About The Bully's Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment
“The Bully’s Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment,” a weekly podcast from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, follows the Trump administration’s assault on the freedoms of speech and the press and features the people, communities, and institutions that are fighting back. Hosted by legal journalist Cristian Farias and advocates from the Knight Institute, each episode explores a major First Amendment story in the news and features the people most affected.
Publisher
Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
In the final episode of the season, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones sits down with host Cristian Farias to discuss the First Amendment, the fight to preserve hard-won civil rights, and the danger of “erasing our national memory.” From attacks on “The 1619 Project” to attacks on higher education and cultural institutions, she reflects on how “the past lives with us now” and why controlling history means controlling the present. ACLU attorney Emerson Sykes joins the conver...
8 Aug 2025
When the President Comes for the Lawyers
Since taking office, President Trump has launched a retaliatory campaign aimed at punishing some of the nation’s most prominent law firms. Knight Institute Senior Counsel Scott Wilkens joins host Cristian Farias to explain how Trump’s executive orders are effectively intimidating law firms and lawyers from taking on clients and causes his administration opposes. Bob Bauer, former White House Counsel to President Obama, examines the unconstitutionality of the executive orders, calling the Firs...
31 Jul 2025
How Higher Ed Got Jawboned
The Trump administration’s campaign of extortion against colleges and universities is coming to a head, as settlements with Columbia University and Brown University make headlines this week. Host Cristian Farias invites University of Chicago Law Professor and former Knight Institute Visiting Scholar Genevieve Lakier to discuss the strong First Amendment case universities should be making to resist the Trump administration’s jawboning of higher education. Wesleyan University President Michael ...
25 Jul 2025
Standing up to ICE’s Courthouse Arrests
In recent weeks, reporters across the country have described chaos unfolding in courthouses as ICE agents have descended on state court and immigration proceedings to arrest and detain noncitizens. Knight Institute Legal Fellow Allie Schiele joins host Cristian Farias to discuss how these courthouse arrests implicate the First Amendment right to seek redress, as well as the Knight Institute’s recent FOIA request aimed at uncovering more about ICE’s courthouse arrest policies. New York City Co...
18 Jul 2025
Troubled Waters at the White House Press Pool
President Trump’s decision to block the Associated Press—and other journalists he dislikes—from the White House Press Pool is yet another clear attack on the freedom of press. Knight Institute Deputy Litigation Director Katie Fallow joins host Cristian Farias to discuss the legal implications of banning journalists from the Pool, a “classic First Amendment retaliation.” Longtime White House Correspondent and HuffPost reporter S.V. Dáte speaks about the downstream effects these removals have h...
11 Jul 2025
Amid Funding Cuts, Scientists Speak Out
Since taking office in January, President Trump has moved to cut federal funding to universities and other institutions carrying out academic research. Knight Institute Research Director Katy Glenn Bass tells host Cristian Farias about how the Trump administration is using the threat of cutting federal funding to try to enforce ideological conformity with the administration's views. With cuts affecting their research, Cornell Ph.D. students Isako Di Tomassi and Emma Scales talk about organizi...
4 Jul 2025
The Bully’s Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment will be back next week
The podcast is on hiatus for the holiday, so listeners should check back next week for a new episode about Trump and the First Amendment.
27 Jun 2025
Protests, Deportations, and the Climate of Repression on Campus
Cristian Farias interviews Alex Abdo, Litigation Director at the Knight Institute, regarding the lawsuit against the Trump administration's policy of deporting non-citizen students involved in pro-Palestinian activism, revealing the fight against repression on university campuses.
20 Jun 2025
ICE and LA's Day Laborers
Cristian Farias interviews Ahilan Arulanantham and Pablo Alvarado regarding ICE raids targeting day laborers in Los Angeles and how it threatens their First Amendment right to seek work.
13 Jun 2025
Speaking Truth to Trump’s FCC
Cristian Farias interviews Katie Fallow about the FCC's actions against broadcasters for airing content disliked by the Trump administration, while Anna Gomez emphasizes the need for an independent regulator in this interview episode.
6 Jun 2025
Episode 4: Public Broadcasting Digs In
Cristian Farias interviews Nadine Farid Johnson about President Trump's efforts to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, exploring the historical context and potential impact on independent media.
30 May 2025
Episode 3: We Want to Look at Your Phone
Host Cristian Farias interviews Scott Wilkens from the Institute and attorney Amir Makled regarding the increasing aggressiveness and targeting of government searches of travelers' devices at the U.S. border.
23 May 2025
Episode 2: Farmers Fight Data Purge
Attorney Stephanie Krent and farmer Wes Gillingham discuss the lawsuit against the USDA for purging climate-focused information, highlighting the fight to restore access to crucial data for organic farmers in this interview with Cristian Farias.
16 May 2025
Episode 1: The Students Are Winning
In the first episode of “The Bully’s Pulpit,” host and journalist Cristian Farias describes a harrowing bail hearing for Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University Ph.D. student who was detained by ICE for co-authoring an opinion piece in a student newspaper, and reflects on the meaning of her shocking detention and now her freedom. Knight Institute Executive Director Jameel Jaffer joins Farias to discuss the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on First Amendment freedoms and the awe-inspiring r...
13 May 2025
Extended Preview: “The Bully’s Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment”
Cristian Farias, host of the new podcast by the Knight Institute, “The Bully’s Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment,” shares his goal for the show: “to chronicle in real time the coordinated, unprecedented assault by the president of the United States and his administration on the freedoms of expression, inquiry, association, and the press... all happening at this very moment.” Each episode will explore a major First Amendment story in the news and feature the people most affected by it. Laun...
9 May 2025
A Preview of "The Bully's Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment"
“The Bully’s Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment," a weekly podcast from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, will follow the Trump administration’s assault on the freedoms of speech and the press and will feature the people, communities, and institutions that are fighting back. Hosted by legal journalist Cristian Farias and advocates from the Knight Institute, each episode will explore a major First Amendment story in the news and feature the people most affected by ...
Who has been a guest on The Bully's Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Alex Abdo
Ahilan Arulanantham
Pablo Alvarado
Katie Fallow
Nadine Farid Johnson
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
175,921
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
9 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 57 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
66
Social presence
0
YouTube
86
Engagement
32
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