EP 976 Does America Have Too Many Free Speech Pessimists?

About this episode

The episode discusses the paradox of declining free speech in America despite the proliferation of voices on unregulated platforms, featuring insights from guest Jeff Kosseff.

America’s First Amendment is a model of free speech protection unparalleled across the globe. Yet, the United States saw the third largest decline in free speech between 2021 and 2024. And 2024 marked the 19th consecutive year in which civil and political rights declined globally. While it may seem paradoxical that while the new voices who are speaking out on unregulated platforms seem to proliferate daily so are attempts to monitor, filter and block content. Or at least encouraging people with large platforms to give their audiences over to purveyors to speech which is objectionable to many. Our guest, Jeff Kosseff, and his co-author, Jacob Mchangama, in their new book “The Future of Free Speech,” call on us to become better informed consumers of what we read and watch but to avoid the desire to have the government censor content. More speech is the antidote to what is a growing public sentiment about our public discourse. As one who grew up in an era of fewer choices and more gatekeepers, who curated our news, I am torn between the benefits of our ‘say anything’ culture and the perils of out and out censorship. Clearly, I do not want government…

People in this episode

Host: America Trends

Guest: Jeff Kosseff

Topics covered

• free speech
• First Amendment
• civil rights
• censorship
• public discourse

Keywords

• free speech
• First Amendment
• censorship
• civil rights
• public discourse
• media consumption

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Future of Free Speech

More episodes of America Trends Podcast

• EP 977 Macho Men and Bro Culture Dominate Military Education · June 10, 2026 · 37 min
• EP 975 Rifkin’s Songwriting Takes on New Colors on Third Album · June 6, 2026 · 1h 16m
• EP 974 Pardon Me is the New White House Mantra · June 3, 2026 · 37 min
• EP 973 Medical Insurance Claims Are Being Denied at Astounding Rates–and With a Human Toll · June 1, 2026 · 42 min
• EP 972 Are Companies Responding to the Needs and Skills Working Parents Bring to the Workplace? · May 27, 2026 · 37 min
• EP 971 Older Americans are Hanging on to Power, Privilege and Resources Longer than Ever · May 25, 2026 · 39 min