What is free speech? Is it an outdated idea? What about hate speech? The three-part series Free To Speak underscores how free speech is necessary for human survival as it presents thought-provoking, ironic, and often heartbreaking stories. Host Nadine Strossen is joined by free speech experts, critics, and defenders to examine its power and controversy historically and today.

EPISODES

Thought Police examines the long history—and dire results—of governments censoring speech.

The One True Faith explores the worldwide impact of free speech on religion and science.

The Speech We Hate looks at threats to art and scholarship with free speech under attack.

Nadine Strossen, host of the three-part public television documentary, Free To Speak, is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School, past President of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008), and a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). She is a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties.

The National Law Journal has named Strossen one of America’s "100 Most Influential Lawyers," and several other publications have named her one of the country’s most influential women. Her many honorary degrees and awards include the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech (which will be presented in November 2023) and the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2017).

Strossen’s 2018 book, HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship, has earned praise from ideologically diverse experts, including progressive Union Theological Seminary Professor Cornel West and conservative Princeton University Professor Robert George.