Across much of the country, Republican officials are reaching into K-12 classrooms and universities alike to exert control over what can be taught. In Florida, Texas, and many other states, laws now restrict teaching historical facts about race and racism. Book challenges and bans are surging. Public universities are seeing political meddling in the tenure process. Advocates of these measures say, in effect, that education must emphasize only the positive aspects of American history. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine reporter who developed the 1619 Project, and Jelani Cobb, the dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism, talk with David Remnick about the changing climate for intellectual freedom. “I just think it’s rich,” Hannah-Jones says, “that the people who say they are opposing indoctrination are in fact saying that curricula must be patriotic.” She adds, “You don’t ban books, you don’t ban curriculum, you don’t ban the teaching of ideas, just to do it. You do it to control what we are able to understand and think about and imagine for our society.”
Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger, Who Refused to “Find” Votes for Donald Trump, Prepares for Another Election
Jerry Seinfeld on Making a Life in Comedy (and Also, Pop-Tarts)
Judi Dench on Bond and Shakespeare
Jonathan Haidt on the Plague of Anxiety Affecting Young People
Maya Hawke on the Fear of “Missing Out,” and Jen Silverman on “There’s Going to Be Trouble”
How a Republican and a Democrat Carved out Exemptions to Texas’s Abortion Ban
The Film Critic Justin Chang on What to See in 2024
Rhiannon Giddens, Americana’s Queen, on Cultivating the Black Roots of Country Music
Alicia Keys Returns to Her Roots with Her New Musical, “Hell’s Kitchen”
Percival Everett and the Reinvention of Mark Twain’s Jim
Trump’s Authoritarian Pronouncements Recall a Dark History
March Madness 2024: College Basketball at a Crossroads
Judith Butler Can’t “Take Credit or Blame” for Gender Furor
In “Great Expectations,” Vinson Cunningham Watches Barack Obama’s Rise Up Close
Bradley Cooper Contends for Best Actor in “Maestro”
What Biden Is Thinking About the 2024 Election
Kara Swisher on Tech Billionaires: “I Don’t Think They Like People”
Lily Gladstone on Holding the Door Open for More Native Actors in Hollywood. Plus, the Brody Awards
Ty Cobb on Trump, Putin, and the Death of Alexey Navalny
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Fresh Air
Should This Exist?
Without Fail
Hannibal Buress
Longform