Free Kiwis‪!‬ James

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://nzinitiative.org.nz/assets/Up...

Our recent column on VUW"s new free speech guidelines in The Post:
https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/repor...

Our X account:   / freekiwis 
Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=118142...

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 Initiative
Dr Michael Johnston, NZ Initiative
Dr Matthew Birchall, NZ Initiative
Dr Bryce WIlkinson, NZ Initiative
Prof. Kendall Clements, University of Auckland


The book: https://www.thenile.co.nz/books/helen...

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://quillette.com/author/james-kierstead/

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