A weekly show about politics and liberty, featuring conversations with top scholars, philosophers, historians, economists, and public policy experts. Hosted by Trevor Burrus. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 17 days 4 hours 46 minutes
The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State
What would a privately-administered legal justice system looks like? Bruce L. Benson joins us to give us a hint about what such a system would look like as we discuss his book, The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without a State...
The Education Apocalypse: How It Happened and How to Survive It
What’s wrong with K-12 education? What about higher education? How can we rebuild American education from the ground up?
This week Glenn Harlan Reynolds joins us to talk about his new book, The Education Apocalypse: How It Happened and How to Survive It.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Taxation: How the Government Funds Itself
What would the American founders think of our taxation system today, given America’s origins? Daniel Mitchell answers this and other questions as we talk about the different kinds of tax schemes and the different incentives they offer taxpayers.
Why is doing taxes so complicated? Why are there so many exemptions, deductions, incentives, preferences, etc...
The Ideas of Friedrich Hayek
Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek was one of the world’s foremost intellectuals in a variety of fields, including legal theory, economics, constitutional theory, and neuroscience. This podcast episode provides an introduction to his academic and popular writing.
Steven Horwitz joins us for a discussion about Hayek’s life and ideas...
The Austrian Tradition in Economics
This week we are joined by Peter J. Boettke, who explains this history and tenets of the Austrian tradition in economics. Boettke traces the school’s history from Carl Menger through Eugen Böhm-Bawerk and Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard to contemporary economists such as Israel Kirzner, Vernon Smith, and Mario Rizzo...
From Jailer to Jailed: Bernard Kerik's Story
This week Bernard B. Kerik joins us to offer his perspective on criminal justice in America. Mr. Kerik was the New York City Police Commissioner from 2000 to 2001, and was later sentenced to four years in federal prison in 2010 for criminal conspiracy and tax fraud. He shares his experience in prison and how his own incarceration influenced the way he sees the American justice system today.
Show Notes and Further Reading
Bernard B...
End the IRS Before It Ends Us
This week we’re joined by Grover Norquist for a frank discussion about every libertarian’s favorite part of the government: its tax-collection arm. Norquist shares how he got into politics, the idea behind his infamous tax pledge, and his plan for reining in the government’s power to tax its citizens.
What’s the right amount of taxes? Zero? How do we get there? Given our nation’s anti-tax roots, have we become too complacent in paying taxes?
How Free Trade Creates Wealth
Daniel J. Ikenson explains the idea of free trade between nations on this week’s show. We discuss how Enlightenment-era economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo saw trade as a non zero-sum game and what their theories mean for continued economic growth today. We discuss in detail the idea of comparative advantage, and talk about the effects of regulation on trade...
The Cato Institute and the Libertarian Movement
Edward H. Crane joins us this week as we talk about the beginnings of the Libertarian Party in the early 1970s and Crane’s involvement with that organization. We also talk about the founding and early history of the Cato Institute, and we talk generally about Cato’s purpose and mission...
The Radical Notion of Individualism
This week George H. Smith joins us to talk about Individualism: A Reader, the first in a series of readers published by Libertarianism.org and the Cato Institute. In it, Smith and his co-editor Marilyn Moore have compiled 26 selections from 25 writers on the topic of individualism...