Michael Ben-Gad is Professor of Economics at City St. George's University in London. He talks to James about a student campaign against him, the roots of some modern students' intolerance, and his recent research paper linking public debt and immigration. 

Michael's paper 'On the Political Economy of Deficit Bias and Immigration':
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecoj.12502

Abhishek Saha, Professor of Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London, has taken a close interest in free speech and academic freedom issues. In this episode he tells James about a case that is currently before the UK High Court which will have major implication for how academic freedom is regulated.

In this episode we talk to the Wizard of New Zealand about how he got his start in wizardry, the Fun Revolution, the humourlessness of Maoists, being engaged for 25 years, *Erewhon,* Anglicanism, the King in Parliament, why tea breaks are essential to proper warfare, grammar school, anarchism, how to avoid becoming too dependent on the state, red telephone booths, whether wizards actually practice magic, how to train wizards properly, making it rain, men and women, violent females (feat. lionesses), mandatory made-up Maori words, Trump and the Royal Family, the UN's raison d'etre, the collapse of Islam, toyboys and the family courts, the Stuart Restoration and above and throughout all, free speech.

Helen Joyce is Director of Advocacy for Sex Matters, a UK organisation that advocates for sex-based rights. She has held this position since leaving her senior editorial role at The Economist in 2022.

We talked to her about bathrooms, sex differences, whether feminism paved the way for transwomen in female sports, whether men should hold the door open for women, and how we might balance the rights of women and of trans people. We also asked Helen her impressions of where the trans debate is in New Zealand, and where we go from here.

A dialogue on the shooting of Charlie Kirk and its aftermath, including Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air.

Nathan Seuili is a former pastor who has worked for several years for the NZ Free Speech Union. He has now left the FSU to found a new organization, PILLAR, which is dedicated to Protecting Individual Life, Liberty And Rights.

In a wide-ranging conversation, we talked about Nathan's free speech journey; hierarchy, Christianity, and gender in Samoan culture; and how Christians dedicated to individual freedom might think about laws around euthanasia and prostitution.

Nathan on X: https://x.com/nathan_seiuli
Pillar on X: https://x.com/Pillar_NZ

David Webb is a lawyer and a spokesperson for The Opportunities Party on their Citizens' Voice policy. We talked to him about the party's plan for citizens' assemblies, the benefits and drawbacks of referenda, and how we could improve MMP.

TOP's citizens' voice page: https://www.top.org.nz/citizens-voice
James' article with Geoff Neal: Politicians are disconnected from the people they represent - Newsroom

Musa al-Gharbi is an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. He was the Communications Director at Heterodox Academy from 2016 to 2020.

I talked to Musa about growing up in a military family, being cancelled by Fox News, who 'symbolic capitalists' are, the extent to which Donald Trump is comparable to an alligator, and what the future holds for universities.

Musa's book: https://www.thenile.co.nz/books/musa-al-gharbi/we-have-never-been-woke/9780691235349
Intellectuals and motivated reasoning: 

Doug Elliffe is a professor of psychology at the University of Auckland. We talked to him about whether crows know what's good for them, the Listener letter and its fallout, and how to foster a culture of free inquiry at New Zealand universities.

In this episode we are once again joined by our regular correspondent from the Free Speech Union (and the New Zealand Initiative), Steph Martin. We debrief about the FSU's panel events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on institutional neutrality and the draft academic freedom legislation. We also talk about that legislation (part of the Education and Training Amendment Bill No. 2), and more particularly about the response to it in Parliament by two opposition politicians.