The Bipartisan Assault on Free Speech w/ Greg Lukianoff

Conversations With Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Greg Lukianoff is an attorney, author, and president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. You may know him from his previous books, The Coddling of the American Mind and The Canceling of the American Mind. His latest book, which was published earlier this summer, is The War on Words, Ten Arguments Against Free Speech—and Why They Fail. In this episode, we get into why Lukianoff is nota free speech absolutist, how October 7 shifted the campus speech debate, and where protest crosses the line into illegality. We also touch on the rights of visa and green card holders, President Donald Trump’s intimidation tactics, and the troubling free speech climate in the UK. ----- Buy tickets for The Free Press Pittsburgh Debate on September 10th here:https://www.trustarts.org/production/103133 Buy tickets for The Free Press Live at The Comedy Cellar on September 14th here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've got two exciting events to announce. On September 14th, I'll be with Stephen Pinker at the
0:04.9	Comedy Cellar in New York City discussing his new book. A new Steve Pinker book is always an
0:10.0	important event, so please don't miss that. That's September 14th at the Comedy Seller in New York
0:14.9	City. And secondly, on September 10th in Pittsburgh, the free press is teaming up with fire
0:20.6	for our third freedom
0:22.1	debate of 2025. The question this time, is designing babies unethical or is it actually a moral
0:28.7	imperative? Gene editing could help us wipe out genetic diseases, but it could also push us into
0:34.0	picking traits like intelligence or personality. So, are we curing suffering or are we playing God?
0:40.5	Jamie Metzel and Dr. Allison Berent will debate Carter Sneed and Dr. Lydia Dugdale with
0:45.7	Barry Weiss moderating.
0:47.5	And if you grab a VIP ticket, you can stick around for the afterparty.
0:50.9	Meet debaters, hang with Barry and the free press team, plus, of course, strong drinks
0:55.1	and good food. So get your tickets at thefp.com slash debate. Link in the show notes.
1:02.4	Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. Today's guest is Greg Lukianoff.
1:08.5	Greg is an attorney, author, and free speech advocate who serves as president
1:12.4	and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, also known as Fire. He co-authored
1:18.9	the coddling of the American mind, the canceling of the American mind, and his new book with
1:23.9	Nadine Strausson, 10 arguments against free speech and why they fail.
1:28.7	In this episode, we talk about why Greg is not a free speech absolutist. We talk about how
1:33.6	October 7th changed the campus free speech debate. We talk about where the line between
1:38.1	legal protest and illegal protest lies. We talk about the free speech rights of visa holders
1:43.6	and green card holders. We talk about
	...

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