Podcast appearances and mentions of Ben Wizner

Air Date 4/18/2025 Before the election, I heard interviews and statistics about Trump supporters responding to his stated desire to weaponize the government against his political enemies. Their response was that 1) they didn't want him to do that and 2) didn't think he would.  Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Full Show Notes | Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community! KEY POINTS KP 1: Free Mahmoud Khalil with Ben Wizner and Baher Azmy - At Liberty - Air Date 3-26-25 KP 2: News Brief Dem Leaders, 'Free Speech' Warriors Mostly Shrug as Trump Disappears Political Dissidents - Citations Needed - Air Date 4-2-25 KP 3: Trump's Revenge - The Majority Report - Air Date 4-1-25 KP 4: Trump Pauses Tariffs, Businesses Welcome Relief, Trump Targets Former Officials - Up First - Air Date 4-10-25 KP 5: Mahmoud Khalil and a New Red Scare. Plus, Press Freedom Under Threat. - On The Media - Air Date 3-14-25 KP 6: Trumps Attacks on Law Firms, Lawyers, and the Law - Boom! Lawyered - Air Date 3-20-25 KP 7: Trump and the Courts w Samuel Moyn - Behind the News - Air Date 3-7-25 (00:52:02) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On how racism and anti-intellectualism are a self-inflicted injury to society DEEPER DIVES (00:59:09) SECTION A: COMPLYING ENTITIES (01:46:29) SECTION B: GOVERNMENT WEAPONIZATION (03:01:33) SECTION C: JUDGES AND LEGISLATORS Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastodon | Threads | X

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Mahmoud Khalil is a recent Columbia University graduate, activist, soon-to-be father, and U.S. green card holder. On March 8, he was unlawfully detained because of his speech in defense of Palestinian human rights. On this week's episode of At Liberty, host W. Kamau Bell is joined by two members of Khalil's legal team—the ACLU's Ben Wizner and Baher Azmy from Center for Constitutional Rights—to discuss why his case should raise alarm bells for anyone who cares about free speech. Ben Wizner is director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. Baher Azmy is the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. At Liberty is a production of the ACLU, and hosted by W. Kamau Bell. This episode was executive produced by Jessica Herman Weitz and Gwen Schroeder for the ACLU, and W. Kamau Bell, Kelly Rafferty, PhD, and Melissa Hudson Bell, PhD for Who Knows Best Productions. It was recorded at Skyline Studios in Oakland, CA. At Liberty is edited and produced by Erica Getto and Myrriah Gossett for Good Get.

Almost 3,000 students have been arrested at more than 60 college campuses protesting American support for Israel's war in Gaza. Schools have a responsibility to maintain order. But they must not sacrifice the principles of free speech that are core to their educational mission. How have they been doing? Ben Wizner comments. He's Director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. Next: Kenya finally is sending 1000 police officers to Haiti on what is called a “UN security mission,” and Joe Biden held a gala state dinner honoring the president of Kenya for doing it. Amy Wilentz will comment on what she calls “the Devils' Ball.”Plus: Since Roe was overturned, pregnant people seeking medication abortions in red states have found help from providers operating at the edge of the law. Amy Littlefield reports.

As campus protests continue against American support for Israel's war in Gaza, universities and colleges have legal obligations to combat discrimination and a responsibility to maintain order. But they must not sacrifice the principles of free speech that are core to their educational mission. Ben Wizner of the ACLU will explain.Also: Kenya finally is sending 1000 police officers to Haiti on what is called a “UN security mission,” and Joe Biden held a gala state dinner honoring the president of Kenya for doing it. Amy Wilentz will comment on what she calls “the Devils' Ball.”

As campus protests continue against American support for Israel's war in Gaza, universities and colleges have legal obligations to combat discrimination and a responsibility to maintain order. But they must not sacrifice the principles of free speech that are core to their educational mission. Ben Wizner of the ACLU will explain.Also: Kenya finally is sending 1000 police officers to Haiti on what is called a “UN security mission,” and Joe Biden held a gala state dinner honoring the president of Kenya for doing it. Amy Wilentz will comment on what she calls “the Devils' Ball.”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

With the rise of anti-war protests and encampments taking place on college campuses across the country, we are sharing an episode from a couple of years ago that addresses some questions related to free speech in an education setting. In this episode, our resident free speech expert Ben Wizner answers listener questions. You'll hear us talk about the different first amendment protections at K-12 schools and universities, which vary between public and privately funded institutions. We are monitoring the student-led protests in support of Palestine and the subsequent use of force ordered by local authorities across the country and will bring you an episode next week with dispatches from our affiliates who have taken legal action or who have demonstrated legal concern. Until then, we hope this episode gives you some sense of student speech rights and why we are so committed to protecting these rights at the ACLU.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY Logos Twitter: https://twitter.com/Logos_network Logos Discord: https://discord.gg/logosnetwork RESOURCES: Jarrad Hope X - https://twitter.com/jarradhope_ Ben Wizner X: https://twitter.com/benwizner ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project - https://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy-technology This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange -https://perpus.univpancasila.ac.id/repository/EBUPT200367.pdf TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introductions 02:45 Why human rights law? 04:52 ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project 09:28 Why do civil liberties matter? 11:35 Technology and civil liberties 21:24 Communicating the dangers of mass surveillance 25:47 US legal response to Edward Snowden revelation 40:15 Privacy and Terrorism 43:29 Jarrad Hope and Edward Snowden conversation reflections 45:42 Negative effects for US journalists because of Julian Assange case 50:11 This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange 59:37 Making the argument for the right to privacy 01:01:19 Blockchain technology for finance or privacy 01:07:40 Are Western States turning into China? 01:10:29 Saving free society by fairly sharing resources 01:15:04 Making technology relatable 01:19:21 Central Bank Digital Currency 01:30:38 Are you optimistic about the future? 01:33:43 Thank you and goodbye  

On the third season of Entitled, we're circling back to the first fundamental right: the freedom of speech. Lawyers and law professors Claudia Flores and Tom Ginsburg begin this season by peeling back the curtains of how this right is currently playing out at universities across the country. In recent years, there have been tensions — and intense clashes — around speakers invited to campus, what professors are allowed to say in the classroom, and what subject matter should even be allowed to be taught. Now, with many of these cases making their way to the courts, is free speech at universities entering a dangerous new era?In this episode, they speak with Robert Post, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School; and Ben Wizner, Director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the ACLU; and Komi Frey, Director of Faculty Outreach at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Independent, investigative news, reporting, interviews and commentary

Independent, investigative news, reporting, interviews and commentary

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

This is “Ask an Expert,” a special mini-series where our constitutional experts answer your civil rights and civil liberties questions. For our first edition, we are diving deep into Free Speech, and talking to expert Ben Wizner, the Director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology project. We have been sourcing free speech questions from you over email, social media, and our phone line. We've sorted through the questions and categorized them into a few episodes. So far, we've found our free speech footing and also logged in to how speech plays out online. For our final episode, Ben is back to educate us on the speech that happens on school grounds, education and book bans, student speech and more.

This is “Ask an Expert,” a special mini-series where our constitutional experts answer your civil rights and civil liberties questions. For this edition, we are diving into free speech and talking to expert Ben Wizner, the Director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology project. Last week for our first episode, we established our free speech footing, defining exactly what free speech is and isn't. This week, Ben is back to break down free speech as it exists online and on social media in 140 characters or less, just kidding. Social media has undoubtedly presented new free speech challenges to consider, and consider them we will. We have been sourcing free speech questions from you over email, social media and our phone line. We've sorted through the questions and we're ready to dive right in.

This is "Ask an Expert," a special mini-series where our constitutional experts answer YOUR civil rights and civil liberties questions. For our first edition, we are diving deep into Free Speech, and talking to expert Ben Wizner, the Director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology project. Free Speech is widely considered the bedrock of democracy, but still, many Americans feel both conflicted and confused by what actually constitutes free speech, what we can say, where we can say it, and who can stop us. We have been sourcing free speech questions from you over email, social media, and our phone line. We've sorted through the questions and categorized them into a few episodes. On today's episode, we're getting back to the basics with Free Speech 101 addressing hate speech, misinformation, government regulation of corporate speech, cancel culture, and why we defend free speech.

I was looking for some certainty around the tough issues of censorship and misinformation — legal definitions, rules, and clear lines — so I called Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the ACLU and the director of its Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. I'd hoped we'd have a Free Speech 101–type conversation, with tidy resolutions and a clear path forward. But what I suspected, and Ben confirmed, is that the law gives us very few answers to the hardest questions that we have. So in this episode, the two of us grapple with issues of balance and boundaries, unpacking the harms that speech can cause and the harms that censorship can cause. I'm glad that we had over an hour to talk, because as tempting as it is to approach issues like this with firm certainty or with 140 characters, it's much more important to unpack the nuances and unlock the opportunity for growth and learning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scott talks to Ben Wizner of the ACLU about the ongoing Julian Assange saga. Assange’s attempted prosecution under the Espionage Act is practically unprecedented, says Wizner. While it’s true that many leakers of government secrets have been charged for violations of secrecy agreements, no journalist or publisher has ever been successfully prosecuted for putting those secrets out to the public. The Obama administration considered going after Assange, but realized that to do so would set a precedent that would also encapsulate the New York Times, the Washington Post and any other outlet that claims to conduct national security journalism. The Trump administration, on the other hand, apparently wasn’t concerned with that problem, and went after Assange anyway. Wizner and Scott just hope that mainstream journalists will realize what a problem it would be if Assange were convicted, not just for their livelihoods, but for American liberal democracy as we know it. Discussed on the show: “Baghdad War Diary” (WikiLeaks) “Kabul War Diary” (WikiLeaks) “State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks) Ben Wizner is an American lawyer, writer, and civil liberties advocate with the American Civil Liberties Union. Follow him on Twitter @benwizner. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

Could COVID-19 be the new terrorism? Arjun talks to Elaine Pearce, Director of Human Rights Watch Australia, and Ben Wizner, Director of ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. They discuss data collection and surveillance in the new era of COVID-19. https://www.aclu.org/report/aclu-white-paper-limits-location-tracking-epidemic https://www.aclu.org/report/aclu-white-paper-principles-technology-assisted-contact-tracing

Anthony Slide is one of the most important filmographers and archivists in the history of cinema. Ben Wizner is a noted first amendment lawyer who represents Edward Snowden, a fugitive famously charged under the espionage act. He is the Director of ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project Anthony Slide and Randy share their love of film and Slide displays his encyclopedic knowledge of film history. Central to the show is a discussion of one of the most interesting and painful stories of film history—the case of the prosecution of the producer Robert Goldman, who like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden was charged under the espionage act. Goldman's story is of a filmmaker caught in a political morass because of the timing of the film's release. Ben Wizner presents a clear and frightening history of the Espionage Act and its political underpinning as a tool to silence dissent.

Legendary civil rights activist, author, and Harvard University Professor Cornell West on visiting Assange and lauding him as a revolutionary truth-teller while placing the revelations in an historical context. Ben Wizner, the attorney for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on the U.S. government's unprecedented indictment of Julian Assange and the impact on journalism from the brazen and dangerous use of the Espionage Act. The immense importance of the war logs and diplomatic cables for journalists is discussed by journalist Max Blumenthal, editor of the independent investigative journalism website The Grayzone.

Part of celebrating democracy is questioning what influences it. In this episode of IRL, we look at how the internet influences us, our votes, and our systems of government. Is democracy in trouble? Are democratic elections and the internet incompatible? Politico's Mark Scott takes us into Facebook's European Union election war room. Karina Gould, Canada's Minister for Democratic Institutions, explains why they passed a law governing online political ads. The ACLU's Ben Wizner says our online electoral integrity problem goes well beyond a few bad ads. The team at Stop Fake describes a massive problem that Ukraine faces in telling political news fact from fiction, as well as how they're tackling it. And NYU professor Eric Klinenberg explains how a little bit of offline conversation goes a long way to inoculate an electorate against election interference. IRL is an original podcast from Firefox. For more on the series go to irlpodcast.org. Early on in this episode, we comment about how more privacy online means more democracy offline. Here's more on that concept from Michaela Smiley at Firefox. Have a read through Mark Scott's Politico reporting on Facebook's European election war room. For more from Eric Klinenberg, check out his book, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. And, find out more about Stop Fake, its history, and its mission here.

The indictment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for conspiracy to hack into a classified government computer has reignited the debate over the question: what is the line between First Amendment-protected journalism and cyber-crime? On this episode, two leading experts on the intersection of the First Amendment and national security–Josh Geltzer of Georgetown University Law Center and Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project—join host Jeffrey Rosen to consider whether Assange’s indictment poses a threat to press freedom. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

The indictment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for conspiracy to hack into a classified government computer has reignited the debate over the question: what is the line between First Amendment-protected journalism and cyber-crime? On this episode, two leading experts on the intersection of the First Amendment and national security–Josh Geltzer of Georgetown University Law Center and Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project—join host Jeffrey Rosen to consider whether Assange’s indictment poses a threat to press freedom. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

On August 12, 2017, a group of white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia. The day was a disaster, with violence in the streets and Heather Heyer murdered by a man who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters. The ACLU of Virginia had represented Jason Kessler, the march organizer, in a First Amendment lawsuit when city officials attempted to move the location of the event. The ACLU’s representation of Kessler has renewed debate, both inside and outside the organization, about its role as a prominent defender of both free speech and racial justice. With white supremacy rearing its head, can the same organization effectively advance both principles? Dennis Parker, director of the ACLU Racial Justice Program, and Ben Wizner, director of the organization’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, reflect on the ongoing debate.

Ben Wizner is the Director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. Ben is also the lead attorney for Edward Snowden since 2013. The ACLU is a monolith in U.S. public and political affairs, counting over 1.2 million members as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2020. We chat to Ben about his work as Snowden’s lead attorney, Snowden’s life in Moscow and his work at the ACLU.

Finks: How the C.I.A. Tricked the World's Best Writers (Or Books)   When news broke that the CIA had colluded with literary magazines to produce cultural propaganda throughout the Cold War, a debate began that has never been resolved. The story continues to unfold, with the reputations of some of America’s best-loved literary figures—including Peter Matthiessen, George Plimpton, and Richard Wright—tarnished as their work for the intelligence agency has come to light.  Finks is a tale of two CIAs, and how they blurred the line between propaganda and literature. One CIA created literary magazines that promoted American and European writers and cultural freedom, while the other toppled governments, using assassination and censorship as political tools. Defenders of the cultural CIA argue that it should have been lauded for boosting interest in the arts and freedom of thought, but the two CIAs had the same undercover goals, and shared many of the same methods: deception, subterfuge and intimidation.  Finks demonstrates how the good-versus-bad CIA is a false divide, and that the cultural Cold Warriors again and again used anti-Communism as a lever to spy relentlessly on leftists, and indeed writers of all political inclinations, and thereby pushed U.S. democracy a little closer to the Soviet model of the surveillance state. Praise for Finks  "Listen to this book, because it talks in a very clear way about what has been silenced."--John Berger, author of Ways of Seeing and winner of the Man Booker Prize  "It may be difficult today to believe that the American intellectual elite was once deeply embedded with the CIA. But withFinks, Joel Whitney vividly brings to life the early days of the Cold War, when the CIA's Ivy League ties were strong, and key American literary figures were willing to secretly do the bidding of the nation's spymasters."--James Risen, author of Pay Any Price: Greed, Power and Endless War  "A deep look at that scoundrel time when America's most sophisticated and enlightened literati eagerly collaborated with our growing national security state. Finks is a timely moral reckoningone that compels all those who work in the academic, media and literary boiler rooms to ask some troubling questions of themselvesnamely, what, if anything, have they done to resist the subversion of free thought?"--David Talbot, founder of Salon and author of The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and the Rise of America's Secret Government  "The marriage of politics and literature is always messy and seldom boring. Intrusive governments are invariably unimaginative and plotting writers are hilariously ineffective. The whole thing makes for tortured drama, and Joel Whitney is a savvy dramatist who knows perfectly how to juice intrigue!"--Ilan Stavans, author of Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The Early Years  "The CIA's covert financial support of highbrow art and fiction may seem like a quaint, even endearing, chapter in its otherwise grim history of coups, assassinations, and torture. In Finks, Joel Whitney argues otherwise and shines a discomfiting spotlight on this obscure corner of the cultural Cold War. The result is both an illuminating read and a cautionary tale about the potential costspolitical and artisticof accommodating power."--Ben Wizner, ACLU Director of Speech, Privacy and Technology Project  Joel Whitney is a cofounder and editor at large of Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, Boston Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, Dissent, Salon, NPR, New York Magazine and The Sun. Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is managing editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).

Trump is everywhere in the news this week, so we decided to do something different: 60 minutes of political talk that is Trump-free. Guaranteed. Instead: The fight to limit government surveillance tactics: Ben Wizner talks about what we have won—and what we need to do next. He’s director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project and the lawyer for Edward Snowden. Plus: Susan Faludi tells the story of transgender woman—her father, who transitioned when she was 75. Susan of course is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. Now she has a new book out: it’s called "In the Darkroom." And Tom Lutz has been traveling a lot – he went to Lhasa to talk about Tibetan resistance to China; he went to Jordan to talk about Iran and America; and he went to Teheran to talk about the Kurds. His new book is "Drinking Mare’s Milk on the Roof of the World."

What has changed for lawyers in this “post-Snowden” world? Although this topic could be discussed for days, we lightly touch on the main themes in this Special Report with David Lat, Ben Wizner, and host Sharon Nelson. Lat and Wizner summarize their ABA TECHSHOW 2016 presentation titled “Can They Hear Me Now? Practicing Law in an Age of Mass Surveillance.” Ben opens the conversation with a comparison of old methods lawyers once used to secure their files, such as locking files in cabinets, and how the new digital communication landscape poses unforeseen data security challenges for law firms. David then expounds upon this point by expressing how many lawyers aren’t thinking about securing their data and could be facing huge ethical problems. The conversation then focuses on an analysis of whether lawyers should use the cloud and how, in certain instances, it could be more secure for law firms to do so.  

ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, who has represented whistleblower Edward Snowden, spoke at the University of Virginia School of Law on March 25 about protecting privacy in an era in which government organizations and businesses wish to gather increasing amounts of information about people's everyday lives. Wizner, the director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, is introduced by UVA Law professor Josh Bowers, co-director of the Program in Law and Public Service.

This week, Brookings hosted a book launch with Harvard Law Professor Gabriella Blum and co-author Benjamin Wittes for their new book, The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones—Confronting a New Age of Threat. The panel, which also featured Senior Fellow William Galston and the ACLU’s Ben Wizner, explored the book’s themes surrounding the potential dangers of modern technology in a world of many to many threats and defenses. What does technological proliferation mean for the framework of state and global security? How should we think about the interaction of liberty, security, and privacy? And, does this world of empowered individuals challenge the foundations of the liberal state?

In a special CitizenFour episode, Brian interviews Laura Poitras and Ben Wizner; also, New Yorker writer Mattathias Schwartz on how to catch a terrorist; and Ryan Calo on privacy vs private drones.

This week on the VICE podcast, Reihan Salam moderates a debate regarding the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified NSA documents to journalists about the NSA surveillance programs, the first of which were revealed last June in the Guardian. The guests today are Fred Kaplan, "War Stories" columnist for Slate and Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, who also serves as Snowden's chief legal advisor. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.