Index produces regular podcasts on freedom of expression issues around the world.

We have a regular podcast series called What the Fuck!? in which a guest – a free speech activist, celebrity, politician or someone in the news – tells listeners what is making them angry in the world and the words they say when they do.

What the Fuck!? guests come from across the full range of opinion on the key freedom of expression issues shaping the modern world. Each guest talks about the work they are currently doing or admire relating to artistic, academic, media or religious freedom.

We then move on to a current situation affecting freedom of expression that fills them with horror and why. The podcast ends with our guests telling us your favourite sweary expression and why it makes them feel the way it does.

We also publish a quarterly podcast to mark the launch of the latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine where we interview some of our writers and contributors about what is going on in their part of the world.

Index on Censorship podcast episode 18

A panel of people who all once called Hong Kong home share their thoughts and experiences on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the handover from Britain to Beijing. On the panel are Benedict Rogers, the CEO of Hong Kong Watch, Hong Kong journalist Kris Cheng, Mark Clifford, President of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, Evan Fowler, a writer and researcher on Hong Kong and China, and activist and author Nathan Law. The discussion is chaired by Index on Censorship’s editor-in-chief, Jemimah Steinfeld, who has lived in China.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 17

Index’s editorial assistant Benjamin Lynch talks to comedian and author Andrew Doyle about his new book, Free Speech and Why It Matters. They discuss incitement and his thoughts on why President Donald Trump shouldn’t have been removed from Twitter, as well as the state of free speech on the left and right.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 16

Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been in prison in Iran for the past five years. He talks about the end of her house arrest, what has got her through solitary confinement and the attitude of the British government to her case and other Britons imprisoned in the country.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 15

Index’s Benjamin Lynch talks to author, historian and modern China expert Jeff Wasserstrom about why China censors, the Chinese Communist Party’s growing influence and what their censorship policies mean for the rest of the world.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 14

Index’s Mark Frary talks to actor and barrister Shereener Browne about the drill music scene and her fight to stop censorship of the genre by the government and Metropolitan Police. She talks about how the black community has been singled out by the authorities and how banning the music, which often has violent lyrics, does not solve the problem of gang violence. (Drill extracts by Chi Smurf and Yamaica.)

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 13

Index’s Mark Frary talks to Rahima Mahmut, Uighur singer and UK project director of the World Uyghur Congress. She discusses why the world is afraid of China’s power and the plight of the Uighur people. She also talks of the importance of cultural memories, including song and poetry, and her concerns for the future.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 12

Index’s Mark Frary talks to Dr Tunc Aybak, programme leader of the international politics degree at Middlesex University, about the trials of Alexei Navalny in Russia, Putin’s Palace and the golden toilet brush revolution. He discusses political technology and the state of the media in the country.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 11

Index’s Benjamin Lynch talks to youth activist Thay Graciano, co-founder of Skaped, about the importance of young activism and people self-censoring themselves on US college campuses, as well as the problems caused by Jair Bolsonaro in her birth country of Brazil. She also talks of working with arts organisations in Belarus.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 10

Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to groundbreaking electro-pop artist LAYKE, who has worked with Snoop Dogg and is an activist fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights. We discuss racial equality in a Black Lives Matter world, the task facing Joe Biden, growing up in Texas and her pansexuality.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 9

Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to Kirstin McCudden, managing editor of the US Press Freedom Tracker ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th President of the United States. McCudden talks about attacks on the press during the Black Lives Matter protests, the storming of the US Capitol and Donald Trump’s legacy.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 8

Index’s head of content Jemimah Steinfeld talks to freelance journalist and Index contributor Issa Sikiti da Silva ahead of the upcoming Ugandan presidential elections which are expected to return President Yoweri Museveni to power once again. Issa talks about the role of social media and the future of the free press in the region.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 7

Index’s editorial assistant Benjamin Lynch talks to Director of International Campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, Rebecca Vincent.

She shares the stories and cases that continue to motivate her today, including the time she was kicked out of Azerbaijan as well as the importance of the Julian Assange case.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 6

Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to singer, poet and writer Amyra about her collaboration with the Tongue Fu collective.

Amyra talks about Black Lives Matter and her anger over the lack of resources for women, especially women of colour. She talks about how she wants her work to be empowering to others and why she wrote the children’s book Freedom, We Sing.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 5

Index’s head of content Jemimah Steinfeld talks to Tom Grundy, the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hong Kong Free Press.

Grundy talks about how Hong Kong has changed since the publication was founded, media freedom in the shadow of China’s National Security Law and the challenges that his journalists work under to get the news out with many critics of the Chinese Communist Party being jailed.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 4

Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to Dr Emese Pásztor, director of the Political Freedoms Project at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union.

Pásztor talks about the Hungarian government’s ban on the freedom of assembly, making it against the law to make political protests. The ban comes as Viktor Orban’s majority government is trying to make changes to the country’s constitution which requires families to bring up their children “in a Christian spirit” and which only protects an individual’s rights to self-determination if they live their lives as their biological sex dictates.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 3

Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to punk, poet and activist Penny Rimbaud, who founded anarchistic punk band Crass in the 1970s.

He talks about why the battle isn’t against Donald Trump but against all American presidencies and why the British are the most repressed in the world. He says the Sex Pistols and the Clash were only playing at being angry.

He says everyone should change their name and why his poetic namesake is the inspiration behind his new work.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 2

Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to actor Natalia Tena, known for playing Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter movies as well as Lana Pierce in the YouTube science fiction series Origin and Osha in Game of Thrones.

Tena talks about female genital cutting, a practice that affects millions of girls and women around the world, and why she is walking the Santiago de Camino for The Orchid Project.

Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast episode 1

Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to photographer and artist Alison Jackson, who is renowned for her explorations into how photography and the cult of the celebrity have transformed our relationship to what is ‘real’.

She talks about her latest work, a sculpture of President Donald Trump in a compromising position with Miss Universe, the US elections and the very real challenges of artistic censorship.