This week on The Sounds of Film, Tom Needham welcomes Alan Dershowitz—New York Times bestselling author and one of the most influential legal minds in America. Politico has described him as “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America,” while Newsweek has hailed him as “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights.”

Dershowitz joins the show to discuss his latest book, Cancel Culture. In it, he explores the urgent debates surrounding free speech, due process, and fairness in public life. The book argues for careful judgment in deciding when, how, and whether to cancel, boycott, deplatform, or exclude—emphasizing the need for objective and principled standards.

While Dershowitz critiques the dangers of cancel culture—such as snap judgments, social media-driven punishment without due process, and applying today’s values to history—he also recognizes the intentions of those who see it as a tool for social change. He even acknowledges that cancellation itself can be viewed as a form of constitutionally protected expression.

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