From The Joke Files: A Comedy and Censorship Roundtable

We’re living through a moment where late night jokes are next-day news, and each opening monologue feels like a litmus test for our freedom of expression. But is this dynamic anything new? This week, comedian Dean Obeidallah and writer Kliph Nesteroff join Kamau to reflect on the history—and present state—of censorship in comedy, and what makes this moment more than a callback. This episode was recorded on Monday, November 10, in the lead-up to the New York Arab American Comedy Festival, which Dean co-founded more than two decades ago. Kliph’s insights are drawn from research that he conducted for his book Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars.

You can listen to From The Joke Files: A Comedy and Censorship Roundtable online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

From The Joke Files: A Comedy and Censorship Roundtable is an episode from At Liberty by At Liberty.

This episode is 44:30 long.

This episode was published on Nov 14, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from At Liberty when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.