It is Thursday the 25th of September 2025 in you're listening to Skeptics with

AK, the podcast for science, reason and critical thinking.

Skeptics with A K is produced by skeptic media in association with the Merseyside

Skeptic Society, a non-profit organization for the promotion of scientific skepticism the Merseyside Skeptic Society, a non-profit

organisation for the promotion of scientific skepticism on Merseyside around the UK and internationally.

I am your host, Mike Hall.

With me today is Marsh.

Hello.

And Alice.

Hello.

So it's a bit of an odd time at the moment.

I was giving a talk actually in Greenwich recently, and just as I was

starting to talk, the news came through that Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. And free speech

is something that skeptics, I would say, understandably care about. Yes. It's something that comes

up a lot in skeptical circles. It comes a lot in our kind of conversations of like, how do we

make sure that free speech is protected. I firmly believe free speech and the right to free expression is a fundamental

human right. It's something we ought to be fighting to preserve and we ought to care when it is

being curtailed or impinged upon. But free speech as a right, I think is also almost of all

of the rights, the one that's most comprehensively misunderstood or

misrepresented, sometimes even intentionally. Yes. And that came into sharp focus with the

assassination of Charlie Kirk. So Charlie Kirk, if listeners aren't aware, I'm sure you're aware,

was the conservative activist who at the age of 18 co-founded the youth movement Turning Point USA

...