Free Kiwis!

Jonathan Rauch is a US writer whose books include The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 (2018); Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America (2004); Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working (2000); and Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (1993).We talked to him about his latest book, The Constitution of Knowledge, and how to get our institutional settings right for a society which is free and, at the same time, orie...

A conversation about Victoria University of Wellington Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith's decision to postpone his original panel on free speech and about the two new panels he's now announced. Topics we discuss include: Is the new panel more balanced or representative? Is Michael right-wing? And is Nic Smith going to be able to force his institution to respect people's basic expressive rights - or is reform from the outside required?Wilkinson and Jeram's NZI report on inequality:https://nzinitiativ...

The topic of our third Free Kiwis! book club was Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay's book Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity - And Why this Harms Everybody.We talked about its account of post-modernism and 'grievance studies,' and considered how much this has affected academia and the free speech crisis in New Zealand.Panellists:Dr James Kierstead, NZ InitiativeDr Michael Johnston, NZ InitiativeDr Matthew Birchall, NZ InitiativeDr...

Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham. He talked to Michael about whether the Amish will inherit the earth, whether wokeness is a religion-substitute, and how we can protect liberal science and civilization. Eric's book on religious groups and population growth: https://www.amazon.com/Shall-Religiou...Eric's course on wokeness: https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/courses/...

Graham Linehan is the co-creator of Father Ted and other popular UK comedy series. We talked to him about Ted's origins, comedy in a time of censorship, and trans issues. Graham's time in NZ was hosted by the Free Speech Union: https://www.fsu.nz/Mia Hughes' report on 'the WPATH files': https://environmentalprogress.org/big...Graham's X: / glinner Free Kiwis!' X: / freekiwis

Iona Italia is Managing Editor of Quillette and a former Editor-in-Chief of Areo. We talked to her about her life and career; the virtues of letter-writing; and her work with heterodox online publications like Areo and, now, Quillette. Iona' Substack: https://www.drionaitalia.com/Jamie Palmer's long-read on the lab-leak hypothesis: https://quillette.com/2023/08/19/the-lab-leak-illusion/Iona's writing for Quillette: https://quillette.com/author/iona/James' writing for Quillette: https://quille...

Lord Sumption is a historian and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018. He is also a widely-respected commentator. We talked to him about our current free speech predicament in English-speaking countries, what led to it, and how to re-build a truly liberal culture.We are grateful to the NZ Free Speech Union for hosting Lord Sumption in NZ. You can support the work of the Free Speech Union here:https://www.fsu.nz/donation

Dr. Melissa Derby is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Waikato, where she teaches at the Tauranga campus. We talked to her about why she prefers not to be introduced as a 'Māori academic'; whether the concept of 'inter-generational trauma' can bear the weight that's been placed on it; and what the future holds for the New Zealand Free Speech Union.'Literacy is not a Maori Thing': https://openinquiry.nz/literacy-is-no...Inter-generational trauma: https://www.tekaharoa.com/index...

Rodney Hide entered parliament in 1996, was elected leader of the ACT party in 2004, and was appointed Minister for Local government in 2008 in the fifth National government. He retired from the ACT leadership and from parliament in 2011. Rodney has studied zoology and botany, worked on an oil rig, and is a keen proponent of yellow jackets. Real Talk with Rodney Hide: https://realitycheck.radio/host/rodne...Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies and its Enemies: https://press.princeton...

Prof. Te Maire Tau is Pou Whakarae at the Ngāi Tahu Centre at the University of Canterbury. We talked to him about Māori traditional knowledge and (Western) science; local traditions and New Zealand democracy; and whether Polynesians discovered Antarctica.Papers by Te Maire Tau and others that we discussed:The Death of Knowledge: https://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/...Mātauranga Māori as an epistemology:https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper...A Short Scan of Māori Journeys to Antarctica: ...

Nadine Strossen is Professor Emerita at the New York Law School, a past national President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a member of the advisory boards of the ACLU, the Academic Freedom Alliance, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Heterodox Academy, and the National Coalition Against Censorship.We had a wide-ranging conversation with her on free speech and its limits; free speech and 'hate speech' legislation in the US and beyond; and how we can ge...

Recent events in Auckland have reminded us that a tiny minority of radical activists are determined to shut down the speech of so-called TERFs ('Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists') and stop trans issues being openly discussed. So we invited leading feminist thinker Kathleen Stock on the podcast to have a wide-ranging discussion of trans rights, women's rights, and related issues. Kathleen was a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex until 2021, when she was driven out by a cam...

Dr. Nick Matzke is Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. We talked to him about what phylogenetic biogeography is; his involvement in the debate over creationism (including 'intelligent design' theories) in the US; and to what extent Maori traditional lore can be considered science.Nick's open letter on vitalism in the NZ school science curriculum: https://plainsight.nz/letter-to-the-nz-herald-ncea-pseudoscience-mauri-is-present-in-all-matter/

Roger Openshaw is Emeritus Professor of Education at Massey University. We drew on his rich knowledge of NZ educational history as we discussed the changing relationship between central government and NZ schools over the past century or so; the perils and promises of the new history curriculum; and how solid the evidence is for the common assertion that the NZ education system is racist.The review mentioned by James: https://www.academia.edu/494364/Roger...Roger's book that is reviewed there:...

In this second Free Kiwis! book club, we were joined by Dane Giraud of the NZ Free Speech Union to discuss our previous guest Jacob Mchangama's book Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media.The book: https://www.amazon.com/Free-Speech-History-Socrates-Social/dp/1541600495

On many American university campuses over the last few years speakers have been shouted down, students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly, and rates of anxiety and depression are rising. 'Deplatforming' is also not unknown at New Zealand universities.In this episode we review Haidt and Lukianoff's book The Coddling of the American Mind and ask to what extent similar tendencies are present on Kiwi campuses. https://www.thenile.co.nz/books/jonat...

Dr. Eric Crampton is Chief Economist at the New Zealand Initiative. We talked to him about how much Kiwis know about their political system, and how much it matters; content regulation, on- and off-line; and why Wellington's latest regulations about smoking have made him want to join forces with pirates. Eric's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericcramptonEric's blog: http://offsettingbehaviour.blogspot.com

Dame Catherine Healy is a spokesperson and founding member of the New Zealand Sex Workers' Collective. We talked to her about all aspects of sex work in New Zealand, from the legislative environment to social attitudes. The NZ Sex Workers' Collective: NZPC > New Zealand Prostitutes Collective

Prof. Paul Moon teaches at the Auckland University of Technology and is the author of a score of books. We talked to him about the Treaty of Waitangi, its context and reception; the evidence for cannibalism; the new New Zealand history curriculum; and the intellectual atmosphere in modern universities. Paul's latest book: https://www.routledge.com/Colonising-...

Jacob Mchangama is a lawyer, writer, and the founding Director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think tank. Has history, at least in the West, been a continual record of progress towards more and freeer speech? Or is the history of this ideal marked, rather, by constant setbacks, reversals, and even betrayals? And what might all this tell us about the prospects for free speech today?Jacob's book: https://www.amazon.com/Free-Speech-Hi...