On this week's episode of The PEN Pod, we bring you a conversation about self-censorship among PEN America's own Ayad Akhtar, Suzanne Nossel, and Jennifer Finney Boylan, alongside Wajahat Ali, John McWhorter, and Carmen Maria Machado. Then, Suzanne wades through the tough questions of free speech from the past week, including what it means to be a democracy in 2021 and how best to fight back against book bans,