Free Speech
48 episodes
#6179: Voice Cloning: 10 Seconds to Steal Your Voice
Ten seconds of audio is all it takes to clone a voice. Here's what the law actually protects — and what it doesn't.
#6145: Do LLMs Nod Along With Conspiracy Theories?
A 98-prompt eval asks one question: when a believer brings a conspiracy theory, does the model push back, or help them dig?
#6060: When the Government Sues the Thing Itself
Barrels of soda, a book, clacker balls, and a family's savings — all defendants in American courts. How in rem jurisdiction works.
#5821: Free Speech's Outer Edge: Hate Speech Law
Brandenburg v. Ohio rewrote when speech becomes a crime. Which countries go furthest toward zero restrictions — and why none fully do.
#5790: Police Auditors: Rights, Rage, and the Camera
They film outside police stations until someone in uniform reacts. Is it civil liberties activism or a business built on confrontation?
#5661: Same Pills, Same Gun, New State, New Crime
Fifty states, fifty legal answers. What happens when ordinary conduct is a felony one zip code over?
#5576: Lying Flat as a Tactic: The Quiet Opt-Out
Tang ping, quiet quitting, and the N-po generation — what happens when people stop donating effort they were never paid for?
#5342: When "Politically Correct" Flipped Sides
From Marxist party discipline to campus flashpoint to pejorative — how "politically correct" changed hands, and why "woke" repeated the pattern.
#4979: Building a Shadow Reputation on Amazon and AliExpress
Is concentrating your spending on just two platforms actually a smart strategy? The mechanisms behind it are real.
#4962: Who Decides What Goes on Jerusalem’s Lampposts?
The law is clear on illegal postering. But enforcement? That’s where it gets complicated.
#4918: Inside an ICE Deportation Flight: Restraints, Memes, and the Machinery
From arrest to ICE Air: what it feels like to be deported, and why the agency posts memes about it.
#4746: Did 9/11 Create the Security State?
How a single morning reshaped surveillance, intelligence, and daily life for a quarter century.
#4248: How Libertarianism Found Its Label and Its Fault Lines
The surprising leftist origins of "libertarian" and the Hayek-Rothbard split that still defines the movement.
#4246: When Left Meets Right: The Two-Axis Political Spectrum
Why libertarians can't win elections but welfare chauvinists are surging across Europe.
#4240: When Political Disagreement Becomes Mortal Enmity
Two sitting UK MPs were murdered by extremists. What does the respectful response to Ann Widdecombe's death tell us about political discourse?
#4063: Can the Law Give You a Second Name for Privacy?
Sweden, Germany, and Japan each offer fragments of a legal second identity — but none fully solve the privacy problem.
#3394: PAC vs Super PAC: How Money Moves in Politics
The legal split that created Super PACs, why coordination matters, and whether bipartisan PACs actually exist.
#3216: EFF's 36-Year Fight for Digital Rights
How the Electronic Frontier Foundation has fought for internet freedom since 1990 — from the Crypto Wars to border phone searches.
#3211: How Press Freedom Erodes Without a Single Censorship Law
No courtroom, no censor — just a terms-of-service update. How press freedom gets hollowed out in plain sight.
#3206: The Free Speech Fault Line: UK's Ban on Piker & Uygur
Why free speech absolutists defend letting controversial figures into the UK — and what history says about hate speech and violence.
#3144: When Walls Talk: Graffiti's 17,000-Year Story
From Pompeii to Melbourne 2025 — how cities decide what stays on walls and what gets scrubbed.
#3129: Holden Caulfield vs. the War Briefing
What Salinger’s phoniness detector reveals about how the war with Iran is being reported.
#3036: Plainclothes Police vs Facial Recognition: Inside London's Protest Ops
How do plainclothes officers actually operate? From covert earpieces to unmarked vans, here's what happened at London's May 16 protests.
#3032: The Karankawa Beyond the Cannibalism Myth
Who were the Karankawa? New genetic evidence and archaeology reveal a sophisticated maritime culture.