Episode #1643
Jonathan Zimmerman
Books mentioned
Free Speech and Why You Should Give a Damn
Mentioned by Joe Rogan (host) · at 00:00:00
Amazon (opens in a new tab; affiliate link) Source: Official episode description (podcast RSS) · Transcript (podscripts.co)
Hate Inc.
Mentioned by Joe Rogan (host) · at 00:25:46 · ▶︎ Watch this moment on YouTube (approximate)
Amazon (opens in a new tab; affiliate link) Source: Transcript (podscripts.co)
Fail Safe
Mentioned by Jonathan Zimmerman · at 00:59:58 · ▶︎ Watch this moment on YouTube (approximate)
Amazon (opens in a new tab; affiliate link) Source: Transcript (podscripts.co)
Alas, Babylon
Mentioned by Jonathan Zimmerman · at 01:02:17 · ▶︎ Watch this moment on YouTube (approximate)
Amazon (opens in a new tab; affiliate link) Source: Transcript (podscripts.co)
Chaos
Mentioned by Joe Rogan (host) · at 01:05:03 · ▶︎ Watch this moment on YouTube (approximate)
Amazon (opens in a new tab; affiliate link) Source: Transcript (podscripts.co)
The War of Art
Mentioned by Joe Rogan (host) · at 01:54:59 · ▶︎ Watch this moment on YouTube (approximate)
Amazon (opens in a new tab; affiliate link) Source: Transcript (podscripts.co)
The Immortality Key
Mentioned by Jonathan Zimmerman · at 02:24:58 · ▶︎ Watch this moment on YouTube (approximate)
Amazon (opens in a new tab; affiliate link) Source: Transcript (podscripts.co)
Timestamps are segment start times from the podscripts.co transcript of the audio release (includes ad reads), so they may differ from the video by a few minutes.
Jonathan Zimmerman, an education and history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses free speech, censorship, self-censorship, and social media’s role in political polarization. The conversation also connects open-minded debate and education to personal development, drawing on experiences across several countries and topics including Cold War history, religion, campus politics, psychedelics, and U.S. foreign intervention.
What they talked about
- Free speech as a tool for social change
- Arguments for censorship against racism and conspiracy theories
- Online discourse limitations and incivility
- Social media and adolescent groupthink
- Learning from opposing viewpoints
- Decline of religious affiliation and rise of political tribalism
- CIA LSD experiments and historical conspiracies
- Trigger warnings and free speech on campus
Data last updated · Report a mistake · How it works: mentions are pulled from public transcripts and episode descriptions, partly with AI-assisted extraction, so details and timestamps can be off.