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Greg Lukianoff on why Free Speech Matters

Greg Lukianoff
Gilberto Tadday
/
TED
Greg Lukianoff

On Sept. 10, 2025, political activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University. The very next month, Greg Lukianoff gave a lecture there, about why free speech is an antidote to violence.

Lukianoff is a free speech advocate and an attorney, the kind who’s willing to defend all comers, left or right. But he was scared to go to UVU. Some believe, after all, that Charlie Kirk was murdered because he exercised his free speech. Still, Lukianoff went, because he wanted to grieve with the students who’d seen Kirk’s shooting and the mayhem that followed, and because he believes in free expression that much. He joins us to reflect on what he told those students, how he’s thinking about attacks on free speech around the country, and why he thinks it remains vitally important for the future of the nation.

You can listen to Greg Lukianoff’s Oct. 30, 2025, lecture at Utah Valley University here.

GUEST – 

Greg Lukianoff | He’s an attorney, the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and an author. His most recent book, co-authored with Nadine Strossen, is “The War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—and Why They Fail.” [Amazon|Bookshop]

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