Table of Contents
So to Speak podcast: “After Charlottesville” with former ACLU President Nadine Strossen
![](/sites/default/files/styles/379x213/public/2017/08/22092831/STS_Featured.jpg?h=caeb18d4&itok=IPQ6W9Nj)
Nadine Strossen knows the dangers of Nazism. Her father was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp one day before he was scheduled to be sterilized. If American soldiers arrived a day later, Strossen would never become the first female president of the ACLU. She wouldn’t even be alive.
After Charlottesville, there has been vigorous debate about the so-called limits of free speech. Should white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideologies enjoy full First Amendment rights? And if so, should civil liberties groups, like the ACLU, defend them?
On today’s episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, Strossen discusses the fallout from Charlottesville and argues forcefully that, yes, even neo-Nazis deserve free speech and assembly rights ― and yes, the ACLU should defend those rights. She believes the best way to preserve a free society is to not compromise the rights guaranteed by a free society. She is authoring a book on this very topic due out next year titled, “HATE: Why we should resist it with free speech, not censorship.”
You can subscribe and listen to So to Speak on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.
Stay up to date with So to Speak on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and subscribe to the show’s newsletter at sotospeakpodcast.com.
Have ideas for future shows? Email us at sotospeak@thefire.org.
Have questions you want us to answer during an upcoming show? Call them into our voicemail inbox at 215-315-0100.
Recent Articles
FIRE’s award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.
![Screenshot from the video of the Hawk Tuah woman](/sites/default/files/styles/334x250/public/2024/06/Hawk%20Tuah%20girl%20interview.png?h=e1394025&itok=8ZQSdVwR)
‘Hawk Tuah’ girl wasn’t fired from her job — and that’s a good thing
![Original official Full metal jacket Stanley Kubrick film poster detail with born to kill helmet](/sites/default/files/styles/334x250/public/2024/06/Original%20official%20Full%20metal%20jacket%20Stanley%20Kubrick%20film%20poster%20detail%20with%20born%20to%20kill%20helmet.jpg?h=27c15126&itok=8kZm30zO)
What is your major malfunction, Amazon?
![University of Michigan PhD student Allison Cale, center, carries a sign that says Free Speech! Free Palestine! as students walk out to protest university administration's proposed disruptive activity policy at U-M's Diag in Ann Arbor on Thursday, April 4, 2024.](/sites/default/files/styles/334x250/public/2024/06/University%20of%20Michigan%20PhD%20student%20Allison%20Cale%20Israel%20Palestine%20Protest.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=5TB2wrsp)
Feds’ new ‘anti-harassment’ mandate to universities: Violate the First Amendment
![Truck with an image of Julian Assange at his extradition hearing](/sites/default/files/styles/334x250/public/2024/06/Truck%20with%20an%20image%20of%20Julian%20Assange%20at%20his%20extradition%20hearing.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=A8_so2c5)