Ep. 1 Jonathan Rauch’s “Kindly Inquisitors”

In 1993, a young Jonathan Rauch published “Kindly Inquisitors:
The New Attacks on Free Thought.” It was his response to what he
saw as the West’s lackluster and apologetic defense of the
novelist Salman Rushdie’s free speech rights.


Since its publication, “Kindly Inquisitors” has never gone out of
print and has been described by Foundation for Individual Rights
in Education President & CEO Greg Lukianoff as the best
modern defense of free speech and by “The Washington Post”
columnist George Will as “slender and sharp as a stiletto.”


In this episode, Nico Perrino sits down with Jonathan, a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution, to talk about his book and
its impassioned moral (not legal!) defense of liberal inquiry and
criticism. They also discuss the role that free speech played in
the gay rights movement, the life story of Frank Kameny, the
state of free expression at Jonathan’s alma mater (Yale
University), and the heroism of Danish newspaperman Flemming
Rose.


Nico also chats with Greg about FIRE’s recent work at Williams
College and what happened during Greg’s first meeting with
Jonathan (hint: it involved comic book superheros).


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