Hayek Program Podcast

On this episode, Peter Boettke chats with political theorist Chandran Kukathas on his latest book, Dialogues on Immigration and the Open Society (Routledge, 2025), which addresses the most important ethical and political questions about immigration and aims to teach by questioning rather than preaching. He urges conceptual clarity about terms like “civilization,” “state,” and “immigration,” and ar...

On this episode, Nathan Goodman interviews sociologist Timothy Dunn on the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and its consequences for human rights. Dunn discusses how U.S. border militarization grew out of the Cold War era “low intensity conflict” doctrine and was expanded by both parties through the 1990s strategy of “prevention through deterrence.” While this policy reduced crossings in u...

On this episode, Nathan Goodman interviews political theorist Jacob Levy about the rule of law and its tensions with modern immigration enforcement. Drawing on his 2018 article, “ The rule of law and the risks of lawlessness ,” Levy explains that the rule of law requires laws to be general, predictable, and applied equally. Referencing thinkers like Montesquieu, Fuller, Hayek, Oakeshott, and Shkla...

On this episode, Peter Boettke chats with Mark Pennington on Mark's latest book, Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2025). Pennington argues that Foucault's ideas on self-creation, disciplinary power, and biopolitics align with key liberal concerns about social control and individual agency. He critiques how both liberals and Foucauldian...

On this episode, Nathan Goodman speaks with Abby Hall on the "boomerang effect," where U.S. military tools and tactics used abroad—like drones—are repurposed for domestic border enforcement. Hall discusses how restrictive immigration policies, such as the Secure Fence Act and Operation Streamline, often lead to unintended consequences like increased migrant deaths and overwhelmed asylum systems. S...

On this episode, Nathan Goodman chats with economist Ben Powell about common myths surrounding mass immigration, including fears of job loss, wage suppression, and fiscal burdens. Drawing from his book, Wretched Refuse?: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions , Powell presents cross-country evidence showing that immigration does not undermine culture, institutions, or productivity....

On this episode, Stefanie Haeffele chats with Abigail Hall on her latest book, How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite , which provides a satirical instruction manual for warfare. They discuss the various methods and approaches to bringing academic work to a broader audience, highlight the need for humility in providing commentary, emphasize the importance of Abiga...

On this episode, Erwin Dekker chats with Director Tomasz Agencki on the making of " Notes on the Margin" (2024), a full length documentary on the life and legacy of Carl Menger, founder of Austrian economics. Despite limited archival material and conflicting accounts, Agencki crafts a visually rich story highlighting Menger’s intellectual journey and reformist spirit. Tomasz Agencki is a freedom-f...

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke reflects on the lessons he’s learned throughout his academic career, focusing on what it takes to succeed after graduate school. Boettke encourages graduates to: value the scientific pursuit of truth and scholarship; cultivate a sense of awe, wonderment, surprise, and appreciation; and to be curious. He cautions against prioritizing cleve...

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Margaret Levi delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference, exploring her latest research on political equality and arguing that it has been poorly conceptualized and measured in comparison to economic equality. She frames political equality around three dimensions: participation, representation, and responsiveness, emphasizi...

On this episode, Jessica Carges chats with Karol Boudreaux on female land and resource rights in Sub-Saharan Africa and their impact on economic development. Karol discusses how even when property rights are granted, formal documentation and cultural backgrounds pose challenges to control over land use, and she shares the success story of Rwanda, how the state undertook a massive land documentatio...

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Nava Ashraf delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference, exploring the role of trust and institutions and focusing on female entrepreneurship in developing countries, particularly Zambia. Ashraf argues that trust, institutional fairness, and negotiation skills matter for gender equity and economic development. Nava Ashraf is...

On this episode, Jessica Carges chats with Catherine Pakaluk on her latest book, Hannah's Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth (2024). Pakaluk describes the economic consequences of dropping fertility rates, explores the reasons for why women choose to have children, explains how we can increase fertility rates, and more. Catherine Pakaluk is the Director of Political Economy and a...

On this special crossover episode, Ideas of India podcast host, Shruti Rajagopalan, interviews Christopher J. Coyne on the economics of conflict and peace, the history of the U.S. security state, the US intervention in Afghanistan, domestic consequences of militarism abroad, and much more! For the full length transcript and for more episodes like this, check out the Ideas of India podcast page . S...

On this episode, Jordan Lofthouse chats with Zane Austin Willard about interdisciplinary scholarship and using political economy to study LGBTQ plus issues. Zane explains his academic background in economics and communication studies and discusses power dynamics, queer culture and Rupaul’s Drag Race, the paradox of visibility, and the strengths and weaknesses of polycentric governance explored thr...

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Kwame Anthony Appiah delivers a keynote lecture at the 2023 Markets & Society conference, exploring the historical and philosophical complexities of cultural property. Using examples from classical literature, African history, and global museum debates, he critiques modern repatriation efforts for oversimplifying ownership claims. Appiah argues tha...

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Deirdre McCloskey delivers a keynote lecture at the 2022 Markets & Society conference. She argues that the "great enrichment"—a 30-fold rise in global income per capita since 1776—was driven by liberal economic ideas that champion individual freedom and equality of permission. McCloskey also critiques government intervention, emphasizing the transf...

Mikayla Novak chats with Giandomenica Becchio on her latest book, The Doctrine of the Separate Spheres in Political Economy and Economics: Gender Equality and Classical Liberalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). Together they discuss Becchio’s background and inspiration, the separated roles of men and women in the public and private spheres, and key thinkers in classical liberalism that studied femini...

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke gives the opening keynote lecture at the 2022 Markets & Society conference. In this lecture, Boettke speaks on the importance of “relations before transactions”, emphasizes the impact of social interactions on economic activity and the role of trust, norms, and institutions, and highlights the insights of Adam Smith, F.A. Hayek, and E...

Welcome back to the series, Perspectives on Peace , hosted by Chris Coyne. The first four episodes of this series will focus on The Legacy of Robert Higgs (Mercatus Center, 2024) and will feature a collection of short interviews with many of the chapter authors. This episode focuses on state power, peaceful cooperation, and the regime uncertainty of Robert Higgs, featuring authors Ed Stringham on...

Welcome back to the series, Perspectives on Peace , hosted by Chris Coyne. The first four episodes of this series will focus on The Legacy of Robert Higgs (Mercatus Center, 2024) and will feature a collection of short interviews with many of the chapter authors. This episode focuses on the military and health industrial complexes of Robert Higgs, featuring authors Nathan Goodman on “The Military-­...

This is the last episode of a three-part miniseries on entangled political economy (EPE), hosted by Mikayla Novak. Entangled political economy is a sub-discipline of political economy that explicitly views individuals and the private and public sectors as being intertwined in overlapping exchange relationships along competitive and collaborative dimensions. On this episode, Mikayla Novak is joined...

Welcome back to the series, Perspectives on Peace , hosted by Chris Coyne. The first four episodes of this series will focus on The Legacy of Robert Higgs (Mercatus Center, 2024) and will feature a collection of short interviews with many of the chapter authors. This episode focuses on the Ratchet Effect of Robert Higgs, featuring authors Abigail Hall on “Ideology, Crisis, and the Ratchet Effect:...

Welcome to the series, Perspectives on Peace , hosted by Chris Coyne. The first four episodes of this series will focus on The Legacy of Robert Higgs (Mercatus, 2024) and will feature a collection of short interviews with many of the chapter authors. On this episode, Chris Coyne and Don Boudreaux discuss the life and legacy of Robert Higgs as featured in the newly published edited volume, The Lega...

Welcome to the series, Women and Policy , where Jessica Carges interviews women who work on policy research related to women. On this episode, Jessica Carges chats with Courtney Joslin on contraceptive accessibility and women's healthcare. Courtney explains how geography, high costs, and shortages of healthcare workers increase the difficulty of accessing contraceptives, how new state-based polici...