The Price of Free Speech: Politics and Power on Campus

Hosts Nina Dos Santos and Owen Bennett Jones explore the mounting political and financial pressures confronting higher education on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., it unpacks the unprecedented clash between the Trump administration and Harvard, raising broader questions about academic freedom, ideological conformity, and the role of government oversight. In the U.K., the conversation turns to the sector’s growing reliance on international students and foreign funding—particularly from China—and the implications for institutional independence and research integrity. Together, the episodes chart the uneasy intersection of education, economics, and geopolitics in today’s universities.Guests:-Tyler Coward is the lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).-Rose Stephenson is Director of Policy and Advocacy at Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)Producer: Pearse LynchExecutive Producer: Lucinda Knight
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Ctrl Alt Deceit: Democracy in Danger is a podcast designed to dive deep into the threats facing our democracies and to ask “just how much danger are they in?”

Throughout the 8-part series, former CNN anchor Nina Dos Santos and regular BBC radio voice Owen Bennett-Jones will be joined by former spies, disinformation researchers and government officials to examine who exactly is trying to “control’ the narrative, which “alternative facts” are they using and where will such “deception” end?

Ctrl Alt Deceit: Democracy in Danger is brought to you by Democratys, a charity committed to exposing interference in our democratic institutions. Their goal is to inspire debate and engagement in our democratic process in the UK and beyond.

• No. of episodes: 15
• Latest episode: 2025-05-16
• Education Government

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