,...
Episode 1: Michael Johnston
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the inaugural episode of Free Kiwis!, recorded in August 2020, James asks Michael about his research into mental imaging, single-sex schools, and m...
Episode 4: Jamie Whyte
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2021 we talked to the philosopher and commentator Dr. Jamie Whyte about the climate for free expression in universities, the past and futur...
Free Speech, Democracy, and Rationality: A Dialogue
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael and James discuss some of the complexities of free speech, and how it might be linked to both democracy and rationality.
Jon Haidt
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We talk to NYU professor and academic psychologist Jonathan Haidt about safetyism, resilience, and the future of universities.