Here’s something you don’t see every day: A former U.S. vice president talking at length about Net Neutrality and Internet freedom.

That’s right: Al Gore chatted this week with Sirius XM host Ari Rabin-Havt about his new book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, and spent a few minutes sharing his thoughts on the need to protect our online rights.

“I strongly support Net Neutrality laws. I think that the importance of a free Internet to the survival of democracy can scarcely be overstated,” Gore said.

He also warned about “conflicts between those who want to protect privacy and those who want to invade privacy,” noting that we need to protect both Internet users’ online communications and the online data of American companies.

Take a look:

Original photo by Flickr user World Economic Forum