# Cathy Young: Why Free Societies Need Free Speech

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/cathy-young-why-free-societies-need-free-speech
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/cathy-young-why-free-societies-need-free-speech.md
Podcast: [The Michael Shermer Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422)
Published: 2026-06-16T19:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/sciencesalon/mss619_Cathy_Young_2026_06_16.mp3
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sciencesalon/mss619_Cathy_Young_2026_06_16.mp3?dest-id=513978
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/episodes/cathy-young-why-free-societies-need-free-speech
Duration seconds: 5424

## Resource

Cathy Young returns to the show for a wide-ranging conversation about free speech, institutional trust, and the strange incentives shaping public debate today. What happens when universities, media outlets, political movements, and online personalities trade careful thinking for moral certainty, tribal loyalty, or attention? Michael and Cathy discuss the pressure to excuse bad ideas when they come from "your side," the rise of activist thinking in education and journalism, and the growing appeal of contrarian figures who seem to thrive on distrust. They also get into the war in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, Iran, isolationism, and why defending open inquiry matters most when it becomes inconvenient.

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## Transcript

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