The Fifth Column a Podcast
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Why Autocrats Fear Free Speech w/Steven Pinker- The Fifth Column
Posted
May 19, 2026
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May 19, 2026
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8:41Now PlayingThis is an excerpt from episode 557 with Steven Pinker. Be sure to check out the full video here
Steven Pinker explains why authoritarian regimes fear free speech even when “everyone knows” the regime is lying. The danger is not one person quietly disagreeing. It is the moment private dissent becomes public knowledge, when everyone realizes everyone else sees the lie too. Pinker gets into Soviet jokes, blank protest signs, Ceaușescu, Gandhi, Havel, Canada’s political fictions, Vietnam’s credibility gap, and why common knowledge can bring down regimes.
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Hosted by journalists Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch, The Fifth Column provides a weekly rhetorical assault on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally themselves.
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