Think About It
Episodes
Great Books 5: Rich Blint on James Baldwin's "Another Country"
07 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
James Baldwin's appeal and admonition ring as true as they did in the 1960s, when the novelist became the country's conscience - and also started to f...
Free Speech 38: Robert Cohen--The Death of Free Speech on Campus?
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The First Amendment was ratified in 1791. Are we witnessing the death of this hallowed American practice and ideal in today's campus controversies? Pr...
Affirmative Action: Frank Wu--Affirmative Action Under Fire
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Affirmative action is under fire. A lawsuits claims that Asian American students are discriminated against by Harvard's admissions policies, while oth...
Free Speech 37: Amaney Jamal on Educating for Democracy
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
And how can the university educate citizens for democracy who know that with certain rights come certain obligations? How is higher education linked t...
Free Speech 36: Michel Rosenfeld on Media Bubbles, Free Speech, and Democracy
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today's news comes from blogs, podcasts, websites in various shades of truth. Are we just listening to stories we agree with, or are we getting a wide...
Free Speech 35: Stefan Bradley on Upending the Ivory Tower
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Who changed American universities for the better? Who fought for equality of opportunity, fair access, and more comprehensive curricula? Stefan Bradle...
Free Speech 34: Sigal Ben-Porath on "Inclusive Freedom"
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"Universities and colleges are the most effective site for practicing the First Amendment in the United States today." Professor Sigal Ben-Porath or t...
Great Books 4: Carol Gilligan on Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter tells the dramatic story of a woman cast out of society for adultery and condemned to wear a bad...
Great Books 3: Jared Stark on Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse"
10 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“On or around December 1910, human character changed.” Virginia Woolf’s 1927 masterpiece To The Lighthouse teaches us how to make sense of time....
Great Books 2: Ava Chin on Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior"
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What stories should we remember, and which ones are we forced to forget? Maxine Hong Kingston's 1975 masterpiece, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girl...
Free Speech 33: Patricia William on Censorship
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Does America have a problem with censorship? Yes we do, explains Professor Patricia Williams of Columbia University. But censorship becomes a problem ...
Free Speech 32: Cameron Okeke--"Safe Spaces Got Me Through College"
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 2017, Cameron published a widely discussed essay, “I’m a black UChicago graduate. Safe spaces got me through college" in response to the Univer...
Free Speech 31: Teresa Bejan on Civility
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When they go low, we go...where? "We need more civility" in our political discourse is a frequent complaint lodged by politicians on all sides. Teresa...
Great Books 1: Manthia Diawara on Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe's 1958 Things Fall Apart transformed the world by vividly imagining the story of an African community in English, ...
Free Speech 30: Emerson Sykes--Why Does the ACLU Defend the Alt-Right?
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why does the ACLU defend the alt-right? What else does it do? Join me in a thoughtful conversation with Emerson Sykes, Staff Attorney at the ACLU on F...
Free Speech 29: David Shih on Free Speech, Teaching, and How to Advance Civic Ideals
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Can teaching liberate you from living in a myth? What if racism will never end? In this episode I speak with Professor David Shih at the University of...
Free Speech 28: Nadine Strossen on How to Counter Hate Speech
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Can Hate Speech Only Be Countered With More Speech? Nadine Strossen, former President of the ACLU and professor at New York Law School, argues for the...
Free Speech 27: Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Free Speech and the Role of the Media
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In free democracies, the role of the university is to be an arbiter of truth. They share this critical role with a free press. What is happening with ...
Free Speech 26: Jason Stanley on Free Speech and the Rise of Fascism
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Do the champions of free speech today really represent the liberal values they lay claim to? Jason Stanley is Professor of Philosophy at Yale Universi...
Free Speech 25: Luna Martinez on Speech in the University
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The law is not a static thing. In this episode I speak with Luna Martinez, a student at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law who is ...
Free Speech 24: David Oppenheimer on Free Speech, Hate Speech, and Equality in America Today
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the relation of free speech, hate speech, and equality in America? How can we make sense of the speech debates in today’s legal and politic...
Free Speech 23: Jay Wallace--Lessons from Berkeley
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What are the philosophical assumptions and underpinnings of free speech? Jay Wallace is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berke...
Free Speech 22: Erwin Chemerinsky--There Should Not Be Limits on Speech
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There must be no middle ground on speech. In this episode I speak with Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law...
Free Speech 21: Ian Haney López--The Free Speech Debates from the 1960s to Today
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Where do these controversies start – a deep dive into American politics from the 1960s till today. Ian Haney López is Professor of Law at the Unive...
Free Speech 20: Corey Brettschneider--Can Universities Advance Free Speech . . . by Speaking Out?
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When the university speaks, what should it say? Universities should never restrict speech, but they should use other ways of expressing their values a...
Free Speech 19: Sonia Das--Speech is a Practice, not an Abstraction
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What is the theory of language behind our understanding of free speech? Sonia Das is Professor of Anthropology at NYU and the author of Linguistic Riv...
Free Speech 18: Fred Schauer on our Constitutional Right to Free Speech
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Did the civil rights movement owe its existence to free speech, or is free speech the result of social movements? Fred Schauer, Distinguished Professo...
Free Speech 17: Ben Doherty on the Lessons of Charlottesville
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Charlottesville was not about speech but violence. In this episode I speak with Ben Doherty, the Head of Library Instruction and a Research Librarian ...
Free Speech 16: John Mason--A Historian's Perspective on Charlottesville
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How can Charlottesville recover from the carnage of summer 2017? John Mason, Professor of History at the University of Virginia, discusses the violent...
Free Speech 15: Sarah Kenny--A Student's Perspective on Charlottesville
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What does power have to do with free speech? Sarah Kenny is a former student and president of the student council at the University of Virginia. In t...
Free Speech 14: Nicholas Whittaker--At the Heart of a Speech Controversy
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What do you do when your college is at the center of a national controversy? Nicholas Whittaker is a rising senior at Harvard College, where he studie...
Free Speech 13: Robert Post--Has the First Amendment Become a Weapon for the Far Right?
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Has the First Amendment become a weapon for the far-right? Robert Post, Professor and former Dean at Yale Law School, discusses the First Amendment, i...
Free Speech 12: Carolyn Rouse--Speech is Not An Abstraction
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Is believing in free speech a little like believing in Santa Claus? Carolyn Rouse, Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University explains the hist...
Free Speech 11: Richard Delgado--Must We Defend Nazis?
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Is there a constitutionally sound way to regulate hate speech? Richard Delgado, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama is one of the founders o...
Free Speech 10: Tanya Hernández--Why Aren't We Talking about the 14th Amendment?
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why aren't we talking about the 14th Amendment? Tanya Hernández, Professor of Law at Fordham University, talks to Think About It about the necessity ...
Free Speech 9: Kate Shaw on Speech, Our President, and the Supreme Court
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Is "speech" the major underlying issue in recent Supreme Court decisions? Kate Shaw is Professor of Law at the Cardozo School of Law, a former Specia...
Free Speech 8: Julie Suk on Free Speech in the Global Context
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why does America think so differently about speech from the rest of the world? Julie Suk was Professor of Law at Cardozo and now teaches at the CUNY G...
Free Speech 7: Jeremy Waldron--Yes, It's Possible to Define Hate Speech
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Could limits on speech result in totalitarianism? Is the entirety of the developed world already lost? Jeremy Waldron, University Professor in the Sch...
Free Speech 6: Suzanne Nossel on Defending Free Speech
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What are the biggest threats to free expression today? Suzanne Nossel, the Executive Director of PEN America, talks to Think About It about how she ...
Free Speech 5: Salma Abdelrahman--A Student's Perspective on Speech on Campus
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How should a university deal with its past complicities with slavery and 'scientific' racism? Salma Abdelrahaman is a junior at Harvard College studyi...
Free Speech 4: Prudence Carter--Free Speech, Berkeley, and the Lure of False Equivalencies
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What is at stake for the university in the speech debates? Prudence L. Carter is Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Califor...
Free Speech 3: Akeel Bilgrami--Does Social Justice Need Free Speech?
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Does social justice need free speech? Akeel Bilgrami, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University talks about the shifting approaches to free speec...
Free Speech 2: Stanley Fish--There's No Such Thing as Free Speech!
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There’s No Such Thing As Free Speech! Stanley Fish, Visiting Professor at the Cardozo School of Law and author of "There is No Such Thing as Free Sp...
Free Speech 1: Joan Scott on Who has the Right to Speak on Campus?
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Who has the right to speak on campus? Joan Scott, Professor Emerita at the Institute for Advanced Study on Charlottesville, free speech on campus, and...