# Artist and activist Ai Weiwei on political censorship in the West

An episode of [NPR's Book of the Day](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1587369865), 15 Jul 2026, 12 min.

Audio: https://prfx.byspotify.com/e/play.podtrac.com/npr-510364/npr.simplecastaudio.com/c3f326c7-02ae-4df0-b95a-b35e58973e1a/episodes/cc034dd4-901e-482b-98aa-6332e46a6d3c/audio/128/default.mp3?awCollectionId=c3f326c7-02ae-4df0-b95a-b35e58973e1a&awEpisodeId=cc034dd4-901e-482b-98aa-6332e46a6d3c&feed=tZrJMl4P&t=podcast&e=nx-s1-5893835&p=510364&d=707&size=11326737

In 2008, artist and activist Ai Weiwei clashed with the Chinese government over its response to the deadly Sichuan earthquake. The government had censored information about the death toll, so Ai Weiwei launched a citizen’s investigation, knocking on doors and visiting villages to learn the names of the thousands of children who died. More recently, the artist has also become critical of political censorship in the United States. In today’s episode, he joins Here & Now’s Scott Tong for a conversation about his new book On Censorship, a critique of censorship under both democratic and authoritarian governments. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

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