So To Speak: The Free Speech Podcast

“Two inflammatory words … one wild drink. Nectar imprisoned in a bottle. Let it out. It is cruel to keep a wild animal locked up.” When artist and illustrator Ralph Steadman wrote those words for the label of Flying Dog Brewery’s “Raging Bitch” Belgian-style IPA, he had no idea that cruel imprisonment would be precisely their fate. In 2009, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission banned the sale of “Raging Bitch” from store shelves in the state because the commission claimed the beer’s name and its label, designed by Steadman, were “detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of the general public.” Any other company might have accepted the commission’s justification for censorship. But Flying Dog Brewery isn’t a company to just roll over. Flying Dog was founded in 1990 by George Stranahan, a close friend of journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who pioneered a style of journalism known as “Gonzo”: first-person, satirical critiques on society and culture. The brewery has always maintained the critical, anti-author