The Liberalism.org Show

Every political alliance asks its members to set some disagreements aside, but what happens to our ideas when we stop raising them? Host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Janet Bufton, a Contributing Fellow at Liberalism.org and co-founder of the Institute ...

Young men are drifting right and young women are drifting left, but the more revealing divide may be who is sitting in the college classroom and who isn't. Host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Josh Zingher, associate professor of political science at Old ...

In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln endorsed the Corwin Amendment, which would have permanently barred the federal government from interfering with slavery in the states where it already existed; had it been ratified, that would be the Thir...

Most of us assume the rules governing American healthcare were written for our safety — and that the system, whatever its flaws, basically works. In this episode, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Lauren K. Hall, professor of political science and asso...

Most conservatives don't see themselves as opponents of democracy — they see a democracy that has drifted from the values that make it legitimate. On this episode, Aaron Ross Powell talks with Scott Warren of the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins Un...

Institutions of bigotry, racism, and social control were supposed to be decades into retreat. Instead they have come roaring back from the top-down. In this special joint release of The Liberalism.org Show and The UnPopulist 's Zooming In, recorded liv...

Why does every new technology spark the same recurring fight, with utopian boosters on one side and doomers on the other, and what would a more productive conversation look like? On this episode (recorded live at the Institute for Humane Studies’ Flour...

It started with a blog post. When the Trump administration invoked emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs, law professor Ilya Somin suggested in passing that someone ought to challenge it in court — and then found himself co-counsel in the case th...

It started with a blog post. When the Trump administration invoked emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs, law professor Ilya Somin suggested in passing that someone ought to challenge it in court — and then found himself co-counsel in the case that reached the Supreme Court. In this episode, Aaron Ross Powell talks with Somin, professor of law at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law...

What kept Black thinkers faithful to American democracy through slavery, Jim Crow, and worse? On this episode of the Liberalism.org Show, political theorist Jason Canon talks with Melvin Rogers — the Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor of ...

What kept Black thinkers faithful to American democracy through slavery, Jim Crow, and worse? On this episode of the Liberalism.org Show, political theorist Jason Canon talks with Melvin Rogers — the Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brown University and author of The Darkened Light of Faith — about the tradition running from David Walker and Frederick Dougla...

Recorded at Flourishing House, the Institute for Humane Studies' gathering at SXSW exploring what people and societies need to thrive, this episode finds host Aaron Ross Powell in conversation with Virginia Postrel — journalist, former Reason editor, a...

Recorded at Flourishing House, the Institute for Humane Studies' gathering at SXSW exploring what people and societies need to thrive, this episode finds host Aaron Ross Powell in conversation with Virginia Postrel — journalist, former Reason editor, and author of The Future and Its Enemies and The Fabric of Civilization . The 1990s now look like a golden age of optimism about the future — but at...

Cities are humanity's greatest invention—not in spite of their density, but because of it. In this bonus episode of the Liberalism.org Show, Jason Canon sits down with Harvard urban economist Edward Glaeser, author of Triumph of the City and Survival o...

Cities are humanity's greatest invention—not in spite of their density, but because of it. In this bonus episode of the Liberalism.org Show, Jason Canon sits down with Harvard urban economist Edward Glaeser, author of Triumph of the City and Survival of the City , to make the case for urban life and to ask why America has stopped building. They discuss how the New York of the 1970s shaped Glaeser'...

Liberals have ceded the family to social conservatives for decades — and Lauren K. Hall thinks it's a mistake liberalism can't afford. In this episode, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Hall, professor of political science and associate dean of academi...

Liberals have ceded the family to social conservatives for decades — and Lauren K. Hall thinks it's a mistake liberalism can't afford. In this episode, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Hall, professor of political science and associate dean of academic affairs at the Rochester Institute of Technology, about her Liberalism.org essay "Why Liberalism Needs the Family." They discuss why classical lib...

Markets can fail — but can government actually fix them? In his Liberalism.org essay " Yours, Mine, or Ours? Liberals Need a Theory of the State," political scientist Michael Munger argues that liberals have been losing the policy debate by defending t...

Markets can fail — but can government actually fix them? In his Liberalism.org essay " Yours, Mine, or Ours? Liberals Need a Theory of the State ," political scientist Michael Munger argues that liberals have been losing the policy debate by defending the perfection of markets rather than challenging the imperfection of the state. Host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Munger — a Liberalism.org fellow...

Can a half-hour of sitcom reruns make you a better liberal? Shal Marriott thinks so — and in this episode of the Liberalism.org Show, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Marriott, a PhD student in political science at McGill University, about her article...

Can a half-hour of sitcom reruns make you a better liberal? Shal Marriott thinks so — and in this episode of the Liberalism.org Show, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Marriott, a PhD student in political science at McGill University, about her article "Sitcoms: A Defense." They discuss how popular television can cultivate liberal habits of character beyond mere tolerance, why appreciating plurali...

What does a thriller about a murderous house-hunter have to do with liberalism? Quite a lot, it turns out. In this episode, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Sarah Skwire, Senior Program Officer at Liberty Fund and a Liberalism.org Fellow, about her ar...

What does a thriller about a murderous house-hunter have to do with liberalism? Quite a lot, it turns out. In this episode, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Sarah Skwire, Senior Program Officer at Liberty Fund and a Liberalism.org Fellow, about her article "Mini Tacos, Murder, and the Problem of Getting Exactly What We Want." They explore how narrative can persuade where data can't, how literatur...

In this episode, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Matt Zwolinski, Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego and a Liberalism.org Fellow, about his article " The Enemy Is Power, Wherever You Find It." They discuss why liberals have traditi...

In this episode, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Matt Zwolinski, Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego and a Liberalism.org Fellow, about his article " The Enemy Is Power, Wherever You Find It ." They discuss why liberals have traditionally focused on state power while neglecting its private forms, how institutional design can disperse and counterbalance power through mechanisms...