Shows
New Books in HistoryJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speak...
2026-02-1235 min
New Books in Intellectual HistoryJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speak...
2026-02-0835 min
New Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speak...
2026-02-0835 min
New Books in JournalismJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speak...
2026-02-0835 min
New Books NetworkJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speak...
2026-02-0835 min
New Books in CommunicationsJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speak...
2026-02-0835 min
Scaling LawsAI Chatbots and the Future of Free Expression with Jacob Mchangama and Jacob ShapiroRenée DiResta, Lawfare contributing editor and associate research professor at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy, and Alan Z. Rozenshtein, Lawfare senior editor and associate professor of law the University of Minnesota, spoke with Jacob Mchangama, research professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and founder of The Future of Free Speech, and Jacob Shapiro, the John Foster Dulles Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University. The conversation covered the findings of a new report examining how AI models handle contested speech; comparative free speech regulations across six jurisdictions; empirical testing of how major chat...
2025-12-1653 min
IEA PodcastFree Speech is Not Right or Left | Jacob Mchangama | IEA Podcastn this episode of the IEA Podcast, host Daniel Freeman sits down with Jacob Mchangama to explore the fascinating history of free speech, from ancient Athens to modern social media. Jacob reveals how Socrates became a martyr for ideas he didn’t even believe in, why the Romans feared giving ordinary citizens a voice, and how medieval Islamic scholars championed free inquiry while Europe burned heretics. The conversation traces free speech through the Enlightenment, examining John Stuart Mill’s warnings about the tyranny of the majority and how these debates remain strikingly relevant today.Jacob explains why free...
2025-11-201h 19
Converging Dialogues#426 - A History of Free Speech: A Dialogue with Jacob MchangamaIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jacob Mchangama about the history of free speech. They discuss free speech in Europe, defining free speech, limits of free speech and ethics of free speech. They also talk about the free speech recession, origins of free speech, Athenian and Roman empires, Abbasid Caliphate, ancient India, printing press and enlightenment, John Stuart Mill, free speech in the 21st century, and many more topics. Jacob Mchangama is the founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech. He is also a research professor at Vanderbilt University and a...
2025-06-011h 42
Conversations with Peter BoghossianThe Future of Free Speech w/Jacob MchangamaI spoke with Dane Jacob Mchangama, founder of The Future of Free Speech, research professor at Vanderbilt, and Senior Fellow at FIRE. While we're both staunch free speech advocates, we debated its best "branding." I argued for framing free speech less as a moral absolute—how I once described it as cognitive liberty—and more as a practical tool for error correction, challenging bad ideas and refining truth. Jacob countered, emphasizing its moral weight as a cornerstone of human dignity. I don't disagree, but I believe the moral framing is too abstract for broad appeal. Watch this episo...
2025-04-2859 min
The Brendan O'Neill ShowJacob Mchangama: The free-speech recessionJacob Mchangama – executive director of The Future of Free Speech and author of Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media – returns for the latest episode of The Brendan O’Neill Show. Jacob and Brendan discuss Trump’s deportations of campus activists, the return of blasphemy laws to Europe, and why we must be free to hate.
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2025-04-2454 min
Ask a JewThe free speech recession - with Jacob MchangamaHappy Good Friday! Shh, we have a serious guest, everyone behave please in the comment section. Today we welcome Jacob Mchangama. Jacob is the author of the breezy beach read “Free Speech – A History from Socrates to Social Media”, research professor at Vanderbilt University where he is also the founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech institute, and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression theFIREorg.JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON SUBSTACK! ASKAJEW.SUBSTACK.COMHere’s what we cover:* Anne Frank is from Denmark, right?
2025-04-181h 22
Books of Titans Podcast#245 - Free Speech by Jacob Mchangama“In fact, free speech may well be the most powerful engine of equality ever devised by human kind.”Free Speech by Jacob Mchangama presents a thorough and fascinating look at the history of free speech through the ages. What’s amazing is that free speech is a rather recent phenomenon, is quite fragile, and most of the people I consider to be the bulwarks of free speech were not as principled as I thought.I got to meet Jacob last week and hear more about this book at an event at Landmark Booksellers. I talk a bit...
2025-04-1829 min
Free To SpeakWho In The World Supports Free Speech? Jacob Mchangama shares findings from A Global SurveyJacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, a research professor at Vanderbilt University, and a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). A valued friend of the FSU, he joins Nick in this episode to discuss his recent global survey on the state of free speech.Learn more about Jacob’s work at futurefreespeech.orgThe Global Survey can be found here: futurefreespeech.org/who-supports-free-speech-findings-from-a-global-surveySupport the showhttps://www.fsu.nz/https://x.com/NZFreeSpeechhttps://www.in...
2025-04-0351 min
The Good FightJacob mchangama on free speechJacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, a research professor at Vanderbilt University, and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). His book Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media is now available in paperback with a new epilogue.
In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jacob Mchangama discuss traditions of free speech throughout history, whether European laws are too restrictive, and concerning trends in the United States.
Note: This episode was recorded on February 24, 2025.
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2025-03-191h 07
The Good FightJacob Mchangama on Free SpeechJacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, a research professor at Vanderbilt University, and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). His book Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media is now available in paperback with a new epilogue.In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jacob Mchangama discuss traditions of free speech throughout history, whether European laws are too restrictive, and concerning trends in the United States.Note: This episode was recorded on February 24, 2025. Learn mo...
2025-03-191h 11
Notes from NashNotes with Jacob Mchangama: Free SpeechJacob Mchangama is the CEO of the pro free speech think tank Justitia. He is a research professor at Vanderbilt University and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) in Washington. Mchangama is the author of “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media.” He frequently writes for the Economist, L.A Times, Washington Post, BBC, CBS news, NPR, and so on. In our conversation, Mchangama and I discuss why younger generations are less in favor of free speech, the role of universities in free speech, and why it is important.
2023-11-1251 min
Bag Om NyhederneGenhør: Jacob Mchangama – Hvordan forsvarer vi ytringsfriheden?De seneste år er ytringsfriheden kommet under pres. Senest har EU valgt at censurere russiske medier i Europa med den begrundelse, at europæerne ikke skal lade sig påvirke af den russiske propaganda. Men bygger det åbne demokrati ikke på antagelsen om, at den enkelte borger selv er i stand til at skelne mellem propaganda og lødig information? Og hvordan håndterer vi ytringsfrihed på sociale medier? Forfatter, podcaster og direktør i tænketanken Justitia Jacob Mchangama giver sit bud, når han gæster studiet. Kontakt til podcastvært Martin Ågerup: martin@cepos.dk Optag...
2023-09-0657 min
The Democracy GroupUkraine and the Wider Conflict. Values at Stake: Jacob Mchangama | How Do We Fix It?By any measure this has been a momentous week for global politics. President Biden’s surprise trip to Kyiv, his “freedom” speech in Warsaw, the visit of China’s top diplomat to Moscow, and Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend Russian participation in the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the U.S. are all signs of deepening big-power tensions. This coincides with the first anniversary of the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War Two. In the early hours of February 24 last year Putin’s tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders.Our podcast guest is well-known human ri...
2023-03-0627 min
How Do We Fix It?Ukraine and the Wider Conflict. Values at Stake: Jacob MchangamaBy any measure this has been a momentous week for global politics. President Biden’s surprise trip to Kyiv, his “freedom” speech in Warsaw, the visit of China’s top diplomat to Moscow, and Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend Russian participation in the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the U.S. are all signs of deepening big-power tensions. This coincides with the first anniversary of the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War Two. In the early hours of February 24 last year Putin’s tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders.Our podcast guest is well...
2023-02-2327 min
Maxim Institute PodcastFree Speech with Jacob MchangamaOn November 4th this year Maxim Institute, in partnership with the Free Speech Union, hosted international human-rights advocate and free speech expert Jacob Mchangama.
Jacob is the founder of the Justitia institute, the Copenhagen-based human rights think-tank. Having written and narrated the podcast Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech and authored Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, Jacob is a prominent and experienced figure in the free speech space.
In this presentation, Jacob offers some historical context to our current free-speech climate, outlining some of the dangers he sees in limiting free speech and...
2022-12-1932 min
Free Kiwis!Jacob MchangamaJacob 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...
2022-11-1231 min
Taxpayer TalkPeter Williams hosts Taxpayer Talk: Danish Free Speech advocate Jacob MchangamaThis week, Peter Williams hosts free speech campaigner Jacob Mchangama, a Danish lawyer who recently visited New Zealand. His visit was prescient as the Justice Minister Kiri Allan has recently promised that hate speech legislation will be in our Parliament by the end of the year. Jacob is the founder and director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think tank focusing on human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. Jacob's book 'Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media' was released earlier this year which provides and insightful overview of how free speech has been...
2022-11-1151 min
Dirty Moderate with Adam EpsteinExpress Yourself with Jacob MchangamaWhat does free speech mean? Should it protect blasphemy? Hate speech? Fake news? Free speech is the bedrock of democracy. It is a complex principle that must be protected at all costs. Jacob Mchangama, lawyer, author, podcast host, and CEO of Justitia, a Denmark based think tank dedicated to human rights and freedom of speech sits down with Adam to discuss the evolution of our most precious principle, as outlined in his gripping book Free Speech: from Socrates to Social Media. Jacob shares his view from the front row of the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy that inspired his path...
2022-07-1952 min
Watching AmericaJacob Mchangama: Free Speech (from Socrates to Social Media)Jacob Mchangama is a Danish lawyer and human-rights advocate who has worked with Columbia’s Global Freedom of Expression Center in New York and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in Washington, D.C. He is the founder and director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think tank focused on human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law.
Mchangama’s new book, “Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media,” was praised by P.J. O’Rourke as “the best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made.”
2022-06-2400 min
Higher Ed NowJacob Mchangama: "A global free speech recession"Jacob Mchangama is human rights lawyer in Denmark. He is the founder and executive director of Justitia, a think tank which aims to promote the rule of law and fundamental human rights and freedom rights both within Denmark and abroad by educating and influencing policy experts, decision-makers, and the public.
From 2018-2020, Jacob hosted a podcast, “Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech.” He is the author of “Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media” published by Basic Books in 2022.
In today’s episode he sits down for a wide ranging conversation on free speech with Steve McGui...
2022-06-2348 min
Higher Ed NowJacob Mchangama: "A global free speech recession"Jacob Mchangama is human rights lawyer in Denmark. He is the founder and executive director of Justitia, a think tank which aims to promote the rule of law and fundamental human rights and freedom rights both within Denmark and abroad by educating and influencing policy experts, decision-makers, and the public. From 2018-2020, Jacob hosted a podcast, "Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech." He is the author of "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" published by Basic Books in 2022. In today's episode he sits down for a wide ranging conversation o...
2022-06-2348 minHigher Ed NowJacob Mchangama: "A global free speech recession"Jacob Mchangama is human rights lawyer in Denmark. He is the founder and executive director of Justitia, a think tank which aims to promote the rule of law and fundamental human rights and freedom rights both within Denmark and abroad by educating and influencing policy experts, decision-makers, and the public. From 2018-2020, Jacob hosted a podcast, "Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech." He is the author of "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" published by Basic Books in 2022. In today's episode he sits down for a wide ranging conversation o...
2022-06-2348 min
It is Discernable®Jacob Mchangama: What is the point of Free Speech?Jacob Mchangama is the founder of Justitia, Denmark's first judicial think tank with a focus on human rights, freedom rights, and the rule of law. A practising attorney for many years, Jacob has become one of the world's most sought-after and awarded experts on free speech driven by his extensive writing and media work.
His most recent book Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media chronicles the history of that 'bedrock of democracy' and has been praised as 'the best defence of free speech ever made'.
He joined Discernable to explain whether free s...
2022-05-171h 04
TangleINTERVIEW: Jacob Mchangama on the history of free speechJacob Mchangama is a Danish lawyer, human-rights advocate, and social commentator. He is the founder and director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think tank focusing on human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. He is also the author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, which is why he is here today.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and produced by Trevor Eichhorn. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.
2022-05-0937 min
The Atlas Society Presents - Objectively SpeakingThe Atlas Society Asks Jacob MchangamaJoin CEO Jennifer Grossman and Danish lawyer Jacob Mchangama for the 102nd episode of The Atlas Society Asks! As a human-rights advocate and social commentator, Jacob Mchangama has recently published his book "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" where he describes how free speech appears to be in recession and calls on some of history's greatest philosophers to act as chief witnesses in the defense of free speech today.
2022-05-041h 00
The Learner's Corner with Caleb MasonEpisode 285: Jacob McHangama on the History of Free Speech and CensorshipIn this episode, Caleb talks with Jacob McHangama about his book, Free Speech and more.Links MentionedJacob McHangamaFree Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media by Jacob McHangamaClear and Present Danger
2022-05-031h 06
Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different™Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama, Author of “Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media”Free speech is often called the first freedom and the bedrock of democracy. Our guest today says that on one hand, free speech around the world has never been better. But right now, we are experiencing a free speech entropy in the United States. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead, we have a deep dialogue about Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama.
Jacob Mchangama is a global expert on free speech. Political satirist PJ O’Rourke says that his new book is. “The best history of free speech ever written, and the best defense of free speech ever made...
2022-05-021h 25
Conversations With ColemanThe History of Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama (S3 Ep.11)My guest today is Jacob Mchangama. Jacob is a lawyer and writer based in Denmark. He's the founder of Justitia, a think tank focused on human rights and freedom of speech. Jacob is also the producer and narrator of the excellent podcast called Clear and Present Danger.Jacob and I discuss his brilliant new book: Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media. We talk about the Danish cartoon controversy and Charlie Hebdo. We also discuss the so-called "Milton's curse"; which is the habit of hypocritically defending free speech for some, but not for others. I thi...
2022-04-161h 20Conversations With ColemanThe History of Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama (S3 Ep.11)My guest today is Jacob Mchangama. Jacob is a lawyer and writer based in Denmark. He's the founder of Justitia, a think tank focused on human rights and freedom of speech. Jacob is also the producer and narrator of the excellent podcast called Clear and Present Danger.Jacob and I discuss his brilliant new book: Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media. We talk about the Danish cartoon controversy and Charlie Hebdo. We also discuss the so-called "Milton's curse"; which is the habit of hypocritically defending free speech for some, but not for others. I thi...
2022-04-161h 20New Books in JournalismJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speak...
2022-04-0635 min
New Books in LawJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speaker...
2022-04-0636 min
New Books in Politics and PolemicsJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone Demosthenes of 4th-century BCE Athens to the recent controversies regarding Donald Trump. In Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Basic Books, 2022), Mchangama argues that the history of freedom of thought has recurrent themes, such as a free speech entropy: the perception of rulers or governments that if speech is not restricted then social or political decline or disorder is inevitable. Mchangama also notes how restrictions usually have the unintended effect of emboldening the speak...
2022-04-0636 min
Bag Om NyhederneJacob Mchangama – Hvordan forsvarer vi ytringsfriheden?De seneste år er ytringsfriheden kommet under pres. Senest har EU valgt at censurere russiske medier i Europa med den begrundelse, at europæerne ikke skal lade sig påvirke af den russiske propaganda. Men bygger det åbne demokrati ikke på antagelsen om, at den enkelte borger selv er i stand til at skelne mellem propaganda og lødig information? Og hvordan håndterer vi ytringsfrihed på sociale medier? Forfatter, podcaster og direktør i tænketanken Justitia Jacob Mchangama giver sit bud, når han gæster studiet. Kontakt til podcastvært Martin Ågerup: martin@cepos.dk Optag...
2022-04-0557 min
Hodder BooksFREE SPEECH by Jacob Mchangama, read by Paul Mendez - audiobook extractA global history of free speech, from the ancient world to today.
Hailed as the 'first freedom', free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat.
In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political and cultural history of this idea. Through captivating stories of free speech's many defenders - from the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-Razi, to Mary Wollstonecraft, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and modern-day digital activists - Mchangama...
2022-03-2505 min
Embrace The Critically-Acclaimed Full Audiobook Now, Busy Professionals!Free Speech by Jacob MchangamaPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/223031to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Free Speech
Author: Jacob Mchangama
Narrator: Paul Mendez
Format: mp3
Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
Release date: 03-17-22
Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars, 3 ratings
Genres: Censorship
Publisher's Summary:
Hailed as the 'first freedom', free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat. In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political and cultural history of this idea. Through captivating stories of free speech's many...
2022-03-172h 29
Uncertain ThingsThe Free Speech Recession (w/ Jacob Mchangama)Jacob Mchangama — author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, lawyer, and founder and director of the Copenhagen-based think tank Justitia — has uncovered an unfortunate, though not too surprising, historical pattern, across cultures and societies: the second we feel under threat in a society, free speech (that supposedly sacrosanct value) goes swiftly by the wayside. In this conversation, Jacob takes us back in time and traces the history of free speech all the way from Ancient Greece to the EU’s recent banning of Russian propaganda — and we unpack a whole lot of hypocrisy along the way.
2022-03-091h 29
The Human Progress PodcastJacob Mchangama: Free Speech from Socrates to Social Media | The Human Progress Podcast Ep. 23Danish lawyer and author Jacob Mchangama joins Chelsea Follett to discuss the history of free speech and how it protects liberty and democracy.
Transcript: https://www.humanprogress.org/jacob-mchangama-the-human-progress-podcast-ep-23-transcript/
Jacob Mchangama is the founder and executive director of Justitia and a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in Washington. He has commented extensively on free speech and human rights in outlets including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. Jacob has published in academic and peer-reviewed journals, including Human Rights Quarterly, Policy Review, a...
2022-03-0455 min
Free Speech Nation | GB NewsSeries 2, Episode 4: Jacob Mchangama | Free Speech, Hate Speech & Historical MythsOn the latest episode of Free Speech Nation: The Podcast, Andrew Doyle is joined by Danish lawyer and human rights advocate, Jacob Mchangama.Jacob, who is the author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, discusses historical myths about free speech in Weimar Germany, as well as big tech censorship and the ineffectiveness of hate speech laws. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-02-2723 min
The Rewired SoulA History of Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaEpisode Notes
Do you ever wonder why free speech is so important? Today, we chat with Jacob Mchangama about his brand new book A History of Free speech, where he outlines just what the book title suggests. In this conversation, we discuss the history of free speech, how people often don't understand why it's so important, and what it is about human nature that makes us want to censor bad and hateful ideas.
Follow Jacob on Twitter @JMchangama
Get a copy of Free Speech
Become a paid Substack subscriber at TheRewiredSoul.Substack.com...
2022-02-161h 03
The Brendan O'Neill ShowHow free speech shook the world, with Jacob MchangamaJacob Mchangama, author of “Free Speech: A Global History from Socrates to Social Media”, talks to Brendan O’Neill about the rising authoritarianism of left and right, the importance of free speech to equality and progress, and why censorship always fails to defeat bad ideas.
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2022-02-1055 min
The Michael Shermer Show247. Jacob Mchangama on Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social MediaHailed as the "first freedom," free speech is the bedrock of democracy, and it is subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat. In this episode, based on the book Free Speech, Michael Shermer and Jacob Mchangama discuss the riveting legal, political, and cultural history of the principle, how much we have gained from it, and how much we stand to lose without it. Mchangama reveals how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality...
2022-02-081h 49
The Fifth Column344 w/Jacob Mchangama "Speech, Sheep, and a Crying Room"Our favorite Danish intellectual returns! After a three-plus year absence, Jacob Mchangama is back on the Fifth, this time promoting his amazing new book, Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, which P.J. O'Rourke calls "best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made." We tend to agree. The lads make quick work of a bottle of sake and still manage to blather about...The state of free speech in EuropeJoe Rogan and the crisis of speechMany of history's heroes of free speech were kind...
2022-02-071h 52
Hate Speech & Platform RegulationIHRL and the South African hate speech jurisprudence - Jacob MchangamaIn this episode, Jacob Mchangama who is the founder and executive director of the Danish legal think tank Justitia, talks about the South African hate speech jurisprudence..This presentation was part of the digital workshop series "Hate Speech and Platform Regulation". Our team consists of scientists and employees at the ITM of the University of Münster, Germany. Together with researcher friends around the world, we have launched a series on hate speech and platform regulation.More extensive information about the workshop series can be found here: itmor.wordpress.com__________M...
2021-09-0318 min
Uncommon Decency13. A Transatlantic Fracture Over Speech? with Frances G. Burwell & Jacob MchangamaIn the wake of the Capitol-storming mob of January 6th, a flurry of contradictory reactions from European officials followed, first warning about the viral potential of misinformation to spread on social media, and then against its deliberate taming by online platforms. Was this merely a symptom of the elusive equilibrium between speech freedoms and a sane public square increasingly convened by big tech, or is there a deeper parting of ways between America and Europe at the intersection of civil liberties and technoogy? As the transatlantic alliance grapples with the limits to free speech, we convened a discussion on...
2021-02-031h 07
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaFree Speech and Racial Justice: Friends or Foes?In May 2020, protests erupted all over the U.S. after a video emerged of a white police officer killing a black man named George Floyd. Millions took to the streets in support of racial justice under the rallying cry “Black Lives Matter.” Most protests were peaceful, but several cities experienced large-scale violence. Free speech was also affected in the process. A disturbing number of incidents of police brutality and excessive force against peaceful protesters and journalists were documented. President Trump accused a Black Lives Matter leader of “treason, sedition, insurrection” and labelled protestors as “terrorists.” But demands for structur...
2020-08-2100 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaSpecial Edition - Suzanne NosselIn this Special Edition, we will zoom in on current challenges to free speech – specifically in the US. With me to discuss this timely subject, I have CEO of PEN America, Suzanne Nossel, who has just published her new book Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. The conversation evolves the main conclusions of Suzanne's book including matters such as: How Suzanne´s fight against an international blasphemy law at the UN inspired her to write the book How Suzanne's 20 principles for free speech aims to provide a toolset needed to speak one's mind in toda...
2020-07-3100 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaSpecial Edition - Daphne Keller & Kate Klonick“Internet Speech Will Never Go Back to Normal,” declared the headline of a recent Atlantic article by law professors Jack Goldsmith and Andrew Keane Woods. The piece argues that the U.S. must learn from China in regulating the internet. “[S]ignificant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet,” the authors write, “and governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with a society’s norms and values.” But is this conclusion the only one available from the fallout of the coronavirus crisis? Or are there o...
2020-05-1400 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaSpecial Edition - Dunja MijatovićSince the coronavirus became a pandemic, governments around the world have adopted a wide range of measures affecting basic human rights. This includes many of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe all of whom are legally bound by the European Convention on Human Rights. Most states have limited the freedoms of assembly and movement, some have also limited privacy and data protection and then there are some who have restricted freedom of expression through laws or policies banning false information. To discuss the implications for freedom of expression is none other than the Council o...
2020-05-0400 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaSpecial Edition - Monika BickertThe coronavirus has disrupted life as we know it. Billions of people across the world are caught in varying degrees of lockdowns with severe restrictions on their freedom of movement. But while our physical world has shrunk, cyberspace remains wide open. And there is no shortage of information as the internet overflows with torrents of data, news, and updates about the ongoing crisis. But in parallel with the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization has warned of an “infodemic” of mis- and disinformation spreading through social media and messaging apps. Policymakers at social media platforms are acting like...
2020-04-1700 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Age of Human Rights: Tragedy and TriumphIn 2014, Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam by promoting secular values on his blog Free Saudi Liberals. Raif Badawi’s fate would have been familiar to Soviet refusenik and human rights activist Natan Sharansky, and many other dissidents in the Soviet Bloc, who also faced long prison sentences and inhuman treatment during the Cold War. Both theocratic and communist states proclaim to be in possession of the “truth.” Consequently, they punish those who engage in religious or ideological heresy, leaving little room for the idea of human rights...
2020-02-0400 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Totalitarian Temptation – Part II - Der UntergangIn November 2019 German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a passionate speech to the German Bundestag. Merkel said “We have freedom of expression in this country…. But freedom of expression has its limits. Those limits begin where hatred is spread … where the dignity of other people is violated”. Merkel grew up under a stifling communist dictatorship and serves as chancellor of a country where vicious propaganda once helped paved the way for genocide. So few have stronger credentials when it comes to balancing the pros and cons of free speech. And Merkel´s words of warning are impossible to separate...
2020-01-2700 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Totalitarian Temptation – Part IIn George Orwell’s 1946 work, “The Prevention of Literature,” he wrote: [O]rganised lying … is … integral to totalitarianism, [and] would … continue even if concentration camps and secret police forces had ceased to be necessary. … A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible. … Totalitarianism demands, in fact, the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth. As we shall see, the Orwellian diagnosis of totalitarianism was surgical in its...
2020-01-1500 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert opinion: The History of Mass Surveillance, with Andreas MarklundIn 2013 the NSA contractor Edward Snowden sent shockwaves through the American government when he leaked information exposing a number of vast mass surveillance programs providing the US Government and allies access to global digital communication networks. The harvesting of data has been aided by the vast data collection by big Tech Companies like Google and Facebook whose business model relies on knowing more about their users then their users know about themselves. The combination of state and corporate mass surveillance of the digital sphere has obvious consequences for both freedom of expression and information. Private conversations are rarely ever...
2019-12-3000 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert opinion: Thomas Healy on how Oliver Wendell Holmes changed the history of free speech in AmericaOn March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson, the newly elected president, gave his first inaugural address. Jefferson eloquently dismissed the logic behind the Sedition Act of 1798, which had sent Republican critics of then-Federalist President John Adams to prison: We are all republicans: we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. Based on this strong commitment to a robust...
2019-12-1900 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaWhite Man´s Burden: Empire, Liberalism and CensorshipDuring the mass protests that have rocked Hong Kong since June 2019 pro-democracy protestors have waved Union Jack flags and been singing God Save the Queen. A clear rejection of the authoritarian political system of mainland China in favor of the political system inherited from the British colonial past based on the rule of law and political liberties including freedom of the press. The symbolic value of the pro-British sentiments of Hong Kong´s protestors would not be lost on Britain´s imperial masterminds and administrators. Many of whom thought that empire and liberalism went hand in hand. In...
2019-12-0200 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Age of Reaction: The fall and rise of free speech in 19th century EuropeThe 18th century ended with free speech in full retreat. With the French Revolution, the call for “Enlightenment Now!” was no longer seen as the harbinger of humanity’s inevitable march toward progress. It had become synonymous with radical forces of destruction drowning monarchy, tradition, and religion in the blood of kings, aristocrats, and nuns. With the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, conservatives and monarchs were firmly back in power — and they had no intention of letting go. Never again were those rulers who put down wild-eyed revolutionaries like mad dogs going to allow radicals to seduce the people wi...
2019-11-2100 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaA conversation with Professor David Kaye, UN Special RapporteurIn this special edition of Clear And Present Danger we leave the past and jump into the present for a discussion on how international human rights standards are relevant to the burning question of where to draw the limits of free speech online". With me to discuss this issue is Professor David Kaye, who is the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, as well as a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine. Professor Kaye is also the author of the recent book “Speech Police”. On Oct...
2019-10-2800 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaCounter-Revolution: Dutch Patriots, Tom Paine´s Rights of Man and the campaign against Seditious WritingsFaced with bloody terrorism democratic Europe has often reacted with tough measures. The UK Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act of 2019 criminalizes expressing an opinion that is “supportive” of a proscribed organization if done in a way that is “reckless” as to whether it encourages support of terrorism. This makes it rather unnerving to jump into, for example, a Twitter thread on the age-old discussion of whether various groups are terrorists or freedom fighters. In this episode we’ll see how governments in the late 18th century reacted to a different kind of terror: the spread of revolutionary ideas and p...
2019-10-1800 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaPolicing opinion in the French Revolution with Charles WaltonOn Aug. 26, 1789, France’s National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Article 11 of the Declaration proclaimed: The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law. The French Revolution abolished pre-publication censorship and prompted a flood of political publications. But revolutionaries were deeply divided over where to draw the line between the declaration’s cele...
2019-09-2800 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Old RegimeIn Nov. 2018, French President Emanuel Macron declared war on “offensive and hateful content” on the internet. Subsequently, France adopted strict laws against both online hate speech and fake news, which is thought to threaten France’s liberal democratic values. But this is not the first time in history that France has sought to combat supposedly “dangerous content” spread by clandestine networks intent on undermining essential values and moeurs. When Paris became the capital of the High-Enlightenment around the mid-eighteenth century, the Old Regime monarchy created a Maginot Line of overlapping pre- and post-publication censorship. This system was i...
2019-09-1200 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaNorthern Lights, The Scandinavian Press Freedom BreakthroughIn the 1760s and 1770s, Sweden and Denmark-Norway shortly became the epicenter of press freedom protections in Enlightenment Europe. In 1766, the Swedish Diet passed the Press Freedom Act, making Sweden the first country in the world to provide constitutional protection to both the principles of press freedom and freedom of information. In 1770, Denmark-Norway, under the de-facto rule of German physician Johan Friedrich Struensee, became the first country in the world to abolish any and all restrictions on press freedom. Almost overnight, both Sweden and Denmark-Norway experienced a new vibrant public sphere with debate, discussion and trolling.
2019-08-2300 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Philosopher King - Enlightened Despotism, part 2, PrussiaIn his famous essay “What is Enlightenment?” the Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant declared: “[E]nlightenment requires nothing but freedom … to make public use of one’s reason in all matters. Now I hear the cry from all sides: ‘Do not argue!’ … Only one ruler in the world says: ‘Argue as much as you please, but obey!’” That ruler was Frederick the Great — and his influence was not lost on Kant. “[T]his age is the age of enlightenment,” Kant declared. “[T]he century of Frederick.” Frederick the Great ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786 and launched a blitzkrieg of Enlighten...
2019-08-0200 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaWriting on Human Skin - Enlightened Despotism, part I, RussiaThe Enlightenment´s emphasis on science, progress, tolerance and rationality not only attracted philosophers. Even absolute monarchs dreamt of “Enlightenment Now.” But how do you combine enlightenment without undermining the traditions and ideas that legitimate absolute rule in the first place? Fortunately for Europe´s modernizing rulers, some of Europe´s most prominent 18th century philosophes – including Voltaire - stood ready to praise and legitimize the new winds of “enlightened despotism” that took hold in places like Russia and Prussia. In this episode, we cover the ground zero of enlightened despotism: Russia. A country whose Tsar Peter the Great, accord...
2019-07-1200 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaHow Enlightening data-contrast="auto">After a brief detour into the present, we return to Ground Zero of the Enlightenment in 18th century Europe, with this recap of past episodes and a brief overview of the themes and countries to be explored in the upcoming episodes as rationality and secularization sweep the continent turning tradition and authority upside down. Among others we touch upon: data-contrast="auto">How the early enlightenment resulted in greater religious tolerance Why tolerance did not automatically go hand in hand with freedom of speech How the “Dutch Dark Web” spread radical philosophy across Europe through clandestine printing pres...
2019-06-2100 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaOslo Freedom Forum Special with Megha Rajagopalan and Yuan YangJune 4th, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the bloody culmination of the Chinese government´s Tiananmen Massacre of pro-democracy students and activists. But all public discussion and memories of the massacre have been erased within China itself. In our second episode from the Oslo Freedom Forum we will take a trip behind the Great Firewall into modern day China where the most ambitious and sophisticated attempt to control the flow and content of information in the history of mankind is taking place. To enlighten us, we sat down with Megha Rajagopalan who is a world correspondent for BuzzFeed News a...
2019-06-0400 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaOslo Freedom Forum Special with Larry DiamondToday´s episode is going to be a radical departure from the chronological timeline of the general podcast so far. I´m currently in Oslo for the annual Oslo Freedom Forum, organized by the Human Rights Foundation. The Oslo Freedom Forum is a unique gathering of human rights and democracy activists from all over the world joining forces to connect, share ideas and build alliances to strengthen freedom and undermine authoritarianism. To take advantage of the Oslo Freedom Forum I have decided to do a number of Expert Opinions on current cutting-edge topics related to free speech. The first ep...
2019-05-2800 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Stephen Solomon part two: The Sedition ActIn 1787, the newly authored U.S. Constitution was sent out to the states for ratification. Despite fierce objections from Anti-Federalists, the Constitution did not include a bill of rights protecting freedom of speech and the press. The Anti-Federalist newspaper the Independent Gazetteer published an ironic comment on what the future of free speech would look like if the Constitution was ratified: Ah! what glorious days are coming; how I anticipate the brilliancy of the American court! … [H]ere is the president going in state to the senate house to confirm the law for the abolition of the libe...
2019-05-1000 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Stephen Solomon part one: The First AmendmentThe First Amendment of the US Constitution was adopted as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791. This “Great bulwark of liberty” provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” In this conversation with professor Stephen Solomon we will explore the origins and drafting history of the First Amendment including: The inspiration from early state constitut...
2019-04-1700 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaFighting Words - Free Speech in 18th Century America, Part IIIn the second half of the 18th Century American, Patriots showed that freedom of the press was a potent weapon against authority. Not even the world´s most formidable empire could stop them from speaking truth, lies and insults to power. In 1765 the announcement of the Stamp Act kicked off a tsunami of dissent in colonial pamphlets, newspapers, taverns and town meetings. The outpouring of protest shaped a public opinion increasingly hostile to taxation without representation and in favor of popular sovereignty. Additional taxes and disabilities imposed by Parliament further radicalized the patriot side and the anti-British p...
2019-03-0800 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Bulwark of Liberty - Free Speech in 18th Century America, Part I18th century America was impacted and influenced by the so-called Glorious Revolution in the Motherland. And no-one had a bigger impact on American attitudes towards freedom of speech than Cato’s Letters written by the Radical Whigs John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. Cato´s Letters created a powerful free speech meme, that went viral in the colonies: “Freedom of Speech is the great Bulwark of Liberty”. The reach of Cato’s principles grew exponentially as colonists liked, shared and commented on them in newspapers, pamphlets and taverns. Americans were persuaded that “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing a...
2019-02-1400 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Seeds of Enlightenment1685 was a watershed year for events that would lead to what we call the Enlightenment. France´s Sun King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and initiated a policy of religious persecution of Protestants. In England, the Catholic James II assumed the throne to the horror of the protestant majority in Parliament. From their exiles in the Dutch Republic, the French philosopher Pierre Bayle wrote his groundbreaking defense of religious tolerance “Commentaire Philosophique” and John Locke wrote the original Latin version of his Letter Concerning Toleration. In this episode, we trace the seeds of the Enlightenment covering events in Fr...
2019-01-2500 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Steven Nadler on Spinoza’s ‘book forged in hell” and the right to “think what you like and say what you think”Baruch Spinoza (also known as Benedict de Spinoza) was born in Amsterdam in 1632. While his given name means “blessing” in both Hebrew and Latin, Spinoza’s “Theological-political treatise” from 1670 was condemned as “a book forged in hell.” Spinoza himself was denounced as a dangerous heretic or atheist by religious and secular rulers alike, and was pilloried in the court of public opinion. Spinoza’s apparent crime consisted in systematically eroding the foundation of revealed religion and the authority of the Bible. But in addition to his materialist philosophy, Spinoza championed freedom of thought and expression as the precondition for...
2019-01-0300 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaColonial Dissent: Blasphemy, Libel and Tolerance in 17th Century AmericaAmericans are more supportive of free speech than any other people. 95 % of Americans think it’s “very important” to be able to criticize the government without censorship and 77% support the right to offend religious feelings. But in 17th Century colonial America, criticizing the government, officials or the laws was punishable as seditious libel and could result in the cropping of ears, whippings, boring of the tongue and jail time. Religious speech was also tightly controlled. Blasphemy was punishable by death in several colonies and religious dissenters such as Quakers were viciously persecuted in Puritan New England. Despite the harsh climat...
2018-12-1400 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaGlobal InquisitionIn the 16th Century Spain and Portugal globalized the inquisition by spreading the fight for religious orthodoxy and against heresy, blasphemy and apostasy to the Americas, Africa and Asia allowing inquisitors to pry into the souls of men on five continents. In Episode 17 we try to answer questions such as: How many people were affected by the inquisition? What were the consequences for native Americans? What were the similarities and differences between inquisition in Europe and the different colonies? What where the links between inquisition, racism and anti-semitism? How did the inquisition stop the spread of books and...
2018-11-1700 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Michael ShermerIn this episode, we join up with historian of science Dr. Michael Shermer to investigate the cross-fertilization between science and free speech. Michael Shermer is a prolific writer on science, philosophy and morality and has appeared in numerous documentaries, talk shows, and TED talks. Among the topics discussed are: When did scientific freedom make its decisive breakthrough? What comes first: Science or free inquiry? How did both Islam and Christianity affect science? What is the relationship between science and free speech as such? Can science be used to suppress free speech? How did Benjamin F...
2018-11-0200 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaPaper-bullets and the forgotten martyrs of radical free speechEpisode 15 returns to Europe and formative events in 17th Century England, where a mostly forgotten group of radicals demanded a written constitution guaranteeing free speech, liberty of conscience, and democracy. But who were the Levellers? What was the historical context of their radical demands and why were they ultimately crushed by former allies? Listen and find the answers to such questions as: Who was the first English author to demand full religious toleration for both heretics and non-Christians? Why did Charles I and Archbishop Laud cut off the ears of dissenting Puritans? What happens when you...
2018-10-1100 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama‘Universal Peace’: Religious tolerance in the Mughal empireEpisode 14 leaves the West and heads to 16th and 17th Century India and the Mughal empire. In particular, the rule of Akbar the Great. A century before John Locke’s “A Letter Concerning Toleration,” Akbar developed a policy of “Universal Peace” repudiating religious compulsion and embracing ecumenical debate. We’ll also discover why the history of the Mughal empire still tests the limits of free speech and tolerance in modern India. Among the questions tackled are: Why, how, and to what extent did Akbar abandon orthodox Islam for religious tolerance? How did religious tolerance in the Mughal empir...
2018-09-2000 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Jonathan HaidtIn this episode, we do a bit of time travel and leave the 17th century for a discussion of free speech on American college and university campuses today. Our guest is New York University professor Jonathan Haidt, who is a co-author with FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff of “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure,” which is already among Amazon’s top 20 bestselling books. But in looking at the present challenges to free speech on campus, we do also try to draw parallels with older co...
2018-09-0600 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Teresa BejanWe enter the early modern age with an expert opinion featuring Teresa Bejan, associate professor at Oriel College, Oxford University and author of “Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration.” In this episode, Jacob and Teresa will discuss political thought on tolerance and the limits of religious speech in early modern England and colonial America. The episode investigates the writings of intellectual rock stars John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke and the less famous but hugely relevant Roger Williams. Among the topics discussed are: Milton’s “Areopagitica” Early colonial religious “hate speech” laws Why Hobbes found “t...
2018-08-2300 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe great disruption - Part IIIn episode 11 we continue to survey the wreckage after hurricane Luther was unleashed on Europe with the Reformation. When the Reformation mutated and spread across the continent a burning question arose: Can people of different faiths live together in the same state? Should social peace be based on tolerance or intolerance? We look into questions such as How did other Protestant reformers like Calvin and Zwingli react to religious dissent? In what manner did English and continental censorship laws differ? How did the Catholic Church react to the Reformation? Which states were the first state to formalize religious...
2018-08-0900 min
So to Speak: The Free Speech PodcastHow censorship crosses borders with Jacob MchangamaOn this episode of So to Speak, we chat with lawyer and free speech activist Jacob Mchangama. He is the founder and CEO of the Danish think tank Justitia, a visiting fellow at FIRE, and host of Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech. Mchangama is also the author of the lead essay for the Cato Institute's June Cato Unbound online debate on the topic of "how censorship crosses borders." Our conversation focuses on the origins of Mchangama's interest in free speech issues, the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, the history of free speech...
2018-07-251h 33
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe great disruption - Part I, the printing press and the viral ReformationThe disruptive effects of the internet and social media on the spread of information are unprecedented. Or are they? In episode 10 of Clear and Present Danger, we cover the invention, spread, and effects of the Gutenberg printing press: What significance did this new technology have for the dissemination of knowledge and ideas? Why was the printing press instrumental in helping a German monk and scholar break the religious unity of Europe? What happened when new religious ideas raged through Europe like wildfire? And did Martin Luther’s Reformation lead to religious tolerance and freedom, or persecution and...
2018-06-1400 min
The Fifth Column102 w/ Jacob Mchangama "Clear and Present Danger"(Recorded May 25th, 2018)A conversation w/ Jacob Mchangama, Host of 'Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech" podcast. (http://www.freespeechhistory.com)- Pronouncing Mchangama- A Bit of Free Speech History- Cartoon Jihad- Panic and Crisis- Culture and Legislation- Filthy Jokes- 'The Great Awokening'- An Abrupt Ending"Jacob Mchangama is the founder and executive director of Justitia a think tank focusing on human rights and a Visiting Scholar at Columbia’s Global Freedom of Expression Center. He has commented extensively on free speech and human rights in outlets including the Washington Po...
2018-05-291h 21
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Christine Caldwell AmesOur last stop in the Middle Ages is an interview with professor Christine Caldwell Ames, who is an expert on medieval heresy and inquisition in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The discussion highlights the similarities and differences between Christianity, Catholic and Orthodox, Judaism, and Islam when it comes to defining and policing orthodoxy. Among the topics discussed are: Was the Medieval Inquisition motivated by worldly power or religious zeal? What effect did the Medieval Inquisition have on ordinary people and local communities? Why has the Spanish Inquisition become so infamous? Was Islamic Spain a haven of religious...
2018-05-2400 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe hounds of God - medieval heretics and inquisitorsFrom the High Middle Ages, Europe developed into a “persecuting society,” obsessed with stamping out the “cancer” of heresy. But questions about how this was accomplished — and the consequences of these developments — abound: Why did popes and secular rulers shift from persuasion to persecution of heretics? Why was human choice in matters of religious belief considered a mortal threat to Christendom itself? Why did bookish inquisitors armed with legal procedure, interrogation manuals, data and archives succeed where bloody crusades and mass slaughter failed? How did the “machinery of persecution” developed in the Late Middle Ages affect other minority groups such as J...
2018-05-1700 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Peter AdamsonIn our second expert opinion episode, Jacob Mchangama talks with Peter Adamson, who is a professor of philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and host of the podcast “History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps.” We’ll discuss medieval freethinking and freethinkers from both the Islamic world and the Latin West. Where was the soil most fertile for medieval freethinking? What was the impact of Muslim philosophers like Avicenna and Averroes on European thought? And finally, who makes Peter’s list of the top three boldest European medieval freethinkers? Professor Peter Adamson has released over 300 podcast...
2018-04-2600 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe not-so-Dark Ages, medieval intellectuals, and freethinkersIn episode 6, we get medieval! Find out why the Middle Ages were as much a period of reason and inquiry as inquisition and superstition. Why was the famous medieval intellectual Pierre Abelard castrated, forced to burn his works, and condemned to silence by the church? How did the combination of Aristotelian philosophy and the development of universities institutionalize reason and science? What are the parallels between clashes over academic freedom in the 13th and 21st centuries? All this and much more in Clear and Present Danger - episode 6! Stay up to...
2018-04-0500 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe CaliphateWhy did the medieval Abbasid Caliphs have almost all ancient Greek works of philosophy and science translated into Arabic? How did the long list of medieval Muslim polymaths reconcile abstract reasoning with Islamic doctrine? Who were the radical freethinkers that rejected revealed religion in favor of reason in a society where apostasy and heresy were punishable by death? And why are developments in the 11th century crucial to understanding modern controversies over blasphemy and apostasy, such as the Salman Rushdie affair and the attack on Charlie Hebdo? Find out in episode 5 of Clear an...
2018-03-2200 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaExpert Opinion - Paul CartledgeIn our first expert opinion segment, Jacob Mchangama talks to Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University Paul Cartledge. With his intimate knowledge of ancient Greece, we dive deeper into the concepts of free speech and democracy in Athens that were discussed in episode one. What are the differences between free speech in the Athenian democracy and free speech in a modern liberal democracy? What limits did religion set for Athenian free speech? Was Plato a totalitarian? And was the trial of Socrates mostly religious or political? The discussion also explores the differences between...
2018-03-0800 min
This Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaThe Age of PersecutionWhy did the polytheist Ancient Romans persecute the followers of the new Jewish sect of “Christians” in the first three centuries AD”? How high was the price that Christians had to pay for casting away their ancient religious traditions for the belief in salvation through Jesus Christ? Did Roman Emperor Constantine end religious intolerance with the Edict of Milan? And why did the Christians persecute the pagans – and each other – once Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire? Why were temples and libraries destroyed and the female mathematician Hypatia killed by violent mobs? And did Emperor Justinian really end...
2018-03-0100 minThis Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaLiberty or License - Free Speech in Ancient RomeRome was the most powerful empire in antiquity. But were the Romans free to speak truth to power? Did history’s first successful Women’s March take place in Rome? And who came out on top when the words of Cicero clashed with the ambition of Caesar and armies of Octavian? Why did historians and astrologers become endangered species when the Republic became an empire? Find out in episode 2 of “Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech”. Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podc...
2018-02-1500 minThis Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaWho wishes to speak? - Free Speech in Ancient AthensThe democracy of Ancient Athens was the birthplace of equal and uninhibited speech. Or Isegoria and parrhesia to the Athenians. Jacob Mchangama guides you through how oratory was central to the idea and practice of Athenian democracy. What Athenian style free speech entailed for ordinary citizens, comedians, philosophers, and orators. How oligarchic coup d’etats twice drowned Athenian free speech in blood and repression. The extreme methods used by Demosthenes to become the greatest orator of antiquity. And of course: the trial of Socrates: Was he a martyr for free speech or an impious and seditious enemy of democracy?...
2018-02-0100 minThis Week In Free Speech with Jacob MchangamaWhy free speech?Only 13% of the world’s 7,4 billion people enjoy free speech. 45% live in countries where censorship is the norm. Still, more than half the world’s population across cultures and continents think free speech is very important. But why is that? Where does the principle of free speech come from? How has it been developed over time? Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? And what can people in the digital age learn from past conflicts over where to draw the li...
2018-01-2400 min
SchøtministerietInterview Jacob MchangamaJacob Mchangama fra den uafhængige juridiske tænketank Justisia er på besøg i Schøtministeriet Live. Han ved hvad han snakker om. Ingen ævl her.
2017-03-1334 min