IN ‘THE WAR ON WORDS’ (OUT TODAY!) NADINE STROSSEN & I BREAK DOWN TODAY’S SPEECH CONTROVERSIES—and explain how to stand up for expression without apology.

IMAGINE BANNING BOOKS BEFORE THEY’RE WRITTEN. That’s what regulating AI speech could mean.

WHAT DOES NEUROSCIENCE HAVE TO DO WITH FREE SPEECH? TURNS OUT A LOT! Enroll in the new (free!) Coursera online course from Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, Cristina Koppel, & me (feat. Ilya Shapiro) to find out.

THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THE FUTURE OF TRUTH, FREE THOUGHT, AND FREE SPEECH FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THAT YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF: My latest (w/ Adam Goldstein) for National Review.

THE REAL DANGER ISN’T SPEECH—IT’S PEOPLE NOT FEELING FREE TO SPEAK THEIR MINDS: In my TED Talk, I discuss how free speech is essential to understanding the world.

“WHO DECIDES?” That’s the inevitable and unanswerable question when it comes to censorship—and it’s one free speech advocates should ask more concretely and much more quickly.

FREE SPEECH MAKES YOU SAFER. FREE SPEECH CURES VIOLENCE. FREE SPEECH PROTECTS THE POWERLESS. AND EVEN “BAD PEOPLE” CAN HAVE GOOD IDEAS: My recent TED Talk was structured around these four truths.

“JUST BECAUSE I HATE YOUR GUTS DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE WRONG.” And more free speech lessons from my TED Talk.

MY TALK ON FREE SPEECH FROM TED2025 IS NOW UP ON YOUTUBE: Check it out if you haven’t yet (or even if you have)!

JOIN NADINE STROSSEN & ME ON SUBSTACK LIVE AT 4PM EASTERN (IN JUST UNDER A HALF HOUR!): To discuss our latest book, The War On Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail.

EVER WONDERED WHAT IT TAKES TO DELIVER A TED TALK? From initial hesitation to intense rehearsals, I share the fully story behind my ~12 minute talk on free speech.

“JUST BECAUSE I HATE YOUR GUTS DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE WRONG.” Seems a simple enough concept, but in today’s polarized climate far too many people instinctively write off ideas and arguments solely based on their source.

MY TED TALK IS LIVE!: Check out my talk from TED2025 this past April on the four truth about free speech.

WE SHOULD BE BUILDING SCIENTIST AI, NOT SKYNET LITE: The bad news: AI models are learning to lie to save themselves. The worst news: We’re teaching them to lie for much dumber reasons.

“FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS SORELY IN NEED OF SPECIAL PROTECTION THESE DAYS, AND THIS BOOK GUIDES ANY READER TO SUPPORT IT IN CLEAR, FORTHRIGHT, AND POWERFUL FASHION.” – FLOYD ABRAMS. Pre-order The War On Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail by Nadine Strossen & me (out July 1!)

IS HARVARD DOOMED? The university is a big enough institution to know that being legally in the right is not an ironclad guarantee that you’re always going to win.

“IN A TIME OF RISING POLARIZATION, THE WAR ON WORDS IS A VITAL REMINDER THAT FREE SPEECH PROTECTS DEMOCRACY ITSELF. Lukianoff and Strossen make a compelling, principled, and timely case.” -Congressman Ro Khanna

THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS NOT A SUICIDE PACT. No, really, it’s not.

NO, THE CONSTITUTION IS NOT A SUICIDE PACT — BUT IT’S ALSO NOT A BLANK CHECK FOR PANIC: We don’t get to infringe upon civil liberties right now because someone invokes existential angst and the possibility of crisis as though it’s a magic spell.

“ANYONE WHO IS OPPOSED TO SHUTTING PEOPLE UP BY FORCE IS BOUND TO BE FACED WITH ARGUMENTS THAT SUPPRESSING SPEECH ISN’T SO BAD AFTER ALL. But these arguments were considered and rejected decades ago, and The War On Words is a perfect handy guide on how to answer them, by a hero and heroine of free expression.” – Steven Pinker

“NADINE STROSSEN AND GREG LUKIANOFF ARE TWO OF THE FIERCEST DEFENDERS OF FREE SPEECH AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT ALIVE TODAY. The War On Words is a must read for anybody who cares about freedom of speech.” -Jonathan Haidt

WILL A.I. KILL OUR FREEDOM TO THINK?: You can now apply for $1 million in spot grants to help AI promote free speech and free thought!

FREE SPEECH DEFENDERS ARE FAMILIAR WITH COMMON “ZOMBIE ARGUMENTS” (ARGUMENTS THAT JUST WON’T DIE) AGAINST FREE SPEECH: e.g. “words are violence,” “hate speech ≠ free speech,” & “free speech is rightwing.” In The War On Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail (due out July 1) Nadine Strossen and I will hopefully debunk those pesky fallacies once and for all.

CANCEL CULTURE VS. MCCARTHYISM: THE DATA IS IN — Cancel Culture is happening on a historic scale, part 5

“The best way to compare McCarthyism to Cancel Culture on campus is by finding a source of data that was gathered at the same time McCarthyism was going on, in order to compare it to the data we have today. And thankfully there was a massive 1955 study by Paul Lazarsfeld that covered the number of professors dismissed during McCarthyism. According to that data, approximately 100 professors were targeted and 62 were fired during this period, either for being communists or members of the Communist Party.

“Now, compare that figure to the number of professors who have been fired on campus since the beginning of the Age of Cancel Culture in 2014. In the last decade, FIRE’s Scholars Under Fire database has logged almost 1,300 campaigns to get scholars punished for their First Amendment-protected speech. Nearly two-thirds of those campaigns succeeded, leading to censorship, suspensions, demotions, resignations, and even mandatory administrative training (remember: this is disciplinary training in response to protected speech). But to compare things more directly: From 2014-2024 more than 200 scholars ended up being fired or forced out of their positions for their thoughts and opinions.

“That’s more than triple the contemporaneous estimate of the number of communist professors fired, and more than double the estimate of professors fired overall, during McCarthyism.”