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Hosted by Hoover Institution · 🇺🇸 US · EN · 40 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh is one of the country’s foremost experts on the 1st Amendment and legal issues surrounding free speech. Jane Bambauer is a distinguished professor of law and journalism at the University of Florida. On Free Speech Unmuted, Volokh and Bambauer unpack and analyze the current issues and controversies concerning the First Amendment, censorship, the press, social media, and the proverbial town square. They’ll also explain in plain English the often confusing legalese around these issues and explain how the courts and government agencies interpret the Constitution and new laws being written, passed, and decided will affect their everyday lives.
Hoover Institution hosts Free Speech Unmuted, a news show with 40 episodes published.
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer tackle one of the strangest First Amendment controversies imaginable: whether sending a sexually explicit image of Shrek to a politician can constitute criminal harassment. Using an Ohio c
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer unpack the complicated and often uncomfortable relationship between free speech and privacy, exploring everything from anonymous political pamphlets and government surveillance to revenge
Can you be sued for repeating a rumor—even if you don’t believe it? Is calling someone a “racist” protected speech? In this episode, Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer unpack the hidden rules of defamation law, from libel a
Jane Bambauer and Eugene Volokh analyze the US Supreme Court’s new Chiles v. Salazar decision, which struck down (by an 8-1 vote) a law banning sexual orientation/gender identity conversion therapy, including therapy tha
Is the FCC about to revive a broad reading of the Equal Time Rule—and should broadcast TV still get “special” First Amendment treatment in 2026? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer are joined by Duke Law professor Stuart Ben
When can a public university punish a student for speech that includes violent references, and that frightens some people, but is not a clear threat? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer unpack two recent court cases, one tha
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer are joined by press freedom advocate Seth Stern to dissect the federal prosecution of journalist Don Lemon. At issue is whether covering—and allegedly accompanying—a disruptive protest ins
What kind of year was 2025 for free speech? In this special year-in-review episode of Free Speech Unmuted, hosts Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer break down the biggest legal and political fights shaping speech in America
Can the government regulate social media features because they are “addictive”? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer talk with Emory Law professor Matthew Lawrence about whether features like infinite scroll, personalized fee
What happens when 1970s defamation law collides with the Internet, social media, and AI? University of Florida Law School legal scholar Lyrissa Lidsky — who is also a co-reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatem
Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow and the Director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute, joins Free Speech Unmuted to discuss his new book Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites . Ilya, Jane, and Eugene
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer speak with Eric Heinze, professor of law and humanities at Queen Mary University of London, about how the digital age has transformed the meaning and limits of free expression. The discuss
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer are joined by Ashutosh Bhagwat (Professor of Law at UC Davis) as they discuss the FCC’s ability to regulate broadcast speech, directly and indirectly. Jimmy Kimmel, the old Fairness Doctri
FIRE is one of the leading free speech advocacy and litigation groups in the country, and Greg is not only its long-time head but also coauthor of several books, including Coddling of the American Mind (with psychologist
Hosts and law professors Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer dive into President Trump’s new executive order on flag burning . Is it bold politics or bad law? Or maybe both? They break down what the order really says, how it
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer dive into the debate about “doxing” — putting someone’s personal info out in public, usually to call them out or put pressure on them. They talk about how the term is defined (or not) in d
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the Court’s June 27 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which upheld a state law that required pornography sites to “use reasonable age verification methods ... to verify”
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the First Amendment rules pertaining to public school students. The occasion: The Supreme Court just declined to consider a federal appeals court case that led a public school to p
A mother sues Character.AI, claiming that a conversation between her teenage son and a Character.AI chatbot led him to commit suicide. A conservative activist sues Meta, claiming that its AI-generated false accusations a
Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the Administration’s freezing of grants to Harvard, and Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the freeze. The Trump Administration has announced that it was freezing grants to Harvard, and
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Free Speech Unmuted is hosted by Hoover Institution. The show is categorised under news (commentary) and has published 40 episodes.
Free Speech Unmuted has published 40 episodes.
Free Speech Unmuted regularly covers news, commentary, government. It sits in the news category, with a commentary focus.
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