Why must all good things come to an end? Just asking questions. This will be the final episode of the Just Asking Questions podcast. This discussion with Freddie deBoer about the assassination of Charlie Kirk and its aftermath felt like the kind of sincere, analytical, deeply meaningful conversation across an ideological divide that would be appropriate to call our last. Liz Wolfe and Zach Weissmueller offer their final thoughts and reflections on the series at the end of the episode, so if you'...
Sep 18, 2025•1 hr 17 min
What is the Jeffrey Epstein story, and what does it mean? Just asking questions. Today's conversation is with journalist Michael Tracey, who has been picking apart what he calls the " Epstein mythology " for the past several weeks over at his Substack. In short, he thinks 90 percent of what most people believe about this case is false, and that this is mostly the fault of credulous establishment journalists who chose to uncritically publish alleged victims' narratives and ignore inconvenient fac...
Sep 12, 2025•2 hr 51 min
What do you call it when the state takes partial ownership of a private company? Just asking questions. Ten percent of Intel now belongs to the U.S. government. Today's guest says it's time to start using the "F word." Economist Bob Murphy is no anti–Donald Trump #resistance fighter quick to shriek "fascism." In fact, he says he was relieved when Trump won the last election. But the Austrian school economist and host of the Human Action Podcast and The Bob Murphy Show tells us he's alarmed by th...
Aug 28, 2025•1 hr 12 min
How bad is crime and disorder in Washington, D.C.? Just asking questions. Local crime became a national issue following the assault of Edward Coristine—a former staffer at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who is also known as "Big Balls"—during an alleged carjacking. Trump reacted on Truth Social, saying , "Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control" and promised to "exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City" following the assault. The capital is now occupied by members o...
Aug 21, 2025•1 hr 15 min
It's back-to-school season, and the very meaning of a proper education seems to be more up for grabs than ever before. K-12 education is still bobbing in the long, tumultuous wake of pandemic lockdowns that invited unprecedented parental scrutiny of what happens in the classroom, resulted in years of learning loss, and catapulted schools into the political and cultural arena. We've invited on Deb Fillman , creator of the fascinating Substack The Reason We Learn , because she offers sharp, critic...
Aug 14, 2025•1 hr 35 min
Is Brooklyn-style socialism a "luxury belief"? Just asking questions. Today's guest coined that memorable phrase, and we're eager to talk with him today about how it applies to the triumph of socialist Zohran Mamdani in the New York Democratic mayoral primary and to discuss the odd, enduring allure of socialism for America's most highly educated class despite a history of repeated bloody and catastrophic 20th century communist experiments. I also want to ask him if any of my political beliefs ar...
Aug 07, 2025•1 hr 29 min
Do you ever feel like you're being watched? Just asking questions. We're told modern surveillance tech will track criminals, illegal aliens, and terrorists while protecting the privacy of innocent Americans. You've got nothing to worry about if you've got nothing bad to hide. Today's guest says that's not true. His latest book, The Triumph of Fear , documents the history of the modern surveillance state and the ways in which it's been leveraged since its inception to target not just terrorists a...
Jul 31, 2025•1 hr 13 min
Can Robert F. Kennedy Jr. put the country on a diet and Make America Healthy Again? Just asking questions. The MAHA Report is a 73-page document put out by a government commission headed by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary RFJ Jr. Its goal is to "study the scope of the chronic childhood disease crisis and any potential causes including the American diet." The report points out that childhood obesity rates in the U.S. remain higher than in other G7 countries. We invited Gary Taubes to jo...
Jul 24, 2025•1 hr 21 min
How much are you willing to pay to "buy American"? Just asking questions. In April, President Donald Trump unilaterally unleashed a series of so-called reciprocal tariffs, using emergency powers to punish countries with a trade imbalance, meaning they export more to the U.S. than they import from the U.S. Markets panicked, and Trump pulled back, setting a new deadline that he's now pushed back multiple times. It's now set to expire on August 1. But those aren't the only tariffs Trump has impleme...
Jul 18, 2025•1 hr 26 min
What is the "Trump doctrine"? Just asking questions. President Donald Trump won his first term in office after breaking with the Republican establishment on a few fronts. One notable example: On the debate stage in 2016, he embarrassed Jeb Bush for his family's role in the disastrous Iraq War. Trump didn't start any new wars in his first term, though he didn't end any either. This time around, he joined Israel's attack on Iran by dropping bombs on its uranium enrichment facilities. Although his ...
Jul 11, 2025•53 min
Is Zohran Mamdani's success in New York politics the mark of socialist resurgence or just a reflection of a deeply fractured party base? Zach Weissmueller is joined by two very concerned New Yorkers. Our own Liz Wolfe and Inez Stepman, who's a policy analyst at the Independent Women's Forum. Stepman critiques the ideological cocktail attracting young New Yorkers to socialism. She argues that Mamdani's appeal is more cultural than it is economic, which leads to a discussion of whether libertarian...
Jul 03, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Who's allowed to launch an attack on another country? Just asking questions. Rep. Ro Khanna (D–Calif.) joined Reason 's Just Asking Questions podcast to discuss the War Powers Resolution he's co-sponsored with Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.), which would require President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval before continuing to drop bombs in Iran. He also discussed Trump's remarks that the governments of Israel and Iran "don't know what the fuck they are doing" after they ignored his call for...
Jun 25, 2025•43 min
What's America's role in Israel's war with Iran? Just asking questions. U.S. forces aren't directly involved in the war with Iran…yet. But those of us who remember the 2003 Iraq invasion can't help but be struck by some of the unsettling similarities: A terrorist attack acting as an inciting event a year and a half earlier, sensational but unverified claims of weapons of mass destruction imminently falling into the wrong hands, the promise of a swift and decisive victory over a cruel and corrupt...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 13 min
Protests and unrest erupted in Los Angeles following federal immigration raids of a Home Depot parking lot and a clothing manufacturer. President Donald Trump ordered National Guard troops, and later U.S. Marines, into Los Angeles against the wishes of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Downtown Los Angeles and the communities of Paramount and Compton have been wracked by riots, looting, and the burning of autonomous Waymo vehicles. Today's guest is a self-described "former leftist…politically homele...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 8 min
How should the government treat in vitro fertilization (IVF)? Should they regulate it more? Should they subsidize it? Just asking questions. The above are all questions that the Trump administration is actively considering in the wake of an executive order seeking to expand access to IVF. President Donald Trump previously declared himself "the fertilization president" while speaking at a women's conference. Today's guests have thought about a lot about reproductive technology, birth rates, and f...
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 37 min
How will we ever get the national debt under control? Just asking questions. The U.S. national debt stands at a staggering $36 trillion. And while President Donald Trump assures us he's a " fiscal hawk ," the GOP's latest fiscal plan, dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act , is a fiscal time bomb, says today's guest. David Stockman , the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, joins the show to dissect the Trump administration's budget priorities and explain...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Why did the Rust Belt really lose its manufacturing base? Middlebury College political scientist Gary Winslett has a provocative answer: It wasn't China or robots. It was Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, and Florida. In a recent Washington Post op-ed , Winslett argued that the South's pro-growth policies—not foreign competition or automation—were the real drivers behind the industrial shift. That makes for an uncomfortable narrative in a political environment where both parties have a stake in te...
May 22, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Noah Smith , an economic commentator and Substack writer, once dismissed libertarianism as a relic of the past. But in a political climate increasingly defined by populist protectionism and authoritarian rhetoric, he's reconsidering. "There are worse monsters than the market," Smith recently wrote . With Reason 's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe, Smith explores the evolution of his thinking—from criticizing "thin libertarianism" focused solely on state coercion, to advocating for a more expansiv...
May 15, 2025•1 hr 17 min
During the 2024 presidential election, a contingent of libertarians cast strategic, often reluctant votes for Donald Trump, arguing he was the lesser of two evils. Among them: Reason 's own Liz Wolfe and J.D. Tuccille, alongside comedian and Part of the Problem host Dave Smith. Each thinks a Kamala Harris administration would have been more troubling, citing concerns about censorship, economic illiteracy, and cultural authoritarianism. More than 100 days into Trump's second presidency it's time ...
May 09, 2025•1 hr 28 min
In this episode of Just Asking Questions , we're joined by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to discuss the cultural, political, and demographic pressures reshaping the modern world. His recent essay, "An Age of Extinction Is Coming. Here's How to Survive," explores how digital life—from AI companions to algorithmic distraction—is accelerating trends toward social atomization, institutional collapse, and even plummeting birth rates. We talk with Douthat about how libertarians should respond ...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Why was a man who was legally protected from deportation sitting in one of the world's most notorious prisons in El Salvador? This week on Just Asking Questions , Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Glenn Greenwald returns to discuss a case that cuts to the heart of American constitutionalism and due process. Greenwald, known for his reporting on the National Security Agency and his founding role at The Intercept , has become one of the most consistent civil libertarian voices in politics. He join...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 29 min
What if the new Cold War with China turns hot? Just asking questions. China's rise, decline, or potential for conflict is often clouded by propaganda and oversimplification. This episode of Just Asking Questions examines China's real economic, military, and geopolitical trajectory, focusing on Taiwan tensions, trade wars, and demographic challenges. Joining us is Michael Beckley , a Tufts University political science professor and co-author of Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China . He is ...
Apr 17, 2025•1 hr 18 min
Derek Thompson, a senior writer at The Atlantic and co-author (with Ezra Klein) of Abundance: The New Politics of Growth , joins this episode of Just Asking Questions to make the case that if Democrats want to win in the future, they must first learn to build. In this conversation, Thompson challenges Democrats to reimagine themselves as the party of pragmatic progress, rather than redistribution. We wanted to bring Thompson on the show now because the tension inside the Democratic Party is reac...
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) has been speaking out against President Donald Trump's tariffs. He supported a bill to repeal the emergency powers that allowed him to levy tariffs on Canada and recently co-sponsored a joint resolution with Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) to immediately terminate the national emergency that Trump declared in order to impose the worldwide tariffs. Paul joins the show today to explain his opposition to tariffs, defend free trade, warn about the dangers of expansive emergency powers...
Apr 09, 2025•23 min
Do people want President Donald Trump's deportation crackdown? And is the MAGA agenda actually a leftist one? Just asking questions. Batya Ungar-Sargon , a columnist at The Free Press, joins the show today to address these questions and spar with us on immigration, tariffs, and wealth inequality. She's a self-described MAGA leftist and the author most recently of Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women . Sources Referenced: The White House's Ghibli-style deportation...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 18 min
What would a Mar-a-Lago accord look like? Just asking questions. Phil Magness is an economic historian with the Independent Institute who has deeply studied the history of tariffs and trade. We invited him on the show to talk about the "global economic reordering" described by Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the president's escalating tariffs, the looming threat of a trade war, the shaky stock market, and the so-called "Mar-a-Lago Accord" that may shed more light on what the Tru...
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Where's artificial intelligence headed in Trump's America? Just asking questions. In February 2025, Vice President J.D. Vance delivered a keynote speech at the AI Action Summit in Paris. He advocated for "AI opportunity" rather than "AI safety," promoting a deregulatory vision for AI that emphasized U.S. leadership and free speech while criticizing Europe's "excessive" regulations like the Digital Markets Act. In contrast, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at the AI Safety Summit in Lo...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 19 min
To celebrate the growth of our new YouTube channel, the Just Asking Questions team livestreamed an Ask Me Anything episode, hosted by their producer, John Osterhoudt . It was a chance for our listeners to share their reactions to guests and topics, suggest ideas for future episodes, and pose some hard questions. Thanks for listening! If you like the show, the best ways to help are to subscribe to the Just Asking Questions YouTube channel , subscribe and give us a rating on iTunes or other podcat...
Mar 14, 2025•47 min
Five years to the day after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, what are the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic? Just asking questions. Tom Woods joins us today. He's a historian, host of The Tom Woods Show , and author of many books , including Diary of a Psychosis: How Public Health Disgraced Itself During COVID Mania , which has a foreword written by the new National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya . Because he so painstakingly documented his experience of "COVI...
Mar 13, 2025•1 hr 33 min
What does the dramatic collapse of talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump and J.D. Vance reveal about Trump's foreign policy, Vance's ideology, and the future trajectory of MAGA? Just asking questions. James Pogue, who has written extensively about the American New Right and who predicted in 2022 that Vance would be "hugely influential in our politics in the coming years," joined the show to dissect the doomed televised negotiations between Zelenskyy and Trump, of...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 31 min
