What does a 1980s sitcom about banning Huckleberry Finn have to do with today's censorship battles? 

On this episode of The Pod Millennial, host Libby Emmons opens with a look back at a surprisingly prescient Family Ties episode about free speech and book bans — then welcomes author Ben Appel to unpack the bizarre censorship of his book “Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic” and what it reveals about a movement that claims to fight for acceptance while quietly punishing anyone who steps out of line.

Ben traces the eerie parallels between the authoritarian cult he was raised in and the ideological conformity he encountered at Columbia University, where he says he learned fast that his identity mattered more than his actual views.

It's a candid conversation about ideological capture, dogma dressed up as liberation, and what it costs to speak an inconvenient truth.

Find Ben Appel on X @benapell, on Substack (Ben Appel's Newsletter), and at benapellwrites.com. His book Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic is available in hardcover, paperback, e-book, and audiobook wherever books are sold.

This episode is sponsored by SoundMoney.

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