Anna Funder on Stasiland, the US, Australia and Whether Writers Are Like Spies

Lowry Institute | 14 May 2020 | 0h 33m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Anna Funder about her book Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall. Discusses the Stasi and East Germany, the differences between the United States and Australia, life in a pandemic – and whether writers are a bit like spies.

This is the first of what will be several posts with the remarkable mind that is Anna Funder.

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The Man Who Talked Back: Jay Bhattacharya On the Fight Against Covid Lockdowns

Uncommon Knowledge | 18 May 2023 | 0h 50m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Jay Bhattacharya discussing his Santa Clara Study – a seroprevalance covid study assessing how the disease spread and impacted populations; his involvement with the Great Barrington Declaration, one of the first public declarations questioning the lockdown policies then being instituted worldwide; and his subsequent targeting and censoring by public health authorities. Reflects on those battles, the need for free speech and proper scientific debate, and how we might better manage future pandemics.

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Tim Urban – Idea Labs and High-Rung Thinking

Invest Like the Best | 21 February 2023 | 1h 28m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Tim Urban about his book What’s Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies. Offers a framework for thinking about political discourse taking account of how we think as individuals and groups. Emphasises the value of constructive disagreement.

 

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Ann Hartle on What Happened to Civility

Reading Our Times | 6 December 2022 | 0h 30m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Ann Hartle about her book What Happened to Civility: The Promise and Failure of Montaigne’s Modern Project. Explores the origins of the notion of civility in Montaigne’s essays, the reasons civility is failing in our own time, and advocates for free speech and the need to be able to disagree productively.

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Jacob Mchangama: The Historical Limits on Free Speech

Saturday Morning | 4 November 2022 | 0h 33m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Jacob Mchangama about the history of free speech and the problems encountered historically with attempts to place limits on hate speech. Draws from his book Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media.

I am a member of the Free Speech Union, which brought Jacob Mchangama to New Zealand, as part of its campaign against New Zealand’s proposed hate speech laws.

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Censorship: Waging War on Free Speech

History Extra | 18 August 2021 | 0h 37m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Eric Berkowitz about his book Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News. Discusses the inglorious history of censorship – from the first Chinese emperor to Henry VIII – and explains why he believes that attempts to silence others never work.

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