Bob Zadek Show

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Bob and his producer Charlie reminisce about the longest running libertarian talk radio show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Arnold Kling is an American economist and an Adjunct Scholar for the Cato Institute.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alan Dershowitz has been called "one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America" by  Politico  and "the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights" by  Newsweek . His legal career as a criminal defense lawyer has been deeply involved with death and life decisions. In his new book "Dershowitz on...

The Democrats have effectively had One Party Rule in California for the last two decades, with the exception of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s largely ineffective tenure as a Republican. The Since 1996, Democrats have continuously held a majority in the State Assembly and currently hold a dominant 62-18 supermajority in the 80-seat chamber. Most forget what happened in the 1990s that permanently changed...

Back in early 2021, Cato Institute senior fellow Ted Galen Carpenter urged Washington "to abandon its efforts to torpedo Nord Stream 2." His warnings have been proven prescient by Seymour Hersh's recent revelations, which seem to confirm the US government's involvement in the destruction of the pipeline. Many journalists admit behind closed doors that they believe in the US's involvement, yet the...

Philip K Howard, the founder of the Common Sense organization, joins the show to make the case for a legal solution – not a democratic one – for fixing the brokenness of the system. He seeks to gain allies from those who want more accountability from public servants, such as police officers and teachers. But is it possible to get the public to recognize the threat of public sector employee unions...

Alex Nowrasteh , the director of economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, will return to the show to discuss pragmatic solutions for alleviating the chaos at the border. These solutions include simplifying the system and providing more opportunities for immigrants to live and work here legally. Alex Nowrasteh is the director of economic and social policy studies. His popular publi...

Christian Britschgi is an associate editor at  Reason  who has written extensively about housing policy. His work shines a light on the root causes of the housing crisis, and why the patchwork of solutions coming from California’s legislative houses has failed to significantly ameliorate the problem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Will Duffield of the Cato Institute has become the go-to expert on so-called “Jawboning” i.e., informally pressuring private companies to censor disfavored speech. The “Jawboning-industrial-complex,” as Adam Kovacevich of the Chamber of Progress calls it, is made up of both parties. Companies now have internal teams to handle “suggestions” from government officials. See omnystudio.com/listener for...

Mike Greenberg is an attorney at the Institute for Justice who joins the show to discuss a new case in which the FBI blatantly violated the terms of their warrant in seizing over $80 million in assets from a safe deposit company called US Private Vaults . A few customers may have been breaking the law in associated with their vaults, but a majority of the assets and precious family heirlooms have...

Ashley Varner of the Freedom Foundation discusses the perverse nature of public sector employee unions, which can lobby the government for direct pay raises – all at taxpayer expense. The Freedom Foundation is a “Do Tank” based in Washington State that is leading a national movement of workers who are opting out of their union dues.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all remember the bank bailouts of 2008, but almost nobody talks about the more recent COVID bailouts. $50 billion here; $25 billion there – pretty soon we're talking about real money. The airlines were one of several industries that enjoyed special treatment from the federal government on the grounds that they constituted an "essential business." What would happen if the airports shut down comp...

Professor Richard Epstein joins the show to review the economic case against the minimum wage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Todd Zywicki is a lawyer, legal scholar and educator. He is a George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law, teaching in the areas of bankruptcy and contracts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paul Atkins, a former commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, recently participated in a Reason Foundation webinar on the impact of ESG investing on public pensions .  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joe Cohn, director of FIRE’s Legislative and Policy department, joins the show to discuss a new proposed rule change from the same administrative office behind the infamous 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter. The new language would turn certain kinds of constitutionally-protected free speech into a punishable offense under the broad umbrella of “sexual harassment.” Under the new rule, the “trial” that r...

Dick Carpenter, II, senior director of strategic research at the Institute for Justice , recently published a report analyzing Yelp! reviews for six occupations across several states – some with licensing requirements and others without. Unsurprisingly to anyone who understands the nature of licensing, the license made no difference to the service quality according to Yelp’s ratings. In some cases...

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Harvey Silverglate – co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) – has been critical of the FBI for decades. His recent article for Compact Magazine argues that since reform seems like a non-starter, we might as well go the whole nine yards and abolish the agency once and for all. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Justin Hart - Gone Viral: How COVID Drove the World Insane See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's guest is Cathy Reisenwitz on Decriminalizing Sex Work. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Patri Friedman – the co-founder and Director of the Seasteading Institute , who more recently founded Pronomos Capital , a venture capital firm devoted to transforming the “governance industry” by promoting the idea of start-up countries.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jonathan Hofer, a research associate at the Independent Institute , notes that the most prolific tool of mass surveillance is in fact automated license plate readers (ALPRs). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.