
🚨 How 39 Professors Silenced Academic Freedom | A shocking expose of cancel culture in academia 🎓 Tune in as Sean Kelly sits down with Ann Atkinson to uncover the alarming truth about academic censorship! 😱 Ann shares her jaw-dropping...
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Ann Atkinson
Orthodoxy. And it's not a conservative Democrat model, but it's really about people that are free thinking libertarians, people that value hard work, that think we're all equal despite our skin color or where we're from, that we all are deserving of respect. If you don't subscribe to what's really the pervasive orthodoxy, I mean, you're, you're ostracized.
Chris Gethard
That's insane.
Interview Host
All right, guys and Atkinson here today. We're at amfest. Is this your first one?
Ann Atkinson
This is my second AM Fest. I was here as a speaker last year talking about Cancel Culture and free speech. And this is my second annual and best AM Fest.
Interview Host
Let's go. Yeah, you went through some Cancel Culture yourself, so I'd love to hear more about that.
Ann Atkinson
I did. You know what's interesting about Cancel Culture is it stems and in higher education from arbiters who appoint themselves as those that know best. Right. And my experience in Cancel Culture came from the largest public university in the nation with close to 180,000 students, Arizona State University. And my wrongdoing was to bring Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager and Robert Kiyosaki to have a lecture and interview on the topic of health, wealth and happiness. And the students didn't protest. The faculty and the deans ran an all out condemnation campaign. So I dealt with Cancel Culture from within. And I also got to see really the inner workings in higher ed in what should be a great university. Arizona State University should be leading in public speech and freedom of thought. But I saw how Cancel Culture really works and how the radical activists from within cause people to self censor too. Yeah, so there's top down, covert, and then there's this self censorship movement that's overt. So my personal experience went viral. It turned into a national story and I've been very public about it and working hard to do something and get some real results so that more students to come and other faculty and staff don't face the same thing that I went through.
Interview Host
Here you are providing three great entrepreneurs to these students to learn from, and then you get canceled for. I mean, Kiyosaki is a billionaire. I think Charlie Kirk obviously got a huge company. We're at his event right now with 20,000 people and you get canceled. And did you lose your job over this?
Ann Atkinson
I lost my job. So here's how it happened. I was the executive director of the T.W. lewis center for Personal Development at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University, which happens to be my alma mater.
Interview Host
Wow.
Ann Atkinson
And I ran this center as really an outside entrepreneur coming into higher ed to bring the real world to these students.
Interview Host
Yeah.
Ann Atkinson
Our center existed to teach entrepreneurship, career, success, personal finance, self awareness, happiness. Really great. We're great, comfortable, practical topics. And we also existed to address the traditional American values of hard work, personal responsibility, faith, family, community, cervic and civic duty. And that was very triggering to many of the faculty from within. So in my role as executive director, I curated programs and content and had Robert Kiyosaki speak to the students on seven different occasions. Had speakers like Joe Polish of the Genius Network coming in to pour into these students at no cost to them, to help connect them to the real world. The faculty didn't like it much. We were a very successful program. The turning point there. And there's a lot that happened from within. But the real turning point was my invitation of Dennis Prager, Charlie Kirk and Robert Kiyosaki. And the faculty launched a condemnation campaign that led to the loss of my job as executive director. It led to the dismantling of the entire Lewis center, which was a million dollar program, and led to the loss of Ms. Lynn Blake, who was the events operations manager at the venue that hosted our event.
Interview Host
Wow.
Ann Atkinson
So they took all of us out that had anything to do with this. And again, it wasn't public protesters. It wasn't students picketing. They were the faculty and the deans of the Honors College.
Interview Host
Crazy. That's unreal. Do you think this is an ASU issue, or do you think it's affecting all of college campuses in America?
Ann Atkinson
Oh, this issue is so pervasive. ASU should be on the better end of the spectrum. But the college fix just came out with research in the past couple of days. They looked at party affiliation within just ASU faculty through public records requests. And 15 to 1, these professors at ASU are Democrat to Republican. And that is Very representative of what happens within the university. So in higher ed, think about the talent pipeline of professors. Where do they come from? They come from higher ed and so their ideas, their, their studies, their research tends to go deeper and deeper into.
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There's.
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Ann Atkinson
There's a lot on gender studies and, and kind of obscure topics and, and trans studies and women's studies and critical race theory. And they go down these holes and tend to get more and more extreme as they're educating themselves and then coming back into their own systems. So this is an issue that's pervading all of higher ed. Some universities are better than others. But then you get programs like the Lewis center, which wasn't a political program at all. It wasn't faith based. We just brought the real world. And those programs are, are attacked from within. Now, in my personal experience, again, covert, overt. Some attacks were really direct. I had over my decision to invite those speakers. A longstanding professor within the university emailed me on the ASU email account threatening to write a media hit piece focused on me and my career. Crazy, because he didn't. The opinions of the speakers that I brought and I've seen and I know the people within the university and with other universities that have faced complete retaliation for simply having a view that's different from the orthodoxy and it's not a conservative Democrat model, but it's really about people that are free thinking libertarians, people that value hard work, that think we're all equal despite our skin color or where we're from, that we all are deserving of respect. If you don't subscribe to what's really the pervasive orthodoxy, I mean, you're, you're ostracized.
Interview Host
That's insane. Did you want to pursue them legally after this happened to you?
Ann Atkinson
So I considered pursuing ASU legally and my decision was I really think I can make more change by dealing with things a little untraditionally. So after these attacks went on, and which by the way, 39 of the 47 honors faculty signed a condemnation campaign petition against me in The Lewis Center. 39 of the 47.
Interview Host
That's crazy.
Ann Atkinson
This wasn't, you know, a couple faculty.
Interview Host
They were people you're talking to on campus. Right? They're not just strangers.
Ann Atkinson
These are professors within the Honors College and the super majority. The deans at the Honors College removed our marketing posters featuring Dennis, Robert, and Charlie because it offended the faculty.
Interview Host
Wow.
Ann Atkinson
And allowed the faculty to put up counter protest signs saying that our event was white supremacy and dangerous hate speech.
Interview Host
Robert Kiyosaki's Asian. That's crazy.
Ann Atkinson
He's Asian. Dennis Prager is an orthodox Jew, by the way. Prayers to Dennis Prager. He's in the hospital. We're lifting him up as he recovers from a really, really bad accident.
Interview Host
Yeah.
Ann Atkinson
Um, but he's an orthodox Jew. Our other speaker, Dr. Radago Pollan, is. Is not American as well. He's. He grew up in Sri Lanka. And somehow the faculty framed this as a white supremacy rally. So I decided not to just take a standard legal route. I thought, this is a. This is crazy the way these people attacked us as. And compared us to the kkk. So I thought, at Arizona State University, we have reasonable people in charge. They're going to do something about this. So I took this through the normal channels, through hr, through all the acronym levels of the bureaucracy, all the way up to the president and the board of regents, which oversee our public universities in Arizona, thinking that they would see how insane this is, Thinking that they would see the student testimonials I provided talking about how they're teachers told them in their class, do not attend. This is an event for white supremacists. I thought leadership would say no. And nothing happened. So I met with the provost. I submitted documentation to the president and the board of regents and the provost, including student testimonials, Students saying how they were afraid to be photographed at our event, and nothing happened.
Chris Gethard
Wow.
Ann Atkinson
The new dean of the Honors College fired me. And the provost said, well, you know, you invited these controversial speakers, and you need to face the consequences for that.
Interview Host
Wow.
Ann Atkinson
That's when I went public.
Interview Host
That is nuts. Did the students end up backing you afterwards?
Ann Atkinson
The students were even the most. The strongest students, those with the most conviction. Ultimately, there are students that don't want to have their academic records dinged for expressing their views. Even my. The. The mo. The strongest students, you know, asked me not to publicly reveal their involvement. Or those that attended the event made me promise they wouldn't be photographed. They were scared. They were scared of facing consequences and retaliation by their professors. So privately, they were very supportive. Some of them met with legislators in Arizona. Some of them went to the Capitol with me later on.
Interview Host
Wow.
Ann Atkinson
They were involved, but. But timidly so. Because they feared the professor's backlash.
Interview Host
That's such a shame. Right? You know, yeah. They're going there to learn to, to make a living. And they can't even be themselves.
Ann Atkinson
They can't express themselves. They. They have to self censor. And isn't the point of higher education to prepare us really for the real world? Yeah, right. And to let people explore truth and ideas. But what's happened is now higher ed is prescribing acceptable views and so often saying, well, other views are hate speech and dangerous and you shouldn't think that way, which then causes this self censorship that we're seeing. So quick, Research Fire the Foundation for Individual Rights and Free Expression put out their 2025 annual student survey. They surveyed 58,000 undergraduate students across the country. They do this every year. They work with College Pulse. And only 13% of the students surveyed this year are comfortable disagreeing with their professors on any type of controversial political topic in the classroom.
Interview Host
That's so low.
Ann Atkinson
And publicly, only 10% of these students are comfortable disagreeing with their professors.
Interview Host
I mean, I personally never questioned my teachers when I was in school. You know, I felt so, like scared to even do that.
Ann Atkinson
Well, what's the upside? Have tremendous downside, but what's the upside?
Interview Host
Not much, because they're not going to change their opinion.
Ann Atkinson
Right. So the issue is that in higher ed they have, they're filling their own talent pipeline. And more and more it. It's become this ideological battleground where I think these professors really feel that they're right and good and protecting people from dangerous things.
Interview Host
Yeah.
Ann Atkinson
But rewind to our program. The topic was health, wealth and happiness. Charlie Kirk talked about enjoying the Sabbath. Dennis Prager talked about honoring your mother and father. It was a really wholesome program. And in fact, it's still on YouTube. There are tens of thousands of views on the lecture, which is great turnout for a college campus lecture. And we had thousands of students there in person. If there was anything controversial about it, if there was any degree of hate or white supremacy or anything that the faculty alleged there would be, they would have come out with that. We had a robust attendance by media at this program. There was no story because it was just a good, wholesome program where there were a lot of things shared. Most people in the audience probably agreed with some things, disagreed with some things because we're all free thinkers. But in higher ed, we're just seeing more and more faculty push students to self censor.
Interview Host
Yeah. What do you think something actionable people can do watching this for their Nearby college campuses, maybe their parents sending their kids there or their students themselves. What do you think they could do?
Ann Atkinson
You, your viewers, the students, they have to be aware of how bad this is. It's really easy to gloss over and look at the things the universities say, look at the policies that they promote. It sounds great. ASU is a perfect example of that. They say they investigated themselves. After my experience and after my Wall Street Journal op ed that went viral. That led to a bunch of media tour and time with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business and Sean Duffy and Dagan McDowell and the Rubin Report with Dave Rubin with so many amazing people stepped in and brought attention to this. Dennis Prager, Charlie Kirk, Robert Kiyosaki, they all took time to really explore this issue. So we then led into legislative action because ASU did nothing. We had multiple legislative hearings as a result of this issue, this event. We had the Arizona legislature formed the ad hoc committee on Freedom of expression in Arizona's public universities, and we had a five hour legislative hearing. Dennis Prager came, he testified. Seth Leibson, who is a phenomenal conservative radio host in Arizona, he came to testify. We had one brave ASU professor, Dr. Owen Anderson, came to testify. The hearing happened. There were multiple follow ups, but the legislature demanded that ASU investigate what happened. So they investigated themselves and they, they found, surprisingly or not surprisingly, a series of unfettered examples of free speech, which is total baloney if you know any of the details of the story. I've shared some today, but it's bad.
Interview Host
So did they hire a third party to investigate or. They did it themselves.
Ann Atkinson
They, they hired an outside law firm and then assessed that law firm's findings, actually hired a good lawyer, like a good person in Arizona. And then ASU went through and had their Board of Regents review the findings. And then they made the proclamation that they found a series of examples of unfettered free speech.
Interview Host
Wow.
Ann Atkinson
And then that's how they tried to kill the story. ASU started a new free speech center. I still haven't seen who's running it. What are they actually going to do? That sounds great, but what's the substance there? Not much really changes. So what can your viewers do? People have to wake up. They have to see what's happening. Ask parents, ask your students. Students, think to yourself, how many times have you or a friend signed up for a class thinking it would be one thing, and then finding out it's actually an ideological indoctrination course on Marxism? That happens all the time. For example, as executive director of The Lewis center. We put on 150 speaker programs in two years. We had 30 plus or minus courses each semester. And I'm reviewing the syllabus of one of our courses on personal finance and life skills. Great topic, right? Any student should be aware of personal finance and life skills. The homework reading assignments for this course included the case for slavery reparations and the case to defund the police. Now, I'm okay. If any professor wants to teach these things, they have academic freedom. If they want to teach things like Barrett, the honors college really focuses on their witchcraft. Professor. I think if students want to learn about witchcraft, they can do that. They're. They're adults. Yeah, but not in a personal finance and life skills class where they're tricking students and misleading them to sign up for a class that then turns into indoctrination to a worldview.
Interview Host
Right.
Ann Atkinson
That happens every day. I'm writing home with our. With our friend last night who was talking about her niece, and her niece signed up for a class and it turned out to be really a Marxism activism class. And her niece wrote a paper on that's spoken against Marxism. And her professor said, no, no, no, no, no. You need to make the case for Marxism. This is happening everywhere. So solutions, one solution. No one is talking about syllabi transparency. Think about when you go to buy a car. You know what you're buying when you leave the lot. When a student signs up for a course, most of the time there's no syllabus and they sign up and the topic sounds great and the course description sounds great, but they don't know what they're buying. They're paying thousands of dollars and they don't get the syllabus most often until the course is starting. By then it's too late to move around a course that's a good time, that's a good fit, that it fits their interest and their major requirements and their schedule, timing of the day. There's no syllabi transparency. Even at asu, where the university says we provide syllabi, they don't. Yeah, Barrett, I looked at. It was last spring semester. Over 80% of the course sections of the required honors course do not provide a syllabus at registration. So students are picking a class that's required out of the, I don't know, 50 or 80. I forget how many sections of that course there were. And they're picking based on time and days of the week because it's all required. And then they end up getting the professor who wrote a book I'm not going to say the word, but how to f a kraken, which is a mythical sea creature. Or they're going to get the professor that brags to me when I was executive director there at Barrett at the Lewis center on how at least one student in every one of her classes each semester will come out as gay or trans or something, bragging of that like it was an objective. And a student is just taking a mandatory honors class. So I've been working with our legislature in Arizona on syllabi transparency legislation that would just return power to the students, let them see what they're signing up for before they pay for it, before they, before they put it into their schedule. And we've received tremendous pushback on that.
Interview Host
I bet you have. Wow. And where can people keep up with you, support you and follow you?
Ann Atkinson
Well, thank you. I so appreciate this conversation. I'm on Twitter. It's Ann Underscore atkinsonaz. That's a n n Underscore Atkinson A T K I n S o n underscore a Z. I'm active on that. I'm on Instagram also, Ann Atkinson. And I'm really fighting to make a difference. So students, if you are facing these issues, reach out. Let me help bring these issues to my awareness. Let me connect you to people who can do something, speak up. They have to speak up. If they don't, this continues and we can have real common sense solutions, common sense policy solutions like syllabi transparency, which who would disagree with that except for the professors who have something to hide who are intentionally deceiving students. So follow me. Help the mission. This is a fight. It will continue. It's a big one and we're not going away.
Interview Host
Amazing. We'll link your stuff below.
Chris Gethard
Thanks for coming on.
Ann Atkinson
Thank you.
Chris Gethard
Yep. Thanks for watching, guys.
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Digital Social Hour: How 39 Professors Silenced Academic Freedom | Ann Atkinson DSH #1068
Release Date: January 7, 2025
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Ann Atkinson
In this compelling episode of Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly engages in a profound discussion with Ann Atkinson, the former Executive Director of the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University (ASU). Atkinson shares her firsthand experience with cancel culture within academia, detailing how 39 professors orchestrated a campaign that led to her dismissal and the dismantling of a successful academic program. This conversation delves deep into the mechanisms of academic suppression, the broader implications for higher education, and actionable solutions to safeguard free speech and academic freedom.
Ann Atkinson begins by outlining her role at ASU and the mission of the T.W. Lewis Center. She emphasized the center's commitment to bridging academia with real-world applications, focusing on entrepreneurship, career success, personal finance, and traditional American values such as hard work, personal responsibility, faith, family, community, civics, and civic duty.
[02:40] Ann Atkinson: "Our center existed to teach entrepreneurship, career, success, personal finance, self-awareness, happiness. Really great. We're great, comfortable, practical topics."
Atkinson highlights the success of the center, noting significant student engagement and the inclusion of prominent speakers like Robert Kiyosaki, Dennis Prager, and Charlie Kirk. These initiatives aimed to provide students with diverse perspectives and practical knowledge outside the conventional academic curriculum.
The turning point came when Atkinson decided to invite Charlie Kirk, Dennis Prager, and Robert Kiyosaki to speak at ASU. Contrary to student reactions, which were largely non-confrontational, the faculty and deans launched a vehement condemnation campaign against these events.
[03:16] Ann Atkinson: "And the faculty launched a condemnation campaign that led to the loss of my job as executive director. It led to the dismantling of the entire Lewis center, which was a million-dollar program."
Despite the event's success, with thousands of students attending and positive media coverage, the faculty framed the gathering as promoting "white supremacy" and "dangerous hate speech." This misrepresentation was particularly striking given the diverse backgrounds of the speakers, including Dennis Prager's Orthodox Jewish identity and Dr. Radago Pollan's Sri Lankan heritage.
[10:15] Ann Atkinson: "He's Asian. Dennis Prager is an orthodox Jew, by the way. Prayers to Dennis Prager. He's in the hospital. We're lifting him up as he recovers from a really, really bad accident."
The faculty's reaction was not merely vocal but resulted in tangible repercussions, including the removal of promotional materials and the termination of key staff members associated with the Lewis Center.
As a result of the faculty-led campaign, Atkinson lost her position and the Lewis Center was disbanded. The center, a significant investment for ASU, was dissolved, and positions like the Events Operations Manager were eliminated.
[04:34] Ann Atkinson: "So they took all of us out that had anything to do with this. And again, it wasn't public protesters. It wasn't students picketing. They were the faculty and the deans of the Honors College."
Atkinson's dismissal was justified by the provost, who stated that inviting controversial speakers necessitated facing the consequences. This decision underscored the increasing intolerance for diverse viewpoints within higher education institutions.
[11:44] Ann Atkinson: "The new dean of the Honors College fired me. And the provost said, well, you know, you invited these controversial speakers, and you need to face the consequences for that."
Atkinson discusses how the incident at ASU reflects a pervasive issue across American higher education: the suppression of free speech and the enforcement of ideological conformity. She points out that the majority of faculty members tend to align with liberal or Democratic ideologies, which stifles diverse perspectives and academic discourse.
[04:51] Ann Atkinson: "Oh, this issue is so pervasive. ASU should be on the better end of the spectrum. But the college fix just came out with research in the past couple of days. They looked at party affiliation within just ASU faculty through public records requests. And 15 to 1, these professors at ASU are Democrat to Republican. And that is Very representative of what happens within the university."
This ideological homogeneity leads to self-censorship among both faculty and students, limiting the exploration of diverse ideas and fostering an environment where dissenting opinions are marginalized.
[14:26] Ann Atkinson: "But the issue is that in higher ed they have, they're filling their own talent pipeline. And more and more it. It's become this ideological battleground where I think these professors really feel that they're right and good and protecting people from dangerous things."
One of the most alarming outcomes of this hostile academic environment is the pervasive fear among students to express dissenting opinions. Atkinson cites a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Free Expression, revealing that only 13% of students feel comfortable disagreeing with their professors on controversial topics, and a mere 10% are comfortable doing so publicly.
[13:53] Ann Atkinson: "And publicly, only 10% of these students are comfortable disagreeing with their professors."
This fear of academic reprisals not only hinders intellectual growth but also undermines the foundational purpose of higher education: to encourage critical thinking and the free exchange of ideas.
To combat the erosion of academic freedom, Atkinson advocates for increased transparency in course syllabi. She compares the current opaque system to buying a car without knowing its specifications, arguing that students deserve to see course details before enrolling.
[19:19] Ann Atkinson: "One solution. No one is talking about syllabi transparency. Think about when you go to buy a car. You know what you're buying when you leave the lot. When a student signs up for a course, most of the time there's no syllabus and they sign up and the topic sounds great and the course description sounds great, but they don't know what they're buying."
Atkinson has been actively working with the Arizona legislature to introduce syllabi transparency legislation, aimed at empowering students to make informed decisions about their courses. This initiative seeks to prevent the hidden indoctrination of ideologies under the guise of standard academic subjects.
[19:19] Ann Atkinson: "And we've been working with our legislature in Arizona on syllabi transparency legislation that would just return power to the students, let them see what they're signing up for before they pay for it, before they, before they put it into their schedule."
Despite facing significant pushback from educators resistant to oversight, Atkinson remains steadfast in her pursuit of this essential reform.
The public outcry and media attention led to legislative action in Arizona, resulting in the formation of an ad hoc committee on Freedom of Expression in Arizona's public universities. This committee held comprehensive hearings where prominent figures like Dennis Prager and Seth Leibson testified, bringing national attention to the issue.
[17:17] Ann Atkinson: "They had a five-hour legislative hearing. Dennis Prager came, he testified. Seth Leibson, who is a phenomenal conservative radio host in Arizona, he came to testify."
Despite these efforts, ASU's response was largely reactive. They conducted an internal investigation, which Atkinson criticizes as superficial and unreflective of the actual suppression occurring on campus.
[17:41] Ann Atkinson: "ASU started a new free speech center. I still haven't seen who's running it. What are they actually going to do? That sounds great, but what's the substance there?"
The legislative push, however, signifies a critical step towards addressing and mitigating the suppression of academic freedom in higher education.
Ann Atkinson emphasizes the urgency of addressing academic suppression and fostering an environment where diverse viewpoints can coexist and thrive. She calls on students, parents, and educators to advocate for transparency and resist the forces that seek to silence dissent.
[21:47] Ann Atkinson: "People have to wake up. They have to see what's happening. Ask parents, ask your students. Students, think to yourself, how many times have you or a friend signed up for a class thinking it would be one thing, and then finding out it's actually an ideological indoctrination course on Marxism?"
Atkinson encourages individuals to follow her on social media and engage with the movement to promote syllabi transparency and protect academic freedom.
[21:47] Ann Atkinson: "So follow me. Help the mission. This is a fight. It will continue. It's a big one and we're not going away."
Academic Suppression: The episode highlights how ideological conformity among faculty can lead to the suppression of diverse viewpoints and academic freedom.
Impact on Students: Fear of academic reprisals fosters self-censorship, undermining the core mission of higher education.
Actionable Solutions: Implementing syllabi transparency and advocating for legislative reforms are critical steps towards safeguarding free speech in academia.
Ongoing Struggle: The fight against academic suppression is ongoing, necessitating collective action from students, educators, and policymakers.
Ann Atkinson on Orthodoxy in Academia:
[00:30] Ann Atkinson: "Orthodoxy. And it's not a conservative Democrat model, but it's really about people that are free thinking libertarians, people that value hard work, that think we're all equal despite our skin color or where we're from, that we all are deserving of respect. If you don't subscribe to what's really the pervasive orthodoxy, I mean, you're, you're ostracized."
Ann Atkinson on Facing Consequences:
[11:44] Ann Atkinson: "The new dean of the Honors College fired me. And the provost said, well, you know, you invited these controversial speakers, and you need to face the consequences for that."
Ann Atkinson on Syllabi Transparency:
[19:19] Ann Atkinson: "No one is talking about syllabi transparency. Think about when you go to buy a car. You know what you're buying when you leave the lot. When a student signs up for a course, most of the time there's no syllabus and they sign up and the topic sounds great and the course description sounds great, but they don't know what they're buying."
This episode of Digital Social Hour sheds light on the insidious ways in which academic freedom is being undermined within higher education institutions. Ann Atkinson's courageous account serves as a call to action for all stakeholders in the educational landscape to recognize and combat the forces of suppression and to champion a more open and intellectually diverse academic environment.
Follow Ann Atkinson:
Join the Conversation:
Stay informed and support efforts to promote academic freedom and syllabi transparency by following Ann Atkinson and engaging with legislative initiatives in your state.
Note: This summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content segments to focus solely on the substantive discussion between Sean Kelly and Ann Atkinson.