The Viral Educator: Warren Smith on Wokeness, Campus Culture, and Losing His Job

Conversations with Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 614 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today I’m joined by Warren Smith, a teacher and filmmaker. He created a viral video challenging a student to explain why they believed J.K. Rowling was a bigot. It sparked a national conversation and ultimately cost Smith his job. We talk about that fallout, compare our experiences on college campuses during the height of wokeness, dig into Trump’s attempts to reshape elite universities, and explore what might actually fix higher education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What I've dedicated my life to is revenge.
0:04.7	A brand new drama based on the bestselling novel.
0:07.5	They think they're better than us.
0:08.5	Who do you think you are?
0:09.8	I'm going to prove to them that they're wrong.
0:11.5	She's punishing me.
0:13.0	You destroyed my family.
0:14.3	I will not rest until I've destroyed yours.
0:17.0	A woman of substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.
0:20.2	Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman.
0:23.4	My guest today is Warren Smith.
0:25.9	Warren is a professor, filmmaker, and content creator.
0:28.7	He burst onto the scene with a viral video that you may have seen,
0:32.3	in which he asks a student to explain why J.K. Rowling is a bigot
0:36.7	and ends up changing that student's mind simply by
0:39.9	asking questions. She's being attacked by a large group of people and people are calling her.
0:44.3	Like you said, at the beginning of this conversation, you said, given the fact that J.K.
0:48.9	Rowling is transphobic, how do you feel about Harry Potter? Now, retroactively looking at that statement, do you think
0:55.4	that that was the best way to phrase? No, I feel like an idiot now. He was subsequently fired from
1:01.1	that teaching job. So in this episode, we begin by talking about that fiasco. Then we move on to
1:07.1	compare notes about what it was like to be on a college campus between 2016 and 2020.
1:13.1	Warren was at Emerson at that time and I was at Columbia, but our experiences confronting
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Free Press, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Free Press and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.