Conversations about academic freedom are never just about protecting the intellectual rigour of academic knowledge as an abstract object; they are also about the relational rigour of how, by whom, and to what ends that knowledge is produced, transmitted, circulated, and ultimately impacts both humans and other-than-human beings (Stein, in Lobo et al., 2021). In this afterword, Sharon Stein suggests the need to balance intellectual, affective, and relational dimensions of how academic freedom is approached. Specifically, she asks how conditions might be created under which academics, students, and the communities they engage with can address any issue, but especially pressing issues of shared societal concern, with more sobriety, maturity, discernment, accountability, and respect. To do so, Stein considers what kind of intellectual, affective, and relational conditions might prepare people to engage on these terms. She also considers the difficulties of creating and sustaining these conditions. Although Stein separates these three types of conditions to discuss them in more detail, they are also interrelated and interdependent.