Battles Over Free Speech, From the Football Field to the College Campus

Coming up on today’s show:

• Puerto Rico is still reeling in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. On Friday, a dam failed along the Guajataca River, causing extreme flooding, and millions remain without power. The island’s delegate to Congress says the storm has set Puerto Rico back 20 to 30 years. Samantha Schmidt, a reporter for The Washington Post on the ground in San Juan, and Frances Robles, a reporter covering the Caribbean and Central America for The New York Times, bring us the latest.

• On Friday, President Donald Trump criticized NFL players who take a knee in protest during the national anthem. In response, hundreds of players took a knee or bowed during Sunday football games, and many NFL coaches and owners issued statements of solidarity with the players. Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation magazine and host of “The Edge of Sports” podcast, and Tyler Tynes, a staff writer SB Nation, discuss this collision between sports and politics. 

• On Sunday, the Trump Administration updated its travel ban, just hours before it was set to expire. Five countries in the previous ban — Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia — remain under restriction, and Chad, North Korea, and Venezuela have been added to the list.  Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney and former head of the Office of Immigration Litigation during the Obama administration, weighs in the ins and outs of the new ban. 

• Kit Roane, a producer for the Retro Report documentary team, explores how the hijacking of an Air France plane from Tel Aviv to Entebbe, Uganda helped spawn the rise and popularity in the use of military special forces.

• Today, to mark the 35th annual Banned Book Week in America, The Takeaway sat down with cousins Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, co-creators of, “This One Summer,” to discuss the troubling experience of having their book challenged on such a wide scale.

• The right wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos had planned to hold a “Free Speech Week” at the University of California, Berkeley this week. But after months of controversy and planning, the student host organization canceled the event.Takeaway Producer Isabel Angell has a history of the original Free Speech Movement in 1964.

This episode is hosted by Todd Zwillich.