Table of Contents
So to Speak podcast: Comic book panic!

Rebellion! Crime! Juvenile delinquency!
On today’s episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, producer Chris Maltby explores the rise of comic books in the early 20th century and the moral panic, book burnings, and censorship that followed.
Show notes:
- “The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare And How It Changed America” by David Hajdu
- “The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder” by Bob Corn-Revere
- “A National Disgrace” by Sterling North
- “Puddles of Blood,” Time Magazine, 1948
- Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
You can subscribe and listen to So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.
Stay up to date with So to Speak on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and subscribe to the show’s newsletter at sotospeakpodcast.com.
Have questions or ideas for future shows? Email us at sotospeak@thefire.org.
Recent Articles
FIRE’s award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.

To speak or not to speak: Universities face the Kalven question
As political pressure mounts, Dinah Megibow-Taylor explores whether recent institutional statements defend academic freedom — or quietly erode it.

FIRE statement on Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton upholding age verification for adult content
Today, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold Texas's age-verification law for sites featuring adult content, effectively reversing decades of Supreme Court precedent that protects the free speech rights of adults to access information without jumping over government age-verification hurdles.

Orchestrated silence: How one of America’s most elite music schools expelled a student for reporting harassment
Rebecca Bryant Novak earned her spot at one of the world’s top music schools. But after reporting her advisor for harassment, she says the school turned on her. Now FIRE is demanding answers.

FIRE to court: AI speech is still speech — and the First Amendment still applies
Is AI-generated speech speech? In a new amicus brief, FIRE says yes — and warns that when it comes to free speech and emerging tech, early missteps can echo for decades.