Free Thoughts

What is the “Statrix”? How does government warp our perception of the world around us? How does it disproportionately affect the poor?

Trevor Burrus talks about the “Statrix,” a portmanteau of the state and the concept of an artificial world made popular in the 1999 action/sci-fi movie The Matrix. 

Show Notes and Further Reading

Trevor mentions the recent spate of track problems and fires that have been plaguing Washington D.C...

How can parents have more say in how their children are educated? What’s the difference between different approaches to school choice, like vouchers, education savings accounts, and tax credits? Do we know these work?

Jason Bedrick joins us this week to make the case for school choice.

Show Notes and Further Reading

Here’s an earlier episode of Free Thoughts with Neal McCluskey on the history of public schooling in America...

For most of human history, most people lived in abject poverty and cultural and technological stagnation. Only in the past 200 years or so has humankind seen a flourishing of new ideas that has led to our current state of relative health, wealth, safety, and happiness.

Deirdre McCloskey says the difference lies in the power of market institutions and a burgeoning respect for those that participate in them...

Socrates could have had his friend Crito pay a bribe to get him out of prison and escape his death sentence, but he didn’t. Why? Do we always have a duty to obey the law?

Brian Wilson from Combat and Classics joins us this week to continue our discussion on the last days of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates’ life, as told by his student Plato...

What counts as a conspiracy theory? Why do people have a natural tendency to see intent and design, even when there is none? Are there any conspiracy theories particularly prevalent among libertarians?

Daniel Bier of The Skeptical Libertarian joins us this week to talk about belief in conspiracy theories as a social phenomenon and the damage they can do to the perception of libertarianism and the credibility of libertarian arguments...

What was the U.S. government’s original motivation behind drug prohibition? How has the way we view addiction changed over time? What happens when a country—or a state—decriminalizes drugs? What about hard drugs?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Chasing the Scream is available here, along with all of Hari’s interviews and notes used in writing the book...

What kind of person was Adam Smith? How does Smith’s theory of morality compare to other philosophers’ theories? What did economics look like before Smith?

Paul Mueller discusses Adam Smith’s life and ideas, explains Smith’s “invisible hand” and “impartial spectator” analogies, and talks about the marginal revolution that occured in economics 100 years after Smith’s death...

What’s the best way to teach the principles of economics and individual liberty to people? Is having ‘good character’ a timeless virtue?

Lawrence W. Reed joins us this week to discuss his work at the Foundation for Economic Education and FEE’s history in the worldwide free market movement. He also shares a few stories about ‘Real Heroes’ of liberty...

Murray Rothbard wrote The Ethics of Liberty in 1982 as a full moral theory of the ethical considerations libertarianism requires and what these considerations would prevent the state from doing.

This week we begin a discussion on the second part of The Ethics of Liberty...

What is it about British philosopher David Hume that makes him so popular? What was Hume’s attitude towards politics?

Thomas W. Merrill joins us this week to talk about Hume’s thought and his skeptical, empirical attitude.

Show Notes and Further Reading

Merrill’s book, David Hume and the Politics of Enlightenment (2015) is available from Cambridge University Press.

The Philosophy Bites podcast asked philosophers who their favorite philosopher was...