College campuses have a long history of student protests, and these demonstrations invite questions about the limits of free speech. How far is too far? In this pair of essays, University of Pennsylvania law professor Claire Finkelstein and Trinity Washington University president Patricia McGuire present two different views of the role of free speech in …
Category: Who Gets to Decide What Freedom Is?
It’s never enough: Roxane Gay on desire, addiction, and TikTok
It seems like everyone is talking about TikTok: its security risks, its seeming ubiquity among teenagers and adults alike. Writer Roxane Gay––whose father introduced her to the app––describes the problem of “pleasurably wasting hours and hours of time” on TikTok and warns about its purposeful addictive and exploitive nature. Is TikTok worth it? Roxane Gay, …
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Courting controversy: Peter Singer on why we need to test our ideas in open debate
How do people discover if their beliefs are true or false? Philosopher Peter Singer, an emeritus professor of bioethics at Princeton University and co-editor of Journal of Controversial Ideas, argues that this can only happen through free debate of controversial issues. In this short six-minute video, Singer examines the consequences of censorship and explains why …
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To keep sight of our shared humanity: António Guterres on the collective future of Israel and Palestine
The current war in Gaza emerges from a long history of conflict between Israel and Palestine. António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, makes a plea for peace in this op-ed, which was also published in the New York Times on October 13, 2023. In this piece, he urges the international community as …
The automation of creation: Michael Russell Gunn on what’s at stake in the Hollywood writers’ strike
In May 2023, Hollywood production ground to a halt as the Writers Guild of America, a union representing over 11,500 screenwriters, went on strike. One major contention these writers have is how they are compensated for the shows and movies people watch on streaming platforms. Underneath this issue, though, lies a bigger question, one that …
The roots of mass incarceration: Jeffrey Bellin on the relationship between crime and incarceration rates in the U.S.
The U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Why is that? Jeffrey Bellin, a professor at William & Mary Law School, argues that the solutions to mass incarceration must address the policies that led to it, including policies that rely on prison as punishment for non-violent crimes. Jeffrey Bellin, "Understanding Mass …
Rules for the robot revolution: Ted Lieu on regulating artificial intelligence
Our daily lives increasingly rely on AI technology, from the facial recognition software that unlocks our smartphones to the smart algorithms that curate our search engine results pages. This “fourth industrial revolution,” as computer scientist and U.S. congressman Ted Lieu describes it, presents a challenge: how can people benefit from AI innovation and be protected …
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“A dire shortage of affordable housing”: Jerusalem Demsas on the structural causes of homelessness
Every day, over half a million Americans are homeless. What has led to this crisis? In this essay, writer Jerusalem Demsas critiques the way homelessness is often framed as an individual’s “personal failure,” with little attempt to recognize or rectify its underlying root causes. She argues that the lack of affordable housing is at the …
A family by choice: Tyler Bradway and Elizabeth Freeman on queer kinship and broadening the definition of a family
There is no one-size-fits-all structure for the American family. Research shows more people are living in multigenerational households and in other arrangements that look different from the “traditional” nuclear family, a concept some argue has always been a myth. In this essay, Tyler Bradway and Elizabeth Freeman argue that what constitutes a family isn’t solely …
The limits of free speech: Jacob Mchangama on censorship, extremism, and hate speech
There’s no question that social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube can rapidly amplify and circulate hate speech and extremist content. Solutions to this problem are murky, as seen in debates over topics such as cancel culture, free speech, and censorship. In this essay, Jacob Mchangama, a Danish writer and lawyer, argues that an …
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