Free Speech and ‘The Executive Power’ | FIRE Crossover

Advisory Opinions

The Dispatch

News, Politics, Government

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David French and Sarah Isgur speak with Nico Perrino to discuss the origin story of Advisory Opinions and the few free speech issues where they disagree with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Show Notes:—Origin story of Advisory Opinions—Disagreements between FIRE and AO—Why FIRE doesn’t editorialize on the content of speech—Limits of presidential power—Free speech, the dread of tyrants—The prosecution of political figures—Cracker Barrel—State of the conservative legal movement Advisory Opinions is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including access to all of our articles, members-only newsletters, and bonus podcast episodes—click here. If you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to advisory opinions. I'm Sarah Isgar. That's David French. And we have a special bonus
0:05.8	crossover podcast for you this week that we did with the Foundation for Individual Rights and
0:10.5	Expression for their podcast, so to speak, the free speech podcast from Fire with Fire's executive
0:17.5	vice president, Nico Perino, talking about all things fire, all things advisory opinions, including where the two diverge on stuff like the TikTok ban.
0:27.4	We hope you enjoy.
0:29.1	You ready?
0:30.6	I was born ready. All right, folks, welcome back to, so to speak, the free speech podcast where every other week, we take an uncensored look at the world of free expression through the law, philosophy, and stories that define your right to free speech.
0:57.9	I am, as always, your host, Nico Perino.
1:00.9	Today, we are joined by Sarah Isger, who is the host of the dispatch's popular legal podcast, advisory opinions, as well as her permanent guest on that show, David French.
1:10.9	We're going to talk about our current media moment, the Trump administration, and the state
1:14.9	of the modern conservative legal movement.
1:16.6	Before we do, though, I have to ask, I think I read somewhere that your guys' podcast
1:21.0	is the top legal podcast in the world?
1:23.2	Is that true?
1:23.7	What's the secret sauce?
1:25.0	I don't know.
1:26.0	The numbers are very – so this is something that was told to us by somebody
1:29.3	else that was a guest who they had done the research.
1:33.4	So I don't know. I do know that, you know, depending – especially when the Supreme Court's releasing
1:38.8	opinions, we're often right up there in the top political podcasts, which is a lot of fun to see, especially since
1:46.6	we're so nerdy.
1:49.3	Do you guys not plan vacations for the end of the Supreme Court term?
	...

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