Hey, everybody. It's me, Debbie Kamau Bell, and I'm dropping the interim in my title and joining you as the 2025 official host of the ACLU's podcast, At Liberty.

Insert those air horns here.

Welcome to a new year of At Liberty.

My hope is to ask the big questions on the big issues affecting our country,

and especially those happening to some of our hardest hit and most vulnerable communities.

So I'll be talking to the ACLU lawyers, advocates, and organizers,

and to other people out there doing the big work to protect the rights of all the people,

not just the billionaires.

Based on just the last few days, I know we can't do this alone.

So I'm frankly very excited, relieved, but mostly excited, to be joined throughout the year

by the newly minted WKB ACLU Special Correspondence Task Force, which is easy to remember because it's the WKB, ACLU, SCTF.

So it's easy to remember.

You can just say, well, come up to SIFA, oh, easy to remember.

So that way we can go deep dive on the issues from immigration to reproductive freedom, to the rights of transgender people, to the First Amendment.

And, you know, it's just the general rule of law.

Remember the rule of law?

Anyway, today I am speaking to one of those people, which is crazy that I would give her this ridiculous title because she's already got enough titles.

She's the ACLU's legal director, Cecilia Wong,

and the first person I wanted to talk to in this new year, because it's all happening in real time.

Cecilia oversees more than 200 lawyers and staff of the National Legal Department,

supports legal staff at 54 affiliates, and directs the ACLU's work in the Supreme Court.

So, you know, she has time for a podcast, totally, totally.

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