Free Kiwis‪!‬ James

The morning after Victoria University of WELLINGTON's free speech event, Michael and James met to discuss the event, including both its set-up and points made by the speakers.

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