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I'm Amanda Knox,

and you're listening to Hard Knocks.

Thank you. listening to Hard Knocks. Today on Hard Knocks, I interview my friend Michael Moynihan, who is a journalist, a cultural

critic, a media commentator, and host or co-host of the fifth column and host of the

Moynihan Report. Podcasts that offer a smattering of political commentary, cultural analysis, and investigative journalism.

Michael has had a prolific career. He's worked at Vice News. He's worked at The Daily Beast. He's worked at Reason Magazine. He's worked at the free press. And he's, you know, he's known for being someone who questions orthodoxy, who defends heterodox views, even in environments that can be costly. And in this conversation, we talk about what it means to cultivate intellectual curiosity, intellectual courage, and the times that he has been afraid to do so.

So if you're interested in a conversation about how to think for yourself and how to communicate your ideas in the world. And especially in the face of

fear of judgment, this is going to be a great conversation. Enjoy.

How about we get started? I'm going to do a little slight introduction of you before the thing. So after we have a chat and you get off, I'll do a little introduction thing that we'll add to the beginning.

Yeah. Just promise me it's going to be fair. And not like, yeah, okay. Yes. Yeah, I don't know. Well, you know. He's a sociopath idiot or something. I don't know. You can say a lot of them.

No, no. In fact, I was going to talk to you exactly about like this, you know, your journey as somebody who might be feared, might fear some unfair, some unfair treatment. I mean, it's so interesting that you even bring that up.

Why, you know, where is that coming from, a comrade Moynihan?

I think that's deeply in my DNA that, well, I don't, you know, it's funny that from the admonition of somebody in my house one time, a former partner, was that I'm not allowed to read comments or responses to tweets.

And you are somebody, Amanda, who I would recommend that of because people are horrible.

But me, they don't really care.

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