What Up Holmes?
This episode traces how Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, initially hostile to broad free speech protections, radically changed his views during World War I and authored the famous Abrams dissent that introduced the 'marketplace of ideas' metaphor. The hosts, along with law professor Thomas Healy, explore what caused Holmes's shift, then examine how that marketplace metaphor has shaped a century of First Amendment thinking and how it breaks down in the age of social media and misinformation, drawing on MIT researcher Sinan Aral's Twitter study and media lawyer Nabiha Syed's critiques. The episode closes by proposing that free speech should be seen as an ongoing democratic experiment that must be continually rethought, including by centering listeners' rights and information health.
Content Warning
Host Simon Adler talks with law professor Kate Koenig about how social media content moderation has shifted in recent years, especially under the influence of TikTok's proactive, algorithm-driven model. They contrast earlier "keep it up unless we have to take it down" approaches with newer systems that pre-screen and algorithmically promote or bury content, raising concerns about prior restraint, invisible censorship, and concentrated power over public discourse. The episode also revisits controversies like the Hunter Biden laptop story and COVID-19 lab leak discussions, explores the idea of platforms as "platform islands" or camouflaged broadcasters, and considers the future "productification" of speech.
(#5) Elise's Top Ten: The new political story that could change everything | George Monbiot
Host Elise Hu introduces a 2019 TED Summit talk by journalist George Monbiot, part of her 'Top 10' playlist, about the political stories that shape our societies. Monbiot argues that neoliberalism persists not because it works, but because it has not yet been replaced by a more compelling 'restoration story', and he explains how narrative structures drive political change. He proposes a new politics of belonging centered on human altruism, cooperation, the commons, and participatory democracy to counter atomization and authoritarian tendencies.