It’s Friday and that usually means a new episode of Need to Know. Jay and I are delighted to be joined by a supernova in the conservative firmament, George Will. He offers a characteristically brisk yet sweeping history of speech restrictions in the U.S. and lands firmly on what is so unsettling, and different, about the assault on free expression we’re experiencing now. We also talk abortion, optimism, and (naturally) baseball.

Jay and I then move on to the slow motion disaster vis a vis Iran, Israel, Yemen, and other places. We talk a little desertion (Bergdahl). We note that Cornell is ok with ISIS and Hamas (wonder how they’d fare on the sexual assault meter?), spare a word for NATO, and learn of a chilling moment at the New York Philharmonic. There’s lots more besides. Do join us.