Welcome to Academic Freedom on Life Support, hosted by Joshua Scheer. In this episode, we speak with Austin Sarat, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College, and one of the first contributors to our project examining the nationwide crisis facing higher education. Sarat argues that “academic freedom in the United States is facing the greatest sustained attack in more than three quarters of a century” —a moment he compares to the height of McCarthyism.

Drawing on two of his recent pieces for ScheerPost, Sarat breaks down how the Trump administration’s campaign against expertise, its efforts to discipline universities, and the rise of students acting as ideological informants have created a climate of fear, confusion, and self‑censorship on campuses. He explains the crucial distinction between free speech and academic freedom, why open inquiry requires courage, and how the very mission of the university is being tested.

This conversation is part of our ongoing effort to document what’s being lost—and what’s worth fighting for—as academic freedom comes under unprecedented pressure.

Today on Scheer Intelligence, we pull back the curtain on a crisis unfolding quietly but catastrophically across American higher education. Robert Scheer sits down with Professor Steve Macek — scholar, organizer, and one of the country’s sharpest analysts of academic freedom — to examine what he calls an unprecedented assault on the institutions that produce knowledge itself.

From Trump’s weaponization of the Justice Department to Democratic governors signing bills that criminalize criticism of Israel, the attack on academic freedom is no longer coming from the fringes. It’s bipartisan, it’s systemic, and it’s reshaping the university into a place where surveillance replaces debate and self‑censorship replaces inquiry.

In this conversation, Scheer and Macek trace the historical lineage — from Galileo to McCarthy to the present — and confront the chilling reality that tenure no longer protects scholars, adjuncts are silenced by precarity, and entire universities can now be punished for allowing dissent.

If you want to understand why America’s intellectual life is collapsing into fear, conformity, and political intimidation, this episode is essential.