Alex Aragona speaks with Moshe Lander about the supposed economic benefits of building sports and entertainment stadiums, and why those claims may not be as accurate as most people may think. References 1. “New Calgary event centre deal finalized, construction expected to begin in 2024” by Adam Toy Link: https://globalnews.ca/news/10007181/update-calgary-flames-arena-deal/
Alex Aragona speaks with Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili as she tours through some of her findings from Afghanistan, how she found Hayek in Afghanistan, and what the customs she observed say about polycentric authority and "anarchy as a policy alternative." References 1. “Land, the State and War: Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan” by Jennifer Murtazashvili Link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/land-the-state-and-war/A7B8C98CB24780A3CC0EA1CD265D888A 2. “Informal Order and...
In Special Episode 2's celebration of 100 episodes, Curious Task host Alex Aragona pointed to Episode 60 with Eric Schliesser as one of his favourites, so we're re-releasing it! In this episode, Alex Aragona speaks with Eric Schliesser as he explores the history of the term "neoliberalism," its eventual evolution, and what neoliberalism means today. If you haven't had a chance to listen to it before, we hope you find it interesting. If you have, enjoy its re-release! References from The Curious ...
In Special Episode 2's celebration of 100 episodes, Curious Task producer Sabine El-Chidiac pointed to Episode 67 with Tom Palmer as one of her favourites, so we're re-releasing it! In this episode, Tom Palmer talks about the institutions and conditions that cause peace and war, and why the concept of war might be closer to home than some might think. If you haven't had a chance to listen to it before, we hope you find it interesting. If you have, enjoy its re-release! References from The Curiou...
In Special Episode 2, Matt Bufton pointed to The Curious Task Episode 77 with James Tooley as one of his favourites. If you haven't had a chance to listen to it before, we hope you find it interesting. If you have, enjoy its re-release! References from The Curious Task Special Episode 3 with James Tooley The E. G. West Centre at Newcastle University is the namesake of economist E. G. West. This page will direct listeners to his various articles and reports. James’ book, The Beautiful Tree: A Per...
To celebrate reaching 100 episodes, host Alex Aragona, producer Sabine El-Chidiac, and executive producer Matt Bufton look back on the origins and growth of the podcast, some of their favourite episodes, and so much more in this very special bonus episode. References from The Curious Task Special Episode 2 with Matt Bufton, Sabine El-Chidiac and Alex Aragona You can listen to Graeme Thompson discuss Canadian Liberalism here . Dennis Rasmussen discusses if America failed here. The very first epis...
In honour of Steve Horwitz (1964-2021), we are re-releasing his conversation with Alex Aragona on what drives progress — a topic near and dear to Steve's heart. References from The Curious Task Special Episode 1 with Steve Horwitz Steve Horwitz is the author of Austrian Economics: An Introduction ; Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective ; Monetary Evolution, Free Banking, and Economic Order ; and Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Instit...
Tyler Cowen chats with Alex Aragona about all things food — great things to eat, where to find them, and how an economist gets lunch. References from The Curious Task Episode 100 with Tyler Cowen You can purchase An Economist Gets Lunch by Tyler Cowen from Amazon here. You can read more from Tyler Cowen at the blog Marginal Revolution here. Find their course materials at Marginal Revolution University here. Tyler Cowen also has a food blog here. Read more about locavorism in The Locavore's Dilem...
Alex Aragona peaks with Aeon Skoble as he outlines his ideas on what anarchism is, how we should think on it, and how it overlaps with classical liberal ideas. References from The Curious Task Episode 99 with Aeon Skoble Aeon Skoble is author of Deleting the State and editor of a collection of essays called The Simpsons and Philosophy . He has a chapter titled “What Is the Point of Anarchism” in The Routledge Handbook of Anarchy and Anarchist Thought . Read more from Aeon Skoble on the blog Radi...
Alex Aragona speaks with SmithTweeters Janet Bufton and Sarah Skwire as they describe what drew them to the idea of reading through all of The Wealth of Nations and providing an ongoing commentary on Twitter, and how Adam Smith's ideas remain relevant. References from The Curious Task Episode 98 with Janet Bufton and Sarah Skwire Janet Bufton previously spoke on The Curious Task, which you can listen to here. Sarah Skwire has also appeared on The Curious Task here. You can read the #WealthofTwee...
Alex Aragona speaks with Anton Howes about when the sparks of innovation started in Britain, and what fanned the flames moving forward. References from The Curious Task Episode 97 with Anton Howes You can read more about the Age of Invention at the substack where Anton Howes writes about his ideas here . You can also find his working paper titled The Spread of Improvement here. Deirdre McCloskey details her arguments about ethics and commerce in her series which begins with Bourgeois Virtues, av...
Bill Easterly tours some of the concepts from his book The Tyranny of Experts , and explores why technocrats imposing their own form of economic development on cultures and peoples can produce more harm than good. References from The Curious Task Episode 96 with Bill Easterly You can purchase a copy of The Tyranny of the Experts by Bill Easterly here . The End of Poverty by Jeff Sachs can be found on Amazon here. The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek can be purchased here....
Alex Aragona speaks with Dennis Rasmussen about his findings on how the American Founding Fathers truly felt about the experiment they designed and built as time went on. References from The Curious Task Episode 95 with Dennis Rasmussen Dennis Rasmussen previously joined The Curious Task to speak about his book The Infidel and the Professor , and you can listen to that episode here . The book discussed on this episode of The Curious Task is Fears of the Setting Sun by Dennis Rasmussen, which can...
Alex Aragona speaks with Graeme Thompson about the classical liberal tradition in Canada, and what the evolution of that tradition has looked like. References from The Curious Task Episode 94 with Graeme Thompson A collection of the speeches of Wilfred Laurier can be found in an edited edition by Arthur Milnes, available from Amazon here. Macdonald Laurier and the Election of 1891 by Christopher Pennington can be found from Penguin House here. Graeme Thompson’s piece “Whatever Happened to Laurie...
Jacob Levy gives a tour of his thoughts on the conversations surrounding social justice, and how liberals might consider the topic from the perspective of social "injustice". References from The Curious Task Episode 93 with Jacob Levy You can listen to Jacob Levy’s other appearances on The Curious Task here and here . Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom by Jacob T. Levy can be purchased from Amazon here. You can purchase Free Market Fairness by John Tomasi from Amazon here . You can read more co...
In honour of her birthday, Sandy Ikeda explores the ideas of Jane Jacobs and reflects on how her thinking on urban centres is still relevant today. References from The Curious Task Episode 92 with Sandy Ikeda You can listen to Sandy Ikeda discuss “Why Can’t a City Be a Work of Art?” on The Curious Task here . A copy of Jane Jacob’s Death and Life of Great American Cities can be purchased from Amazon here. Some of her other works include The Economy of Cities (available here ) and Systems of Surv...
Terence Kealey speaks about the history of state involvement in funding science and technology, and why it may not be as good or innovative of an idea as it may seem. References from The Curious Task Episode 91 with Terence Kealey You can purchase a copy of Sex Science and Profits by Terence Kealey on Amazon here. The story of Katalin Karikó is explored in detail in this article . Terence Kealey has a chapter in Visions of Liberty , available for purchase here....
Alex Aragona speaks with Nick Cowen as he explores the current state of sex work regulation, and what approaches regulators could (and should) take when considering the increasing online landscape for these services. References from The Curious Task Episode 90 with Nick Cowen Nick Cowen is the author of Neoliberal Social Justice. You can read the first chapter of his book here. Nick Cowen’s article Sex Work and Online Platforms: What Should Regulation Do? can be downloaded and read here. Within ...
Alex Salter dives into Federal Reserve policies during the pandemic, what it got right and wrong, and what the lasting impacts will be. References from The Curious Task Episode 89 with Alex Salter Alex Salter is the co-author of Money and the Rule of Law along with Peter Boettke and Daniel Smith. His book can be purchased from Amazon here. To read more about the Federal Reserve’s actions during the financial crisis from Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Donald Kohn, see here. Alex Salter’s mo...
Dan and Sabine discuss their newest policy brief with the Mercatus Center, and what changes they'd like to see to Canadian and American immigration policy as it relates to movement between the two countries. References from The Curious Task Episode 88 with Dan Griswold & Sabine El-Chidiac The policy brief co-authored by Daniel Griswold and Sabine El-Chidiac titled “Deepen Us-Canada Ties with a Post-COVID-19 Agreement for the Free Movement of People can be found here. Dan Griswold’s book Mad ...
Alex Aragona explores standard readings of Lockean property rights theories with Bas van der Vossen, and then explore Bas' idea on what might be missing from these traditional understandings and interpretations. References from The Curious Task Episode 87 with Bas van der Vossen Bas van der Vossen explores the historical entitlement theory, including some of the points he included in his presentation about Robert Nozick’s version during the podcast, at this link . You can read John Locke’s Secon...
Alex Aragona speaks with Matt Warner as he explores the dilemma that outsiders face when trying to do good for others, and why local knowledge is so important. References from Episode 86 with Matt Warner Matt Warner is the author of, Poverty and Freedom: Case Studies on Global Economic Freedom , which can be purchased from Amazon Canada here . Eric Beinhocker’s book, The Origin of Wealth, was mentioned by Matt because it makes a Hayekian case for use of knowledge in society and that there is mor...
Alex Aragona speaks with Paul Robinson about whether Russia is trying to meddle with Western democracy, and if he thinks the recommended solutions might be worse than the alleged threat. References from Episode 85 with Paul Robinson You can listen to Paul Robinson speak about military intervention on The Curious Task Paul Robinson regularly writes on his blog Irrussianality, which you can read online He is also the author and editor of several books, which can be found here. Alex references an e...
Alex Aragona speaks with Scott Scheall as he explores how the knowledge problem and other epistemological considerations must be considered before political incentives. References from Episode 84 with Scott Scheall Scott Scheall is the author of the book, F. A. Hayek and the Epistemology of Politics: The Curious Task of Economics , which can be purchased from Routledge at this link . You can read The Green New Deal resolution presented during the 1st session of the 116th Congress here . David Hu...
Alex Aragona speaks with Shikha Dalmia about minority groups as defenders of rights and freedoms, and the North American libertarian movement during and after Donald Trump's presidency. References from Episode 83 with Shikha Dalmia You can read Shikha’s articles published at Reason Foundation here and her articles in The Week here . Here are some statistics of the the share of votes for Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election by ethnicity, produced by Statista. This is the W...
Alex Aragona chats with Art Carden as he explains the kind of deal we need to make if we want to see great prosperity. References from Episode 82 with Art Carden Art Carden is the co-author of the book, Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich , with Deirdre McCloskey, which is available on Amazon Canada at this link (Kindle Edition and Hardcover) . Art references Shylock from The Merchant of Venice and Iago from Othello , whose full texts are accessible through the Massachusetts Institute of Techn...
Alex Aragona speaks with Erik Kimbrough as he explores the role social norms, groups, and other factors play in our decision making processes. References from Episode 81 with Erik Kimbrough You can find a list of Erik’s work here , or on SSRN and RePEc ( Erik Kimbrough ), some of which were quoted during this episode and formed the basis of discussion. These include Erik’s discussions on norm-compliance (with Mark Pickup and Eline de Rooij), corruption, social preferences (with Alexander Vostrok...
Alex Aragona chats with Ross Emmett and Steve Slivinski as they explore the policies that can hurt businesses, and their work on the Doing Business North America index. References from Episode 80 with Ross Emmett and Steve Slivinski Ross Emmett and Stephen Slivinski are directors of the Doing Business North America project. Their 2020 report forms the basis of this episode and can be found at their website at this link . Here is a link to the Doing Business Report by the World Bank that was brie...
Alex Aragona speaks with Peter Jaworski as he explores his definition of libertarianism, and how different kinds of morality can lead to certain conclusions about libertarian institutions. References from Episode 79 with Peter Jaworski Peter Jaworski is the co-author of the book, Markets without Limits: Moral Virtues and Commercial Interests , which is available for purchase on Amazon Canada at this link . Peter mentions B. van der Vossen’s article on self-ownership published on Stanford Encyclo...
Alex Aragona speaks with Sandra Peart as she traces the life of John Stuart Mill and explores some of the key pillars of his thinking. References from Episode 78 with Sandra Peart Sandra Peart is the author of Towards an Economics of Natural Equals: A Documentary History of the Early Virginia School , Escape from Democracy: The Role of Experts and the Public in Economic Policy , and the Essential John Stuart Mill, some of which are available for purchase on Amazon Canada (titles hyperlinked). Th...
