We The People: Free Speech

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The First Amendment. Book bans, disinformation, the wild world of the internet. Free speech debates are all around us. What were the Founding Fathers thinking when they created the First Amendment, and how have the words they wrote in the 18th century been stretched and shaped to fit a world they never could have imagined? It's a story that travels through world wars and culture wars. Through the highest courts and the Ku Klux Klan. Today on Throughline's We the People: What exactly is free speech, and how has the answer to that question changed in the history of the U.S.? (Originally ran as The Freedom of Speech)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Christian nationalists want to turn America into a theocracy, a government under biblical rule.
0:07.0	If they gain more power, it could mean fewer rights for you.
0:12.0	I'm Heath Drusen and on the new season of Extremely
0:15.0	American I'll take you inside the movement. Listen to Extremely American from
0:20.2	Boise State Public Radio, part of the NPR Network.
0:24.0	The Constitution is our founding document and we revere it.
0:28.0	But we've also changed it a lot, 27 times so far. And those 27 amendments say a lot about how our
0:36.4	country has evolved, who we say we are, and who we want to be. Throughline's
0:41.7	ongoing series, We The People explores the controversies, compromises, and
0:46.7	consequences behind our nation's constitutional amendments. Today, the First Amendment.
0:56.0	Come on y'all, no Nazis, no K K K.
1:00.0	A fascist USA. Spirited commentary.
1:02.0	The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and thought to all Americans.
1:06.0	Lively debate.
1:08.0	U.S. Supreme Court handed social media companies a major victory.
1:12.0	Supreme Court cases that could reshape the future of the internet.
1:17.6	Right now we are witnessing an extraordinary amount of confusion.
1:22.8	Do you think some of this is going to follow?
1:25.0	An extraordinary amount of threats.
1:27.0	But where is the line?
1:28.6	An extraordinary amount of passion about what free speech means.
1:32.7	This has everything to do with trying to take the voices of people
	...

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