SpeechMatters

In the season five premiere of the SpeechMatters podcast, host Michelle Deutchman speaks with Center Co-chairs Howard Gillman, Chancellor of UC Irvine, and Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law, about their upcoming book, Campus Speech and Academic Freedom: A Guide for Difficult Times. Against the backdrop of recent controversies — from legislative restrictions on teaching and campus protests to political pressure on colleges and universities — the episode explores how higher education leaders can navigate free speech, academic freedom and institutional governance in 2026.

Resources:
Campus Speech and Academic Freedom
Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion - The New York Times

In the final episode of season four of the SpeechMatters podcast, guest host and former fellow Emerson Sykes of the ACLU sits down with UC Davis law professor and former fellow Brian Soucek to explore the idea of institutional neutrality in higher education and why neutrality may be a myth. Drawing on Soucek’s forthcoming book, “The Opinionated University,” the conversation examines whether universities can, or should remain neutral amid political polarization, how claims of neutrality can undermine academic freedom and what role administrators, faculty and students should play in shaping a university’s mission and values.
Episode Resources:
The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education, Soucek
Institutional Values, Academic Freedom, and the First Amendment | UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement

What does it take to create a campus where open dialogue and inclusion thrive side by side? Guest host Alex Kappus talks with Caroline Mehl, the co-founder and executive director of the Constructive Dialogue Institute, about how higher education can model the kind of discourse democracy demands. Together they explore the social science behind constructive dialogue, what leaders can do to foster trust and why free expression remains essential to learning and civic life.
Episode Resources:
The Path Forward After Political Murder by Jonathan Haidt and Caroline Mehl, the Chronicle of Higher Education
Higher Education’s Role in a Polarized America by Alex Kappus, Carnegie Blog
Building Cultures of Constructive Dialogue: A Blueprint for Campus Leaders

In this episode, constitutional law scholar Timothy Zick joins us to discuss how President Trump’s second term is testing our commitments to free expression and academic freedom. From the chilling of faculty speech to the fraught intersection of the First and Second Amendments, Zick examines how executive overreach is placing the nation’s core democratic freedoms under unprecedented strain.
Episode Resources
Thoughts on the First Substack
Trump 2.0: Executive Power and the First Amendment
“New Threats to Campus Protest”

For this special Constitution Day episode, SpeechMatters is joined by Dr. Colleen Shogan, the former Archivist of the United States, to reflect on the enduring legacy of America’s founding documents. From the urgent need for a national “civics renaissance” to the risks of political interference in how we teach history, the conversation offers powerful insights into what it means to safeguard our democratic ideals in an era of polarization, misinformation and rapid technological change.
Episode Resources:
America needs a civic education moonshot, before it’s too late
The Declaration of Independence | National Archives
https://www.inpursuit.org/