Brandon McMurtrie is a PhD student in psychology at Massey University, where he studies political polarization. He is also a keen Substacker, X-user, and hunter. We talked to him about polarization; whether the way we're currently talking about...

Dr James Lindsay was one of the perpetrators of the 'Sokal Squared' hoax, and is the co-author of Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody and of How to Have Imposs...

Damien Grant is a Stuff columnist and the Principal of Waterstone Insolvency. We talked to him about occupational licensing, free speech, Trump's likely impact on the Anglosphere, and New Zealand's COVID response.Damien's column about J...

Frances Widdowson was a professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary until 2021, when the university fired her. Frances gives us her account of the circumstances of her dismissal. She also talks to us about ideas such as 'land-based knowledge...

The Law Commission recently put out a consultation paper on whether the law relating to 'hate crime' should be changed, and if so how. The Commission considers whether the current 'sentence aggravation' model (in which hatred may be factored in...

Cody Ellingham is a Kiwi writer, photographer, and Bitcoin enthusiast who's currently based in Kamakura, Japan.We asked him to explain Bitcoin to us and tell us about the Bitcoin scene in New Zealand.Lyn Alden, Broken Money: htt...

Alan Davison is Academic Lead at the Governance and Public Affairs Centre at the Australian Catholic University, and was until recently Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. He co-founded the Permission to Thi...

Dr Peter Boghossian is a freelance philosopher and former academic. He was jointly responsible for the 'Sokal squared' hoax, as a result of which he was investigated by his then-employer, Portland State University, for research misconduct. He l...

Nigel Biggar is an emeritus professor at Oxford University, where he was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology. He is also an Anglican priest. His most recent book is Colonialism. A Moral Reckoning (2023). We talked to P...

Only a few days after its Senate voted down the University of Auckland's 'academic freedom' policy, Victoria University of Wellington has come out with a similar policy of its own. Here to discuss VUW's policy with us is Steph Martin from the F...

Toby Young is the founder of the Free Speech Union and The Daily Sceptic, an associate editor of The Spectator, and a former associate editor at Quillette. We talked to him about the prospects for free speech and academic freedom in the Anglosp...

Peter Ridd was formerly head of the Physics Programme and the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Queensland. We asked him how and why he was forced out of JCU, as well as about the Great Barrier Reef and climate change in...

The morning after Victoria University of WELLINGTON's free speech event, Michael and James met to discuss the event, including both its set-up and points made by the speakers.

Jonathan Rauch is a US writer whose books include The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 (2018); Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America (2004); Government's End: Why Was...

A conversation about Victoria University of Wellington Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith's decision to postpone his original panel on free speech and about the two new panels he's now announced. Topics we discuss include: Is the new panel more balanced...

The topic of our third Free Kiwis! book club was Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay's book  Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity - And Why this Harms Everybody.We talked about i...

Graham Linehan is the co-creator of Father Ted and other popular UK comedy series. We talked to him about Ted's origins, comedy in a time of censorship, and trans issues. Graham's time in NZ was hosted by the Free Speech Union:

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.

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. ...

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 c...

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-generatio...

Rodney Hide entered parliament in 1996, was elected leader of the ACT party in 2004, and was appointed Minister for Local government in 2008 in the fifth National government. He retired from the ACT leadership and from parliament in 2011. Rodne...

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...

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 Individua...

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 ...