{"podcast":{"title":"The Peter McCormack Show","slug":"the-peter-mccormack-show-525419","podcast_index_feed_id":525419,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/69d4f193b76468caacc5068f","website_url":"https://www.petermccormack.com/","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/69d4f193b76468caacc5068f/show-cover.jpg","author":"Peter McCormack","episode_count":1075,"summary":"The Peter McCormack Show - politics, macro, Bitcoin and AI, long-form interviews. Twice-weekly conversations about money, power, and the shifts reshaping the next decade. Peter McCormack interviews politicians, economists, investors, journalists, founders and Bitcoiners. Past guests include Liz Truss, Lyn Alden, Curtis Yarvin, Matt Goodwin, Mike Green, Balaji Srinivasan, Rupert Lowe, Firas Modad, Scott Horton, Jeff Booth, Connor Leahy, Andrea Miotti, Neema Parvini, Dr Tim Gregory and Simon Dixon. Recurring threads: the debt and inflation endgame, UK political collapse and what comes after, Reform and the populist wave, the Middle East and the American war machine, AI safety and the race for superintelligence, energy and net zero, Bitcoin adoption and policy, and the slow-motion decline of Western institutions. Long-form - most episodes run 60 to 120 minutes. New episodes 2 to 3 times per week. Video on YouTube and Spotify. Host: Peter McCormack, a retired rapper from Bedford, UK, trying to understand this crazy world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T06:19:00.527164+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419"},"episode":{"title":"#184 - Helen Pluckrose - Liberalism, Free Speech & the Authoritarian Turn","slug":"184-helen-pluckrose-liberalism-free-speech-the-authoritarian-turn","published_at":"2026-06-17T16:47:10+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419/184-helen-pluckrose-liberalism-free-speech-the-authoritarian-turn","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419","url":"https://shows.acast.com/the-peter-mccormack-show/episodes/184-helen-pluckrose-liberalism-free-speech-the-authoritarian","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69d4f193b76468caacc5068f/e/6a318870101389aa3d566da5/media.mp3","summary":"Helen Pluckrose joins me to discuss how liberalism was lost and why free speech, individual liberty and viewpoint diversity need to be defended from both the authoritarian left and the authoritarian right. Helen explains why liberalism does not mean “left wing”, why it is better understood as the opposite of authoritarianism, and how critical social justice, identity politics and language policing have changed the way people think, speak and behave. We discuss woke ideology, DEI, equality vs equity, trans rights, queer theory, free speech, institutional capture and why suppressing ideas usually makes them more powerful. We also get into whether Britain needs a liberal revolution, how the anti-woke movement can become authoritarian itself, and why the future may depend on liberals on the left and right defending freedom within their own tribes. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - What Liberalism Really Means 00:00:48 - How Did We Lose the 90s? 00:03:13 - Phones, Algorithms and Anxiety 00:08:11 - What Has Changed? 00:11:16 - Woke and Language Policing 00:13:57 - Liberalism vs Authoritarianism 00:20:57 - How Liberalism Was Lost 00:23:39 - Why Freedom Must Be Maintained 00:25:33 - Can Institutions Stay Liberal? 00:28:43 - Who Represents Liberalism Today? 00:31:28 - DEI and Discrimination 00:35:10 - Equality vs Equity 00:39:29 - Is Pro-Trans Misogynistic? 00:41:38 - Reality, Safety and Liberalism 00:46:03 - Queer Theory and Biological Reality 00:49:26 - How Civil Rights Became Language Policing 00:55:06 - A Radical Defence of Freedom 00:58:51 - Woke Corporatism 01:03:21 - The Problem With Anti-Woke 01:10:48 - Why Suppressing Speech Backfires 01:13:37 - Do We Need a Liberal Revolution? 01:…","meta_description":"Helen Pluckrose joins me to discuss how liberalism was lost and why free speech, individual liberty and viewpoint diversity need to be defended from both…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5212,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419/episodes/184-helen-pluckrose-liberalism-free-speech-the-authoritarian-turn/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419/184-helen-pluckrose-liberalism-free-speech-the-authoritarian-turn.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}