Boardrooms love buzzwords. AI, climate, resilience. But what do they actually mean for CFOs and

execs trying to survive the next earnings call? That's where the pre-read comes in. Real experts and

real talk. Subscribe to the pre-read, presented by Workiba. From the opinion pages of the Wall Street

Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to the Free Expression podcast from the Wall Street Journal. I'm Jerry Baker, editor at large of the journal.

If you're not already a subscriber, please do sign up wherever you do your podcast listening.

This week, the war on free speech. College campuses banning speakers

who dissent from progressive orthodoxes, big tech companies blocking access to news and

information that doesn't comport with their views, companies firing employees that speak out

against things like diversity, equity and inclusion policies. The encroachment on the precious right to free speech

is a multifaceted feature of life in modern America. While the First Amendment, of course,

still protects speech in law, in practice that freedom has been curtailed in many respects,

in the private field, especially, often held subordinate, supposedly essential, social, cultural,

or political goals. Now, of course, we can exaggerate the scale of the problem. We're not Soviet

Russia or communist China or theocratic Iran, where the exercise of expression against the government

or anything that doesn't agree with what the authorities want us to believe can land you

in prison or even worse. But the direction of travel here in the United States is clear,

and it's not, of course, the first time this has happened. Throughout America's 240-year history,

we've seen other periods where we've seen this kind of repression of free speech.

My guest this week argues, and with a very timely book, that this is a dangerous moment

for the country.

He makes a passionate case for free speech in his book.

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