One year into Trump 2.0, we examine the administration's record on free speech and how it compares to the president's campaign pledge to "bring back free speech to America."

We also discuss recent ICE protests, including the right to carry a gun and to film law enforcement, and what these encounters reveal about protest rights today.

Today we are joined by:

• Clark Neily, senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute

• Timothy Zick, professor of government and citizenship at William & Mary Law School and author of the new book Trump 2.0: Executive Power and the First Amendment

• Conor Fitzpatrick, supervising senior attorney at FIRE

Zick is also the author of Public Protest and Governmental Immunities, Managed Dissent: The Law of Public Protest, and Arming Public Protests.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:47 ICE protests: Alex Pretti, filming police, and the right to carry a gun

13:30 How to hold law enforcement accountable

19:10 Don Lemon's arrest

23:27 Trump's retribution politics and the "domestic terrorist" label

35:05 FCC pressure and attacks on the media

39:40 Free speech for noncitizens

53:49 Attacks on higher education

58:40 Trump 1.0 vs. Trump 2.0

01:02:25 What reforms are needed?

1:09:13 Outro

Read the transcript here.

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Recent protests in Iran have drawn renewed attention to dissent under the country's authoritarian government. The demonstrations have been met with mass arrests, internet restrictions, and even accusations of murder.

While large-scale demonstrations appear to have subsided for now, reporting from Iran describes a tense calm, a heightened security presence, and widespread "disappointment and disillusionment" among Iranians.

Today we are joined by Pouya Nikmand, an Iranian-born writer who escaped Iran at 18. He writes about how his experiences have shaped his understanding of expression, freedom, and belonging on his Substack, Outliving Iran.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:17 What's happening in Iran now?

10:47 What does life look like under an authoritarian regime?

20:33 Growing up in Iran

24:48 The influence of Western media in Iran

32:55 Escaping Iran

37:05 Life after escape

40:55 Being trafficked to Poland

54:45 Escaping captivity and coming to America

01:01:53 An immigrant's perspective on US immigration

1:07:24 Outro

Read the transcript here.

Enjoy listening to the podcast? Donate to FIRE today and get exclusive content like member webinars, special episodes, and more.

If you became a FIRE Member through a donation to FIRE at thefire.org and would like access to Substack's paid subscriber podcast feed, please email sotospeak@thefire.org.

Thomas Paine arrived in America in 1774 with little to his name and a long record of personal failure behind him. Within a year, he wrote Common Sense, one of the most influential political pamphlets in history, helping to ignite the American Revolution and catapulting Paine into the American history hall of fame.

But by the end of his life, he was widely reviled, politically isolated, and personally abandoned. Once celebrated as the voice of liberty, he died an outcast, mourned by only six people at his funeral.

How does one man become the voice of the American Revolution and end up forgotten? To explore Paine's complicated legacy, we are joined by Richard Bell, professor of history at the University of Maryland and author of The American Revolution and the Fate of the World.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:41 Thomas Paine's early life

10:32 Paine's arrival in America

20:02 What did Paine argue in Common Sense?

25:11 Why Common Sense was so revolutionary

36:31 The American Crisis and the Revolutionary War

41:35 Why Paine returned to London and wrote The Rights of Man

49:19 Exile from Britain, imprisonment in France, and writing The Age of Reason

01:01:27 Why America turned its back on Paine

01:12:09 Paine's final days

01:18:50 How should we understand Paine's legacy today?

01:26:58 Outro

Read the transcript here.

Enjoy listening to the podcast? Donate to FIRE today and get exclusive content like member webinars, special episodes, and more.

If you became a FIRE Member through a donation to FIRE at thefire.org and would like access to Substack's paid subscriber podcast feed, please email sotospeak@thefire.org.