January 22, 2025: Civil digital discourse

The Fabulous 413

We’re examining some of our given rights, to certain freedoms

But how exactly do those freedoms work online? We sit with Professor Amir Houmansadr of Umass to learn about the nature of the TikTok ban, and American digital censorship, and how game theories might help prevent the possibilities of those same security breaches that everyone is nervous about.

We’ll also head to Great Barrington, where a theater full of 8th graders are getting a civics and civil rights lesson through a screening of the movie Selma. We’ll chat with Triplex Cinema creative director Ben Elliot, a handful of observant pre-teens, and post movie conversation moderator Shirley Edgerton about the importance of the movie and bringing those lessons into the present day in and out of the classrooms.

And we’ll head back to Philadelphia in our hearts and the past with word nerd Emily Brewster as we delve further into the American Dialect Society’s picks for it’s many other words of the year. Because although there’s only one that gets to be THE word, much like other award shows, there’s a whole lot of other accolades that are given out when a room full of linguists and language enthusiasts come together.