Free Kiwis‪!‬ James

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

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.php/t...
New Zealand Free Speech Union: https://www.fsu.nz/