The September 6, 1901, assassination of President William McKinley by self-professed anarchist Leon Czolgosz triggered a nationwide political backlash against the killer’s like-minded political adherents. It also served as the catalyst for the expansion of nascent federal government surveillance capabilities used against not only anarchists but socialists and members of other social or political movements that were challenging the prevailing political, economic, and social paradigms of the day. ...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 28 min
We tend to think of public education as a ladder of opportunity—a system that ensures that no matter a child’s economic circumstances, they will get the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in life. But what if that’s wrong? Indeed, what if the goal is actually the opposite: to keep people docilely in their place, no matter how bad their situation? This is what Raised to Obey , grounded in deep, original research on the timing and targeting of mass education, contends. Public education was ...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Competencies in Civil Discourse , a series on the effectiveness of civil discourse and the skills it requires, will feature an interview with Ian Rowe, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies in the Bronx. His schools emphasize empowering youth to develop and exercise their agency in American society. Rowe explores these ideas in his book, Agency: The Four-Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for All Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Disc...
Mar 28, 2025•38 min
Celebrate Women’s History Month with Sphere Education Initiatives! In this webinar, we will explore the intersection of economics and women’s empowerment, examining how it influences women’s mobility and their role in society. Scholars will highlight how removing barriers to economic participation is not only empowering for women but good for overall human progress. We will examine factors of societies and governments that contribute to uplifting women economically, discuss the influence of the ...
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 32 min
Somewhere between the tendency to see everything through the lens of race and racial oppression and the tendency to dismiss those dynamics altogether lies the truth in any given setting, including criminal justice. That there are police officers in this country who hold racist views is a problem the FBI has acknowledged in its own intelligence reports and information-sharing guidance to its agents. But how pervasive are racist views among police at the federal, state, and local levels? To what e...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Jimmy Lai became China’s most prominent political prisoner when he was arrested and convicted on trumped-up charges after Hong Kong imposed its draconian security law in mid-2020. Mark Clifford will tell Lai’s story of escaping China to Hong Kong as a boy, becoming a successful entrepreneur in the fashion industry, and founding and running the wildly popular Apple Daily newspaper and Next magazine to criticize China’s Communist Party and advocate for democracy in Hong Kong. The author will discu...
Mar 13, 2025•1 hr 18 min
In recent years, calls to limit, regulate, or ban social media platforms have escalated from all corners of the political spectrum. These concerns have been as varied as national security, foreign ownership, and the danger of disinformation in a divided democracy. Yet perhaps the most cross‐partisan concern has come from increasing evidence of social media’s detrimental impact on youth mental health. Join Sphere Education Initiatives on March 10 from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for a timely webinar ...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 1 min
In conventional political debate—particularly in Washington, DC—“law” is understood as top-down legislation: rules consciously designed and imposed by central authorities. John Hasnas challenges this unspoken assumption, pointing to the Anglo-American common law, a decentralized, continually evolving system that produces order without conscious design or political control. In his important new book, Common Law Liberalism: A New Theory of the Libertarian Society , he offers a theory of liberalism...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Argentine President Javier Milei came to power nearly a year ago on the campaign promise to abolish the central bank and dollarize his country’s economy. As part of his ambitious reform agenda, the government has eliminated fiscal deficits and significantly reduced public spending and inflation. Milei remains committed to dollarization but has not yet implemented that reform. Given the progress in stabilizing the economy, Emilio Ocampo, Alfredo Romano, and Nicolas Cachanosky will discuss why Arg...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 18 min
From the founding of the republic through the early 1930s, Congress set tariff rates through legislative revisions to the US tariff schedule. Low tariffs were initially imposed to raise revenue for the federal government, but tariffs became a tool to protect domestic producers from foreign competition. Today, Congress has broadly delegated its constitutional tariff powers to the president, and there is a real risk that the legislative and judicial branches would be unwilling or unable to check a...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 18 min
Higher education is at a crossroads. American universities are facing important questions about accountability and viability, including concerns about ideological influences, rising administrative costs, shifting academic expectations, and the growing challenge of student loan debt. But what are the underlying causes of these challenges, and how can we address them? Join us for a thoughtful discussion with The Honorable Representative Burgess Owens, chairman of the Higher Education and Workforce...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Occupational licensing boards today act like protectors of cartels, often going beyond merely issuing licenses to launching witch hunts and boxing out their competitors. February 2025 marks the 10-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC . In that case, that state’s dental licensing board was ruled to be acting like a monopolist (using the power given to it by the state government) by trying to drive non-dentist teeth whiteners ou...
Mar 03, 2025•55 min
In a Q&A, Brandon Garrett and Vikrant Reddy will discuss the new threats that due process faces and how we can respond by better safeguarding fundamental liberty and property rights. They will discuss why people are tempted to place outcomes before fairness—in society and in the courts. They will explore how new technology, including artificial intelligence, has created new threats to fairness and rights. And they will discuss how people, from judges to local community leaders, can find comm...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Religion plays a prominent role in the domestic and foreign policies of Middle Eastern states, particularly in the Persian Gulf. But the ways in which religion, specifically Islam, is used as a tool of statecraft are often misunderstood, leading to mischaracterizations and counterproductive policies. In his new book, Jon Hoffman examines how Islam is marshaled as a tool of statecraft in the Middle East. The book offers new insight into the geopolitics of religion in the Middle East and how rulin...
Feb 28, 2025•1 hr 31 min
In this lively new history, Brian Doherty provides a concise, thorough account of the intellectual roots of the American libertarian movement, with helpful summaries of key figures, institutions, and events. Modern Libertarianism effortlessly combines historical insights and intellectual profiles of important figures—including Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman, and Barry Goldwater—and key institutions such as the Foundation of Economic Education and the Mo...
Feb 28, 2025•1 hr 1 min
In an era when constructive dialogue often takes a back seat to polarized debate, educators like you face unique challenges in teaching effective communication. Recognizing this, Sphere Education Initiatives presents a webinar exploring how you can use rhetoric as a powerful tool for student empowerment and authentic engagement in your educational setting. In the first segment of the webinar, featured speaker Erec Smith, PhD, will share insights on transforming traditional approaches to teaching...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 27 min
A flood of government regulations, mandates, and subsidies has not solved the United States’ health care problems—they are the problem. They have driven the average employer-plan family premium to nearly $26,000—and then tossed families out of their health insurance when employees leave their jobs. Even as Obamacare creates an insurance shortage, it has nevertheless grown so unaffordable that enrollees earning $200,000 per year get $12,000 in subsidies. Growing federal debt threatens Medicare an...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 34 min
A flood of government regulations, mandates, and subsidies has not solved the United States’ health care problems—they are the problem. They have driven the average employer-plan family premium to nearly $26,000—and then tossed families out of their health insurance when employees leave their jobs. Even as Obamacare creates an insurance shortage, it has nevertheless grown so unaffordable that enrollees earning $200,000 per year get $12,000 in subsidies. Growing federal debt threatens Medicare an...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 34 min
Erec Smith continues his series, Competencies in Civil Discourse, examining how people engage with one another and why they often shy away from discussions with those who hold opposing views. This edition explores the role of comedy as a valuable tool in civil discourse. Smith sits down with filmmaker Rob Feld, director of Jesters and Fools , a film that highlights the use of comedy during polarized times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 11, 2025•42 min
The Cato Institute continues its series of insightful conversations with reporters and scholars tackling today’s most pressing issues. As part of his campaign promises, President Trump vowed to “unleash American energy.” This conversation with Evan Halper, a business reporter for the Washington Post ; Travis Fisher, Cato’s director of energy and environmental policy studies; and Joshua Loucks, a Cato research associate in tax and energy policy, will examine energy policies under the new administ...
Feb 10, 2025•57 min
The horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and the catastrophic war in Gaza once again put the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict on the global agenda. Educators across America ask: How do we help our students understand complex contemporary religious differences and conflicts? Is living in peace and harmony attainable? Scholars Mustafa Akyol and Ari Gordon will address these challenging questions with insights from their religious traditions, Islam and Judaism, respectively, explore...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Could GLP-1s become the next frontier in harm reduction? Clinical researchers have discovered that GLP‑1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy not only aid with diabetes and weight loss but may also reduce cravings and enhance satiation for alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, opioids, and possibly other addictive drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. These exciting developments mean GLP-1s may soon become a new harm-reduction tool and possibly transform the treatment of substance use disorders. Our expert pan...
Jan 28, 2025•1 hr 31 min
The privacy Americans should enjoy over their financial information has been in steady decline for more than 50 years. Regulatory frameworks, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Consolidated Audit Trail, grant government access to Americans’ financial transactions. As financial services have become increasingly digitized, the volume of financial records to which the government has easy—and often unfettered—access has grown exponentially. And proposals for a ...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 7 min
The privacy Americans should enjoy over their financial information has been in steady decline for more than 50 years. Regulatory frameworks, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Consolidated Audit Trail, grant government access to Americans’ financial transactions. As financial services have become increasingly digitized, the volume of financial records to which the government has easy—and often unfettered—access has grown exponentially. And proposals for a ...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 8 min
The Cato Institute continues its series of insightful conversations with reporters and scholars tackling today’s most pressing issues. This edition brings together Robert Delaney, the North American bureau chief for the South China Morning Post , and Cato Institute experts Eric Gomez and Clark Packard for a timely discussion on US-China relations, including the following: What signals is Donald Trump sending about his approach to China, and how should we interpret them? How does Trump’s current ...
Jan 22, 2025•47 min
The privacy Americans should enjoy over their financial information has been in steady decline for more than 50 years. Regulatory frameworks, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Consolidated Audit Trail, grant government access to Americans’ financial transactions. As financial services have become increasingly digitized, the volume of financial records to which the government has easy—and often unfettered—access has grown exponentially. And proposals for a ...
Jan 21, 2025•35 min
The privacy Americans should enjoy over their financial information has been in steady decline for more than 50 years. Regulatory frameworks, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Consolidated Audit Trail, grant government access to Americans’ financial transactions. As financial services have become increasingly digitized, the volume of financial records to which the government has easy—and often unfettered—access has grown exponentially. And proposals for a ...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr 16 min
The privacy Americans should enjoy over their financial information has been in steady decline for more than 50 years. Regulatory frameworks, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Consolidated Audit Trail, grant government access to Americans’ financial transactions. As financial services have become increasingly digitized, the volume of financial records to which the government has easy—and often unfettered—access has grown exponentially. And proposals for a ...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr 14 min
America’s financial system is inseparable from America’s enormous growth, productivity, and prosperity. And while it’s become popular to lay a host of ills at the feet of financial markets, many people would likely be shocked to learn just how many financial market deficiencies have been caused by harmful government policies. In their new book Financing Opportunity, authors and Cato scholars Norbert Michel and Jennifer Schulp bust popular myths about financial markets and propose ways to improve...
Jan 17, 2025•46 min
Modern presidents have an extraordinary amount of power that they primarily wield through issuing executive orders and other directives with the force of law. Successive Congresses have gradually delegated much of their power to the president or stood idly by as presidents have usurped more power that is legislative in nature and effect. The president’s power is now so massive that that alone justifies focusing on the office’s means of exercising it. In response to this lamentable trend, the Cat...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 30 min
