{"podcast":{"title":"The Michael Shermer Show","slug":"the-michael-shermer-show-444422","podcast_index_feed_id":444422,"rss_url":"https://sciencesalon.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/6/3/e/3/63e344572bed54e488c4a68c3ddbc4f2/The_Michael_Shermer_Show_logo_2023.jpg","author":"Michael Shermer","episode_count":631,"summary":"The Michael Shermer Show is a series of long-form conversations between Dr. Michael Shermer and leading scientists, philosophers, historians, scholars, writers and thinkers about the most important issues of our time.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-12T18:19:28.702187+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422"},"episode":{"title":"Cathy Young: Why Free Societies Need Free Speech","slug":"cathy-young-why-free-societies-need-free-speech","published_at":"2026-06-16T19:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/cathy-young-why-free-societies-need-free-speech","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422","url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/sciencesalon/mss619_Cathy_Young_2026_06_16.mp3","audio_url":"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","summary":"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.","meta_description":"Cathy Young returns to the show for a wide-ranging conversation about free speech, institutional trust, and the strange incentives shaping public debate t…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5424,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/episodes/cathy-young-why-free-societies-need-free-speech/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/cathy-young-why-free-societies-need-free-speech.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}