Clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s online popularity is likely to grow after his recent performance with British journalist Cathy Newman.

The University of Toronto professor whose YouTube fame exploded in 2016 for his opposition to Canada’s “C-16 bill” — critics deemed him “transphobic” — is making social media waves again in 2018. A combative Channel 4 interview uploaded Tuesday features Ms. Newman literally stunned into silence during an exchange on freedom of expression.

“Why should your right to freedom of speech trump a trans person’s right not to be offended?” the reporter asked at the 22-minute mark of a 30-minute interview.

“Because in order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive. I mean, look at the conversation we’re having right now,” the psychologist answered, The Daily Wire reported Wednesday. “You’re certainly willing to risk offending me in the pursuit of truth. Why should you have the right to do that? It’s been rather uncomfortable. […] You’re doing what you should do, which is digging a bit to see what the hell is going on. And that is what you should do. But you’re exercising your freedom of speech to certainly risk offending me, and that’s fine. More power to you, as far as I’m concerned.”

Ms. Newman paused, sighed and struggled to find a response until her guest interjected, “Ha. Gotcha.”

“You have got me. You have got me. I’m trying to work that through my head. It took awhile. It took awhile. It took awhile,” she said with a repetitive concession.

The interview was viewed over 212,000 times in less than 24 hours, which is good news for the professor — his latest book, “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos Hardcover” comes out January 23.

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