i'm ken paulson. we're joined today by a singer with a great heart and a great voice: judy collins. [applause] (collins) thanks, ken. nice to see you. good to see you. thank you. i say "a great heart," because you are probably as well-known for your commitment to social causes as your singing career. and you've been pretty successful at both. how many times have you been arrested? [light laughter] i've actually been arrested three times, and two of them were for my civil rights. i was protesting the war in vietnam. i was arrested on the steps of the capitol, and i went to jail for that. and there was another incident there in a protest against the war in vietnam. i was also arrested on an airplane for using a cell phone, but we won't talk about that. that was a terrible shock. i considered it, in a sense, a freedom of expression issue, but i don't think that they did. but i have had incidents where i've protested, where i've been involved with large protests ever since i was a kid. my father was in the radio business, and i'm not sure how he got away with saying a lot of the things t

i'm ken paulson, the executive director of the first amendment center. our guest once described rap as "america's black radio station." if that's the case, we're joined today by the program director of an entire movement. please welcome the founder of public enemy, chuck d. [applause] you're a man of opinions. what i didn't know until reading a bit more about you was that your folks were both activists, that you grew up in a household of opinions. did that shape the way you look at the world? yup, 'cause my parents kind of, like, raised me to be independent and have independent thoughts, not so much as follow my peers, and to challenge information. so, i mean, to be an activist just means that they were conscious of certain facts that were circulating. and in the '60s, they were in their 20s, late 20s, so that was a time where you had a conscious movement where people were actually looking into themselves, finding out about themselves, and trying to do something to better themselves. and my parents encouraged me to do so myself. i understand that a kind

i'm ken paulson. our guest today has written challenging and provocative plays over the past four decades, earning three pulitzer prizes, two tonys, and a reputation for art with an impact. please welcome edward albee. [applause] i was struck by the number of times people have objected to your work. and yet, i've sat here with people whose careers have been marked by censorship and challenges. i'm not sure i've ever met anyone whose very first work at age 12 was censored by his adoptive mother. what was that about? well, you see, i started writing poetry when i was about eight, and she didn't read poetry. but when she found out that i'd written a three-act sex farce... [laughter] at the age of 12, or to be fair about it, probably 12 1/2, though still i didn't know very much about farce and practically nothing about sex at that time-- or at least, my knowledge of sex was singular-- [laughter] i wrote this three-act sex farce. very short acts. each act was about eight or ten minutes. and i'd like to thi

i'm ken paulson.t week with another conversation about the first amendment, the arts, and american culture on speaking freely. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center. captioning by tate at captionmax www.captionmax.com

i'm ken paulson. back next week with another conversation about the first amendment and free expression. hope you can join us then for speaking freely. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center captioning by captionmax www.captionmax.com

i'm ken paulson, executive director of the first amendment center. david crosby has written and performed some of the most powerful music of the past 35 years. throughout his solo career and his years with the byrds; crosby, stills, nash, and young; and now cpr, he's demonstrated that music can make a difference. now he's teamed with david bender, a founding contributing editor for george magazine, to write stand and be counted: making music, making history. welcome, gentlemen. it's a book about courageous musicians and courageous music, and at a time when i read on the front page of the new york times that record companies are routinely self-censoring themselves to enhance marketability of music, why this project, why the book, and why the television show now? well, to pick one of your words, courage. we are both very taken with human courage. our heroes have been people who had the guts to stick up for what they believed in, and we saw that there had been no one looking at music being used to gather people in a cause as a phenomenon. the two bigges

i'm ken paulson, back next week with another conversation about the first amendment, the arts, and american culture. i hope you can join us then for speaking freely. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center captioning by kristi at captionmax www.captionmax.com >> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scie

i'm ken paulson, executive director of the first amendment center, with a new program in a series called whitney dialogues at the first amendment center. here to introduce our guest is a cohost for the series, director of the whitney museum of american art, maxwell anderson. thank you, ken. bill t. jones was born in florida and grew up in upstate new york. he studied classical ballet and modern dance at the state university of binghamton, where he began his relationship with choreographer arnie zane. (man) the next thing i knew was that i, like a bshee, was whirling throughout this [...] park, throughout flower beds, looking for coverage so that the bulldozer with the burning logs would not get me. i woke up. in 1974, after living in amsterdam, he cofounded the american dance asylum and in 1982 formed the bill t. jones/arnie zane dance company with his partner, arnie zane, who died in 1988. based in new york city, the ten-member company tours extensively, performing its repertoire of more than 50 works for audiences of approximately 100,000 each year in america and abroad. jones is the r

i'm ken paulson. we're joined today by a talented and topical comic and actress, janeane garofalo. welcome. thank you. [chortles] i'm talented and topical. that's wonderful. well, you know. if you prefer another bio-- no, no, no, that's fine. i like alliteration in an intro. talented, topical, terrific. tanned. what's the best description we should have? i mean, if we'd gone through your people, what would we have said about you? my people? yeah, your people. um, what would they have said about me? they would use different letters for their alliteration. they'd say persnickety, passive-aggressive, punctual, and--and pernicious. okay, we'll look forward to all of that. i think you are the first guest on speaking freely who has also done space ghost. i am. i mean, i wouldn't know that, but i just was watching the space ghost marathon last night, and i did my space ghost so long ago, it's never even in the reruns. you know, i was struck by seeing that you seem to do things just 'cause it looks like fun. um, well, yeah, there's a lot of-- you know, a lot of that. i do things that i wan

i'm ken paulson. our guest today has been both a pioneer and a driving force behind hip-hop. he's the founder of def jam records, chairman of rush communications. he's russell simmons. thanks for joining us here today. thank you for having me. i read very recently-- i think it was salon that described you as "not the inventor of rap but the man most responsible for its success." guilty as charged? well, i would say that i have been part of a process, that i don't--i don't believe it would have been a problem for it to spread without my input, but i was a part of the process, and it was--it's been an amazing ride over the last 20-some-odd years, and i've watched it evolve. you've got a fascinating new book called life and death: sex, drugs, money, and god, which covers pretty much everything there, and it tells the story-- not necessarily in that order. well, it tells the story of your career, including the first moment you heard hip-hop and your reaction to it. could you talk about that? i was in a club on 125th street, charles gallery, and i walked in, and there was this guy