Cancel Culture and Free Speech
How do we have accountability without putting a chill on free speech and intellectual freedom?
with
Suzanne Nossel, Daniel Kovalik, and David Lat
Wednesday, May 25th, 2022
5:00pm ET
Should cancel culture be cancelled? Maybe it’s time to think about it, according to the New York Times.
Both the political left and the right are caught in a destructive loop of condemnation and clarification around “cancel culture.”
Polls show many Americans are confused as to what they can say, and it’s damaging free speech and open debate. Join us for this spirited conversation on Wednesday, May 25th, 5:00pm-6:00pm ET.
About the Speakers:
Tim Miller is an MSNBC analyst, writer-at-large at The Bulwark, and the host of “Not My Party” on Snapchat. He recently wrote an article on this topic titled “Let's Talk about Cancelling.” Tim was communications director for Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign and spokesman for the Republican National Committee during Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign. He has since left the GOP and become one of the leaders of the “Never Trump” movement. He lives in Oakland, CA with his husband and daughter. He has written on politics and culture for Rolling Stone, The Ringer, Playboy, and The Daily Beast.
Suzanne Nossel is a leading voice on free expression issues in the US and globally, currently serving as the CEO of PEN America, one of the most important organizations in the world that works to defend and celebrate free expression. Her roots in defending free speech and human rights run deep. She has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch and as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. Nossel also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations for Obama. During the Clinton Administration, Nossel was Deputy to the U.S. Ambassador for UN Management and Reform at the United Nations. During her corporate career, Nossel served as Vice President of U.S. Business Development for Bertelsmann and as Vice President for Strategy and Operations for the Wall Street Journal. Nossel published a book on freedom of speech, Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All in 2020.
Daniel Kovalik is a human rights and labor rights lawyer whose most recent book, Cancel This Book The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture discusses the cancel culture phenomenon that is sweeping the country. He served as in-house counsel for the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW) until 2019 where he worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum – cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia. Mr. Kovalik received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law and the Project Censored Award. He is the author of several books and has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and U.S. foreign policy.
David Lat is a lawyer and former federal prosecutor who now publishes Original Jurisdiction, about law and legal affairs. Lat recently stepped into the cancel culture controversy with an article about a protest at Yale Law School. Lat founded Above the Law, one of the nation's most widely read legal news websites, and Underneath Their Robes, a popular blog about federal judges.. He contributes often to newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Before entering the media world, David worked as a federal prosecutor; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton; and law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. David graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
