Presented in Partnership with
OUR GUEST
Senior Fellow at FIRE; Former President of the ACLU
OUR GUEST
Emmy award-winning journalist; Host of “unDivided with Brandi Kruse”
GUEST MODERATOR
Editor-at-Large of Reason
This week:
- New episode: Free speech changes happening around the country
- Your Tuesday reading list
Open to Debate hit the road and partnered with the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, where we caught up in the green room with other recent guests on our platform, including journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson and Ambassador Jeff Flake.
We recorded the show from the Amazon Meeting Center in downtown Seattle. The topic? Free speech in the era of Trump 2.0: a bedrock issue of democracy and a core value we hold dear at Open to Debate, one that affects us all.
There were provocative questions:
Is speech freer under Trump than under Biden?
How should we interpret the Trump administration’s stance towards the press and public platforms?
How should we view the controversies surrounding college campuses? Is what’s happening at Harvard an overreach, and what about attempts to quell DEI initiatives in academia, business, and the larger culture?
What about the move to defund public media, including NPR and PBS?
In this wide-ranging conversation, we even looked at some more esoteric issues, such as whether it’s time to reconsider the seminal ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan. Members of the live audience contributed compelling questions that moved the conversation forward in other interesting directions.
Since there were so many topics to address, instead of an Oxford-style debate of a single question, our guest moderator and Reason‘s Editor-at-Large, Nick Gillespie, hosted a debate-y conversation.
He was joined on-stage by Nadine Strossen, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, former ACLU president, and acclaimed author on several books about free speech, and Seattle-based Brandi Kruse, an Emmy-winning journalist and host of “Undivided,” a podcast that has previously examined the role of the Fourth Estate.
It’s an important and evolving conversation. Take a listen, and as always, let us know what you think.
More soon,
Lia Matthow
Chief Content Officer
POINT/COUNTERPOINT
Is Donald Trump 2.0 Good for Free Speech?
Nadine Strossen
“I agree with Brandi that Biden was terrible on many free speech issues, and actually that’s been true for every president in my lifetime, but Donald Trump… he is in a category unto himself… in terms of the breadth and depth of his attacks using every possible instrument from not only the jawboning that was Biden’s main approach, but also civil lawsuits invoking the power of every single executive agency. [It’s] something like twenty different agencies bringing defamation lawsuits, going after the institutions in civil society that traditionally have been mainstays in supporting free speech.”
Brandi Kruse
“Donald Trump is better than Biden on free speech… I’m very confident in that argument. I don’t think there’s any comparison. I think the era of the pandemic was the single most dangerous period for free speech in modern history in the United States of America. I’ll defend that all day long.”
WEEKLY POINTS OF VIEW
Harvard, McKinsey and Davos Are Paying for Neoliberalism’s Sins
Adrian Wooldridge | June 6, 2025
Bloomberg
Watch Adrian’s debate on whether meritocracy is overrated
Emma Ashford | June 2, 2025
Foreign Policy
Watch Emma’s debate on whether we should isolate Russia
What We Get Wrong About Violent Crime
Malcolm Gladwell | June 2, 2025
The New Yorker
Watch Malcolm’s conversation on thinking twice about “the tipping point”
The US government has most to gain from ‘OpenAI for countries’
Marietje Schaake | June 3, 2025
Financial Times
AI systems could become conscious. What if they hate their lives?
Sigal Samuel | June 5, 2025
Vox
Watch Sigal’s debate on whether we should erase bad memories
Debate = A Healthy Democracy
Debate is more than just conversation between two sides — it’s a vital sign of free speech and a healthy democracy. When diverse voices engage openly, we strengthen our communities and our country. Your support ensures these debates continue. Donate today and help keep our democracy vibrant and alive.
