SELF-CENSORSHIP
Every society has norms to enforce. Laws and constitutions may protect us from the state when we are moved to speak our minds, but the state is just one possible form of censorship.
One of America’s most outspoken intellectuals, Glenn Loury says it’s the subtler forces – social shame, professional risk or the fear of being cancelled – that may be doing more damage to public discourse than any government ever could.
Loury argues that self-censorship isn’t just a personal failure of nerve, it’s a social epidemic with real consequences for democracy, policy and truth. While every society enforces norms, have we become so intolerant of dissent that we’ve stopped being able to think freely in public?
In this Festival edition of Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps, Loury urges us to be braver, take more risks and live unapologetically ‘within the truth’.
This session is made possible with the support of the Hunt Family Foundation.
Glenn Loury [USA]
Glenn C. Loury is Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences, Emeritus, at Brown University. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economics Association and a Member of the American Philosophical Society. He has published scholarly and public intellectual articles on racial inequality in the US. His most recent book, Self-Censorship (2025), expands upon his ideas on political correctness from the 1990s. He is the host of The Glenn Show, a widely viewed podcast, and has also written an acclaimed memoir, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative.
Josh Szeps
Josh hosts one of the most listened-to Australian interview shows in the world, Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps. In New York, he was a contributor on the NBC TODAY Show and a founding host of the groundbreaking US news network, HuffPost Live. Josh won a Webby Award while the organisation won a Pulitzer. In Australia, he anchored ABC TV’s Weekend Breakfast and Afternoons with Josh Szeps on ABC Radio. Josh is the newest columnist at the AFR. His show is available on Substack and every podcast platform.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
The views and opinions expressed by the Festival participants are not necessarily the views of The Ethics Centre and our partners.