Free Thoughts

Fan favorite Peter Van Doren returns to the show to share with us his wealth of knowledge not only in regulation, but in many other areas of failed government oversight.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benjamin T. Smith uncovers the origins of the drug trade in Mexico and how this illicit business essentially built modern Mexico, affecting everything from agriculture to medicine to economics―and the country’s all-important relationship with the United States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Godsey explores distinct psychological human weaknesses inherent in the criminal justice system—confirmation bias, memory malleability, cognitive dissonance, bureaucratic denial, dehumanization, and others—and illustrates each with stories from his time as a hard-nosed prosecutor and then as an attorney for the Ohio Innocence Project. Why do people become prosecutors? What sorts of relat...

Magatte Wade argues that the most unique challenge we face is that the world has come to perceive that Africans themselves are not capable of creating prosperity—and require charity in order to survive. The combination of negative perceptions of Africans, combined with widespread ignorance regarding the need for economic freedom is a toxic combination. And Wade is working to change not only the pe...

Maia Szalavitz writes that drug overdoses now kill more Americans annually than guns, cars, or breast cancer. But the United States has tried to solve this national crisis with policies that only made matters worse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall delve into case studies from the War on Terror to show how propaganda operates in a democracy.  From the darkened cinema to the football field to the airport screening line, the U.S. government has purposefully inflated the actual threat of terrorism and the necessity of a proactive military response. This biased, incomplete, and misleading information contr...

Jeff Kosseff exposes the workings of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which has lived mostly in the shadows since its enshrinement in 1996. Because many segments of American society now exist largely online, Kosseff argues that we need to understand and pay attention to what Section 230 really means and how it affects what we like, share, and comment upon every day. Hosted on Acast....

It’s true that for the first time in 20 years, there is no US military presence in Afghanistan. But Sahar Khan suggests that the war is not really over. Throughout this episode they discuss what happened in Afghanistan over the last 2 decades and why the United States kept troops on the ground there longer than anticipated.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Strange things happen to parties that can win while getting fewer votes. For one thing, they’re driven to be more radical. Another is that a victorious party can still feel like a persecuted minority because they actually are the minority. And this phenomenon is running rampant in the United States. Andy Craig discusses how we can relieve pressure from our cracking political system.  Hosted o...

Many people have developed some level of skepticism about mainstream news media. By not trusting the news your alternative is to conduct your own research on certain topics. However, no one is capable of researching every possible domain without somehow relying on someone else's interpretation of the issue at hand. Why don't people trust the news or the government? Why should you not conduct your...

Corey DeAngelis comes on the podcast to breakdown the different components of school choice and how it has evolved in the last 2 decades. In summary, DeAngelis believes that families have the best information about what their children need when it comes to education. This isn't a debate about private vs. public schools, but rather a debate about where money can best be spent for each and every stu...

John Pfaff describes how the pandemic lockdown helped push down many crimes, but last year saw an unprecedented spike in homicides nationwide, likely more than twice the largest previous one-year rise. The spike in homicides will surely alter the politics of reform, now and in the years ahead. Was there a COVID crime wave? Are shooting underreported or over-reported? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...

Michael Huemer spends the show addressing many controversial philosophical questions; How can we know about the world outside our minds? Is there a God? Do we have free will? Are there objective values? What distinguishes morally right from morally wrong actions? Why do people question the value of general philosophical knowledge? Why should people try to be rational? Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

The reality is that when businesses respond to market prices and wages in ways that maximize share values they generally promote the welfare of a far larger number of stakeholders than when businesses discount the importance of share values in order to intentionally promote the welfare of stakeholders. Don Boudreaux joins the podcast to discuss the difference between stakeholder capitalism and sha...

As governments and tech platforms seek to address the concerns driving the “techlash,” Neil talks about the lessons that provide guidance on how to avoid the worst pitfalls that could adversely affect efforts to improve the human condition online. What is "legibility"? What concerns drive the “techlash” and what should platforms and governments do to address them? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

Daniel Shapiro examines how major welfare institutions, such as government-financed and -administered retirement pensions, national health insurance, and programs for the needy, actually work. Comparing them to compulsory private insurance and private charities, Shapiro argues that the dominant perspectives in political philosophy mistakenly think that their principles support the welfare state. W...

Clay Routledge and John Bitzan conducted a survey of college students to assess their perception of viewpoint diversity and campus freedom; human progress and beliefs about the future; and student attitudes toward entrepreneurship, capitalism and socialism, and how college is influencing their views.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There is much disagreement about what being a neoliberal actually means. It's generally believed to be a philosophical view that a society’s political and economic institutions should be robustly liberal and capitalist, but supplemented by a constitutionally limited democracy and a modest welfare state. But that certainly leaves room for much interpretation. How does neoliberalism relate to utilit...

Jason Riley describes Thomas Sowell as one of the great social theorists of our age. In Sowell’s career, spanning more than a half century, he has written over thirty books, covering topics from economic history and social inequality to political theory, race, and culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Radley Balko argues that over the last several decades, America's cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens they serve as an other—an enemy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Federal policies rely on top‐down planning and coercion. That tends to create winners and losers, which is unlike the mutually beneficial relationships of markets. Not to mention the government cannot comprehend the complexity of our society on a local level. Chris Edwards returns to the show to discuss the failures of government. What is logrolling? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Before the U.S. Constitution had even been signed, soldiers and new veterans protested. Dissent, the hallowed expression of disagreement and refusal to comply with the government’s wishes, has a long history in the United States. Soldier dissenters, outraged by the country’s wars or egregious violations in conduct, speak out and change U.S. politics, social welfare systems, and histories. What hap...

Disinformation. Trolling. Conspiracies. Social media pile-ons. Campus intolerance. On the surface, these recent phenomenons appear to have little in common. But together, they are driving an epistemic crisis: a multi-front challenge to America’s ability to distinguish fact from fiction and elevate truth above falsehood. What is truth? Is truth the same thing as knowledge? Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Carbon emissions peaked and have been declining in most developed nations for over a decade. Deaths from extreme weather, even in poor nations, declined 80 percent over the last four decades. And the risk of Earth warming to very high temperatures is increasingly unlikely thanks to slowing population growth and abundant natural gas. What do we mean by alarmism? What’s really behind the rise of apo...

An expert in ancient and modern ethics, Sherman relates how Stoic methods of examining beliefs and perceptions can help us correct distortions in what we believe, see, and feel. Her study reveals a profound insight about the Stoics: they never believed, as Stoic popularizers often hold, that rugged self-reliance or indifference to the world around us is at the heart of living well. Hosted on Acast...