Editors’ note: Today’s post is by Chef Alice Meadows and guest chef Suze Kundu, science communicator and research community engagement consultant — both writing in a personal capacity as members of the #DefendResearch team. Suze is the brains behind Word Wipe!

With the Trump administration continuing to censor research, it’s important to continue to raise awareness of the dangers of censorship. From “abortion” to “women and underrepresented” via “continuum,” “field drainage,” and (a personal favorite) “peanut allergy,” PEN America’s list of banned words and phrases is a great way to see for yourself not only how dangerous, but also how ridiculous this sort of censorship is.

Now, #DefendResearch has joined forces with PEN to develop Word Wipe, an easy-to-use tool based on the banned words list, which was launched as part of Fall of Freedom 2026. It allows you to experiment with what a world redacted of these banned words would look like for you. Writing a research article? Got a favorite poem or song? What about a historical document? Just paste them into the source text box, hit the Word Wipe button, and see which — and how many — words are redacted. You might be surprised by the results! Ironically, even some of the President’s own Executive Orders would be censored if they were screened for banned words (check out the first section of this one from September).

Of course, the impact on research and research publications is much more devastating. How can you conduct meaningful research if words like “diversity” are banned? How can you show that your work is “evidence-based” or “science-based” if you’re not allowed to use those words? Why are words like “woman” and “women” banned, but not “man” and “men”? Likewise, “Black” and “people of color” but not “white”? 

Please watch this video clip about Word Wipe and have fun — in a “good trouble” way — playing with it and sharing it with your communities!