Edwin is joined by Hadar Harris, PEN America’s managing director, Washington. 

Harris discussed the challenges to free speech in the U.S., highlighting the impact of book bans, media restrictions, the marginalization of NGOs, and attacks on higher education, and emphasized the importance of individual and institutional efforts to protect free expression. 

"There's this sort of twisting of the concept of what civil rights are and what illegal discrimination means," Harris told WCPT. "The whole concept of what DEI is, the concept of what gender is, and even the concept of what antisemitism is . . . is being instrumentalized to . . . undermine institutions in ways that will kind of comport with this ideological approach to things and to not necessarily go through the legal processes or to comply with the law but to really impose a particular vision of free expression, a particular vision of free speech, and a particular vision of the 'golden age of America.'"

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).  

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.