Get-Me-Thru-the-Weekend Links: Mangu Does Maher (Again!), Thomas Chatterton Rommelmann (in Portland!), Whole Lotta Free Speechin’ Goin’ on, etc.

Hi gang! Not to make this an arm of the HBO promotional department, but, dadgum, they just keep inviting our people onto Real Time with Bill Maher! Tonight at 10 pm ET, for a return engagement, it’s Reason EIC, Fifth Column-namer, and long-ago guest (#75) Katherine Mangu-Ward herself, sitting on a panel with Johann Hari, who, uh, me & Moynihan have both written about before, and probably referenced on at least one episode, though only Busty knows for sure. As for my tour last week, thank you to those who watched, and do not miss this pic of Fiona Hill holding appropriate fan-made #Fifdom swag (and booze, natch). She and I hit it off great; do not be surprised to hear more about that in the future….

* Den mother Nancy Rommelmann (#79, #198, #203) is back in Portland, showing a good time to #Fifdom fave Thomas Chatterton Williams (#121, #158, #188, #197). Thomas, who is writing a book about the upheavals of 2020, already has a couple of shellshocked audiovisual threads about what he’s seen in the Rose City. Nancy, who is maybe writing a book about Portland?, has a first dispatch up over at Paloma Media, which she helpfully reminds people has a Patreon of its own.

* Speaking of repeat Fif’ guests, keep mashing the refresh button over at our main page, where soon should materialize a banger of a free-speech episode with Jacob Mchangama (#102), author of the new doorstopper Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media. You people know what to do with that link. Here are a couple of reprobate pics to tie you over. Some of the ideas we discussed on the epi I tried to wrestle with in this Reason piece (and audio!) from today.

* Oh hey look there’s a pre-write to this Arizona State conference Kmele’s headlining at the end of the month: “This year’s keynote speaker is Kmele Foster, Freethink co-founder and executive producer, who will discuss the limitations of modern social justice movements in the lecture ‘The World We Want to Live In: Racism, Race and the Dignity of our Individuality.’” Do you think he’ll finally admit he’s black?

OK, enjoy the KMW tonight, and the regular-channel episode when it drops. Reminder that a bunch of us are gonna grab drinks in San Francisco on the evening of Feb. 16; I think I saw Sandy Balzer already picking an unauthorized time and venue on Twitter? Sure, why not.