The Path to the Path: RElEASED MARCh 2024

FIRE's Ella Ross sat down with Chrissy Mahr and Jocelyn Chia in NYC to discuss the joke, cancel culture, the power of comedy, and why comedians are the last hope for free speech. (Interviewer) Click here for video. 

Samson Cournane — a fifteen-year-old college student — wrote a petition to his congressman and an op-ed in his university's student newspaper calling attention to patient-safety concerns at his local hospital. (Videographer and lead editor) Click here for video. 

Salomé Sibonex is a Cuban American writer and visual artist. Her written work spans the topics of identity — both her own & identity as it functions in society — psychology of the self, & socio-political subjects. (Videographer and lead editor) Click here for video. 

 More than 70 years ago, Eleanor Roosevelt advocated against hate speech restrictions in front of the United Nations, emphasizing how subjective the concept of hate speech is. She warned that prohibiting so-called "hate speech" could open the door to all sorts of abuses of power. (Script writer, on-camera, lead editor) Click here for video. 

Black curtains and a content warning to prevent “non-consensual” exposure to art? Macalester College says these measures were necessary to protect students from accidentally seeing a feminist art exhibition by Iranian-American artist Taravat Talepasand. (Lead Editor) Click here for video. 

California has limited the use of rap lyrics in criminal prosecutions, and FIRE Research Manager Ryne Weiss is here to explain why that's a good thing. (Camera and lead editor) Click here for video. 

Ever wonder why we make a big deal of the invention of the printing press in school?  FIRE's Ella Ross discusses how important this technological innovation was for free speech and freedom of information, and how it allowed more than just those in power to hear and be heard.  Click here for video. 

 50 years before the Constitution, John Peter Zenger's case set a precedent for one of our grandest ideals: the right to speak and write as we please. Click here for video. 

Writers are a ferocious bunch. In 1830, in response to King Charles X's declaring the end of freedom of the press, journalists and working class supporters started rioting in what would be called The Three Glorious Days. Click here for video.