The Ayaan Hirsi Ali Podcast: A home for critical thinking and common sense

I’m excited to share with you that I’m starting a new podcast – one that will be a home for critical thinking and common sense.

Critical thinking, objective truth and free speech have always been under assault.

Today – as in times past – the threat to the United States is both foreign and domestic.

Adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran are intent on disrupting our cyber security, our public discourse, our elections, not to mention the international order we have invested so much in building and maintaining since World War II.

But it is not only foreign enemies we have to worry about. At home, too, Americans are facing down domestic threats – from the far right and the far left. Extremists have ideological agendas that would transform America (more like disfigure) into a fascistic or anarchic dystopia – in any case into something other than its foundational ideal. Such transformations don’t happen overnight. Individual liberties are often imperceptibly sliced away – that is a lesson of the great crises of democracy in interwar Europe or post-colonial Africa.

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, we are confronted from the right by the conspiracy theories of QAnon, and from the Left by the toxic idea of Critical Justice Theory, otherwise known as Wokeism.

One thing all these actors – foreign and domestic – have in common is that they aim at weakening and eventually defeating the foundational idea of America.

And what is that idea? It is the notion of Liberty.

Foreign authoritarians worry that their populations will demand ever more freedoms by pointing to the United States and its democratic allies as their example. The dictators need to show that America is a failure to discredit the idea of freedom.

Domestic extremists that crave absolute power and who abhor accountability need a shortcut to achieving that power and holding on to it. The fast-track path is to shut down free inquiry, free debate, critical thinking and our basic common sense.

In this podcast, I’ll be talking to some amazing people who have given a lot of thought to these issues. Some of my guests will surprise you. Some of the topics we’ll be covering are ones I’ve never approached before. But by doing so this way, through dialogue, I think I’m going to learn a lot. I hope you do, too.

What all my guests have in common is a passion for free inquiry and speech. They are not afraid to explore different perspectives, even if it means challenging their own assumptions, or violating cultural taboos. You, the audience can make up your minds which arguments make most sense to you. We would love to hear your thoughts after each show.

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