We are excited to share a Special Edition COBT with you today! We had the opportunity to visit with former guest Alex Epstein, Author of " The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels" and Founder of the Center for Industrial Progress. Alex recently published a new book, " Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas - Not Less." We appreciate his tenacity for swimming against the current tide and are always interested to hear from him as he is at the center of the energy, climate, and technology debate. 

Our conversation starts with a look at the key themes in "Fossil Future" including energy freedom, freedom to trade, and the importance of contracts / property rights for underdeveloped countries. Alex's philosophical background is at the core of the book which examines and questions how experts think and the knowledge system trickle-down from expert opinions to all of our own conclusions. We also touch on his reflections since his first book released in 2014, potential world population growth or shrinkage, the importance of philosophy, "Arguing to 100," initial feedback he's received for "Fossil Future," human flourishing, and of course, what he thinks the energy world will look like in the next few years. Thank you to Alex for joining! 

With so much to discuss, we had a quick intro from the Veriten team:  Mike Bradley compared index prices from when Alex's first book released in 2014 to today for commodities, US CPI, World Food and NAM Fertilizer.  Colin Fenton reminded us that in the sea of chatter about a potential recession to stay open to the possibility of stagflation. 

As always, we hope you enjoy and welcome your feedback! Thanks to all of you from all of us at Veriten.