by Michael Fox | Jul 9, 2026 | brazil, free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech
This is really a tale of two countries: the United States and Brazil. In both countries, far-right presidents come to power — Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. In both those countries, the presidents spent several years unraveling democratic institutions and public policy. Both presidents then ran for reelection. Both presidents lied about their country’s voting systems in order to undermine the elections and whip up their base.
Both those presidents lost their reelections — Trump in 2020. Bolsonaro in 2022. They both claimed fraud and tried to carry out a coup to stay in power.
But that is where these two paths diverged. In the United States, President Donald Trump continued to peddle his lies about the elections. He created his own social media platform and he used it to push his agenda. He was reelected in 2024 and returned to power. In Brazil, however, the country’s Supreme Electoral Court blocked former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years, because of the lies he told about the country’s electoral system.
It wasn’t censorship. it was a different interpretation of free speech. One that said the right to free expression must be balanced with the other rights in the country and the country’s democratic system. The United States doesn’t agree. And the Trump administration has been pushing to bend Brazil toward its definition of “free speech.”
In this episode, Michael Fox journeys to Brazil to understand the lengths that the country has gone to fight disinformation.
Michael is joined in the episode by Maximillian Alvarez, editor-in-chief and co-executive director of The Real News Network and the host of the Working People Podcast.
The Battle for Free Speech
by Michael Fox | Jul 2, 2026 | free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Michael Fox: It’s good to see you, Mansa.
Mansa Musa: It’s good to be seen.
Michael Fox: I want to start us in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial.
Michael Fox: I’m standing inside the mausoleum of the Lincoln Memorial. President Abraham Lincoln sitting on his chair, staring out, looking down across Washington over the reflecting pool at the Washington Monument in the Capitol.
Michael Fox: So early last fall, I went down to the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall and I wanted to go because this is, for me, it’s kind of one of the most iconic places I can think of for free speech in the United States.
Speaker 4: As the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Michael Fox: Clearly, like the images of the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s, I have a dream speech and hundreds of thousands of people covering the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, running all the way back along the reflecting pool. And I went there to ask people what free speech meant to them. Excuse me, sir.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Michael Fox: My name’s Mike Fox. Yes, sir. I’m a freelance reporter and I’m working on a podcast about free speech. And so I spoke with one guy named Ric. He’s retired. He’s from Arizona. He came there with his wife. They were in town for the day. He actually works as a pit line firefighter for NASCAR. And he told me –
Speaker 6: The freedom to say what you feel, to express what you
by Michael Fox | Jun 25, 2026 | Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech, Trump
Transcript
Audio Clip: By late morning, it was clear. June 6th would be no ordinary Friday in LA.
Michael Fox: June 6th, 2025. Ice officers raid a garment factory in downtown Los Angeles. There’s another raid at a Home Depot. They detained dozens of people. The same day Los Angeles explodes in protests in response. They ripple across the city for more than a week. The first big response to the immigration crackdown in Trump’s second term. Photojournalist Nick Stern was there.
Nick Stern: I’ve been a photojournalist for around 30 years initially in the UK and 2007, I moved to the US and became a citizen in 2019.
Michael Fox: I spoke with him recently. He’s worked in 50 countries covering stuff like this, big protests, civil unrest. So June 6th last year, Nick said the protest was loud, noisy.
Nick Stern: I got pepper sprayed, pepper gassed in my face, which was pretty horrific.
Michael Fox: The next day is a Saturday. There are more ice raids and a big protest that carries into the evening, Nick’s back on the streets and he’s there throughout the day.
Nick Stern: It was a Saturday. It was June the 7th and it was about 10 to 90 in the evening.
Michael Fox: He told me there were a few stragglers in the protest. He was off to the side, kind of parallel with the police. And you can even see this in some cell phone footage shot and posted online from that night. Suddenly an officer turns and fires at him with a less lethal projectile.
Nick Stern: What’s called a flashbang, which is an explosive, which embedded in
by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner | Jun 18, 2026 | big tech, censorship, free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech, Trump
Transcript
The following rushed transcript may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
On the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration—January 20, 2025—the heads of many of Silicon Valley’s most powerful tech firms sat in the rows just behind Trump. It was a sign of Trump’s deep ties to the industry and to these powerful individuals who are transforming how we communicate, and not for the better.
In this episode, Michael Fox visits Silicon Valley to try to understand the stranglehold that tech has over our media and our airwaves. Hosts Michael Fox and Marc Steiner dig into the ways media consolidation, social media, and AI are strangling our free speech, even as they claim to be liberating it—and us—with incredible insight from professors Todd Wolfson, Mary Anne Franks, Fara Dabhoiwala, Ramesh Srinivasan, and Jeff Cohen, the founder of the organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, FAIR.
The Battle for Free Speech is a production of The Real News Network.
Hosted by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner. Theme music by Michael Fox, Jordan Klein and Daniel Nuñez. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound. Production and Sound Design by Michael Fox and Stephen Frank. Editorial support by Kayla Rivara and Heather Gies. Research by Ben Schweiger.
Guests
Todd Wolfson
Mary Anne Franks
Fara Dabhoiwala
Jeff Cohen
Ramesh Srinivasan
Resources
Mary Anne Franks’ book, Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment
Fara Dabhoiwala’s book, What Is Free Speech?: The History of a Dangerous Idea
Todd Wolfson’s Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left
Marc Steiner’s Interview with Jeff Cohen, “How Democrats set the stage for Trump’s assault on free speech”
You can hear Ramesh Srinivasan’s Utopias Podcast here, or wherever you get your
by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner | Jun 11, 2026 | First Amendment, free speech, history, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech, The Cultural Front
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Michael Fox: Hi Mark.
Marc Steiner: Hey Mike, how you doing? Good to see you.
Michael Fox: Good to see you.
Marc Steiner: What do you got for us today?
Michael Fox: All right. So late last fall I visited this place that I think you’ll appreciate for this episode. Sprout Plaza at the University of California campus.
Marc Steiner: I know exactly where you were.
Michael Fox: So it’s a beautiful blue sky out. Leaves are changing colors. It’s a crisp autumn afternoon and in front of me is this big long stoic building marble, four big long Roman columns at the top of a row of stairs. This is the administration building here at the University of California Berkeley and this is called Sproul Hall. And that is important because this was literally ground zero for the free speech movement of 1964 here at the University of California Berkeley. Like the Plaza where I’m at right now, which is Sprout Plaza, was where you just had daily marches, protests, speeches just constantly happening.
I think it is really poignant that on the ground in front of Sprout Hall, someone has written in chalk, Trump must go now, refuse fascism. And it’s chalked up in two different locations here. People still staking out their territory, demanding their right to speak their voice. I was there to get a sense of the feeling being there and kind of the legacy today. And of course this was ground zero for the free speech movement. And Mark, that’s something you know
by Michael Fox | Jun 4, 2026 | free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech, Trump
