This week Beth and Andrew speak with geophysicist Dorian Abbot, an outspoken activist for academic freedom. Abbot discusses his views on the state of free speech and academic freedom in elite universities in the United States and talks about his own high profile experience of being cancelled from a speech he was supposed to give at MIT because of his outspoken activism against the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) regime.

Abbot also shares his scientific views on climate change and whether there is life on other planets.

Dorian Abbot is an associate professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago.Dorian is also a member of the Council of the Faculty Senate at the University of Chicago, a co-founder of the faculty group UChicago Free, a foundingmember of the Academic Freedom Alliance, and a co-founder and moderator of The Heterodox Academy STEM Community (HxSTEM). He has written and spoken publicly extensively on issues related to academic freedom and was awarded the 2021 Hero of Intellectual FreedomAward by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and the 2022 Courage Award by the Heterodox Academy.