Curated playlist
American free speech activists
- Elon MuskIn 2001, Elon Musk traveled to Moscow twice to buy missiles, hoping to launch a plant greenhouse to Mars.
- Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
- Salman RushdieA fatwa ordering Salman Rushdie's execution was broadcast on Radio Tehran on Valentine's Day 1989.
- Arthur MillerArthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in less than six weeks. He finished the first act in less than a day.
- Noam ChomskyNoam Chomsky wrote his first article at age 10, about the fall of Barcelona.
- Hugh HefnerIn 1992, Hugh Hefner paid $75,000 for a burial crypt in Los Angeles, and the neighbor he wanted was Marilyn Monroe. He never met her. In 2009 he told the Los Angeles Times, "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to…
- Charlie KirkCharlie Kirk, then a senior at Wheeling High School in Illinois, once organized a boycott of the cafeteria's cookies to protest a price increase. Charles James Kirk grew into an American political activist, entrepreneur, and media…
- Bari WeissBari Weiss, an American political commentator born in 1984, has collected an unusually long list of labels. Vanity Fair called her a provocateur. In a 2019 interview with Joe Rogan, she described herself as a left-leaning centrist. At…
- Frank ZappaAs a boy, Frank Zappa spread mercury across his bedroom floor with a hammer. His father brought it home from work.
- Timothy LearyTimothy Leary escaped prison in September 1970 by climbing a telephone wire over the wall.
- William PennWilliam Penn has stood above Philadelphia since 1894, when a bronze statue of him by Alexander Milne Calder was set on top of City Hall. At the time, City Hall was the tallest building in the city. Urban designer Edmund Bacon liked to say…
- Jesse VenturaJesse Ventura, born James George Janos, stood before a crowd in November 1998 and declared, "We shocked the world!" He had a point. A man known to millions as a loud, villain-loving wrestling announcer had just won the governor's office of…