Filtering Free Speech
Wonder Cabinet
Wonder Cabinet Productions
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 June 2020
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The line between free speech and hate speech isn't always clear. When college students shout down a campus speaker, when a woman yells racial slurs in a parking lot, or when HR calls with a reprimand — when does free speech violate safe space? When does sensitivity become censorship?
This weekend’s program "Filtering Free Speech" examines the difficult subject of censorship and free expression. In our first interview, acclaimed writer Walter Mosley uses the "N-word" four times to describe a very troubling experience when he was reprimanded for using this word in a Hollywood writers’ room. Mosley, who himself is black, was so angered by the exchange that he resigned from his job.
The "N-word" is intrinsic to his story — not gratuitous — so we have chosen not to bleep the word. On the broadcast our host provides a very clear warning to alert listeners to what they will hear.
If you'd prefer to listen to a censored version, you can listen to one here.
Original Air Date: September 28, 2019
**Guests: **
Walter Mosley — Jonathan Haidt — Dorothy Kim — Alissa Quart — David Maraniss
**Interviews In This Hour: **
An Uncomfortable Conversation In The Writers' Room — Who Decides Who Should Speak On Campus? — White Supremacists Are Embracing Symbols Of The Middle Ages. What's A Medieval Scholar To Do? — So You've Been Cancelled — What Can We Learn About Today From The McCarthy Era Blacklist? — Who Decides Who Should Speak? The Past And Present Of Free Speech On College Campuses
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Anne Strain Champs, and my pronouns are she and hers. |
| 0:05.9 | And I'm telling you that because navigating personal pronouns these days is trickier than it used |
| 0:10.1 | to be. |
| 0:12.9 | Our culture is becoming more inclusive, which is a really great thing. |
| 0:17.4 | But we are also becoming more cautious about speech and quicker to take offense at other people's words. |
| 0:23.6 | So in this episode of To the Best of Our Knowledge, what happens when we start filtering free speech? |
| 0:30.6 | Stay tuned. |
| 0:33.6 | Wisconsin Public Radio. |
| 0:45.3 | It's to the best of our knowledge. |
| 0:47.2 | I'm Anne Strange Champs. |
| 0:53.0 | Have you ever gotten in trouble for something you said? |
| 0:57.1 | An opinion, an expression, even a word? |
| 1:01.6 | Have you ever encountered the speech police? |
| 1:08.2 | I was in a writer's room for a few weeks in Los Angeles, a television writer's room, a show, |
| 1:14.0 | on one of the bit neckworks. |
| 1:16.8 | This is Walter Mosley, the famous crime writer. |
| 1:20.0 | He's about to tell a story about a word, an extremely offensive word, with a brutal history |
| 1:25.3 | that we all struggle with. |
| 1:27.4 | It's the N-word. And frankly, we really |
| 1:30.5 | wrestled with whether or not to even use it in this show, but we can't tell the story without it. |
| 1:35.8 | So if you don't want to hear it, this is the time to turn away and rejoin us in 10 minutes. |
| 1:52.0 | One day I get a call, I've been there about three weeks, I get a call and a young guy, nice sounding young guy, said to me, Mr. Mosley, we hear that you use the N-word in the writer's room. And I said, well, you know, I am the N-word in the writer's room. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wonder Cabinet Productions, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Wonder Cabinet Productions and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.