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What does free speech really mean? How does our understanding of it differ around the world? Why does it divide us – and how can we find common ground?

What free speech really means is hotly contested. Is it increasingly under attack in our democracies; or is it being weaponized by the powerful? These debates don’t just happen in the news: they divide families, strain relationships. This is because, anthropologist Matei Candea shows, arguments about free speech are not just about abstract principles: they question what it means to be a good person, to have empathy and courage. They involve fears for the future and longings for the past – and they demand that you pick a side, right now!

Deploying the power of anthropology, Reason, Carnival and Honour outlines three visions of free speech – Reason, or civil rational debate; Carnival, or the right to be outrageous; and Honour, the duty to stand by one’s word. Sometimes supporting each other and sometimes at odds, they entail very different understandings of what language is and does, of what it means to be free.

Building on years of research and an exploration of anthropological literature from around the globe – from tales of French cartoonists to Zambian talk-show hosts, open source hackers to Tibetan Buddhist monks – Reason, Carnival and Honour reveals a richer landscape of differences, to help us find new alliances and even answers to the big questions underlying what it is we’re really arguing about.

© Matei Candea 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026