Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham. He talked to Michael about whether the Amish will inherit the earth, whether wokeness is a religion-substitute, and how we can protect liberal science and civilization. Eric's book on religious groups and population growth: https://www.amazon.com/Shall-Religiou... Eric's course on wokeness: https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/courses ..read more

Iona Italia is Managing Editor of Quillette and a former Editor-in-Chief of Areo. We talked to her about her life and career; the virtues of letter-writing; and her work with heterodox online publications like Areo and, now, Quillette. Iona' Substack: https://www.drionaitalia.com/ Jamie Palmer's long-read on the lab-leak hypothesis: https://quillette.com/2023/08/19/the-lab-leak-illusion/ Iona's writing for Quillette: https://quillette.com/author/iona/ James' writing for Quillette: https://quillette.com/author/james-kierstead ..read more

Lord Sumption is a historian and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018. He is also a widely-respected commentator. We talked to him about our current free speech predicament in English-speaking countries, what led to it, and how to re-build a truly liberal culture. We are grateful to the NZ Free Speech Union for hosting Lord Sumption in NZ. You can support the work of the Free Speech Union here: https://www.fsu.nz/donation ..read more

Dr. Melissa Derby is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Waikato, where she teaches at the Tauranga campus. We talked to her about why she prefers not to be introduced as a 'Māori academic'; whether the concept of 'inter-generational trauma' can bear the weight that's been placed on it; and what the future holds for the New Zealand Free Speech Union. 'Literacy is not a Maori Thing': https://openinquiry.nz/literacy-is-no... Inter-generational trauma: https://www.tekaharoa.com/index.php/t... New Zealand Free Speech Union: https://www.fsu.nz ..read more

Prof. Te Maire Tau is Pou Whakarae at the Ngāi Tahu Centre at the University of Canterbury. We talked to him about Māori traditional knowledge and (Western) science; local traditions and New Zealand democracy; and whether Polynesians discovered Antarctica. Papers by Te Maire Tau and others that we discussed: The Death of Knowledge: https://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/... Mātauranga Māori as an epistemology: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper... A Short Scan of Māori Journeys to Antarctica: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/... The improbability of Pre-European Polynesian Voyages to ..read more

Nadine Strossen is Professor Emerita at the New York Law School, a past national President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a member of the advisory boards of the ACLU, the Academic Freedom Alliance, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Heterodox Academy, and the National Coalition Against Censorship. We had a wide-ranging conversation with her on free speech and its limits; free speech and 'hate speech' legislation in the US and beyond; and how we can get out of the current free speech crisis, in New Zealand and elsewhere. Nadine's book on hate speech ..read more

Recent events in Auckland have reminded us that a tiny minority of radical activists are determined to shut down the speech of so-called TERFs ('Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists') and stop trans issues being openly discussed. So we invited leading feminist thinker Kathleen Stock on the podcast to have a wide-ranging discussion of trans rights, women's rights, and related issues. Kathleen was a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex until 2021, when she was driven out by a campaign of targeted harassment. We talked to her about the Posie Parker episode; feminism and free speec ..read more

Dr. David Lillis is a statistician and data scientist who has worked for the Royal Society of New Zealand, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, and the New Zealand Institute for Sport. We talked to him about some recent studies of the representation of Māori and women in NZ academia. We also talked about reforms to the school curriculum and about the response to Listener letter on science. McAllister 2022, 50 Reasons Why There Are No Māori in Your Science Department: . https://www.journalofglobalindigeneity.com/article/55788-50-reasons-why-there-are-no-maori-in-your-science-department M ..read more

Dr. Nick Matzke is Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. We talked to him about what phylogenetic biogeography is; his involvement in the debate over creationism (including 'intelligent design' theories) in the US; and to what extent Maori traditional lore can be considered science. Nick's open letter on vitalism in the NZ school science curriculum: https://plainsight.nz/letter-to-the-nz-herald-ncea-pseudoscience-mauri-is-present-in-all-matter ..read more

Roger Openshaw is Emeritus Professor of Education at Massey University. We drew on his rich knowledge of NZ educational history as we discussed the changing relationship between central government and NZ schools over the past century or so; the perils and promises of the new history curriculum; and how solid the evidence is for the common assertion that the NZ education system is racist. The review mentioned by James: https://www.academia.edu/494364/Roger... Roger's book that is reviewed there: https://www.abebooks.com/978086469179 ..read more