Live from SeriesFest: Our Right to Laughter

At Liberty

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4.8 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can humor help us make sense of unprecedented threats to our civil liberties? Join us this week for a special episode of At Liberty, recorded live at SeriesFest in Denver, where Kamau and moderator Mo Fry Pasic explore Kamau's signature style of sociopolitical comedy, how something can be funny without being true, and why laughter means we’re paying attention. You can hear Mo in conversation with a different comedian each week on their podcast, Worse Than You with Mo Fry Pasic. And you can keep up with SeriesFest year-round at seriesfest.com. Our senior executive producer is Sam Riddell. This episode was executive produced by Jessica Herman Weitz for the ACLU, and W. Kamau Bell and Melissa Hudson Bell, PhD for Who Knows Best Productions. At Liberty is edited and produced by Erica Getto and Myrriah Gossett for Good Get.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, it's me, W. Kamau Bell. Welcome back to the ACLU's podcast at Liberty.
0:07.6	Here on the podcast, we explore the big questions on the big issues affecting our big country,
0:12.9	and especially our hardest hit and most vulnerable communities. All year, we've been getting a
0:17.6	crash course on our rights. Our right to free speech, our right to
0:22.1	religious liberty, our right to privacy, and this week we mark the end of our season. We're
0:28.2	discussing our right to laughter, which as a stand-up comedian is very important to me.
0:35.2	I have the honor of representing the ACLU and at Liberty earlier this year at
0:38.9	Series Fest. Series Fest is a non-profit organization that champions artists at the forefront
0:44.8	of episodic storytelling. And every year, they host a TV festival in Denver, Colorado, which is where
0:51.5	we recorded today's episode. I've been there before and I was happy to be
0:55.2	back. And as you'll hear, I'm in the guest seat for this one. Modering the conversation is Mo Fry Passick,
1:03.5	host of the podcast, Worse Than You. Every week on that show, Mo speaks with a different comedian or
1:08.9	entertainer about their creative process.
1:11.8	If you've ever wondered how I ended up working with the ACLU, why I'm drawn to social
1:15.6	political comedy, and how humor can help us all make sense of this political moment, stick
1:20.1	around. I'm about to tell you all that stuff and more. Let's get into it.
1:25.5	Hi, everyone. Hi. Oh my God, I'm such a joyful and warm high. Hi, Kamau, how are you? Hi, Kamau. Hi, everyone. Hi.
1:27.6	Oh, my God.
1:28.0	I'm such a joyful and warm high. Hi, Camel. How are you? Hi. Hi. Thank you for being my guest on your podcast. That's weird. Yeah. It's weird ownership thing. I mean, it's great. It's less work for me to do. I love that. Well, okay, off to the races. we are doing a special taping obviously of At Liberty,
1:46.4	which are a wonderful facility. less work for me to do. I love that. Well, okay, off to the races. We are doing a special
1:44.7	taping, obviously, of At Liberty, which you are a wonderful facilitator of. And I'm wondering,
1:51.1	just opening up, on my podcast, we start with a TLDR on someone's art or process, which is a
	...

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