Free Thoughts

This week, Kevin Glass tells us about the mission of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity , which is to report on what’s happening in local and state legislatures across the United States. He explains why he believes it’s crucial to focus on the governments in our own localities, even in a world where we’ve only got so much attention to give to politics and so much of the news c...

Matt Zwolinski joins us this week to talk about his recent paper, “Libertarianism and Pollution,” available on the Social Science Research Network. In it, he examines how various libertarian philosophers and economists, including Nozick, Rothbard, Ronald Coase, and Eric Mack have dealt with the problem of pollution. In a system of strictly enforced rights to private property, how should one accoun...

Did FDR’s New Deal policies help pull America out of the Great Depression, or were they in fact responsible for the high unemployment in the country until the beginning of World War II? Jim Powell joins us for a discussion on America’s great 20th century experiment with big government. Is the picture we have of the New Deal Era accurate? What was the state of the country leading up to the New Deal...

This week Jonathan Blanks joins us to discuss civil liberties and police misconduct in America. This episode was recorded at the 2015 International Students for Liberty Conference and features Q&A from the audience. Is there an upward trend in incidents of police misconduct, and if so, why? Is this just a few bad apples, or something more integral to the nature of policing in America? Just how dan...

This week Jay Cost shares a history of corruption and factionalism in the United States from his newest book, A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption (2015). How does government grow? Where do political factions and interest groups come from? How have politicians handed out favors to these groups in the past, how do these systems work now, and is there anyt...

This week Peter Suderman joins us to help suss out the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a law he says is so complex and opaque that “no one person” understands every single part of it perfectly. We discuss the long history of the idea behind a government-backed and mandated health care system and its unlikely origins, the “three legged stool” necessary for implementing the PPACA, and th...

Modern campaign finance laws are incredibly opaque and labyrinthine. Allen Dickerson joins us this week to help make sense of them. What makes a fair election? Equal money? Equal time? How do PACs and Super PACs work? What’s a “dark money” group? How does the current campaign finance system hurt the little guy more than the established campaigner? Show Notes and Further Reading John Samples, The F...

This week Alan Gura joins us for a talk about gun rights at the Supreme Court. What does the text of the Second Amendment say, and how have courts interpreted it over the years? What’s the story behind District of Columbia v. Heller? McDonald v. City of Chicago? How did standing work in these cases? Why was the NRA opposed to these cases? And now that the right to keep and bear arms has been uphel...

This week Scott Bullock joins us to talk about eminent domain, civil asset forfeiture, and a few very important legal cases brought by the Institute for Justice . What is eminent domain? Can the government use eminent domain for “economic development”? Who is Susette Kelo, and why is her case special? What is civil asset forfeiture? Why do police get to keep the proceeds from forfeiture? How can w...

This week we’re joined by Michael Shermer to talk about his book  The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom (2015). What exactly  is science, and how does a belief in science advance culture? How are natural rights related to science? How does Shermer define human flourishing—and how does science and reason help us achieve it? What’s the difference betw...

This week we’re talking with Mark Calabria about homeownership and federal housing policy in the United States and its role in the 2008 financial crisis. Why does homeownership seem to be so important in the U.S.—or at least so important to our politicians? How do mortgages work, and how has the government been involved in tinkering with the mortgage market? What do Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and th...

This week on the show Elizabeth Nolan Brown shares her thoughts on libertarianism and feminism. How can issues that affect women be approached from a libertarian perspective? It seems that there are more women among younger generations of libertarians. Is there an explanation for this? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Peter Van Doren joins us to explain the economics of decision making in politics. What is public choice theory and how does it explain what happens in a majority rules democracy? Is public choice a type of macroeconomic theory? How does ordering a series of votes change their outcome? What’s rent-seeking? What does the phrase “concentrated benefits and diffuse costs” mean? What’s the med...

This week we invite Timothy Sandefur to talk about the right to earn a living. Is this right to economic activity one that is upheld by the Constitution? Where did this right come from? How is the right to earn a living being violated in the United States today, and what does the legal environment surrounding this right look like? Show Notes and Further Reading Timothy Sandefur, The Right to Earn...

This week we’re talking about one of the most bestial and savage things the state can do to the individual: torture. Our discussion is especially relevant in light of the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation programs. What exactly did the C.I.A. do and why is it being seen as torture? How long has this program been g...

This week we’re joined by Terence Kealey, Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Buckingham, to talk about the public funding of scientific research. Many people believe that science and research are public goods and thus need financial support from the government. But is science really a public good? How does government money sway scientific results? If we got rid of public funding, what w...

This week we’re talking about energy, and specifically the fossil fuels that power everything in our modern world from electronics to manufacturing to heating to our trains, planes, busses, boats, and cars. What’s the “secret history of fossil fuels?” What is the moral case for using fossil fuels? Is it possible to eventually get renewable sources of energy to work well? If using fossil fuels is b...

This week we’re talking about Uber, Airbnb, and other business models that are based on “sharing” human and physical resources, often using information technology to facilitate these transactions. In other words, the sharing economy. How do these new business models work? Are they even all that new? Are consumer feedback systems effectively replacing the quality-control mechanisms that are ostensi...

This week we discuss the philosophy of utilitarianism and it’s relationship with libertarianism. What is utilitarianism? How is utilitarianism related to economics? What makes utilitarianism seem to work so well when applied to economic thinking? And where does it go wrong? Show Notes and Further Reading Adam Gurri, “Morality, Economics, and the Problem with Preferences” (column) Adam Gurri, “Libe...

Jim Powell claims that liberty is relatively rare thing in the span of human history. Why does it seem like liberty has gained a toehold and flourished in the United States in a way it hasn’t in other places around the world? And then, once it was established, how did liberty grow in America? Show Notes and Further Reading Jim Powell, The Triumph of Liberty: A 2,000 Year History Told Through the L...

Do Republicans who are more libertarian have a better chance of being elected now? How about more extreme progressives? Does this year’s results tell us anything about the 2016 presidential election? What role does messaging and partisanship play in winning elections? What role does money have in influencing elections? More specifically, how much of an effect do campaign contributions have on elec...

Dan Russell claims that business ethics is more than just a set of ethical dilemmas. Isn’t that what ethics is about, though? Facing a moral quandary and figuring out how to solve it? How do the teachings of Aristotle tie into all of this? What does it mean to live a good life? What does a wise choice look like? Show Notes and Further Reading Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky, How Much is Enou...

How does the internet work? Will net neutrality rules cause the internet to be less innovative? Would a non-neutral internet create barriers to market entry? Should the internet be treated like a public utility? What would that look like, and would it work? Show Notes and Further Reading Hal J. Singer, “Net Neutrality: A Radical Form of Non-Discrimination” (2007 article in  Regulation magazine) Br...

Are libertarians isolationists? Why do libertarians seem to disagree so often when it comes to foreign policy? When is it appropriate to go to war? What about humanitarian interventions? If we need to cut spending, should it come out of the military? What do conservatives get wrong about foreign policy? What do liberals/progressives get wrong? Show Notes and Further Reading Justin Logan, “War’s De...

What is libertarian paternalism? Is paternalism without coercion even possible? Does it work? Can we trust those who are in charge of creating good “choice architecture” to be better at their jobs than any typical bureaucrat? How do we know what someone’s “true preferences” are? And don’t these sort of “nudges” strip people of their agency? Show Notes and Further Reading Cass Sunstein and Richard...