Corey DeAngelis comes on the podcast to breakdown the different components of school choice and how it has evolved in the last 2 decades. In summary, DeAngelis believes that families have the best information about what their children need when it comes to education. This isn't a debate about private vs. public schools, but rather a debate about where money can best be spent for each and every student. What is the difference between an education savings account and a school voucher? Hosted on Ac...
Sep 03, 2021•58 min
John Pfaff describes how the pandemic lockdown helped push down many crimes, but last year saw an unprecedented spike in homicides nationwide, likely more than twice the largest previous one-year rise. The spike in homicides will surely alter the politics of reform, now and in the years ahead. Was there a COVID crime wave? Are shooting underreported or over-reported? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 27, 2021•55 min
Michael Huemer spends the show addressing many controversial philosophical questions; How can we know about the world outside our minds? Is there a God? Do we have free will? Are there objective values? What distinguishes morally right from morally wrong actions? Why do people question the value of general philosophical knowledge? Why should people try to be rational? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 20, 2021•50 min
The reality is that when businesses respond to market prices and wages in ways that maximize share values they generally promote the welfare of a far larger number of stakeholders than when businesses discount the importance of share values in order to intentionally promote the welfare of stakeholders. Don Boudreaux joins the podcast to discuss the difference between stakeholder capitalism and shareholder capitalism and how they both relate to corporate responsibility. What are the differences b...
Aug 13, 2021•49 min
As governments and tech platforms seek to address the concerns driving the “techlash,” Neil talks about the lessons that provide guidance on how to avoid the worst pitfalls that could adversely affect efforts to improve the human condition online. What is "legibility"? What concerns drive the “techlash” and what should platforms and governments do to address them? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 06, 2021•48 min
Daniel Shapiro examines how major welfare institutions, such as government-financed and -administered retirement pensions, national health insurance, and programs for the needy, actually work. Comparing them to compulsory private insurance and private charities, Shapiro argues that the dominant perspectives in political philosophy mistakenly think that their principles support the welfare state. What is the difference between option luck and brute luck? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...
Jul 30, 2021•51 min
Clay Routledge and John Bitzan conducted a survey of college students to assess their perception of viewpoint diversity and campus freedom; human progress and beliefs about the future; and student attitudes toward entrepreneurship, capitalism and socialism, and how college is influencing their views. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 23, 2021•50 min
There is much disagreement about what being a neoliberal actually means. It's generally believed to be a philosophical view that a society’s political and economic institutions should be robustly liberal and capitalist, but supplemented by a constitutionally limited democracy and a modest welfare state. But that certainly leaves room for much interpretation. How does neoliberalism relate to utilitarianism? What is the relationship between neoliberalism and democracy? Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...
Jul 16, 2021•53 min
Jason Riley describes Thomas Sowell as one of the great social theorists of our age. In Sowell’s career, spanning more than a half century, he has written over thirty books, covering topics from economic history and social inequality to political theory, race, and culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 09, 2021•1 hr
Radley Balko argues that over the last several decades, America's cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens they serve as an other—an enemy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 02, 2021•55 min
Federal policies rely on top‐down planning and coercion. That tends to create winners and losers, which is unlike the mutually beneficial relationships of markets. Not to mention the government cannot comprehend the complexity of our society on a local level. Chris Edwards returns to the show to discuss the failures of government. What is logrolling? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 25, 2021•49 min
Before the U.S. Constitution had even been signed, soldiers and new veterans protested. Dissent, the hallowed expression of disagreement and refusal to comply with the government’s wishes, has a long history in the United States. Soldier dissenters, outraged by the country’s wars or egregious violations in conduct, speak out and change U.S. politics, social welfare systems, and histories. What happened to deserters? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 18, 2021•46 min
Disinformation. Trolling. Conspiracies. Social media pile-ons. Campus intolerance. On the surface, these recent phenomenons appear to have little in common. But together, they are driving an epistemic crisis: a multi-front challenge to America’s ability to distinguish fact from fiction and elevate truth above falsehood. What is truth? Is truth the same thing as knowledge? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 11, 2021•50 min
Carbon emissions peaked and have been declining in most developed nations for over a decade. Deaths from extreme weather, even in poor nations, declined 80 percent over the last four decades. And the risk of Earth warming to very high temperatures is increasingly unlikely thanks to slowing population growth and abundant natural gas. What do we mean by alarmism? What’s really behind the rise of apocalyptic environmentalism? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 04, 2021•51 min
An expert in ancient and modern ethics, Sherman relates how Stoic methods of examining beliefs and perceptions can help us correct distortions in what we believe, see, and feel. Her study reveals a profound insight about the Stoics: they never believed, as Stoic popularizers often hold, that rugged self-reliance or indifference to the world around us is at the heart of living well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 28, 2021•52 min
Diving deeply into Islamic theology, and also sharing lessons from his own life story, Mustafa Aykol reveals how Muslims lost the universalism that made them a great civilization in their earlier centuries. He especially demonstrates how values often associated with Western Enlightenment ― freedom, reason, tolerance, and an appreciation of science ― had Islamic counterparts, which sadly were cast aside in favor of more dogmatic views, often for political ends. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
May 21, 2021•54 min
Immigration is often seen as a danger to western liberal democracies because it threatens to undermine their fundamental values, most notably freedom and national self‐determination. Chandran Kukathas argues that the greater threat comes not from immigration but from immigration control. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 14, 2021•57 min
FDA reviewers have strong incentive to restrict access to new drugs and other therapies until there is extensive evidence that the therapies are safe. These incentives work against patients suffering painful or terminal diseases that have no effective therapy. And throughout the COVID-19 pandemic the FDA was continually in the spotlight for its poorly handling many potential COVID-19 remedies. Why do we have an FDA? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 07, 2021•54 min
It could be said that American foreign policy since 1945 has been one long miscue; most international threats - including during the Cold War - have been substantially exaggerated. The result has been agony and bloviation, unnecessary and costly military interventions that have mostly failed. John Mueller joins the show to explain how, when international war is in decline, complacency and appeasement become viable diplomatic devices and a large military is scarcely required. Hosted on Acast. See...
Apr 30, 2021•51 min
Have you ever stopped to wonder why hand sanitizer was missing from your pharmacy for months after the COVID-19 pandemic hit? Why some employers and employees were arguing over workers being re-hired during the first COVID-19 lockdown? Why passenger airlines were able to get their own ring-fenced bailout from Congress? Ryan Bourne answers all of these questions in his latest book, Economics in One Virus . He helps to explain everything from why the U.S. was underprepared for the pandemic to how ...
Apr 23, 2021•56 min
The story of humanity is the story of textiles -- as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture. Virginia Postrel joins the show to discuss how textiles are the most influential commodity in world history. What can the history of textiles teach us about innovation? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 16, 2021•54 min
The foreign policy establishment in D.C. is stubborn. In fact, there is so much consensus about America's interests' abroad that it's rare that meaningful debate occurs. But, it shouldn't be like that. There should be room for realists and restrainers in foreign policy. Justin Logan comes back on the podcast to discuss how foreign policy should be regularly scrutinized because right now that doesn't happen enough. Who is in the foreign policy establishment? How is the debate on foreign policy di...
Apr 09, 2021•50 min
Alternating current electricity systems require that demand equals supply in real-time. Any supply-demand imbalance must be remedied in minutes to avoid collapse of the system that would take weeks to repair. And the Texas system was very close to collapse. So why did the Texas blackouts occur when the weather was bitter cold? Could a free market electricity system work? What is the rate of return on regulated utilities? Why are all power companies monopolies? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
Apr 02, 2021•48 min
In Jason Brennan's new book, Why It’s OK to Want to Be Rich, he shows that the moralizers have it backwards. He argues that, in general, the more money you make, the more you already do for others, and that even an average wage earner is productively “giving back” to society just by doing her job. In addition, wealth liberates us to have the best chance of leading a life that’s authentically our own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 26, 2021•48 min
Bassem Youseff joins the show to talk about his experience hosting the show, El-Bernameg ( The Show ), a satirical news program in Egypt, from 2011 to 2014. Youseff is often described as the Egyptian Jon Stewart because his program garnered over 40 million viewers. In 2013, Time named Youseff one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Why are dictators humorless? Do you think that America has a healthy political satire climate? What caused the Arab Spring? Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...
Mar 19, 2021•39 min
A stock market professional joins the show to discuss how investors and hedge fund managers work differently. In recent stock market news, we had a front seat to witness the short-selling of small companies, like Gamestop. We discuss why short-selling happens and how technology has changed accessibility to the stock market. What is a stock? What is a corporation? What is a hedge fund? How has the stock market changed in the last 30 years? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informati...
Mar 12, 2021•1 hr
The resurgent of “security nationalism" extends far beyond the limited theoretical scenarios in which national security might justify government action, and it suffers from several flaws. “National security” has long been invoked to justify government policies intended to support manufacturing in case of war or another emergency. How are free trade and national security related? What is a trade deficit? How do global supply chains work? Did the U.S. make China in to a dangerous country? Hosted o...
Mar 05, 2021•47 min
Economic arguments favoring increased immigration restrictions suggest that immigrants undermine the culture, institutions, and productivity of destination countries. But is this actually true? Alex Nowrasteh breaks the economic impact of immigration down for us by pulling data from history as well as from policies that other countries use to control immigration. What happens if we open up immigration? What is a founder effect? Why do people want to come to America? Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...
Feb 26, 2021•45 min
Carl Hart is one of the world’s preeminent experts on the effects of so-called recreational drugs on the human mind and body. Dr. Hart is open about the fact that he uses drugs himself, in a happy balance with the rest of his full and productive life as a colleague, husband, father, and friend. What is the difference between an illicit drug and medicine? Who decides which drugs are illicit and which are not? Why do we treat drugs users, depending on the drug, differently? How is alcohol differen...
Feb 19, 2021•46 min
George Selgin believes that the New Deal failed to bring recovery because, although some New Deal undertakings did serve to revive aggregate spending, others had the opposite effect, and still others prevented the growth in spending that did take place from doing all it might have to revive employment. What does it mean when the economy shrinks? What were some goals of the New Deal? How did the New Deal fail to reach its goals? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 12, 2021•55 min
