The Big Questions with Big John

In this episode of Big Questions with Big John, Professor Daniel Willingham joins Big John to explain what cognitive science actually says about learning, memory, reading comprehension, learning styles, and digital distraction. The conversation explores why background knowledge matters, why popular “learning styles” theories keep surviving despite weak evidence, and what phones and screens may [&#...

Political disagreement is no longer just about who is right. Increasingly, it becomes evidence that the other person is ignorant, immoral, bigoted, or dangerous. Professor Ilana Redstone joins Big John to explain how certainty turns disagreement into moral condemnation, and why that can become especially damaging when institutions treat contested assumptions as settled truths. Chapters:00:00 [&#82...

What if the answer to political polarization isn’t simply more politics? Philosopher Robert Talisse argues that democracy can become less healthy when political identity spreads into our friendships, workplaces, neighborhoods, entertainment, and everyday relationships. The problem may be less about Americans disagreeing on policy and more about how intensely we distrust the other side, demand [&#8...

Artificial intelligence may transform the economy, but AI needs more than better models. It needs enormous amounts of energy, data centers, skilled workers, investment, and a political culture willing to tolerate disruption. James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute joins Big John to examine a larger question: has America become so risk-averse that it is […]

Most immigration arguments begin with stories: crime, overwhelmed public services, falling wages, unaffordable housing, cultural conflict, or chaos at the border. Alex Nowrasteh thinks many of those arguments look very different once you examine the data. In this episode of The Big Questions with Big John, Nowrasteh joins Big John for a wide-ranging examination of […]

Journalist and author Nancy Rommelmann joins Big John to discuss the dangerous similarities between true crime, media outrage, and cancel culture. Each can reward a simple villain, a fast judgment, and a satisfying conclusion before the full story becomes inconvenient. Chapters:00:00 – True Crime, Cancel Culture, and Fast Verdicts00:59 – Nancy Rommelmann’s Unconventional Journalism Car...

National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru joins Big John to examine what conservatism is still trying to conserve, whether its first principles remain coherent, and how the movement changed from Reagan-era free markets to Trump-era populism and economic nationalism. Chapters:00:00 – Trump and Conservatism’s Identity Crisis00:55 – Ramesh Ponnuru Joins Big Questions01:27 – Why History...

In this episode of Big Questions with Big John, Geoffrey A. Manne joins Big John to explain why antitrust, Big Tech regulation, privacy rules, AI regulation, and intellectual property law are much harder than the political debate admits. The problem is not just whether a company is big. The harder question is whether regulators can […]

Stephanie Slade joins Big John to discuss fusionism, the future of the American right, and the growing fight over whether government should protect freedom or use state power to impose virtue. This conversation gets into the conflict between old-school limited-government conservatism and the New Right’s more muscular approach to politics. It also asks a deeper […]

In this episode of The Big Questions with Big John, Andy Smarick and Big John discuss public schools, school governance, institutional trust, democratic accountability, and why Americans no longer agree on what education is supposed to do. Andy Smarick is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former president of the Maryland State […]

Americans say they believe in free speech. Then the speech gets ugly, offensive, dangerous, politically inconvenient, or useful to the other side. In this episode of Big Questions with Big John, Jonathan Rauch joins Big John to discuss why free speech is so difficult to defend, why universities lost sight of truth-seeking, why government censorship […]

We built the most productive civilization in human history. We’re also the most anxious, the most isolated, and the least trusting of any generation on record. Brink Lindsey spent two decades at the Cato Institute defending the system that built this world. Now he argues that the wealth machine stopped delivering what it was always […]

What if one of the most hated Supreme Court cases in American legal history was not the villain you were taught it was? David Bernstein, constitutional scholar at George Mason University’s Scalia Law School, joins Big John to challenge the accepted story of Lochner v. New York, the rise of judicial activism accusations, the administrative […]

The Libertarian Party has a strategy problem, and Jacob Hornberger says it’s destroying the movement from within. Hornberger is the founder of the Future of Freedom Foundation, a former U.S. Senate candidate, and a Libertarian presidential contender. He’s spent three decades making the uncompromising intellectual case for individual liberty — and he’s not interested in […]

Megan McArdle is a Washington Post columnist and trained economist who has spent two decades mapping the fault lines where money, policy, and institutional failure collide. With the national debt crossing $36 trillion and expert credibility at a generational low, this conversation is overdue. Chapters:00:00 The $36 Trillion Question01:15 From NYC Socialist to Libertarian Economist06:06 […]

Political philosopher Kevin Vallier, author of Trust in a Polarized Age, joins Big John to map the doom loop connecting social distrust and political polarization — and why COVID may have been the event that broke American trust for good. Chapters:[00:00] Introduction[01:27] Vallier’s Origin Story — Liberty, Conformity & Columbine[03:13] The Open Society: Can It […]

The system isn’t just broken; it was built this way. Lars Mapstead ran for president on one theme: unrig it. Lars Mapstead is a tech entrepreneur and 2024 Libertarian presidential candidate who argues that the two-party duopoly, the Federal Reserve, and the IRS were designed to protect elites — not you. In this episode of […]

Why is it that the left, the right, and libertarians can talk about each other — but never to each other? Dr. Arnold Kling, MIT-trained economist and author of The Three Languages of Politics, breaks down the invisible framework that makes American political debate feel impossible. In this episode:– His provocative AI prediction: by the […]

What happens when socialism takes everything from your family — not once, but twice? Martha Bueno’s parents escaped Castro’s Cuba, rebuilt their lives in Venezuela, and then watched Hugo Chavez destroy it all over again. Now a CEO, mother of four, and former Libertarian Party official, she has a warning Americans need to hear. Chapters:00:00 […]

Does your vote actually change anything — or is ignorance the price of admission? Constitutional law professor Ilya Somin argues that political ignorance isn’t a failure of education or media — it’s a rational response built into the structure of democracy itself. In this episode:– Why more education and better internet access won’t fix the […]

“All laws ultimately come down to somebody with guns coming to make you do their bidding.” Is that really how freedom works? Dr. Aeon J. Skoble — Professor of Philosophy at Bridgewater State University — joins Big John to unpack what liberty actually means, why your moral obligations aren’t the government’s job, and where every […]

What if the people writing our laws aren’t just incompetent — but acting with bad intent? Jim Babka has spent decades inside the libertarian movement — from press secretary for presidential candidate Harry Browne to fighting campaign finance battles at the Supreme Court. He’s seen how the system actually works from the inside. What you’ll […]

The government says sex trafficking is exploding. The real numbers tell a very different story — and bad data is being used to destroy free speech online. Reason Magazine senior editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown exposes how crime statistics are weaponized to pass laws like FOSTA-SESTA, gut Section 230, and criminalize voluntary behavior — all under […]

Cathy Young reveals the terrifying reality of growing up in the Soviet Union, from secret police surveillance to her family’s harrowing Gulag survival stories. We discuss the dangers of authoritarianism and why the modern West fails to understand the cost of free speech. In this episode of The Big Questions, Big John sits down with […]

Is the public school system designed to educate children or train obedient workers? We break down why “Unschooling” is the ultimate exit strategy for parents who want to raise sovereign, independent thinkers. In this episode of Big Questions, we challenge the modern education model. Two veteran unschooling moms explain the mechanics of self-directed education, proving […]