Ep. 243: Heather Mac Donald on Trump and free speech

Mac Donald is Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Her most recent book is “When race trumps merit: How the pursuit of equity sacrifices excellence, destroys beauty, and threatens lives.”

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:54 Mac Donald’s personal experience with being shouted down

05:34 Amy Wax, Carole Hooven, and other cancelled professors

11:04 Mac Donald’s support and concern on Trump’s free speech approach

23:41 Rümeysa Öztürk situation

32:08 The problems of campus bureaucracy

36:40 Trump’s executive orders on law firms

43:14 Trump’s attacks on AP News, CBS, ABC, Paramount, and other media companies

59:54 Outro

Read the transcript.

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Show notes:

• “The White House’s clumsy attack on Harvard” (2025) Heather Mac Donald

• “Everyone knows that Harvard has “lost its way…” (2025) President Trump via Truth Social

• “Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Mike Benz” (2025) U.S. Department of State

• “Tufts student returns to Massachusetts after 6 weeks in immigration detention” (2025) The New York Times

• “Headlines compared: Kamala Harris’ multiple answers to ‘60 Minutes’ question” (2024) Straight Arrow News