#1005 - Warren Smith - J.K. Rowling & The Cost of Speaking Freely

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2025

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Warren Smith is a filmmaker, educator, and host of the “Secret Scholar Society” YouTube channel. If freedom of speech can be shouted down, does it really exist? When every debate turns into partisan noise, what does honest discourse even look like? If we can’t talk about our problems without resorting to anger or violence, how can we ever solve them? Expect to learn why J.K. Rowling has become such a lightning rod for cultural backlash and why she’s back in the news, why limiting conversation only makes problems worse, whether free speech can truly exist if it can be shouted down, whether young people’s growing support for political violence stems from conviction or desensitization, the fine line between correct and incorrect behavior, what William thinks about today’s rising tribalism, and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get 10% discount on all Gymshark’s products at https://gym.sh/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM10) Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D, and more from AG1 at https://ag1.info/modernwisdom Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period from Shopify at https://shopify.com/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:21.6	That's chriswilliamson.com.
0:24.9	All right, let's get into it.
0:27.2	J.K. Rowling is back in the news.
0:30.2	How do you feel about her recent debacle?
0:35.7	I can understand where she's coming from.
0:38.1	I think it was effective.
0:40.2	I don't see any problems with it.
0:42.2	I can understand why she would say that.
0:43.8	I would probably feel the same way if I were in her position, honestly.
0:50.0	Yeah, she's become a lightning rod.
0:51.7	So for the people that didn't hear, uh, Emma Watson went on Jay Shetty's podcast, said some stuff,
0:59.0	and it seems, at least from the outside, like she's starting to sort of row back some of the condemnation that's been there because maybe it's not as sort of trendy as it used to be.
1:15.1	And this is kind of the big complaint that everybody has.
1:18.6	Do you actually stand on this principle or are you just blowing with the fucking wind?
1:22.6	And I think JK, in this big tweet that's had like 46 million impressions, which is, that's enough.
1:32.2	That's enough to get people to take notice.
	...

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