Interview with Noam Chomsky: Reinhard Hesse foundation 'Freedom of Science' Prize

Administered by the German association of university teachers, the prize acknowledges contributions to defend the freedom of speech at universities against inner and outer adversaries

I was honored to be asked by the Reinhard Hesse Foundation and the "Deutscher Hochschulverband", DHV, if I would carry out an interview with Noam Chomsky in honor of his being awarded the Foundations inaugural prize for defending the freedom of speech at Universities. In the words of the Foundation: “The aim of the Reinhard Hesse foundation is to defend the freedom of speech at universities against their inner and outer adversaries. At present the Foundation considers "cancel culture" as a vital inner menace for free speech.” I couldn’t agree more, and was very happy to have the opportunity to have another discussion with Noam. The Foundation submitted a number of questions they wanted me to cover, and gave me free rein to revise the list and add to it. In addition they gave me permission to post the full interview on this site, so that the broader general public would have access to it.

Noam has experience cancel culture long before it was fashionable, and his take on this is somewhat different than the one’s most often espoused.

Congratulations to Noam for this well-deserved award. I hope this video provides many of you with a chance to listen to his views on a wide variety of topics, and to get his historical perspective on current issues. We are releasing this video for free viewing by everyone.