Families seem structured almost entirely opposite to how we think about market economies. Do theories about human behavior in markets hold up when looking at family interactions? Steven Horwitz joins us to talk about his new book, Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions . What did F. A. Hayek have to say about evolving social institutions? What is the definition of a family? How has it changed over time? Show Notes and Further Reading Here is Horwitz’...
Aug 05, 2016•57 min
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a foundational utilitarian philosopher, as well as one of the foremost thinkers in the classical liberal tradition. John Samples and Matthew Feeney join us for a discussion on the theory of liberty Mill articulates in his book On Liberty . We focus on how Mill thinks of liberty in relation to others and to the state, how utilitarianism influenced his thinking, and Mill’s defense of freedom of thought and free speech, which was quite radical for his time. This epi...
Jul 29, 2016•1 hr 3 min
How did everything get so crazy in American politics? Are political renegades like Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Bernie Sanders the new norm? Are political machines, pork-barrel spending, logrolling, and professional politicians necessary for our democracy to work? Are they necessary for political coordination and cooperation? What does Rauch mean by “political realism”? Show Notes and Further Reading Rauch’s study on this topic, Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Dea...
Jul 22, 2016•47 min
There seems to be a movement towards more student censorship on college campuses these days, but the source might be surprising: other students. Trigger warnings? Safe spaces? Microaggressions? Are college students more offended these days than they used to be? Robby Soave joins us for a discussion about the state of free speech in American higher education. Show Notes and Further Reading You can read Soave’s articles on this and other topics at Reason.com . For more on campus censorship, listen...
Jul 15, 2016•53 min
What’s the “MIT” approach to economics, and what’s wrong with it? Is economics a hard science? What is an economic model? What are some of the problems with thinking of the world this way? Arnold Kling claims that the economy isn’t like one big machine with a single purpose that can be fine tuned and regulated by experts. In this week’s episode, he presents an alternate way of thinking about economics, one you won’t find being taught in most college classrooms. Show Notes and Further Reading Kli...
Jul 08, 2016•48 min
What is a Stingray? How does it work? Is it a good idea to make police wear body cameras? Should officers be able to turn these cameras off? What about the privacy of the civilians being recorded? Should law enforcement agencies have access to drone technology? Where do we have a reasonable expectation of privacy? Matthew Feeney and Adam Bates join us this week to discuss new technologies available to law enforcement agencies in America, and the legal implications of these technologies. Where do...
Jul 01, 2016•54 min
After giving a broad overview of the philosophical underpinnings of governments last week , Roger Pilon joins us again to discuss the U.S. Constitution in particular and how the Constitution has been interpreted over the years. Pilon recounts the original signing of the Constitution and the adoption of the Bill of Rights, how post-Civil War constitutional amendments fundamentally altered the structure of American federalism, the Slaughter-House Cases of the late-19th century, Lochner v. New York...
Jun 24, 2016•1 hr 11 min
How are constitutions adopted? Did the Founders get it right? What is originalism and why do constitutional interpretations matter when studying founding texts? By what standards do we judge a theory of constitutional interpretation to be correct? Roger Pilon joins us this week for a discussion about originalism and the U.S. Constitution. This episode is continued in a followup episode about how the Constitution has been interpreted over the years . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...
Jun 17, 2016•52 min
What is the “Statrix”? How does government warp our perception of the world around us? How does it disproportionately affect the poor? Trevor Burrus talks about the “Statrix,” a portmanteau of the state and the concept of an artificial world made popular in the 1999 action/sci-fi movie The Matrix . Show Notes and Further Reading Trevor mentions the recent spate of track problems and fires that have been plaguing Washington D.C.’s metro system, which led to the creation of this website, ismetroon...
Jun 10, 2016•56 min
How can parents have more say in how their children are educated? What’s the difference between different approaches to school choice, like vouchers, education savings accounts, and tax credits? Do we know these work? Jason Bedrick joins us this week to make the case for school choice. Show Notes and Further Reading Here’s an earlier episode of Free Thoughts with Neal McCluskey on the history of public schooling in America. Bedrick mentions Dale Russakoff’s recent book, The Prize: Who’s in Charg...
Jun 03, 2016•53 min
For most of human history, most people lived in abject poverty and cultural and technological stagnation. Only in the past 200 years or so has humankind seen a flourishing of new ideas that has led to our current state of relative health, wealth, safety, and happiness. Deirdre McCloskey says the difference lies in the power of market institutions and a burgeoning respect for those that participate in them. Celebrating innovation—not protecting people from it—is the key to explaining this exponen...
May 27, 2016•53 min
Socrates could have had his friend Crito pay a bribe to get him out of prison and escape his death sentence, but he didn’t. Why? Do we always have a duty to obey the law? Brian Wilson from Combat and Classics joins us this week to continue our discussion on the last days of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates’ life, as told by his student Plato. Show Notes and Further Reading Combat and Classics is a series of free online seminars for active duty, reserve, and veteran U.S. military, sponsored...
May 20, 2016•47 min
What counts as a conspiracy theory? Why do people have a natural tendency to see intent and design, even when there is none? Are there any conspiracy theories particularly prevalent among libertarians? Daniel Bier of The Skeptical Libertarian joins us this week to talk about belief in conspiracy theories as a social phenomenon and the damage they can do to the perception of libertarianism and the credibility of libertarian arguments. Show Notes and Further Reading Listeners may also be intereste...
May 13, 2016•47 min
What was the U.S. government’s original motivation behind drug prohibition? How has the way we view addiction changed over time? What happens when a country—or a state—decriminalizes drugs? What about hard drugs? Show Notes and Further Reading Chasing the Scream is available here , along with all of Hari’s interviews and notes used in writing the book. Hari mentions Jeffrey Miron’s work on the economics of drug prohibition; you can read Miron’s recent work here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...
May 06, 2016•1 hr 2 min
What kind of person was Adam Smith? How does Smith’s theory of morality compare to other philosophers’ theories? What did economics look like before Smith? Paul Mueller discusses Adam Smith’s life and ideas, explains Smith’s “invisible hand” and “impartial spectator” analogies, and talks about the marginal revolution that occured in economics 100 years after Smith’s death. Show Notes and Further Reading Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments are great places to start readi...
Apr 29, 2016•57 min
What’s the best way to teach the principles of economics and individual liberty to people? Is having ‘good character’ a timeless virtue? Lawrence W. Reed joins us this week to discuss his work at the Foundation for Economic Education and FEE’s history in the worldwide free market movement. He also shares a few stories about ‘Real Heroes’ of liberty. Show Notes and Further Reading The Foundation for Economic Education has made the full text of Henry Hazlitt’s classic book Economics in One Lesson ...
Apr 22, 2016•44 min
Murray Rothbard wrote The Ethics of Liberty in 1982 as a full moral theory of the ethical considerations libertarianism requires and what these considerations would prevent the state from doing. This week we begin a discussion on the second part of The Ethics of Liberty . What is Rothbard’s universal ethic? According to Rothbard, how can property originally be justly acquired? What would ownership in a Rothbardian free market system look like? Here is our discussion on part one of The Ethics of ...
Apr 15, 2016•1 hr 5 min
What is it about British philosopher David Hume that makes him so popular? What was Hume’s attitude towards politics? Thomas W. Merrill joins us this week to talk about Hume’s thought and his skeptical, empirical attitude. Show Notes and Further Reading Merrill’s book, David Hume and the Politics of Enlightenment (2015) is available from Cambridge University Press. The Philosophy Bites podcast asked philosophers who their favorite philosopher was . Many of their guests chose David Hume. The Amaz...
Apr 08, 2016•50 min
The contemporary British, Canadian, and American political systems come from the same democratic root, but have very different ways of separating and balancing power. How does the American presidential system compare to the parliamentary system? Does the government we have today function anything like the government the Founding Fathers envisioned? Frank H. Buckley joins Trevor Burrus this week for a discussion on his book, The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America . Is i...
Apr 01, 2016•46 min
This week we discuss the history of conspiracy theories in America with Jesse Walker. What counts as a conspiracy theory? What are the different kinds of conspiracy theories? Are there any theories that have turned out to be true? How do these theories fade in and out of our national consciousness? Are there any uniquely libertarian conspiracy theories? Is there a way to recognize a conspiracy theory when we come across it? Show Notes and Further Reading Walker’s books are The United States of P...
Mar 25, 2016•54 min
How did SpeechNow and Citizens United change how elections are financed? Where does the distrust of money we so often see in politics come from? What’s wrong with making people disclose their donations? What’s the problem with occupational licensing? Doesn’t it seem sensible in some cases for the government to license certain things to make sure people aren’t hurting others with their advice? How are these two issues related? This week Paul Sherman from the Institute for Justice joins us to disc...
Mar 18, 2016•55 min
Who were the academics, reformers, and social scientists that made up the early American progressive movement at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century? The positions held by today’s progressives only bear a passing resemblance to those of the Progressive Era; how have the original progressives’ ideas changed over time? Thomas C. Leonard joins us this week for a discussion on the founding of the Progressive Era and the creation of the American regulatory and...
Mar 11, 2016•1 hr 1 min
This week, Richard A. Epstein joins us to talk about the history, economics, and legal theory behind unions, which remain some of the most powerful forces in the modern American political landscape. Is our collective narrative about unions saving workers from evil capitalist robber barons and horrible working conditions in the Industrial era accurate? How were unions initially treated by the Supreme Court? Are unions essentially cartels? Don’t workers need unions to equalize their bargaining pow...
Mar 04, 2016•43 min
Henry Ford’s mass production of the automobile ushered in a new era of human mobility, one that public planners always seem to be attempting to steer the American public away from. How is transportation important to human freedom and flourishing? How much are we spending on public transit? When, if ever, does public transportation make sense? What will driverless cars do for traffic congestion? Are driverless cars going to cause people to drive more? Less? Are there any potential roadblocks to d...
Feb 26, 2016•47 min
How important are private property rights? What does a society look like that has no property rights, if that’s even possible? How did the Founding Fathers think about property rights? This week Timothy and Christina Sandefur join us for a conversation about an essential aspect of what it means to be free. Timothy notes that, “If you can’t own something, you can’t have other kinds of rights.” Show Notes and Further Reading Timothy and Christina Sandefur’s book, Cornerstone of Liberty: Property R...
Feb 19, 2016•56 min
Is the Constitution a document that originally meant to limit government? Did the Articles of Confederation do a better job? Sheldon Richman joins us this week to talk about the origins of the American government. Is it possible to write a constitution that’ll keep government in check forever? Show Notes and Further Reading Richman’s original blog posts on the subject, “The Constitution Revisited” and “The Bill of Rights Revisited.” Jeffrey Rogers Hummel’s work is referenced often in this episod...
Feb 12, 2016•49 min
What does it mean to live a virtuous life? Why was Socrates’ self-defense at his trial so seemingly lackluster? Where does his “death before dishonor” attitude originate? Was he actually a heretic? Brian Wilson from Combat and Classics joins us this week for a discussion on the trial that ended in Socrates ultimately being sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. Why would Athenian jurors vote to execute the man Plato called “the best of all men of the time, the wisest and most just of all men”? ...
Feb 05, 2016•1 hr
Scientific studies and data get invoked all the time in debates about policy, especially when it comes to matters of environmental policy. But why should those who prefer a cleaner environment (or on the flip side, those who prefer more industry and the benefits it brings) have to justify their preferences with scientific evidence? What makes environmental policy conflicts so intractable? Why is “science” invoked by both sides of the political spectrum in policy conflicts? Peter Van Doren return...
Jan 29, 2016•52 min
What qualifies as a sweatshop? Is there one standard definition? Why would someone choose to work in a sweatshop? What are their other alternatives? What happens when companies are made to pay their sweatshop workers more? Benjamin Powell discusses the economics of sweatshop labor. He argues that the anti-sweatshop movement’s policies actually tend to harm the very workers they intend to help. Show Notes and Further Reading Powell’s book Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (2014). P...
Jan 22, 2016•44 min
Why is objectivity important when it comes to how judges decide cases? Tara A. Smith joins us this week to talk about what people mean when they say “We want judges to be objective and to uphold the law.” We discuss the what, how, and why of judicial objectivity, first principles, the value of discretion among different government actors in a legal system, and we compare Smith’s theory of judicial review to other, competing theories. Show Notes and Further Reading Smith’s book on this subject is...
Jan 15, 2016•58 min
