The Gray Area with Sean Illing
Free speech is often treated as a timeless and sacred right. But what if it’s more myth than reality?
This week, Sean is joined by historian Fara Dabhoiwala, author of What Is Free Speech? They trace the history of free expression from 18th-century pamphleteers, to John Stuart Mill, to the digital platforms that dominate our lives today.
They explore why speech is never just “speech,” how context and power shape who gets heard, the dangers of harmful speech, and the challenges of regulating platforms in a global media environment.
Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)
Guest: Fara Dabhoiwala, historian and author of What Is Free Speech?
We’d love to hear from you. Email us at tga@voxmail.com or leave a voicemail at 1-800-214-5749. Your questions and feedback help us make a better show.
Watch full episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube.
Listen ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: http://vox.com/members
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Danielle Allen on the radicalism of the American revolution — and its lessons for today
My first conversation with Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen in fall 2019 was one of my all-time favorites. I didn’t expect to have Allen on again so soon, but her work is unusually relevant to…
Land of the Giants: The Netflix Effect
Land of the Giants is a podcast from our friends at Recode and the Vox Media Podcast Network that examines the most powerful tech companies of our time. The second season is called The Netflix…
Nicholas Carr on deep reading and digital thinking
In 1964, the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan wrote his opus Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. In it, he writes, “In the long run, a medium’s content matters less than the medium itself in influencing…
Your questions, answered
Believe it or not, we’re already halfway through 2020. What a great year so far, huh? Just a delight. That means it’s time for an AMA. Among the questions you asked: If Joe Biden is…
Which country has the world’s best healthcare system?
I got my start as a blogger. But more specifically, I got my start as a health policy blogger. My first piece of writing I remember people really caring about was a series called “The…
The transformative power of restorative justice
The criminal justice system asks three questions: What law was broken? Who broke it? And what should the punishment be? Upon that edifice — and channeled through old bigotries and fears — we have built…
Ross Douthat and I debate American decadence
In his new book, The Decadent Society, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat diagnoses America’s core problems as decadence: “a situation in which repetition is more the norm than innovation; in which sclerosis afflicts public…
A serious conversation about UFOs
You may have been following — I hope you are following — the New York Times’s recent UFO reporting. Videos that the Navy confirms are real show pilots seeing and marveling over craft they can’t…
A former prosecutor’s case for prison abolition
In 2017, Paul Butler published the book Chokehold: Policing Black Men. For Butler the chokehold is much more than a barbaric police tactic; it is also a powerful powerful metaphor for understanding how racial oppression…
Why Ta-Nehisi Coates is hopeful
The first question I asked Ta-Nehisi Coates, in this episode, was broad: What does he see right now, as he looks out at the country? “I can’t believe I’m gonna say this,” he replied, “but…