The Fifth Column (A Podcast)

The Fifth Column (A Podcast)

Everyone Loves Free Speech Until They Don't

The guys took the stage in Philadelphia for FIRE's Soapbox conference last weekend to talk free speech, political hypocrisy, and the future of censorship.

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The Fifth Column
Nov 13, 2026

Live from FIRE’s Soapbox conference in Philadelphia, Michael, Matt, and Kmele tackle the latest free speech battles, from Trump’s censorship crusade and the Democrats’ own authoritarian instincts to cancel culture, the midterms, and America’s political hypocrites. Then, art historian Erika López Prater joins the guys to explain how showing students a centuries-old painting of the Prophet Muhammad cost her a job at Hamline University, and what the whole absurd affair reveals about academic freedom and the people running our universities.

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