Ask a Jew

Safe Spaces for Dumb Ideas - with Greg Lukianoff

Episode Summary

Greg Lukianoff is a First Amendment lawyer, President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and co-author of the hits "The Coddling of the American Mind" with Jonathan Haidt and "The Canceling of the American Mind" with Rikki Schlott. He joins us to talk all things free speech, like why campuses are burning, how violence is kind of bad, actually, and why he fights for our right to say dumb things, and be called out on them.

Episode Notes

Greg Lukianoff is a First Amendment lawyer, President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and co-author of the hits "The Coddling of the American Mind"  with Jonathan Haidt and "The Canceling of the American Mind" with Rikki Schlott. He joins us to talk all things free speech, like why campuses are burning, how violence is kind of bad, actually, and why he fights for our right to say dumb things, and be called out on them. 

Also:

• What should keep us up at night?
• Culture of free speech vs. the law of free speech
• Actually, violence is bad
• 2023 was the worst year for deplatforming in history
• Harvard is so mad at Greg right now
• Even antisemites have free speech rights :(
• Are the universities redeemable?
• You're anti-intellectual! No, you're anti-intellectual! 
• Blame the lack of viewpoint diversity
• Students + admins = trouble
• Are you ever sick of all this free speech nonsense?
• Kids need to be told they are stupid more often
• FIRE-branded Shabbat dinners, coming soon to a table near you

Follow Greg on Twitter/X if you please, and also on Substack at The Eternally Radical Idea

The article that inspired the book The Coddling of the American Mind in The Atlantic (2015)