This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Saturday, March 23rd, 2004. I'm Caleb Brown.

The fights on college campuses and in legislative chambers over diversity, equity, and inclusion

over de-platforming speakers, over speech codes, over punishing students and professors alike

for the ideas they entertain entertain seem only to have intensified

in recent years. Greg Lucianov's new co-authored book is The Cancelling of the

American Mind. He has some advice for defenders of free speech on campus as lawmakers attempt to grapple

with the issue.

Having enjoyed a good bit of your book, The Cancelling of the American Mind with your

co-author and narrator, my dad.

She's great. And living in a state that is among many states that are currently

grappling with DEI specifically as it applies to public universities.

Yes. There seems to be this profound disconnect between the defenders of

DEI who are defending a concept. Yeah. And the opponents of DEI who are defending a concept and the opponents of DEI who I think at their best, and not

always they're not always at their best, but at their at their best are attacking a set of policies as implemented in public

universities that are nominally under theEOI umbrella.

Yes.

And so what you get in terms of the conversation about trying to rein in or get rid of these diversity equity and inclusion offices or positions or policies,

it's just not a productive conversation.

I think it can be and I think you'd you know need to have a little bit of basic knowledge going in but you know

Also I've been doing this for 23 years so you know defending free speech on college

campuses so I realize what I probably think of as a basic

knowledge required at least 12 years to it.

...