Approval To Speak Freely - Konstantin Kisin - #235

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, people in Podcastland. Welcome back. My guest today is Konstantin Kisin, comedian and host of the fantastic Triggernometry podcast. As someone who grew up in Russia, I thought that we might be able to get a unique insight into the chaos that has been 2020's culture, identity and politics. So today, expect to learn why Darren Grimes being called in by the MET police is bad for everyone, what the current day and the Soviet Union have in common, who Konstantin thinks will win the US election, how empathy is being weaponised and much more. In other news, you may have seen that I have set the show a target of hitting 100,000 subscribers on YouTube before Christmas. So if you are not already subscribed, please take two minutes out of your day, head to YouTube, search Modern Wisdom and press the subscribe button. It would make me very happy indeed. And VideoGuideen wants that 100,000 subscriber play button off YouTube so bad. Go do it now. Go press the button right now. That would be lovely. In other news, this episode of the podcast is brought to you by Uncommon Coffee. I have already got a ton of feedback from all of the people who put orders in after the first advert went out last week. And safe to say that they didn't disappoint. Uncommon Coffee are an on-demand premium coffee service whose priority is on making their customers as happy as possible, accompanied with the cheapest prices around when it comes to literally the best tasting and most popular coffee from the number one independent coffee houses and roasters in the UK. If you are a coffee lover, you need to go and check them out. uncommoncoffee.co.uk. And with the code MW20, you can get 20% off all products. That's 20% off caffeine. uncommoncoffee.co.uk. I've tried out their Ozone. I've tried out, so like they sent out a huge box and everything was fantastic. Even the decaf. I know that that's sacrilege, but even the decaf was nice.
uncommoncoffee.co.uk and use the code MW20 for 20% off the best coffee in Britain. Go check it out. But for now, it's time for the wise and wonderful Konstantin Kisin.
The stakes have been raised now, haven't they? Based on the Darren Grimes incident, I'm now culpable for what you say, so please go gently on me, or I'm gonna be in prison, and you'll be in a Gulag.

**Konstantin Kisin** (2:52)
Well, I'm gonna struggle to say anything now, aren't I? Because I apparently am so ridiculously controversial with my very mainstream opinions that yeah, we're both in trouble.

**Chris Williamson** (3:03)
If we sit in silence for the next hour, that is one sure-fire way that we can't get in trouble.

**Konstantin Kisin** (3:08)
That could offend people who really wanted to listen to us talk, though, and they might report us to the police. And yeah, you never know, man. But if you remember, you came to see my show in Edinburgh last year. And this is exactly what I was talking about. Should it be illegal to have offensive opinions? And here we are. And essentially, the police are investigating people, not even for their own opinions, for stuff someone else said on their show that they broadcast. And you know, you add to that the response to the pandemic and how that's affecting our civil liberties as well. It's not a great time.

**Chris Williamson** (3:42)
No, not at all. So can you give us a brief overview and take us through what we've learned from the Darren Grimes situation, in your opinion?

**Konstantin Kisin** (3:48)
Well, so for people who don't know Darren Grimes is a conservative right wing commentator. He, I think, is rather hated by many people on my side of the referendum debate, people who voted remain, as I did. A lot of people who are sort of very obsessed with that issue in a way that I'm not felt that because he was part of the campaign to make that happen, he was investigated three times by the Electoral Commission for his involvement in that. So he's got a lot of enemies. I think that's part of it for sure. But basically he had Dr. David Starkey, a controversial historian who made some what I thought were ill judged comments. And I know David, we've had him on the show. He didn't say anything like that on our show. But on Darren's, he did make some controversial comments, which I, as I say, I thought were ill judged. And this happened a few months ago. There was a big Ferrari. Dr. David Starkey was properly canceled for it. He apologized eventually. Darren apologized for not challenging him on what he said. And that was sort of the end of the matter. I think a lot of people felt that even though I think many people felt that it was appropriate that David Starkey suffered some consequences for what he said, equally many people felt that maybe the consequences were quite harsh. Wherever you sit on that, I respect both views on that personally.