Free Kiwis!

In their latest dialogue, Michael and James discuss whether an email sent by Grant Robertson in his capacity as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago breached the institutional neutrality provision introduced into the Education and Training Act just last year. Michael also asks James about the second rounds of the Peruvian and Colombian presidential elections, as well as both countries' troubled political pasts.

Mario Vargas Llosa: Una Vida en Palabras: https://youtu.be/WiHzTF4W_SY?si=5ElK-u2qR8HVpUkZ

James talks to Fred Attenborough, Research Manager at the UK Committee for Academic Freedom, about the recent ruling in a landmark academic freedom case, University of Sussex vs. Office for Students. Will the ruling fatally weaken the Office for Students, which the new UK academic freedom legislation empowers to regulate universities, before the the new academic freedom regime even gets going?

Freddie has a number of pieces on this case up on the CAF website: https://afcomm.org.uk/author/frederick-attenborough/

Mitchell Palmer is an economist at the Adam Smith Institute. We talked to him about his journey from Auckland to London via Singapore and Oxford; how to reform the UK student loan system; and the recent past and near future of the ACT Party. 

Mitchell's report on student loans: https://www.adamsmith.org/research/credit-crunch

Peter Ainsworth's IEA report on student loans: https://iea.org.uk/publications/shares-in-students-a-new-model-for-university-funding/

Sarah McLaughlin is Senior Scholar, Global Expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). We talked to her about threats to free speech from various quarters (including the Trumpian right, the progressive left, the CCP and UAE) and about how to build a healthy and consistent free speech culture. Sarah was in New Zealand courtesy of the NZ  Free Speech Union.

Sarah's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Authoritarians-Academy-Internationalization-Borderless-Censorship/dp/1421452804

Ilana Redstone is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne. She talked to James about the state of sociology, 'the certainty trap' of ideological extremism, and how much of today's progressive extremism can be traced back to the civil rights era.

Ilana's book *The Certainty Trap*: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Certainty-Trap-Question-Ourselves-More/dp/1634312562

Richard Hanania's essay 'Woke Institutions is Just Civil Rights Law': https://www.richardhanania.com/p/woke-institutions-is-just-civil-rights

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.