Podcasts about stop woke act

In this episode: Led by a Donald Trump-appointed judge, a federal appeals court struck down Florida's infamous “Stop WOKE Act,” a Ron DeSantis-championed law meant to censor university professors on subjects like racism and sexism. But Florida and other GOP-controlled Southern states are working on another way to control what can be said, taught or studied on college campuses. Meanwhile, rural and suburban towns across the state face an existential threat from a property tax cut that will appear on the November ballot. And new records reveal how a billionaire-led insurance broker wrote a law that could drive up property insurance prices for condo owners— and then puppeteered the plan through the Florida Legislature Show notes:To make a donation in support of Seeking Rents, click here. Stories discussed in today's show:‘Breathtaking assertion of power': Appeals court slams door on Florida ‘Stop Woke' law championed by DeSantisScott Maxwell: Courts confirm Florida's ‘Stop WOKE' law is un-American garbageA lawyer for Ron DeSantis revealed the real motive behind one of Florida's most controversial lawsNext in Florida's war on 'woke': Becoming its own higher ed watchdogFlorida leaders hid money for controversial higher education projectCity-by-city estimates of property tax impacts from Amendment 3What Florida's tax rollback looks like through the eyes of one small townAn insurance company led by a billionaire megadonor wrote a law pushing Florida condo owners into higher-priced property insuranceQuestions or comments? Send ‘em to Garcia.JasonR@gmail.comListen to the show: Apple | SpotifyWatch the show: YouTube Get full access to Seeking Rents at jasongarcia.substack.com/subscribe

On tonight's program: Despite bad poll numbers and unforced errors on the part of the GOP, Florida Democrats are still struggling to find their groove between the center and the progressive left; We hear from the attorney who successfully argued the case for professors fighting Florida's Stop WOKE Act; A congressional challenger in Florida sued the incumbent in an attempt to get him kicked off the Aug. 18 primary ballot. It didn't work; Florida tops the nation…..in the number of executions; And after the United States has been immersed in FIFA-style football, will the popularity of soccer really take off in the land of the N-F-L and the S-E-C?

Wednesday - We talk; Rauce at World Cup, influencers and payola, celebrity sex passes, gambling addictions, Pyrex collectibles and daylight-saving time. Animal House with Remi and Kenny from the Pet Alliance. Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell and the stupidity of the Stop WOKE Act. Plus, JCS News, JCS Trivia & You Heard it Here First.

Wednesday - We talk; Rauce at World Cup, influencers and payola, celebrity sex passes, gambling addictions, Pyrex collectibles and daylight-saving time. Animal House with Remi and Kenny from the Pet Alliance. Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell and the stupidity of the Stop WOKE Act. Plus, JCS News, JCS Trivia & You Heard it Here First. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In July 1949, four young African Americans — Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd, and Walter Irvin — were falsely accused of raping a white teenager in Lake County.The Groveland Four, as they became known, were posthumously exonerated in 2021. This year, the state set aside $4 million to make their families whole. But can justice delayed ever be served?Then, why the Stop WOKE Act appellate ruling isn't the end of the controversy, a rock music camp is teaching more than music to young girls, and a huge art exhibit at the Straz offers insight into an incognito artist.Website: https://www.wusf.orgSign up for our daily newsletter: https://www.wusf.org/wakeupcall-newsletterFollow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WUSFInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/wusfpublicmedia/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsN1ZItTKcJ4AGsBIni3

Sarah Isgur and David French preview the next Supreme Court term, discuss a dissent from a cert denial on defamation, and consider a few think pieces on the court: Are any of the justices political? Finally, the circuit decision heard ‘round the world: Florida's Stop WOKE Act, stopped by an 11th Circuit panel decision. The Agenda: –Every rose has its thorn –Not-A-Ban on assault weapons coming next term –Text vs. Precedent, field prevention, and climate change-related injuries  –A little boring Title IX is nice for change –Back to Colorado's anti-discrimination cases –An easy parental rights case? –A headline-generating case but a not-so-important legal case –12-person juries and felonies – Actual malice and Alan Dershowitz  –How Political Is This Supreme Court? –STOP Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Show Notes –October Term 2026 –Watch Zachary Shemtob's interview with the National Legal Director of the ACLU, Cecillia Wang, from our term recap event.  Order Sarah's book here. Advisory Opinions is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch's offerings—including access to all of our articles, members-only newsletters, and bonus podcast episodes—click here. If you'd like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7.10.2026 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Florida STOP WOKE Act Struck Down. Ben Crump Speaks On Nolan Wells. Black Scholarship Saved_ For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (724) 264-8281 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to https://askchapter.org/roland *Paid Partnership*_Download the Kalshi app and use code Soccer10 to get $10 when you trade $10. You can also sign up at kalshi.com/r/soccer10, which auto-applies the code at checkout. Kalshi. Trade What's Next_ A federal judge strikes down part of Florida's STOP WOKE Act. We'll talk with the Florida A&M law professor who sued the state to stop it. The Trump administration fires the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission -- the latest in the GOP attack on Black America. Nolan Wells' family spoke for the first time publicly today about their son's mysterious death.Attorney Ben Crump will join us... The University of North Carolina-Wilmington said a scholarship for Black students would have to be changed. The Black family, who gave the money, said NOPE, and now the $1 million endowment is probably headed to Howard. The alums of the South's oldest HBCU, North Carolina's Shaw University, believe the school administration is not making the best financial decisions. We'll talk to the founder of one alum group who fears they may end up like Saint Augustine's University. Also, more of our exclusive coverage of the VA Democrats Blue Commonwealth Gala -- we'll show you my one-on-one with Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones. Black Star Network Partner: ChapterChapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options.____Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

DOCKET ALERTS:   Trump says he's going to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its birthright citizenship ruling "IMMEDIATELY." (He's not.)   He also says he's going to get SCOTUS to reconsider its denial of certiorari in the E. Jean Carroll case, and thus he shouldn't have to pay the $5 million he owes her. (Again, he's not.) Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the escrowed funds to be disbursed to Kaplan, holding that it was time for Trump to "do equity and pay the judgment." And the Second Circuit summarily refused his "emergency" request for an administrative stay of the disbursement order. Pay up, a-hole!   The DC Circuit rebuffed Trump's petition to get his name slapped back on the Kennedy Center pending appeal of the ruling that it was illegal to put it there in the first place. Olympian David Hearn was arraigned today in DC Superior Court on felony charges for having vandalized Trump's janky Reflecting Pool remodel.   Former Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan was given a $5,000 fine but no jail time after being convicted of obstructing ICE by letting an immigrant defendant exit the courtroom using the jury door. The government had sought an eight to ten-month custodial sentence.   DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Ken Paxton, who separated from his wife two years ago, and still continues to use his former marital home as his address for voting purposes, according to ProPublica.   MAIN SHOW:   The Eleventh Circuit upheld an injunction blocking much of Florida's Stop WOKE Act (get it? get it?), which barred university professors from taking a position on "controversial" ideas like systemic racism. The state's theory is that professors are government employees, and employers can regulate speech, and thus teachers are just like Walmart greeters who can be given a strict script. The judges did not agree.   In Georgia, a federal judge quashed a subpoena for a vast trove of data on every person who worked on the 2020 election. Judge William Ray reasoned that any "crime" committed would be outside the statute of limitations, and so he need not reach the propriety of the subpoena to quash it.   According to a recently filed lawsuit, the Trump administration has been violating its own policies and handing Iranian asylum seekers over to the Iranian government — even after we started bombing the country.   Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner has dropped out — sort of. We'll discuss the legal implications and what happens going forward.   SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Update on the "Judgefight" from Ep. 243. Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in DC says that the Trump administration cannot use the Social Security database to bulk-verify state voter rolls. Judge T. Kent Wetherell in Florida says that they must. Now what?   Carroll v. Trump [SDNY docket] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65895581/carroll-v-trump   Carroll v. Trump [Second Circuit docket] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73589905/carroll-v-trump/   Beatty v. Trump [Kennedy Center, DC Circuit docket] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73477160/joyce-beatty-v-donald-trump   US v. Dugan  https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70255566/united-states-v-dugan   Ken Paxton Vowed to Crack Down on "Illegal Voting." He May Have Violated Texas Election Law. https://www.propublica.org/article/ken-paxton-voter-registration-election-law   Pernell v. Commissioner of the FL State Board of Education [11th Circuit Stop WOKE] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca11.80813/gov.uscourts.ca11.80813.11014486517.1.pdf   Iranian American Legal Defense Fund v. Rubio [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73581390/iranian-american-legal-defense-fund-v-rubio/   Maine Revised Statutes, Title 21-A, §374-A [candidate dropping out statute] https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/21-a/title21-Asec374-A.html   League of Women Voters v. DHS (DC Cir appeal) [docket via CourtListener] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.43348/   League of Women Voters v. DHS (Sooknanan SAVE docket) [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71499795/league-of-women-voters-v-us-department-of-homeland-security/?order_by=desc   State of Florida v. DHS (Wetherell SAVE docket) [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69271601/state-of-florida-v-department-of-homeland-security/?order_by=desc   Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod  

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showHumphrey's Executor, which has been obviously dead for some time, is now officially overturned. Except! The Federal Reserve is special and unique and in a historical tradition. Also this week: John Bolton has pleaded guilty to mishandling national defense information and might even get jail time. In Florida, federal prosecutors mistakenly disclosed Jack Smith's report on the documents investigation to Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, as part of their prosecution of Lineberger for stealing a copy of the report (which she labeled as a “bundt cake recipe,” oops).For paying subscribers: In Chicago, US Attorney Andrew Boutros is in more trouble. And in Minnesota, more subpoenas have been quashed as politically motivated. Alleged pipe bomber Brian Cole hasn't been pardoned. Todd Blanche doesn't want to release more Epstein documents. A prosecution relating to Trump's reflecting pool is likely to face problems. Florida's “Stop WOKE Act” has been thrown out. And the ACLU of Maine wants the Secret Service to let the “Cats on a Couch” lady troll JD Vance in person.Upgrade your subscription now at serioustrouble.show.

Top headlines for Thursday, July 9, 2026Craig Hagin's neglect conviction, a federal court striking down Florida's Stop WOKE Act in public universities, Christian families fleeing blasphemy fears in Pakistan, and a Midtown Manhattan high-rise evacuation after dangerous structural buckling during a housing conversion.0:11 Ex-Rhema Bible Church co-pastor Craig Hagin convicted1:04 Appeals court strikes down Florida's 'Stop WOKE Act'1:50 High-rise sags, buckles in Manhattan forcing evacuation2:45 Dozens of Christians flee their homes in Pakistan3:40 Church treasurer charged with stealing more than $400K4:35 Jordan Peterson says recovery remains slow, resumes writing5:23 Christopher Nolan's 'Odyssey' film stirs division before releaseSubscribe to this PodcastApple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle PodcastsOvercastFollow Us on Social Media@ChristianPost on TwitterChristian Post on Facebook@ChristianPostIntl on InstagramSubscribe on YouTubeGet the Edifi AppDownload for iPhoneDownload for AndroidSubscribe to Our NewsletterSubscribe to the Freedom Post, delivered every Monday and ThursdayClick here to get the top headlines delivered to your inbox every morning!Links to the NewsEx-Rhema Bible Church co-pastor Craig Hagin convicted | U.S.Appeals court strikes down Florida's 'Stop WOKE Act' | PoliticsHigh-rise sags, buckles in Manhattan forcing evacuation | U.S.Dozens of Christians flee their homes in Pakistan | WorldChurch treasurer charged with stealing more than $400K | U.S.Jordan Peterson says recovery remains slow, resumes writing | U.S.Christopher Nolan's 'Odyssey' film stirs division before release | Entertainment

Thank you so much for listening to the Bob Harden Show, celebrating nearly 15 years broadcasting on the internet. On Thursday's show, we visit with the Co-Founder and CEO of the Florida Citizens Alliance Keith Flaugh about a federal Appeals Court decision to overturn Florida's 2022 Stop Woke Act, and we discuss the candidate Forum on Saturday for Congressional District 22. Cato Institute Director of Health Policy Studies Michael Cannon and I discuss the reduction in enrollment in and the escalation of Obamacare premiums. CEI Senior Economist Ryan Young and I discuss inflation, employment, trade, and the Fed. We also visit with Substack columnist Patrick Carroll about rent controls and “rent strikes.” We have terrific a terrific guest for Friday's show, author and Professor Andrew Joppa. Access this and past shows at your convenience on my web site, social media platforms or podcast platforms.

Trump declares the ceasefire with Iran "over," the U.K. says NATO's European allies will spend $50 billion on "deep precision strike" capabilities, the U.S. charges an Indian gang leader in the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader, a judge rejects the Justice Department's attempt to obtain the names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County, top AI firms receive failing grades on the Future of Life Institute's Safety Index, OpenAI is set to launch GPT-5.6 after U.S. approval, a court strikes down Florida's "Stop WOKE Act", French lawmakers back a law presuming police who use their firearms acted lawfully, Reform UK accuses the National Crime Agency of leaking information amid finance probes, and a study finds that men's average testosterone levels fell 54% over five decades. Sources: Verity.News

Thank you so much for listening to the Bob Harden Show, celebrating nearly 15 years broadcasting on the internet. On Thursday's show, we visit with the Co-Founder and CEO of the Florida Citizens Alliance Keith Flaugh about a federal Appeals Court decision to overturn Florida's 2022 Stop Woke Act, and we discuss the candidate Forum … The post Obamacare and Escalating Health Insurance Premiums appeared first on Bob Harden Show.

Chris Rufo takes the L as his Stop Woke Act is declared unconstitutional.

Ron DeSantis suffered another defeat in his war on free speech when a federal appeals court ruled his "Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act" unconstitutional.

Authoritarianism on the rise: Educators and unionists share strategies for resistance and victory, citing historical examples of successful labor movements, at a conference hosted by CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and Cornell Worker Institute in New York City this past May.This show is made possible by you!  To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donateDescription: Labor organizing is critical to any anti-fascist movement, but labor unions and worker education are feeling the impact of brutal Republican attacks and cuts. How are workers and educators responding? In this special report, from a conference held at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) in New York City, Laura spoke with Rebecca “Becky” Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest union in the country, about labor solidarity in the deep-red state of Utah; history professor Robert Cassannello, a plaintiff in a successful suit against Florida Gov. DeSantis's Stop Woke Act; and Rev. Ryan Brown, an Amazon worker/organizer from North Carolina, about how workers and educators are fighting back, and even winning in these times, although the obstacles are immense. The conference, “Labor and the Crisis of Democracy; Working Class Politics in a Time of Authoritarianism” was convened by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies with the Cornell Worker Institute. “It's not the first time that our species have lived in perilous times, with pharaohs who are giving people work without any brick, without any straw. They have always figured out a way to organize, to mobilize and to agitate . . . Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, they were just regular, everyday human beings. No education. But they knew that fundamentally something was wrong about the world.” - Rev. Ryan Brown“You can study any authoritarian reign, any oligarch throughout history. The people who have the most success in fighting against them are educators and they are unionists . . . We understand these are multi-pronged attacks on every front. So we have to actually have a multi-pronged approach for educators.” - Becky Pringle GUESTS:• Reverend Ryan Brown: President, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment (CAUSE)• Robert Cassannello: History Professor, University of Central Florida; Incoming President, United Faculty of Florida (UFF)• Bhairavi Desai: Executive Director, NY Taxi Worker Alliance• Annabelle Heckler: Artist; Social Practice Fellow, CUNY• Sherman Henry: Director, Labor Institute for Advancing Black Strategies, Clark Atlanta University• Dr. Mudiwa Pettus: Assistant Professor, English Department, Medgar Evers College; Social Practice Fellow, CUNY • Rebecca “Becky” Pringle: President, National Education Association Check out the Bonus Interview in this podcast feed:  In a candid discussion with Laura, veteran union organizer Alex Han and U.S. Right Wing expert Tarso Ramos explore how workers are uniting against rising authoritarianism. Music Credit: “Jagged” by Blue Dot Sessions. And original sound production and design by Jeannie Hopper. Watch the special report released on YouTube May 30th 5pm ET; PBS World Channel June 1st, and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast June 4th. RESOURCES:Watch the broadcast episode cut for time at our YouTube channel and airing on PBS stations across the country  Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:• Africana & Puerto Rican Studies: A Student-Led Victory for Multicultural Education: Watch / Listen-Podcast• Journalists Maria Hinojosa & Chenjerai Kumanyika: Forced Removals, Foreign Detention, the War on Education & Free Speech: Watch / Listen-Podcast:  Episode and/or Full Conversation•  Labor Safety, Project 2025, & the Far Right's Plot Against Workers: What You Need to Know: Watch / Listen-PodcastRelated Articles and Resources:•  AFGE president says downsizing after Trump's order threatens the union's survival, by Ryan Foley, May 5, 2025, Associated Press•  Judge blocks Trump push to cut public school funding over diversity programs, by Holly Ramer, AP and Collin Binkley, AP, April 24, 2025, PBS• PFFU, Utah labor unions return 320K signatures for referendum challenging anti-collective bargaining law, April 17, 2025, International Association of Fire Fighters• UCF professor may proceed in lawsuit against Stop ‘WOKE' Act (FL), September 25, 2022, The Charge, Nicholson Student Media Full Episode Notes are located HERE. Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O'Conner. FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky: https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to PEN America's Jeremy Young about what a second Trump administration holds in store for higher education. It was an informative—and sobering—conversation. Over the next four years, we should be prepared for a tsunami of ideologically-driven threats to academic freedom, campus free expression and the basic integrity of higher education. If you would rather read than listen, there is a transcript attached below. Show NotesPEN America's *Educational Censorship* page is a terrific resourceOn Christopher Rufo, see Benjamin Wallace-Wells, “How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory,” New Yorker, June 18, 2021 and Michael Kruse, “DeSantis' Culture Warrior: ‘We Are Now Over the Walls,'” Politico, March 24, 2023. For Rufo's take on critical race theory, in his own words, see this YouTube video. Here is the full text of Executive Order 13950, which became the template for most of the anti-CRT (or “divisive concepts”) laws passed in red states. On the Stop WOKE Act, the marquee anti-CRT law signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022, check out these two Banished episodes:The Sunshine State Descends into Darkness (Again)Will Florida's "Stop WOKE Act" Hold Up in Court?Jeffrey Sachs and Jeremy Young predict the future: “For Federal Censorship of Higher Ed, Here's What Could Happen in 2025” (PEN America, January 2, 2025)For more on the phenomenon of “jawboning,” see this page from FIRE and this page from the Knight First Amendment Institute On “anticipatory obedience,” see this excerpt from Timothy Snyder's 2017 book, On Tyranny On legislative challenges to campus DEI, see the Chronicle of Higher Education DEI Legislation Tracker. (We are quite skeptical of many conventional DEI efforts but state bans are a cure that is far worse than the disease )For a deeper dive on accreditation, see Eric Kelderman, “Trump's Vision for College Accreditation Could Shake Up the Sector” (Chronicle of Higher Education, November 26, 2024)On Title VI investigations by the Office of Civil Rights, see Zach Montague, “Campus Protest Investigations Hang Over Schools as New Academic Year Begins” (New York Times, October 5, 2024)Here is the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. Kenneth Stern, one of the definition's main authors, explains why he is concerned it is being used to promote campus censorshipOn the prospect of a much heftier endowment tax for the country's wealthiest institutions, see Phillip Levine, “How Trump Could Devastate Our Top Colleges' Finances” (Chronicle of Higher Education, January 13, 2025). Levine addresses the normative question—should college endowments be taxed?—here. TranscriptJeff: So, we're looking forward to a second Trump administration.Jeremy: Are we looking forward to a second Trump administration?Amna: No…towards.Jeff: We are anticipating…I personally am dreading a second Trump administration.Amna: This is Banished and I'm Amna Khalid, along with my colleague Jeff Snyder. Jeff and I were delighted to have the chance to catch up with PEN America's Jeremy Young at the recent American Historical Association conference in New York City. He's one of the most informed and astute analysts of government driven censorship in higher education today. We started by asking him to tell us a little about PEN America.Jeremy: PEN America is a 102 year old organization that exists at the intersection of literature and human rights. It is one of 140 PEN centers around the world which are in a loose network of PEN Centers governed by PEN International. PEN America's mission is to celebrate literature and defend the freedoms that make it possible, of which two of the foremost are academic freedom and freedom of expression.Amna: And what's your specific role?Jeremy: I am the Director of State and Higher Education Policy at PEN America, which means that I oversee our Freedom to Learn program, which leads actions and responses to educational censorship legislation, largely from the state governments, but also from the federal government. Things like DEI bans, critical race theory restrictions, and various other types of restrictions on faculty governance and university autonomy.Amna: We're eager to hear your predictions on what the higher ed sector should be bracing for with the second Trump administration. But first, Jeremy, could you please remind us of the nature of the attacks against higher education during Trump 1.0?Jeremy: In the summer and fall of 2020, this really happened late in the first Trump administration, there was a national panic around critical race theory, and this was created by Chris Rufo and some others really as a response, a backlash, if you will, against the George Floyd protests, the Black Lives Matter movement, the popularity of the 1619 Project, and so on, this sort of moment of racial reckoning. And so Rufo and others (Rufo is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute) decided to use this term critical race theory, which of course is an academic term with a particular set of meanings but to, as he put it, decodify and recodify it, essentially weaponize it to mean things that weren't all that connected to the actual theory of critical race theory and were really just a sort of catchall for criticisms of DEI and other race-based pedagogies and ideas. And so Rufo was able to convince president Trump to issue an executive order 13950 called Race and Sex Stereotyping that laid out a list of nine divisive concepts which bore some passing resemblance to critical race theory, but really were vague, and general, and banned all sorts of practices related to race, gender, and identity, and ideas related to race, gender, and identity that were unclear and difficult to interpret. Originally, this was a restriction aimed solely at trainings in government agencies…the executive order never went into effect. It was stayed by a court and repealed on the first day of the Biden administration. But that language of the divisive concepts then began to appear in state legislatures aimed now squarely at education. At first, at K-12 institutions primarily, and over time, higher education became more and more of the target.In 2023, we started to see a shift toward sort of broad spectrum attacks on higher education, moving away from some of the direct speech restrictions of the critical race theory bans, in part because of court cases that had gone adversely for those restrictions, and instead restricting broad swaths of university governance, including DEI offices, the ability of a university to manage diversity work on its own as a sort of shared governance function, tenure restrictions on faculty governance, restrictions on curriculum, which I think are going to be very prominent in 2025.Amna: You mentioned backlash to the 2020 racial reckoning as a key factor driving the anti-CRT movement. Can you say something more about where this opposition to CRT and now DEI is coming from?Jeremy: I think that there are several causes that are inseparable from one another. I think there are people who actually do want to restrict those particular ideas on campus, who want to advance a sort of triumphalist Western canon narrative of America as the victor, and they're just very opposed to any discussions that paint the United States in any way that is not hyper-patriotic and perfect. There's absolutely some racism, some sexism, some, some discrimination, discriminatory bias that's involved.I also think that there is a real desire to simply crush university power that I think comes out of the educational realignment that we have seen over the last 10 years. Kamala Harris won college educated Americans by 14 points, and four years ago, Joe Biden won them by four, and prior to the 2016 election, there was essentially no difference between the parties, really, at any time in American history on the axis of college education. There is now a sense I think among some conservative forces that instead of the long-time conservative project of reforming universities, having more viewpoint diversity, think of the Koch Centers in various institutions. Instead they're a place where liberals go to get educated, so we should just crush them, right? So I think that's part of it. It's just the goal of taking away universities' autonomy on everything is a key component.And the third component is political gain. And that is the one that has fluctuated the most over this period. Glenn Youngkin won a come from behind victory running on criticizing critical race theory in K-12 schools. And Steve Bannon said in 2021, I think about critical race theory and I see 50 new House seats in the midterm elections. Now, when that didn't happen, I think it began to become clear that these attacks are not as salient as they were thought to be. I think in 2023 and 2024, there was a real move away from that, especially with, also with the collapse of the DeSantis presidential campaign, which was built entirely around this idea of him being, fighting the war on woke. There was a sense that, maybe you still want to do these things, but now it's going to be quiet, it's going to be stealth mode, because there's no political gain to be gotten from having a big press release around this, around the Stop WOKE Act. But the other two motivations, the motivation of restricting certain ideas about race; and the motivation of smashing the power of higher education, those have remained constant.Jeff: Very succinct and helpful. Thank you. You and your colleague Jeffrey Sachs recently wrote an informative and sobering piece about Trump's plans for higher ed in 2025 and beyond. Maybe you could tell us a little about your key predictions. The first one you mention is jawboning. What is jawboning and why should we be worried about it?Jeremy: Jawboning, put simply, is when government officials, instead of passing a law requiring someone who isn't a government official to do something, they simply browbeat or bully or threaten them into doing it. In some ways you can look at the congressional hearings as a form of jawbonings or making threats against presidents at Columbia and Harvard and so on. But the classic example is actually what we're seeing at the state level where lawmakers are simply going to university presidents and say, saying, okay, we're not going to pass a DEI ban or a curriculum restriction. We're going to simply request that you make one on your own or we'll cut your funding. Or we'll pass one next year that's worse than anything you could imagine. It's a very intimate form of censorship, right? It takes restrictions out of the legislative process where they can be challenged at a hearing; out of the judicial process where they can be challenged on constitutional grounds; and every single one of these bills has at least some constitutional infirmities. And instead makes it just a threat, right? We're gonna cut your budget. What are you gonna do about that? It's a very difficult position for presidents to be in because they don't have a lot of leverage.Jeff: I think it was Yale historian Timothy Snyder who coined the term anticipatory obedience.  He said it was a dynamic that's often seen under conditions of rising authoritarianism. So you've got individuals and groups that start to make concessions they think will appease the powers that be. Is there a connection here to jawboning?Jeremy: Yes, so we talk about over compliance and pre-compliance. We're not going to comply with the letter of the law, we're going to comply with the spirit of the law. There is a law in Alabama that passed in 2024 that restricts some elements of DEI, but does not actually ban outright the DEI offices. And every university in Alabama has treated it as though it is an outright ban. And that's significant, in particular, because of the nature of these laws. You know, you go look at a set of statutes in a state legislature or the federal government, what you'll notice is that most laws are very precise. Think about traffic laws. What are you allowed to do on the road? It's very specific. You can drive this many miles an hour this particular way. There's no room for interpretation. There's no room for judgment because the goal is to make you comply with the law. These laws are intentionally vague. They ban broad swaths of ideas which are never defined in the laws.What does it mean to say, for instance, one of the divisive concepts, to say that you're not allowed to say that the United States is fundamentally racist. What does that mean? It doesn't say in the law what that means. It's left up to your interpretation, which means whoever is going to enforce that law gets to decide whether you violate it. That is actually a constitutional violation. It's against the 14th Amendment. And while the courts have found all sorts of infirmities with these laws, that's the one they've found the most consistency. Not freedom of speech, not racial discrimination but vagueness. So over-complying with a vague law is, it's difficult to avoid because these laws lend themselves to over-compliance because they're so vague. But it's also vitally important to avoid doing that.The other thing that we see is pre-compliance, which is just imagining that the legislature is going to pass a law but then whether or not they do it. We intervened with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, one of the seven accrediting bodies because they were basically enacting what a restriction in Project 2025 that would have forbidden them to have a DEI standard for universities they accredit. And just doing it preemptively.It's not clear whether the education department is able to pass that restriction without legislation. And it's not clear whether legislation or the regulation would survive a court challenge. And they're just saying we'll just take it out. That's pre-compliance. You don't want to do that. And what we argued successfully, is that, again, even if you don't think an accreditor should have a DEI standard, we don't take a position on that. The worst time to get rid of your DEI standard is one month before a new administration that's promised to ban it tells you to. That's the moment when you put up your back and say, no, we're not going to comply with this.Jeff: Jeremy, tell us a little bit more about the new Trump administration's plans to disrupt the conventional work of accreditors.Jeremy: So higher education institutions are accredited by one of seven accrediting bodies, six of which have historically served certain regions, but now under new federal regulations the university can work with any of the seven accreditors. But they still tend to be concentrated in regions.Accreditation is really the only thing that separates a real substantive university from a diploma mill; and the way that accreditation is enforced, is that the Department of Education will only provide federal student financial aid, which 55 percent of all students receive, to schools that it recognizes as legitimate accreditors, which currently is those seven institutional accreditors. They are private or nonprofit organizations. They're run by academics. They have their pluses and minuses, but they are pretty much the guarantor of institutional quality in higher education. And if you look at Project 2025, everything that they say they want to do to higher education is focused on accreditation. They have identified these accreditors as the soft underbelly of higher education. And the simplest thing that they want to do and that they probably will at least try to do is to ban accreditors from having DEI standards, of which six of the seven currently do.But they really want to go further. What they really want to do is to undermine the system of accreditation itself by allowing any jurisdiction, any state, to either charter its own accreditor or serve as its own accreditor. So Ron DeSantis could become the accreditor for all universities in Florida. And now instead of those universities having DEI offices, he can say you cannot be accredited in the state of Florida unless you've banned DEI and basically instituted a classical curriculum, a Hillsdale style classical curriculum. It's a little more complicated than project 2025 makes it sound. Our analysis is that while they may attempt to do it through regulatory action, the process of negotiated rulemaking in the Department of Education is sufficiently complex that it would probably stop them from doing it and so that probably means that they need legislation to change the Higher Education Act, which would be subject to a filibuster.So this is something that we will be watching to see if they try to do it administratively. It may not be possible. And we'll also be watching if they try to slip it into one of those reconciliation bills that are being proposed that would be able to go through without a filibuster.Jeff: So that's how the accreditation system might be weaponized. You and Sacks also identify Title VI enforcement by the Office of Civil Rights as a key area of concern. Maybe we can break this down into its component parts. What is the Office of Civil Rights and what's Title VI?Jeremy: Sure. So the Office of Civil Rights is an office within the Department of Education that ensures that educational institutions meet the requirements of the various civil rights laws. It covers Title VI funding, which is funding that is tied to financial aid for universities, and it makes sure that institutions that are receiving federal financial aid are following these civil rights protections. It is an office does good work and we have a good relationship with the office.We have some concerns about the way that the Biden administration has been investigating and enforcing agreements with universities around antisemitism. We expect things to get far worse in the new administration. We expect that any university that has any sort of protest or any faculty member who expresses pro-Palestinian views is going to be investigated and sanctioned by the Office of Civil Rights. We expect they're going to launch lawsuits. They're going to really go after universities. So it is an office that is going to be used in some really aggressive ways to restrict speech on campus.Jeff: In terms of restricting speech, you and Sachs are especially worried about the trend on the part of colleges and universities, not to mention states and the federal government, to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. Why is this so concerning to you both?Jeremy: So the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism is a very interesting document. It starts with a description that is quite thoughtful and then it gives a list of examples of things that could be forms of antisemitism or could accompany antisemitism, and that list includes things like singling out the state of Israel for special criticism that other states are not singled out for that do engage in the same actions or just you know criticizing Zionism, things like that. Which in the context of what that definition was designed for yes, sometimes when you see those statements, it's worth perking your ears up and asking, is this accompanying antisemitism or not?What the laws are doing, and this comes from a model bill that the Goldwater Institute wrote in 2016, and it's now being suffused into all these federal and state policies, is to take those examples of possible antisemitism and change it from possible to definite antisemitism. So anytime you criticize the state of Israel, it's antisemitism. And then writing that into law, saying that universities have to treat this as any instance of this broad definition of antisemitism as hate speech or as a form of harassment. The author of that definition, Kenneth Stern has repeatedly said that it is not designed to be used in that way. In fact, he said it's unconstitutional to use it in that way. And yet that's what we're seeing. So that's the concern. It's not that you shouldn't have a definition of anti Semitism, although I will say our statutes tend not to define particular types of hate speech because it's too subjective, right? This is the reason that we have definitions like severe, pervasive, and targeted for harassment. You're looking at a pattern of behavior because each individual case is protected by free expression.Jeff: I understand that the Office of Civil Rights is currently conducting dozens of Title VI investigations stemming from campus protests over the war in Gaza. There are widespread allegations of antisemitism, many of which are accompanied by competing charges of Islamophobia. How do you think we should make sense of this?Jeremy: These are complex situations. Lots of universities are getting them wrong. Some universities are being overly censorious, some not enforcing harassment protections. And it's right and proper for OCR to investigate these things. The problem is that they are not always coming up with the right findings. That they're not always protecting free expression, balancing free expression adequately with the need to protect students from harassment. We're seeing universities implement draconian time, place and manner restrictions on speech. So just the fact that OCR and the Congress are making all these threatening noises about restricting speech leads a lot of universities to do the censor's work for them.Amna: Jeremy mentioned one other thing the new Trump administration has made ramblings about, which is ramping up the endowment tax on the country's wealthiest institutions. Please see an informative Chronicle of Higher Education article by Philip Levine, linked in the show notes.What all these attacks or interventions, depending on your point of view, have in common, is that they seek to undermine the autonomy of colleges and universities. Here's Jeremy.Jeremy: University autonomy is not a principle that is very widely understood in the United States. It's much more common in Europe where there's an autonomy index and all sorts of things as a way of protecting academic freedom. But it's a vital component of academic freedom. We think about academic freedom in the U.S. primarily as being the freedom of an individual faculty member to speak their mind or to engage in their research or teaching. But, in reality, that freedom can only be protected so long as the people overseeing it, the university administration, are free from the ideological control of the government. The key here is ideological control. We aren't saying that the government doesn't have a budgetary responsibility to oversee the university, or that there isn't a role for the government in community relations, or student success, or access and completion, or any of these things. But when it comes to ideas, what ideas can be present on a campus, whether it's in the classroom, whether it's in a DEI office, anywhere on campus, that is not the government's business, and it cannot be the government's business, or ultimately everyone on campus is simply going to be currying favor with whatever political party is in charge.Amna: Jeremy, this has been wonderful and you've been so kind to give us so much time. Thank you.Jeff: Thank you. It's an absolute pleasure.Amna: That was our conversation with Jeremy Young of PEN America on what Trump 2.0 portends for higher education. As of yesterday, Trump's second term has officially begun. Keep your eyes peeled and ears tuned for what's to come next. If you liked what you heard today, be sure to help us spread the word about Banished, and don't forget to comment and rate this show.Once again, this is Banished, and I'm Amna Khalid, along with Jeff Snyder. Until next time. This is a public episode. 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Exploring Academic Censorship and Its Impact on Free Speech in Universities This episode of Changing Higher Ed® podcast features Dr. Jeremy Young of PEN America, discussing the organization's efforts to combat censorship in higher education. PEN America's "Freedom to Learn" program actively opposes state legislative attempts to restrict academic freedom and free speech on college campuses. The interview highlights concerning trends like "educational gag orders," "jawboning," and DEI bans in various states, emphasizing the threat these actions pose to intellectual discourse and institutional autonomy. Young advocates for universities to prioritize protecting free expression, even amidst political pressure, suggesting strategic approaches for presidents and boards to navigate these challenges. The discussion also covers PEN America's annual report, "America's Censored Classrooms 2024," which tracks these legislative trends. Podcast Overview PEN America's Mission and Background PEN America is a 100-year-old organization focused on defending the freedoms of writers, including academic freedom and freedom of expression. Originally stood for Poets, Essayists, and Novelists but now just "PEN" to be more inclusive of all writers. PEN International has over 140 PEN centers worldwide. PEN America's activities include awards, literary festivals, global writer protection, advocacy against book bans, free speech advocacy, and higher ed advocacy (Freedom to Learn program). PEN America is described as "center-left," maintaining relationships with organizations across the political spectrum. The Threat to Academic Freedom and Free Speech There's a growing movement to constrict the space of ideas available to students on college campuses. The argument often made is that universities lean left, and the solution is to limit existing voices, not to add more conservative perspectives. This trend manifests in attempts to ban courses, curricula, and harass administrators. The "solution to speech is more speech," and increased voices are beneficial. Book Banning and the Underlying Agenda Book banning often involves claims of obscenity but is ultimately an attempt to constrain ideas, not to protect children from inappropriate material. Analysis of banned books reveals they disproportionately feature minoritized identities, including LGBTQ, race, and sexual violence. Those who want to ban these books view them as encouraging those types of identities. PEN believes people need to see themselves reflected in books and that banning them is an attempt to cut off viewpoints for students. "America's Censored Classrooms 2024" Report An annual report tracking legislation that censors colleges and universities. Tracks "educational gag orders" that censor topics/ideas and restrictions on university autonomy (DEI offices, curriculum, accreditation standards, tenure, governance). Focuses on trends in proposed and passed legislation and predictions for the future. Jawboning as a Form of Censorship Jawboning refers to lawmakers threatening or bullying university presidents into actions they want without passing laws. This includes pressuring universities to close DEI offices or eliminate certain programs. It is a stealthy approach as there are no democratic elements, no hearings for public comment, and no laws in place to challenge. It creates a difficult situation for presidents who have limited leverage and no recourse. Congressional hearings on antisemitism have become another form of jawboning intended to intimidate university presidents and make political points. The goal often isn't to address the issue at hand but to exploit them for political gain. Florida as a Case Study in Censorship Florida is cited as "Armageddon for higher education." The state passed the "Stop Woke Act," which is a direct restriction of faculty speech. SB 266 banned DEI and placed significant restrictions on curriculum, causing numerous course eliminations. The University of North Florida removed its interfaith center due to thinking it was a DEI program. The governor replaced the board of New College of Florida with conservative figures who dramatically altered the curriculum and mission. PEN America has opened a permanent office in Florida to respond to these threats. DEI Bans in Higher Education and Their Impacts DEI bans result in the closing of cultural centers, women's centers, and multicultural centers. Staff are often reassigned or laid off in states that pass bans. Iowa has passed the most draconian ban, including a ban on developing any programming "with reference to race." It restricts universities from opining on 16 topics related to race, gender, and identity or any related topics. Universities can't even discuss bias, including the term. Extremist Attacks on Accreditors Project 2025 has a plan to weaponize accreditation, forcing accreditors to remove any reference to DEI. The government is threatening to censor ideas by forcing this change in standards. WASC considered preemptively removing DEI language but backed off after pushback. PEN America is not concerned with DEI standards themselves but with government censorship of those standards. The Impact of Censorship Laws It takes years to reverse censorship laws, even if they are ultimately deemed unconstitutional. Once laws are put into place, universities have to comply until they are challenged. This can lead to the loss of programs, funding, and staff for years. The "Stop Woke Act" was ruled on in four and a half months, which was exceptionally fast. Institutional Neutrality and University Leadership Presidents are scared, and there are laws banning them from commenting on anything. Institutional neutrality is a good principle, but the judgment of what concerns the university's mission must be made internally. The government is inserting its judgment over the judgment of the people who are running the institution. Academic freedom is not possible if the leaders are under the direct ideological thumb of the government. University Presidents' Responses and Strategies: Managing Laws and Defending Ideological Independence Many presidents are doing the wrong thing, unilaterally disarming by preemptively closing DEI programs. It is a strategy that is ineffective when they are dealing with a national campaign, not local lawmakers. Presidents should be prudent about public statements but strategically defend the university's ideological independence. They should embrace cooperation with lawmakers on non-ideological issues (budgets, safety, etc.), but not on controlling ideas. Presidents need to use their limited leverage to protect the independence of the university. Faculty's Role in Protecting Free Speech Universities sometimes fail to share their strategies with faculty and restrict the faculty from expressing viewpoints that could help the institution. Faculty can be more outspoken than institutions, and using the "I'm not speaking for the university" disclaimer can be helpful. Universities should not comment on current events unless they directly affect the institution. Universities should not silence alternative viewpoints. Leaders should avoid inserting themselves in debates where there is no role for them. Free Expression and Institutional Mission Universities must welcome all viewpoints to allow for robust debate. This allows the university to state whether a view aligns with the values of the institution. They must defend the right for all to speak, but they must be able to freely express their own views on the matter. There is no constitutional exception for hate speech, only incitement to violence. Champions of Higher Education PEN America has created the Champions of Higher Education, which is a group of over 300 former college presidents who speak out against these laws and attacks. It is important to protect all kinds of speech on campus, as well as to maintain a safe campus environment. Four Takeaways for University Presidents and Boards "Don't do the censors work for them." "Don't comply in advance." "Promote the values of free expression, no matter what is happening in the country." Train all members of the university community in how free expression works. Final Thoughts Dr. Young's insights highlight the serious and growing threats to academic freedom in the U.S. The interview reveals the complex strategies used by those attempting to censor higher education, the challenges faced by university leaders, and the importance of actively defending free expression. PEN America's work is presented as a crucial effort to protect the fundamental principles of higher education as a place for diverse viewpoints and robust debate. Read the transcript on our website: https://changinghighered.com/censorship-in-higher-education-a-pen-america-perspective/ #HigherEducation #Censorship #Project2025   About Our Guest Jeremy C. Young is the Freedom to Learn Program Director at PEN America, where he leads efforts to fight government censorship in higher education institutions. He directs PEN America's work on educational gag orders, the Champions of Higher Education initiative, and an expanding network of coalitions to mobilize support for professors and teachers. A former history professor, Young holds a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Indiana University and is the author of The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society, 1870-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2017).   About the Host Dr. Drumm McNaughton is the founder, CEO, and Principal Consultant at The Change Leader, Inc. A highly sought-after higher education consultant with 20+ years of experience, Dr. McNaughton works with leadership, management, and boards of both U.S. and international institutions. His expertise spans key areas, including accreditation, governance, strategic planning, presidential onboarding, mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. Dr. McNaughton's approach combines a holistic methodology with a deep understanding of the contemporary and evolving challenges facing higher education institutions worldwide to ensure his clients succeed in their mission.  

In this episode of Madison's Notes, we're joined by Professors Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder for a thought-provoking discussion on the state of free speech in today's polarized climate. We explore the role of the university as a space for critical inquiry, the challenges to academic freedom, and the growing tensions between open discourse and political pressures. Professors Khalid and Snyder share their perspectives on the biggest threats to free speech today, offering insight into how institutions of higher learning can navigate these complex issues while remaining true to their educational mission. Tune in for a deep dive into the intersection of free expression, education, and the broader societal forces shaping our public discourse. Amna Khalid is an Associate Professor in the department of History at Carleton College. She specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression. Khalid is the author of multiple book chapters on the history of public health in nineteenth-century India, with an emphasis on the connections between Hindu pilgrimages and the spread of epidemics. She completed a Bachelor's Degree at Lahore University of Management Sciences and earned both an MPhil in Development Studies and a DPhil in History from Oxford University. Growing up under a series of military dictatorships in Pakistan, Khalid has a strong interest in issues relating to free expression. She hosts a podcast and accompanying blog called “Banished,” which explores censorship controversies in the past and present. Jeff Snyder is an Associate Professor in the department of Educational Studies at Carleton College. He is a historian of education, whose work examines questions about race, national identity and the purpose of public education in a diverse, democratic society. Snyder is the author of the book, Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture and Race in the Age of Jim Crow. He holds a BA from Carleton, an EdM in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD in the History of Education from New York University. Before pursuing graduate studies, Snyder taught English to Speakers of Other Languages in the Czech Republic, France, China, India, Nepal and the United States. Khalid and Snyder speak regularly together about academic freedom, free speech and campus politics at colleges and universities across the country. They write frequently on these issues for newspapers and magazines, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Republic and The Washington Post. During the 2022/23 academic year, Khalid and Snyder were fellows with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Their research focused on threats to academic freedom in Florida, the state at the epicenter of the conservative “culture wars” movement to encourage state intervention in public school classrooms. Based on interviews they conducted with Florida faculty members, Khalid and Snyder submitted an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs who are challenging the Stop WOKE Act. Madison's Notes is the podcast of Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Contributions to and/or sponsorship of any speaker does not constitute departmental or institutional endorsement of the specific program, speakers or views presented. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this episode of Madison's Notes, we're joined by Professors Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder for a thought-provoking discussion on the state of free speech in today's polarized climate. We explore the role of the university as a space for critical inquiry, the challenges to academic freedom, and the growing tensions between open discourse and political pressures. Professors Khalid and Snyder share their perspectives on the biggest threats to free speech today, offering insight into how institutions of higher learning can navigate these complex issues while remaining true to their educational mission. Tune in for a deep dive into the intersection of free expression, education, and the broader societal forces shaping our public discourse. Amna Khalid is an Associate Professor in the department of History at Carleton College. She specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression. Khalid is the author of multiple book chapters on the history of public health in nineteenth-century India, with an emphasis on the connections between Hindu pilgrimages and the spread of epidemics. She completed a Bachelor's Degree at Lahore University of Management Sciences and earned both an MPhil in Development Studies and a DPhil in History from Oxford University. Growing up under a series of military dictatorships in Pakistan, Khalid has a strong interest in issues relating to free expression. She hosts a podcast and accompanying blog called “Banished,” which explores censorship controversies in the past and present. Jeff Snyder is an Associate Professor in the department of Educational Studies at Carleton College. He is a historian of education, whose work examines questions about race, national identity and the purpose of public education in a diverse, democratic society. Snyder is the author of the book, Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture and Race in the Age of Jim Crow. He holds a BA from Carleton, an EdM in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD in the History of Education from New York University. Before pursuing graduate studies, Snyder taught English to Speakers of Other Languages in the Czech Republic, France, China, India, Nepal and the United States. Khalid and Snyder speak regularly together about academic freedom, free speech and campus politics at colleges and universities across the country. They write frequently on these issues for newspapers and magazines, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Republic and The Washington Post. During the 2022/23 academic year, Khalid and Snyder were fellows with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Their research focused on threats to academic freedom in Florida, the state at the epicenter of the conservative “culture wars” movement to encourage state intervention in public school classrooms. Based on interviews they conducted with Florida faculty members, Khalid and Snyder submitted an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs who are challenging the Stop WOKE Act. Madison's Notes is the podcast of Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Contributions to and/or sponsorship of any speaker does not constitute departmental or institutional endorsement of the specific program, speakers or views presented. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

In this episode of Madison's Notes, we're joined by Professors Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder for a thought-provoking discussion on the state of free speech in today's polarized climate. We explore the role of the university as a space for critical inquiry, the challenges to academic freedom, and the growing tensions between open discourse and political pressures. Professors Khalid and Snyder share their perspectives on the biggest threats to free speech today, offering insight into how institutions of higher learning can navigate these complex issues while remaining true to their educational mission. Tune in for a deep dive into the intersection of free expression, education, and the broader societal forces shaping our public discourse. Amna Khalid is an Associate Professor in the department of History at Carleton College. She specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression. Khalid is the author of multiple book chapters on the history of public health in nineteenth-century India, with an emphasis on the connections between Hindu pilgrimages and the spread of epidemics. She completed a Bachelor's Degree at Lahore University of Management Sciences and earned both an MPhil in Development Studies and a DPhil in History from Oxford University. Growing up under a series of military dictatorships in Pakistan, Khalid has a strong interest in issues relating to free expression. She hosts a podcast and accompanying blog called “Banished,” which explores censorship controversies in the past and present. Jeff Snyder is an Associate Professor in the department of Educational Studies at Carleton College. He is a historian of education, whose work examines questions about race, national identity and the purpose of public education in a diverse, democratic society. Snyder is the author of the book, Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture and Race in the Age of Jim Crow. He holds a BA from Carleton, an EdM in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD in the History of Education from New York University. Before pursuing graduate studies, Snyder taught English to Speakers of Other Languages in the Czech Republic, France, China, India, Nepal and the United States. Khalid and Snyder speak regularly together about academic freedom, free speech and campus politics at colleges and universities across the country. They write frequently on these issues for newspapers and magazines, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Republic and The Washington Post. During the 2022/23 academic year, Khalid and Snyder were fellows with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Their research focused on threats to academic freedom in Florida, the state at the epicenter of the conservative “culture wars” movement to encourage state intervention in public school classrooms. Based on interviews they conducted with Florida faculty members, Khalid and Snyder submitted an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs who are challenging the Stop WOKE Act. Madison's Notes is the podcast of Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Contributions to and/or sponsorship of any speaker does not constitute departmental or institutional endorsement of the specific program, speakers or views presented. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

In this episode of Madison's Notes, we're joined by Professors Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder for a thought-provoking discussion on the state of free speech in today's polarized climate. We explore the role of the university as a space for critical inquiry, the challenges to academic freedom, and the growing tensions between open discourse and political pressures. Professors Khalid and Snyder share their perspectives on the biggest threats to free speech today, offering insight into how institutions of higher learning can navigate these complex issues while remaining true to their educational mission. Tune in for a deep dive into the intersection of free expression, education, and the broader societal forces shaping our public discourse. Amna Khalid is an Associate Professor in the department of History at Carleton College. She specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression. Khalid is the author of multiple book chapters on the history of public health in nineteenth-century India, with an emphasis on the connections between Hindu pilgrimages and the spread of epidemics. She completed a Bachelor's Degree at Lahore University of Management Sciences and earned both an MPhil in Development Studies and a DPhil in History from Oxford University. Growing up under a series of military dictatorships in Pakistan, Khalid has a strong interest in issues relating to free expression. She hosts a podcast and accompanying blog called “Banished,” which explores censorship controversies in the past and present. Jeff Snyder is an Associate Professor in the department of Educational Studies at Carleton College. He is a historian of education, whose work examines questions about race, national identity and the purpose of public education in a diverse, democratic society. Snyder is the author of the book, Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture and Race in the Age of Jim Crow. He holds a BA from Carleton, an EdM in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD in the History of Education from New York University. Before pursuing graduate studies, Snyder taught English to Speakers of Other Languages in the Czech Republic, France, China, India, Nepal and the United States. Khalid and Snyder speak regularly together about academic freedom, free speech and campus politics at colleges and universities across the country. They write frequently on these issues for newspapers and magazines, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Republic and The Washington Post. During the 2022/23 academic year, Khalid and Snyder were fellows with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Their research focused on threats to academic freedom in Florida, the state at the epicenter of the conservative “culture wars” movement to encourage state intervention in public school classrooms. Based on interviews they conducted with Florida faculty members, Khalid and Snyder submitted an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs who are challenging the Stop WOKE Act. Madison's Notes is the podcast of Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Contributions to and/or sponsorship of any speaker does not constitute departmental or institutional endorsement of the specific program, speakers or views presented. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/politics-and-polemics

In this episode of Madison's Notes, we're joined by Professors Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder for a thought-provoking discussion on the state of free speech in today's polarized climate. We explore the role of the university as a space for critical inquiry, the challenges to academic freedom, and the growing tensions between open discourse and political pressures. Professors Khalid and Snyder share their perspectives on the biggest threats to free speech today, offering insight into how institutions of higher learning can navigate these complex issues while remaining true to their educational mission. Tune in for a deep dive into the intersection of free expression, education, and the broader societal forces shaping our public discourse. Amna Khalid is an Associate Professor in the department of History at Carleton College. She specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression. Khalid is the author of multiple book chapters on the history of public health in nineteenth-century India, with an emphasis on the connections between Hindu pilgrimages and the spread of epidemics. She completed a Bachelor's Degree at Lahore University of Management Sciences and earned both an MPhil in Development Studies and a DPhil in History from Oxford University. Growing up under a series of military dictatorships in Pakistan, Khalid has a strong interest in issues relating to free expression. She hosts a podcast and accompanying blog called “Banished,” which explores censorship controversies in the past and present. Jeff Snyder is an Associate Professor in the department of Educational Studies at Carleton College. He is a historian of education, whose work examines questions about race, national identity and the purpose of public education in a diverse, democratic society. Snyder is the author of the book, Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture and Race in the Age of Jim Crow. He holds a BA from Carleton, an EdM in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD in the History of Education from New York University. Before pursuing graduate studies, Snyder taught English to Speakers of Other Languages in the Czech Republic, France, China, India, Nepal and the United States. Khalid and Snyder speak regularly together about academic freedom, free speech and campus politics at colleges and universities across the country. They write frequently on these issues for newspapers and magazines, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Republic and The Washington Post. During the 2022/23 academic year, Khalid and Snyder were fellows with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Their research focused on threats to academic freedom in Florida, the state at the epicenter of the conservative “culture wars” movement to encourage state intervention in public school classrooms. Based on interviews they conducted with Florida faculty members, Khalid and Snyder submitted an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs who are challenging the Stop WOKE Act. Madison's Notes is the podcast of Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Contributions to and/or sponsorship of any speaker does not constitute departmental or institutional endorsement of the specific program, speakers or views presented. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Who controls what is taught in American universities — professors or politicians?” Yale Law professor Keith Whittington answers this timely question and more in his new book, “You Can't Teach That! The Battle over University Classrooms.” He joins the podcast to discuss the history of academic freedom, the difference between intramural and extramural speech, and why there is a “weaponization” of intellectual diversity. Keith E. Whittington is the David Boies Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Whittington's teaching and scholarship span American constitutional theory, American political and constitutional history, judicial politics, the presidency, and free speech and the law. Read the transcript. Timestamps:  00:00 Intro 02:00 The genesis of Yale's Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech 04:42 The inspiration behind “You Can't Teach That!” 06:18 The First Amendment and academic freedom 09:29 Extramural speech and the public sphere 17:56 Intramural speech and its complexities 23:13 Florida's Stop WOKE Act 26:34 Distinctive features of K-12 education 31:13 University of Pennsylvania professor Amy Wax 39:02 University of Kansas professor Phillip Lowcock 43:42 Muhlenberg College professor Maura Finkelstein 47:01 University of Wisconsin La-Crosse professor Joe Gow 54:47 Northwestern professor Arthur Butz 57:52 Inconsistent applications of university policies 01:02:23 Weaponization of “intellectual diversity” 01:05:53 Outro Show notes: “Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech” Keith Whittington (2019) “You Can't Teach That!: The Battle Over University Classrooms” Keith Whittington (2023) AAUP Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure (1915) AAUP Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure (1940) “Kinsey” (2004) Stop WOKE Act, HB 7. (Fla. 2022) Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967) Indiana intellectual diversity law, S.E.A. 354 (Ind. 2022) “Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District” (1969)

War on wokeness: the year the right rallied around a made-up menacethe Guardian, By Michael Harriot, on December 21, 2022https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/20/anti-woke-race-america-historyThe discussion opens with a focus on the "war on woke," examining whether it's a real issue or just a political creation. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' rhetoric against the so-called "woke mob" is dissected, revealing how this term has been twisted into a tool for political gain, especially on the right. The anti-woke movement is viewed as a deliberate attempt to stoke fear, promote white grievance, and maintain social hierarchies, distracting from the real issues of systemic racism and inequality. The discussion points out how the right often co-opts the term "woke," turning it into a negative caricature of social awareness.Cynthia dives deeper, illustrating how anti-woke legislation like DeSantis' "Stop Woke Act" seeks to whitewash history, curb critical conversations about race, and protect the status quo. She draws parallels to historical backlash, showing how every civil rights advancement has been met with resistance—just as the election of the first Black president was followed by a rise in right-wing backlash. Cynthia criticizes the manipulation of language, pointing out that what was once a movement for awareness and empathy has been weaponized into a boogeyman used to scare people into supporting conservative causes.Further into the conversation, a clear distinction is made between legitimate criticism and personal insults. The group notes how political violence is often misrepresented by both sides of the debate. The labeling of leaders like Trump as fascists, for example, is seen as a factual observation based on behavior rather than an insult. The need for more nuanced discussions on television and in the public sphere is stressed, as simplifying or "both-siding" these issues leads to confusion.Cynthia and Cindy explore the complex dynamics of political labeling and the use of terms like fascism, socialism, and communism, suggesting that many people misuse or misunderstand them. They stress that it's crucial to challenge harmful ideas, not just to insult individuals. This type of critical thinking, they argue, is essential for societal progress. Cynthia concludes by emphasizing the importance of intellectual honesty and the need for honest debates free of strawman arguments or misleading narratives.The conversation wraps up by reflecting on how the U.S. is viewed on the world stage, suggesting that current events are tarnishing its reputation. There is a shared frustration over the close political races and the growing divide between reality and rhetoric in public discourse.The Non-Prophets, Episode 23.42.3 featuring Kelley Laughlin, Jonathan Roudabush, Cindy Plaza and Cynthia McDonaldBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-non-prophets--3254964/support.

How does political intervention shape the landscape of higher education? Today, our guest is Keith Whittington, Ph.D, David Boies Professor of Law at Yale Law School and director of the Center for Academic Freedom. In this episode, host John Tomasi and Keith Whittington discuss the increasingly contentious legislative interventions in higher education, beginning with Florida's "Stop Woke Act." Whittington compares today's interventions to past efforts, discussing implications for academic freedom, First Amendment rights, and university regulation.Whittington shares his experiences and the work of the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA), emphasizing the importance of defending speech rights in academia. The episode also examines legislative trends, government control in public vs. private education, and challenges arising from modern technology and increased visibility of academic speech. Join us for some insights into the critical intersection of politics, law, and academia, emphasizing the necessity for open discourse and viewpoint diversity on university campuses. In This Episode:Whittington's new book, "You Can't Teach That"The mission and efforts of the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA)An overview of Florida's "Stop Woke Act" and its implicationsHistorical legislative interventions in educationThe role of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the evolution of academic freedomFirst Amendment challenges related to classroom speech at public and private institutionsThe impact of political and ideological trends on higher education About Keith:Keith E. Whittington, Ph.D, is the David Boies Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Whittington's teaching and scholarship span American constitutional theory, American political and constitutional history, judicial politics, the presidency, and free speech and the law. He is the author of You Can't Teach That! The Battle Over University Classrooms (2024), Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present (2019), and Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (2018), as well as Constitutional Interpretation (1999), Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy (2007), and other works on constitutional theory and law and politics.Whittington serves as Founding Chair of the Academic Freedom Alliance's Academic Committee and as a Hoover Institution Visiting Fellow. He has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, an American Council of Learned Societies Junior Faculty Fellow, a National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement Fellow, and a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center. A member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, Whittington served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.  Check out Keith's new book: You Can't Teach That!Follow Keith on X: https://x.com/kewhittingtonFind out more about the American Association of University ProfessorsFind out more about the Academic Freedom Alliance Follow Heterodox Academy on:Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Fax5DyFacebook: https://bit.ly/3PMYxfwLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/48IYeuJInstagram: https://bit.ly/46HKfUgSubstack: https://bit.ly/48IhjNF

What is the real purpose of a university—truth-seeking or molding active citizens? Are university campuses becoming echo chambers, leading to self-censorship among not just conservatives but liberals too?Today's guest is Amna Khalid, an esteemed Associate Professor of History at Carleton College and a prominent voice within the Heterodox Academy (HxA) community. Together, John Tomasi and Amna explore this multifaceted question. They discuss the evolving role of universities, the interplay of critical inquiry and citizenship, and the impact of neoliberal trends on campus culture.Amna brings a wealth of experience and academic insight. She shares her perspectives on the necessity of preserving higher education's autonomy while addressing present-day challenges, such as campus speech restrictions and the contentious implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. In This Episode:The dual mission of universities: critical inquiry and citizenshipCampus speech restrictions and the self-censorship challengeThe impact of neoliberalism on diversity initiatives in higher educationStudent entitlement and the consumerist mindset in academiaThe essential role of academic expertise in shaping educational experiencesLegislative interference and academic freedomThe need for balanced, viewpoint-neutral reforms in higher educationCase examples highlighting challenges faced by faculty and institutions Follow Amna on X here: https://x.com/AmnaUncensored About Amna:Amna Khalid is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression. Amna is the author of multiple book chapters on the history of public health in nineteenth-century India, with an emphasis on the connections between Hindu pilgrimages and the spread of epidemics. Born in Pakistan, Amna completed her Bachelor's Degree at Lahore University of Management Sciences. She went on to earn an M.Phil. in Development Studies and a D.Phil. in History from Oxford University. Growing up under a series of military dictatorships, Amna has a strong interest in issues relating to censorship and free expression. She speaks frequently on academic freedom, free speech and campus politics at colleges and universities as well as at professional conferences. Her essays and commentaries on these same issues have appeared in outlets such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Conversation, Inside Higher Ed and the New Republic. She hosts a podcast and accompanying blog called "Banished," which explores censorship in the past and present. Amna was a Fellow at the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement during the 2022-2023 academic-year, along with her Carleton colleague Jeff Snyder​. They focused on threats to academic freedom in Florida, the state at the epicenter of the conservative movement to encourage state intervention in public school classrooms. Based on interviews Khalid and Snyder conducted with Florida faculty members, they submitted an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs who are challenging the Stop WOKE Act. Follow Heterodox Academy on:Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Fax5DyFacebook: https://bit.ly/3PMYxfwLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/48IYeuJInstagram: https://bit.ly/46HKfUgSubstack: https://bit.ly/48IhjNF

This week, we're looking at recent state-level changes and legal trends that have varying degrees of impact on employers. Massachusetts Pay Equity Law Massachusetts is the most recent state to enact a pay equity law. The law establishes new pay range disclosure requirements for employers that employ 25 or more employees in Massachusetts. Illinois Amends BIPA Illinois' new law limits penalties under the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and clarifies consent procedures. Employers can now be held liable only for a single violation per person rather than for each alleged use of biometric data. Michigan Supreme Court Reinstates Wage and Leave Laws In Michigan, employers will have to reckon with a new decision from the state's Supreme Court that reinstated two laws that were created through a public initiative. One law provides for annual increases to the minimum wage and a gradual elimination of a wage differential for tipped workers, while the other expands paid sick leave obligations.  Federal Courts Strike Down Controversial Florida Laws In Florida, a federal district court judge permanently blocked the state's Stop WOKE Act, which restricted workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion training. And a different federal judge in Florida overturned the state's ban on transgender health care. Visit our site for this week's Other Highlights and links: https://www.ebglaw.com/eltw356 Subscribe to #WorkforceWednesday: https://www.ebglaw.com/subscribe/ Visit http://www.EmploymentLawThisWeek.com This podcast is presented by Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. All rights are reserved. This audio recording includes information about legal issues and legal developments. Such materials are for informational purposes only and may not reflect the most current legal developments. These informational materials are not intended, and should not be taken, as legal advice on any particular set of facts or circumstances, and these materials are not a substitute for the advice of competent counsel. The content reflects the personal views and opinions of the participants. No attorney-client relationship has been created by this audio recording. This audio recording may be considered attorney advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. The determination of the need for legal services and the choice of a lawyer are extremely important decisions and should not be based solely upon advertisements or self-proclaimed expertise. No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

The acting director of the Secret Service is expected to give more details about the security failures that led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. People have been protesting on the streets after Venezuela's controversial election results. The US is advising people not to travel to parts of Lebanon as the threat of an Israeli strike looms. Simone Biles is hoping to add another gold medal to her collection at the women's team gymnastics final at the Paris Olympics. Plus, a federal judge has permanently blocked part of Florida's "Stop WOKE Act." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First Amendment: Does Florida's "Stop Woke Act" encroach upon academic freedom in a way that violates the First Amendment? - Argued: Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:18:13 EDT

Mr. A is back and today, he's heated about a recent lawsuit involving Starbucks and Florida's controversial "Stop WOKE Act." We explore the motivations behind the lawsuit, its implications for corporate DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) training, and the political strategies at play.  

We recently appeared on "How Do We Fix It?", a wonderful podcast in search of constructive and practical ideas to address the many problems that plague our age. We had a fantastic time talking to the hosts Richard Davies and Jim Meigs about free speech, academic freedom and campus politics. We discussed DEI, Inc.—what the term means and why we think it's useful. And we argued that an ascendant discourse of harm is at the heart of today's threats to campus free expression, from the chilling effects of many DEI initiatives to the even chillier effects of anti-CRT legislation like Florida's Stop WOKE Act. Thank you to Richard and Jim for giving us their permission to post our discussion on Banished. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit banished.substack.com/subscribe

In episode 141, Coffey talks with Catherine Clifton about recent news about sexual harassment, discrimination, and what's next for DEI programs.They discuss employer lessons to be learned from California's Sunshine Raisin $2 million sexual harassment lawsuit; Florida's Stop Woke Act; two “reverse discrimination” cases; and the shift away from “diversity” to “inclusion.”Links to stuff they talked about are on our website at https://goodmorninghr.com/EP141 and include the following topics:- Sunshine Raisin / National Raisin to Pay $2 Million in EEOC Sexual Harassment Lawsuit- Stop Woke Act Stopped by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals…For Now- DEI Under Scrutiny, Part VIII: Eleventh Circuit Strikes Down Florida Ban On Workplace DEI Training Under First Amendment- 4th Circuit backs $3.4 mln award in white ex-hospital exec's bias case- DEI Task Force Update (March 13, 2024)- Does DEI training create a hostile work environment?- The shifting language around DE&I isn't just about politics- Episode 118: Evidence Based Inclusion with Dr. Jonathan Ashong-Lamptey- C+: Employers given 'less favourable' score on LGBTQ+ inclusion effortsGood Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com. If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for three-quarters of a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest:Catherine has more than 20 years of experience specializing in employment law in Texas. She worked with multiple local governmental entities as an employment law attorney and also served as a legal advisor for public safety. She spent several years as an administrative services director, where she was responsible for Human Resources, Risk Management, and Payroll. She has advised clients on recruitment, selection, discipline, wage and hour, policies, and grievance matters, including federal and state laws related to labor and employment. Catherine also has experience with general municipal law, utility matters, public information, open meetings, and general governance matters. Catherine is a graduate of Southwestern University, obtained her JD from Texas Tech University. She is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). She joined Ross | Gannaway | Clifton, PLLC in 2022.Catherine Clifton can be reached at:www.RossGannaway.lawhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/rossgannawayclifton/About Mike Coffey:Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, human resources professional, licensed private investigator, and HR consultant.In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations firm helping risk-averse companies make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business.Today, Imperative serves hundreds of businesses across the US and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies.Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence and has twice been named HR Professional of the Year. Additionally, Imperative has been named the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike is a member of the Fort Worth chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and volunteers with the SHRM Texas State Council.Mike maintains his certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute. He is also a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP).Mike lives in Fort Worth with his very patient wife. He practices yoga and maintains a keto diet, about both of which he will gladly tell you way more than you want to know.Learning Objectives:1. Evaluate the effectiveness of discrimination and sexual harassment policies.2. Analyze the complexities of “reverse” discrimination and its implications.3. Explore strategies for fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in recruitment practices.

Diversity equity and inclusion: Sounds like a good thing in an incredibly diverse country such as ours, especially when teaching young people at American colleges and universities.But the DEI industry - or DEI Inc. — has arguably gone off the rails. There's a big difference between the intentions behind a lot of diversity training and the results. We learn about the crucial difference between training and education, and hear the case against the Stop WOKE Act in Florida.History professors Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder share their deep concerns about a growing industry. There is no reliable evidence that diversity, equity and inclusion training sessions at colleges, non-profits, and large corporations actually work. In many places, DEI could be making things worse, imposing an ideological litmus test and encouraging cynicism and dishonesty at places of learning.Amna specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression. Growing up under a series of military dictatorships in Pakistan, she has a strong interest in issues relating to free speech.Jeff is also a Professor at Carleton: A historian of education, who studies questions of race, national identity and the purpose of public education in a diverse, democratic society. He's the author of Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture and Race in the Age of Jim Crow. Jeff and Amna released this YouTube video about DEI. They speak regularly together about academic freedom, free speech and campus politics at colleges and universities. They also write frequently on these issues for newspapers and magazines, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Republic and The Washington Post. Amna hosts a podcast and blog called “Banished,” which explores censorship controversies in the past and present. Recommendation: Richard has been watching "Nada" on Hulu, a gentle and funny TV series from Argentina about a food critic in Buenos Aires and his observations on life and eating. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump calls for a bloodbath, appeals court blocks Floridian 'Stop Woke Act', U.S. government scrambles for control of TikTok, and Regina King opens up about her son's death by suicide. NewsIn Ohio campaign rally, Trump says there will be a "bloodbath" if he loses November electionRegina King Opens Up About Son's Death: “He Didn't Want to Be Here”Appeals court blocks Fla. ‘Stop Woke Act,' says it's a ‘First Amendment sin'Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says he's putting together investor group to buy TikTok Follow Pod Save the People on Instagram.

Despite a slow start to the week in legal news, Sarah and David have a tightly packed episode today starting with a dissent from denial from Justice Thomas on bias response teams at a Virginia university. The Agenda: —Bias response teams —ACLU vs. NLRB —Florida's Stop Woke Act naw-dogged by Eleventh Circuit —Texas' law on minor access to explicit content at the Fifth Circuit —TikTok: Welcome to the culture war —Kevin Newsom's speech on text, history, and tradition —Be careful with tradition —Understanding standing doctrine —The Oscars and a good legal movie Show Notes: —Federalist Society 2024 National Student Symposium —The Volokh Conspiracy —Luis Parrales: The Oscars in an Age of Distraction —MIT legal complaint Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:State of the state of the union; Wisconsin fake electors foiled; Missouri water threatened; Alabama IVF protection law; Missouri private school horror; the ugly reality of school choice; Florida MAGA gator chomped; Iowa lawmakers funds to feed kids… wait sorry Iowa Lawmakers paying to arm teachers SOURCES Missouri independent, the heartland collective, associated press, axios, nbc news, the Des Moines registerSOTU Quick reactions: Wisconsin Fake Elector Scheme Exposes The Underbelly Of The 2020 Schemehttps://apnews.com/article/electors-trump-settlement-ballot-2020-wisconsin-f416cd04adfa9f92c382b7c9e8a94ce7?taid=65e5f72999a0eb0001ff36b9&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=TwitterMissouri Waterways https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/06/missouri-bill-would-slash-state-regulations-over-small-streams-and-major-aquifers/Missouri bill would slash state regulations over small streams and major aquifers Critics say the legislation debated Tuesday could jeopardize the state's groundwater and 136,000 miles of streamsAlabama Governor Signs IVF Protection Bill That Shouldn't Have Been Necessaryhttps://www.axios.com/2024/03/07/alabama-ivf-fertility-protection-billAlabama Senator silent on if embryos are children https://t.co/lzmTr37K9rMissouri christian boarding school founders charged with kidnappinghttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/missouri-christian-boarding-school-founder-wife-charged-kidnapping-rep-rcna141716?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma&taid=65e64b6d17ae0900010956b2&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitterSecret Recording Exposes What We Already Know About The School Choice Lobbyhttps://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/revealed/revealed-secret-recording-shows-school-voucher-proponent-talking-of-public-hangings-of-lawmakersAppeals Court Tells Florida MAGA “NOPE”https://www.axios.com/2024/03/05/florida-stop-woke-act-appeals-court-blockA federal appeals court in Florida blocked enforcement of employer provisions in a law state Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) dubbed the "Stop WOKE Act" in a unanimous ruling on Monday. The big picture: In upholding an earlier ruling, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in an opinion Monday said the legislation "exceeds the bounds of the First Amendment." It stems from a lawsuit filed by several Florida businesses challenging the act, also known as HB7, which would prevent them from requiring workers to attend workplace training promoting diversity and inclusion.DeSantis administration officials argue the law is designed to prevent indoctrination in workplaces and schools and have indicated they may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the decision Details: "This is not the first era in which Americans have held widely divergent views on important areas of morality, ethics, law, and public policy," the appeals court ruling states.Iowa Spending Tax Dollars To Arm Teachers, But Won't Feed Kidshttps://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2024/03/06/iowa-house-panel-advances-3-million-grant-program-for-schools-that-arm-staff-buy-guns-teachers/72868745007/Iowa House lawmakers are pushing through a bill that would provide $3 million to pay for training for school districts that choose to arm staff members and could be used to buy guns for school employees.The legislation, House Study Bill 692, is part of a larger bill with other school safety requirements. It is meant to complement a separate measure House lawmakers passed last week that would allow teachers and other school staff to obtain a professional permit to carry guns on school grounds, and provide them with legal immunity for the use of reasonable force.Both bills are part of Republicans' legislative response to a deadly shooting at Perry High School in January. @TheHeartlandPOD on Twitter and ThreadsCo-HostsAdam Sommer @Adam_Sommer85 (Twitter) @adam_sommer85 (Post)Rachel Parker @msraitchetp (Post) Sean Diller (no social)The Heartland Collective - Sign Up Today!JOIN PATREON FOR MORE - AND JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK!“Change The Conversation”Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium http://www.americanaquarium.com/

A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:State of the state of the union; Wisconsin fake electors foiled; Missouri water threatened; Alabama IVF protection law; Missouri private school horror; the ugly reality of school choice; Florida MAGA gator chomped; Iowa lawmakers funds to feed kids… wait sorry Iowa Lawmakers paying to arm teachers SOURCES Missouri independent, the heartland collective, associated press, axios, nbc news, the Des Moines registerSOTU Quick reactions: Wisconsin Fake Elector Scheme Exposes The Underbelly Of The 2020 Schemehttps://apnews.com/article/electors-trump-settlement-ballot-2020-wisconsin-f416cd04adfa9f92c382b7c9e8a94ce7?taid=65e5f72999a0eb0001ff36b9&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=TwitterMissouri Waterways https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/06/missouri-bill-would-slash-state-regulations-over-small-streams-and-major-aquifers/Missouri bill would slash state regulations over small streams and major aquifers Critics say the legislation debated Tuesday could jeopardize the state's groundwater and 136,000 miles of streamsAlabama Governor Signs IVF Protection Bill That Shouldn't Have Been Necessaryhttps://www.axios.com/2024/03/07/alabama-ivf-fertility-protection-billAlabama Senator silent on if embryos are children https://t.co/lzmTr37K9rMissouri christian boarding school founders charged with kidnappinghttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/missouri-christian-boarding-school-founder-wife-charged-kidnapping-rep-rcna141716?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma&taid=65e64b6d17ae0900010956b2&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitterSecret Recording Exposes What We Already Know About The School Choice Lobbyhttps://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/revealed/revealed-secret-recording-shows-school-voucher-proponent-talking-of-public-hangings-of-lawmakersAppeals Court Tells Florida MAGA “NOPE”https://www.axios.com/2024/03/05/florida-stop-woke-act-appeals-court-blockA federal appeals court in Florida blocked enforcement of employer provisions in a law state Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) dubbed the "Stop WOKE Act" in a unanimous ruling on Monday. The big picture: In upholding an earlier ruling, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in an opinion Monday said the legislation "exceeds the bounds of the First Amendment." It stems from a lawsuit filed by several Florida businesses challenging the act, also known as HB7, which would prevent them from requiring workers to attend workplace training promoting diversity and inclusion.DeSantis administration officials argue the law is designed to prevent indoctrination in workplaces and schools and have indicated they may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the decision Details: "This is not the first era in which Americans have held widely divergent views on important areas of morality, ethics, law, and public policy," the appeals court ruling states.Iowa Spending Tax Dollars To Arm Teachers, But Won't Feed Kidshttps://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2024/03/06/iowa-house-panel-advances-3-million-grant-program-for-schools-that-arm-staff-buy-guns-teachers/72868745007/Iowa House lawmakers are pushing through a bill that would provide $3 million to pay for training for school districts that choose to arm staff members and could be used to buy guns for school employees.The legislation, House Study Bill 692, is part of a larger bill with other school safety requirements. It is meant to complement a separate measure House lawmakers passed last week that would allow teachers and other school staff to obtain a professional permit to carry guns on school grounds, and provide them with legal immunity for the use of reasonable force.Both bills are part of Republicans' legislative response to a deadly shooting at Perry High School in January. @TheHeartlandPOD on Twitter and ThreadsCo-HostsAdam Sommer @Adam_Sommer85 (Twitter) @adam_sommer85 (Post)Rachel Parker @msraitchetp (Post) Sean Diller (no social)The Heartland Collective - Sign Up Today!JOIN PATREON FOR MORE - AND JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK!“Change The Conversation”Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium http://www.americanaquarium.com/

Wednesday, March 6th, 2024Today, Senator Bob Menendez has been hit with a superseding indictment; Senator Kyrsten Sinema will not run again this year; the 11th Circuit strikes down Ron DeSantis' Stop Woke Act; the Supreme Court Inadvertently revealed a confounding late change in the trump ballot ruling; the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing a controversial Texas immigration law to take effect. Plus, Allison and Dana deliver your good news.Promo Code:For a limited time, HomeChef is offering you 18 Free Meals, plus Free Shipping on your first box, and Free Dessert for Life. At https://HomeChef.com/DAILYBEANS. Robert Menendez and Wife Are Charged With Obstruction of Justicehttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/nyregion/robert-menendez-indicted.htmlFederal appeals court to allow controversial Texas immigration law to take effect, if SCOTUS doesn't intervenehttps://www.cnn.com/2024/03/03/politics/texas-immigration-law-appeals-court/index.htmlSupreme Court Inadvertently Reveals Confounding Late Change in Trump Ballot Rulinghttps://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/03/supreme-court-metadata-sotomayor-trump-dissent.htmlAppeals court slams Florida's ‘Stop-Woke' law for committing ‘greatest First Amendment sin'https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/04/desantis-woke-law-court-00144801 Subscribe to Lawyers, Guns, And MoneyAd-free premium feed: https://lawyersgunsandmoney.supercast.comSubscribe for free everywhere else:https://lawyersgunsandmoney.simplecast.com/episodes/1-miami-1985Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Follow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Follow Mueller, She Wrote on Posthttps://post.news/@/MuellerSheWrote?utm_source=TwitterAG&utm_medium=creator_organic&utm_campaign=muellershewrote&utm_content=FollowMehttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://www.threads.net/@muellershewrotehttps://www.tiktok.com/@muellershewrotehttps://instagram.com/muellershewroteDana Goldberghttps://twitter.com/DGComedyhttps://www.instagram.com/dgcomedyhttps://www.facebook.com/dgcomedyhttps://danagoldberg.comHave some good news; a confession; or a correction?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/From The Good Newshttps://www.healthcare.govTote the Vote and other productshttps://www.bakedfish.funUpcoming Live Show Dates (Look for the presale ticket link this week)Sunday, June 2nd – Chicago IL – Schubas TavernFriday June 14th – Philadelphia PA – City WinerySaturday June 15th – New York NY – City WinerySunday June 16th – Boston MA – City WineryWednesday July 10th – Portland OR – Polaris HallThursday July 11th – Seattle WA – The Triple DoorJoin the private Facebook Group Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/OrPatreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

Kysten Sinema announces retirement from politics.Audio aired of a hostage calling for help days before mistaken IDF killing. Text messages shed new light on scope of fake electors plot after 2020 election. Appeals court blocks Florida's ""Stop Woke Act"" by stating it's a ""First Amendment sin."" Yemeni-American explains to TYT why he's supporting Donald Trump." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian), Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just ran into a huge First Amendment roadblock after a federal court blocked his "Stop Woke" Act. Brad Polumbo and Hannah Cox break it down in this episode of the BASED Politics podcast.   Then, they discuss a new "Bidenomics" website that embarrasses the president and a new viral video that exposes AOC's hypocrisy. As always, they round out the show with some hot takes.   Check out the latest episode of Hannah Explains it All: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klefOcstP5Q  

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just ran into a huge First Amendment roadblock after a federal court blocked his "Stop Woke" Act. Brad Polumbo and Hannah Cox break it down in this episode of the BASED Politics podcast.   Then, they discuss a new "Bidenomics" website that embarrasses the president and a new viral video that exposes AOC's hypocrisy. As always, they round out the show with some hot takes.   Check out the latest episode of Hannah Explains it All: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klefOcstP5Q  

New laws in at least 14 states are forcing teachers to rethink how they teach history when it comes to race in particular. For the last day of this Black History Month, one education leader on why having more Black teachers, and leaning into Black teaching traditions, can help all students get a better handle on American history. Plus, Axios Miami's Sommer Brugal on the education view from Florida, more than a year and a half since Florida's "Stop WOKE Act" went into effect. Guests: Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development and a former school principal; Sommer Brugal, Axios Miami reporter. Credits: 1 big thing is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, and Jay Cowit. Music is composed by Alex Sugiura and Jay Cowit. You can reach us at podcasts@axios.com. You can send questions, comments and story ideas as a text or voice memo to Niala at 202-918-4893. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last summer, Reveal host Al Letson returned home to Jacksonville, Florida, to find a changed state. The Republican Legislature had passed a slate of laws targeting minority groups. Educators could now face criminal penalties over the material they teach regarding gender and sexuality, and schools across the state were banning books about queer families, transgender youth and Black history. There were also repeated instances of racist and anti-Semitic speech, including Nazis waving swastikas in front of Disney World. All of this contributed to the NAACP issuing a rare travel advisory stating that “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” Then on Aug. 26, a White supremacist killed three Black people at a Dollar General in Jacksonville.  When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attended a vigil for the victims, he was met with boos and mourners shouting, “Your policies caused this.”  In this episode, Letson digs into the policies DeSantis and the Legislature have passed in recent years and their effects on Black Floridians and other people of color. He speaks with a history teacher who says the new laws have made it harder to educate students, as well as a mother who describes books being removed from her daughter's classroom and rules barring students from sharing books with friends at school. Letson also interviews state Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican who championed many of the new policies, including the Stop WOKE Act, which restricts how racism and history are taught in schools.  In the final segment, Letson examines redistricting in the state. In 2022, DeSantis vetoed maps drawn by the Republican Legislature, and the governor's office instead drew new maps that got rid of two Black-dominated districts and increased the number of Republican-leaning districts. Those maps, which were subsequently passed by lawmakers, are now being battled over in both state and federal court. To understand the debate, Letson speaks with reporter Andrew Pantazi of the Jacksonville news organization The Tributary, as well as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Fine defends the new maps, saying they're designed to challenge Florida's Constitution, which he argues requires “racial gerrymandering.” Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon says the new maps violate Florida's constitutional protections of racial minorities and their ability to “elect representatives of their choice.” Support Reveal's journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/newsletter Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

Now Ron DeSantis and his STOP WOKE Act is targeting shero, Ruby Bridges?! Come on, bro.

Retired Florida professor Marvin Dunn has been dismayed at recent efforts to battle so-called critical race theory and limit the way educators can talk about race. Last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law the Stop WOKE Act, which mandated that public schools teach race in a manner where students would not “feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part.”Like many educators, Dr. Dunn feared this would create an environment where teaching hard truths about history is discouraged. He decided to start the Teach the Truth tour.This week, Trymaine Lee hops on the tour bus with Into America to speak with Dr. Dunn and students about what's at stake when it comes to learning the truth about American history. They visit historic sites related to the Ocoee Massacre, the lynching of Willie James Howard, and the Black town of Rosewood, which was destroyed a hundred years ago by a white mob.Follow and share the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, using the handle @intoamericapod.Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at intoamerica@nbcuni.com.For a transcript, please visit our homepage.For More: Professor slams DeSantis for quashing Black history educationKnow Your History‘We need to hear it.' This tour explores Florida's horrific history of racial violence

Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco start off by discussing the Texas abortion pill hearing, where Judge Kacsmaryk wants so badly to ban mifepristone…get a life, dude. Then, Parker Molloy comes on to talk about anti-trans legislation, the coverage of it in the media, and finding hope in outspoken trans kids. Next, Hysteria fave Akilah Hughes joins Kiran Deol in the panel to discuss the various definitions of “woke.” To finish things off, some praise (shoutout, Alyssa's jam!) and complaints (people in LA canNOT drive in the rain) in Sani-Petty.Show NotesThe Present Age, Parker Molloy's newsletterThree Dancing Bears, Alyssa's jam For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks about documentary filmmaking legend Ken Burns telling CNN's Don Lemon why Ron DeSantis' “Stop Woke Act” and attacks on CRT in schools are something he would expect from the Soviet Union or Nazis; Ron DeSantis correcting the mainstream media's lies about the “Stop Woke Act” and book banning to their faces; and highlights from the Florida state of the state address. Dave also does a special “ask me anything” question-and-answer session on a wide-ranging host of topics, answering questions from the Rubin Report Locals community. ---------- Today's Sponsors: Birch Gold - Protect your retirement from Bidenflation. Convert your IRA or 401k into an IRA in precious metals. Claim your free infokit on gold and talk to one of their precious metals specialists now. Go to: https://birchgold.com/dave

You've probably heard about what Florida governor Ron DeSantis is up to. One of the most controversial things he's done is sign the Individual Freedom Act, also known as the “Stop W.O.K.E Act,” short for Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees. The law, among many things, prohibits teaching certain concepts related to race. Although there's currently an injunction against the law, its implementation had far-reaching consequences for students and professors alike. Jonathan Cox is an assistant sociology professor at the University of Central Florida. He faced a tough decision last fall. Cox, who is the only Black professor in his department, could either teach two courses that would explore colorblind racism, “Race and Social Media” and “Race and Ethnicity,” or cancel his classes. He had to choose the latter option of cancelling some of his courses because of DeSantis' law banning the teaching of critical race theory. Cox joins WITHpod to discuss the circumstances that led him to change the courses he taught last semester, the importance of inclusive spaces that encourage constructive debate, the effect of anti-CRT laws on his students and more.

Many on the right blame “wokeness” for all of America's ills—everything from deadly mass shootings to lower military recruitment. Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, recently signed a so-called Stop WOKE Act into law, and made the issue the center of his midterm victory speech. In Washington, there has been talk in the House of forming an “anti-woke caucus.” “I think ‘woke' is a very interesting term right now, because I think it's an unusable word—although it is used all the time—because it doesn't actually mean anything,” the linguist and lexicographer Tony Thorne, the author of “Dictionary of Contemporary Slang,” tells David Remnick.  Plus, the poet Robin Coste Lewis talks with the staff writer Hilton Als about how suffering a traumatic brian injury led her to a career in poetry. Her most recent book, “To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness,” was published last month.