Free Speech, Chilled to Perfection [TEASER]

Do you ever feel…like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again? That’s understandable because battles over free speech and the First Amendment are raging right now, whether on the internet, on TV, in the workplace, or in the streets. But baby, you’re a firework. And the Trump administration can’t take that from you. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To hear this and other Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support http://fivefourpod.com/support. 5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. This episode was produced by Dustin DeSoto. Leon Neyfakh provides editorial support. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations. Transcriptions of each episode are available at fivefourpod.com http://fivefourpod.com Follow the show at @fivefourpod on most platforms. On BlueSky, find Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social, Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social, and Rhiannon @aywarhiannon.bsky.social. Our Sponsors: * Check out Mint Mobile and use my code mintmobile.com/fivefour for a great deal: https://www.mintmobile.com * Check out Quince and use my code FIVEFOUR for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Speaker 00

  Hey, everyone. This is Leon from Prologue Projects. On this subscriber-only episode of Five to Four, Peter, Rhiannon, and Michael are talking about the latest battles over free speech in the Trump era. Following the murder of Charlie Kirk, the Trump administration has seized the moment to target speech they don't approve of. The vice president has urged the public to report anyone celebrating Kirk's death. So when you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out and help. Call their employer. Late-night hosts have been threatened.

• 0:35Speaker 01

  Colbert has no talent. Fallon has no talent. Kimmel has no talent. They're next. They're gonna be going. I hear they're gonna be going.

• 0:42Speaker 00

  And the administration has labeled Antifa, not a reorganization, as a terrorist group.

• 0:47Speaker 02

  This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism, to dismantle Antifa, to dismantle the organizations that have been carrying out these acts of political violence and terrorism.

• 1:01Speaker 00

  The Supreme Court says that speech is supposed to be broadly protected. But as you'll hear, that only goes so far in practice. This is Five to Four, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court and the Trump administration suck.

• 1:19Peter Shamshiri?

  Welcome to Five to Four, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have shut down our civil liberties, like Congress shutting down the government. I'm Peter. I'm here with Rhiannon.

• 1:29Speaker 04

  Hey, quick and simple, very easy.

• 1:32Peter Shamshiri?

  Absolutely.

• 1:33Speaker 04

  A to B analogy.

• 1:34Peter Shamshiri?

  And Michael.

• 1:35Michael Liroff?

  Hey, everybody.

• 1:37Peter Shamshiri?

  Michael, live from a tin can.

• 1:40Speaker 04

  Michael sounds weird, huh?

• 1:43Michael Liroff?

  I am in the process of a move. I'm between apartments or places or whatever, and I'm currently on my phone in a closet, doing my best, okay?

• 1:53Speaker 04

  Yes, he's doing his best.

• 1:56Peter Shamshiri?

  Yeah, we would rather provide you with poor-sounding content than not provide you with content at all. That's our commitment. Most podcasts would have just canceled. They would have said, "Well, wait until everyone has functional microphones, not us."

• 2:12Speaker 04

  Actually, I think most podcasts do bad audio all the time.

• 2:15Peter Shamshiri?

  That's actually true, yeah.

• 2:18Peter Shamshiri?

  I shouldn't have talked about us like that. We're actually incredibly professional.

• 2:22Speaker 04

  That's right. We give you such a quality product week in and week out, people.

• 2:28Peter Shamshiri?

  Today, we are going to be talking about how you should be thinking about free speech under the new Trump administration. I think the most common talking point I hear about, like, the law these days is just, none of this matters anymore, right? We've talked about this. We don't think that's correct. I think it's sort of a stupid and counterproductive way to think about the law now, because the law matters a lot. The stakes are higher than they've been in the recent past. So it's important to understand the nuances. And given all the drama around the reaction to Charlie Kirk's murder, with like widespread speech policing that ultimately included Jimmy Kimmel somehow, we thought it would

• 3:12Peter Shamshiri?

  be good to discuss the state of free speech in this country under Trump. What does the law say? What happens in practice, right? What can you say? What can't you say? When does the law matter? And when does it not? I think in order to do this, we need to first talk about some key elements of free speech law. Because lurking behind this discussion is the fact that a bunch of people got into trouble for speech that was perhaps either embracing violence overtly, or maybe laughing about violence, things like that. Maybe you

• 3:53Peter Shamshiri?

  got fired from your job because you made a joke about Charlie Kirk getting popped, right?

• 4:00Speaker 04

  Yeah. Or even just sharing kind of like your opinion about it, right?

• 4:05Peter Shamshiri?

  Yeah.

• 4:05Speaker 04

  That like...

• 4:06Speaker 06

  Hey, folks, if you want to hear the rest of this episode, you're going to have to subscribe. This episode is one of our premium Patreon-only episodes. Membership starts at just five bucks a month. If you want to hear the rest, join us at patreon.com/54pod. That's 5-4-pod, all spelled out. Members get a bunch of stuff. Not only do you get access to the premium episodes, but access to subscriber-only events, discounts on merch. And at the $10 a month level, you get bigger discounts on merch and membership in the incredibly rowdy 5-4 Slack. So again, that's patreon.com/54pod, 5-4-pod, all spelled out. Become a member today.