We want to be seen as taking the moral high ground not just to make a point, or move a debate forward, but to look a certain way — incensed, or compassionate, or committed to a cause. Another word for this type of discourse is grandstanding. Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke join the show to talk about how grandstanding affects our day to day political discourse. As politics gets more and more polarized, people on both sides of the spectrum move further and further apart when they let grandstanding...
Jul 10, 2020•53 min
From Frederick Douglass's advice to keep "a good revolver" handy as defense against slave catchers to the armed self-protection of Monroe, North Carolina, blacks against the KKK chronicled in Robert Williams's Negroes with Guns , it is clear that owning firearms was commonplace in the black community. Do blacks have a different view on gun control? Who was Don Kates and how did he fight for the second amendment? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 03, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Matt Zwolinksi returns to the show to discuss what’s next now that the Bleeding Heart Libertarian blog has ended its’ after a nine year run. He starts by describing how the blog came to be and what he learned about libertarianism and its’ history. Zwolinski hopes that people think of libertarianism and social justice as not incompatible and that we can work to forge political alliances, not just with people on the right who wanna shrink government, but also with people on the left who want to re...
Jun 26, 2020•53 min
Individual voters have little chance of making a difference, and they also face strong incentives to remain ignorant about the issues at stake. But, “Voting with your feet,” avoids these common pitfalls. There are three types of “voting with your feet” that, when acting concurrently, are mutually reenforcing. What is “footing with your feet”? When you “vote with your feet”, does your vote matter more? How can we expand foot voting? How could we open migration to make voting with your feet more a...
Jun 19, 2020•52 min
U.S. Representative Justin Amash from the 3rd Congressional District of Michigan has been in Congress since 2011 and in that time period he has seen many of his colleague chose party over principles. In 2019, he announced that he was leaving the Republican Party. He views the two-party system as an existential threat to American politics and institutions. Do Congressmen have principles? Did Trump corrode the Republican Party? Do Congressmen friends with each other even if they are on opposite si...
Jun 12, 2020•49 min
The American criminal justice is a truly a mess. Cops are too violent, the punishments are too punitive, and we imprison more people than any other country in the world. However, violent crime in the U.S. is very centralized in certain metro areas. Is the Unites States one of the most violent countries in the Western World? Why did the U.S. militarize our police force? Are police in the U.S. more violent than police of other countries? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 05, 2020•52 min
Matthew Feeney and John Samples join the show today to talk about how private companies are moderated their vast social networks. Recently, Facebook announced its' new Oversight Board and Cato Institute's very own, John Samples, is one of the members. The Board will effectively take final and binding decisions on whether specific content should be allowed or removed from Facebook and Instagram. Are big tech companies censoring conservative viewpoints? How should we talk about conservative bias? ...
May 29, 2020•59 min
When you list successful government censorship campaigns, like the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Comstock laws, the censorship of right-wing radio in the 1960s should be right up there in the pantheon of the most egregious acts of government censorship in American history. Paul Matzko, author of The Radio Right , talks about this and more throughout the episode. How has our mainstream media changed over time? Have Americans always mistrusted the media? Why were many radio personalities in the ...
May 22, 2020•58 min
Beyond boosting economic growth and raising our living standards, evasive entrepreneurialism can play an important role in constraining unaccountable governmental activities that often fail to reflect common sense or the consent of the governed. What moves the needle for progress? How has the sharing economy exposed grotesque regulatory barriers? Could this be a moment of freedom and liberation, or are we gonna get a surveillance state out of this pandemic? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...
May 15, 2020•49 min
For too long history was just the study of great men, but with the rise of intellectual history we have focused more on how people have changed their ideas over time. In another sense, studying history is about studying the struggle for power. The host of Portraits of Liberty, Paul Meany, joins the show to highlight historical thinkers who may not have been strictly libertarian, but argued for a freer world. Portraits of Liberty celebrates a broader historical libertarianism. What is valuable ab...
May 08, 2020•49 min
Ryan Bourne and Diego Zuluaga come back to the show to talk about how fiscal and monetary policy are changing drastically to respond to COVID-19. We are operating in a world of radical uncertainty. We are still unsure of how many people have been infected by the novel coronavirus. Every uncertainty affects how the stock market responds. However, it is reasonable to expect the American economy to boom back strongly in 1-3 years. How is the COVID-19 recession different than the 2007-2009 financial...
May 01, 2020•56 min
Kevin Currie-Knight comes back to the show to discuss different methods of homeschooling and how parents are handling the education of their children during the coronavirus pandemic. Many homeschooling families recognize that children learn when the children are guiding the learning, but that cannot happen when a school is sending home material. The more choice kids have in their learning, the better the learning outcomes. What is the difference between homeschooling and un-schooling? How has ho...
Apr 24, 2020•58 min
Radu Uszkai joins the show today to talk about if the case against intellectual property can be strengthened by appealing to the work of F.A. Hayek. Intellectual property is deeply rooted in our understanding of our own creativity. Intellectual property rights and copyright actually emerge as a result of creative revolutions. The copyright story of Mickey Mouse is probably the best-known. Throughout this episode they discuss the role of copyright in the movie industry, fashion industry, and more...
Apr 17, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Matt Ridley joins the show today to talk about his new book, How Innovation Works . Ridley describes innovation as the main event of the modern age. But innovation is still very hard for us as a society to wrap our heads around because it doesn’t just appear on its’ own. Ridley argues that we need to see innovation as an incremental, bottom-up, fortuitous process that happens to society as a direct result of the human habit of exchange. How has innovation transformed public health? What is the d...
Apr 10, 2020•53 min
Americans are far less likely to trust their institutions, and each other, today compared to decades past. This collapse in social and political trust arguably fuels our increasingly ferocious ideological conflicts and hardened partisanship. What’s the basis for people to trust each other? How do you measure social trust? What is reflective equilibrium? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 03, 2020•55 min
Stephanie Slade joins the show to talk about her new cover story for Reason Magazine; Against the New Nationalism. Her piece starts by noting how Richard Lowry, the author of The Case for Nationalism , argues that there is no real difference between nationalism and patriotism. We discuss how conservative nationalists argue that we lost sight of how to be a moral people, and we need the government to get us back on track. What is nationalism? Is nationalism patriotism? Are Americans proud of thei...
Mar 27, 2020•48 min
While we practice social-distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, Aaron and Trevor remind us that there’s something about politics itself that is harmful to us and makes us worse people. If you think the political debate is rancorous now, just imagine what it’ll be like when it determines even more of our lives, as we become more and more connected. What effect does politics have on our lives? How has politics evolved? How do political parties pin people against each other? How do you engage ...
Mar 20, 2020•52 min
Julia Maskivker believes not only that we should vote, but that we must vote. Even when confronted with two unappealing candidates, or with ballot propositions whose effects we will barely feel, or with the fact that our single vote might never tip an election, we must vote. Do we have a duty to vote or do we have a duty instead to vote well? What is the purpose of voting? What is voter fatigue? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 13, 2020•55 min
Democracy can be a good thing, but if forced into places and situations where it fits poorly, like a Thanksgiving dinner, then maybe we should rethink its limits. We discuss the nature and purpose of democracy and whether democratic politics is an end in itself or whether democracy exists for a purpose with Robert Talisse. Is it possible to have too much democracy? Does too much democracy damage the very goals for which we have democracy in the first place? How has our partisanship seeped in to ...
Mar 06, 2020•52 min
Entrepreneurs disrupt industries and throw equilibria out of whack, but where would the modern world be without entrepreneurs? The economics of innovation is particularly important to understand at a time when more politicians on both the right and the left are calling for industrial policy. Such proposals raise the question can and should entrepreneurship and innovation be planned? Arthur Diamond joins the show to talk about how good policy could actually encourage innovation. How do innovators...
Feb 28, 2020•55 min
Over a century ago most Americans gave birth and died at home, with minimal medical intervention. But today, most Americans today begin and end their lives in hospitals. Over time policies have forced people away from community-based providers, like birth centers, and toward more costly care in fully-equipped hospitals. Lauren K. Hall joins the show today to talk about the medicalization of birth and death. Has our health care system gone too far? Do we receive too much care? What is the purpose...
Feb 21, 2020•54 min
What is human nature? It’s a question that’s intrigued philosophers for as long as there’s been philosophy. It’s also where quite a lot of political philosophy begins, imagining how our nature would have us live in a world before government. How and why do humans cooperate? Why do we interact with people at all? Is there an issue with freedom of assembly? What kind of society is good for us to live together successfully? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 14, 2020•47 min
George Selgin and Diego Zuluaga are back on the show today to talk about the potential of bitcoin. Throughout the conversation they discuss how bitcoin has had it’s up and downs, but this fluctuation does not indicate whether bitcoin is a successful alternative money. How old is Bitcoin? Does the price of Bitcoin tell us anything meaningful? Is Bitcoin a meaningful money alternative? Where is Bitcoin accepted as payment? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 07, 2020•52 min
Bobby Duffy draws on his research into public perception across more than forty countries, offering a sweeping account of the stubborn problem of human delusion: how society breeds it, why it will never go away, and what our misperceptions say about what we really believe. How do we consume information differently now than we did in the 1950’s? How do we gain knowledge about the world around us? Why are Americans high in confidence but low in true knowledge? Are Americans creating false beliefs ...
Jan 31, 2020•50 min
Yuval Levin argues that we do not need to tear down our current institutions and restart from nothing, but it is definitely a time to re-commit to make our institutions trustworthy once again. And by institutions he means from the military to church groups and everything in between. He argues that we can then use these trustworthy institutions to provide the form and structure we need to really be free. What counts as a institution? Is there a decline in the public trust of institutions? Are ins...
Jan 24, 2020•46 min
There are many contentious areas in science because groups are looking for universal truths that validate their preconceived beliefs. Peter Van Doren comes back to the show today to talk about the role of science in the policy world. We look to scientists to conduct research that may better inform our policy decisions, but at the same time we have to make sure the science is trustworthy. How should we use scientific evidence to make decisions? What kind of environmental regulation should there b...
Jan 17, 2020•50 min
Scientific research is the time-honored key to objective knowledge. In the past it was funded pluralistically, but today certain portions of the market for knowledge are dominated by a single buyer, namely the government. This is especially true in the research fields that impinge on the regulatory sphere, such as pollution and climate change. What’s wrong with science today? What sciences can you trust? How are scientists incentivized? Are scientists just obsessed with getting published? How is...
Jan 10, 2020•42 min
The political left seems to think that wealth inequality undermines democracy. There are many reasons why this fear is incorrect. The political views of the wealthy are not homogeneous, and on many issues, they track the views of the rest of the population. Many political leaders consider wealth inequality to be a major economic and social problem. Ryan Bourne and Chris Edwards join the show to talk about their new study that tackles this issue from multiple fronts. How do we measure inequality?...
Jan 03, 2020•45 min
Jacob Sullum goes beyond the debate on legalization or the proper way to win the “war on drugs,” to the heart of a social and individual defense of using drugs. He believes that the conventional understanding of addiction, portrayed as a kind of chemical slavery in which the user’s values and wishes do not matter, is also fundamentally misleading. How does someone defend heroin use? Is alcohol more addictive than opioids? What are the expectations that surround marijuana use? What can and can’t ...
Dec 27, 2019•1 hr 3 min
Christopher Preble and John Glaser talk about how Donald Trump’s rise in the Republican primaries and eventually to the presidency represented an astonishing break with the foreign policy consensus that had prevailed from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. And they detail this more extensively in their book, Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America’s Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse , which is a comprehensive explanation of how Trump’s “America First” mentality was more a campaign slogan than a coher...
Dec 20, 2019•49 min
