Cato Events Podcast

By Cato InstituteNews Government News Commentary Politics

Cato Events Podcast episodes

October 16, 2019 The Utopian Conceit and the War on Freedom
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, “left” and “right” have been used routinely to describe conflicting political ideologies, notwithstanding their notorious ambiguity and—a fact too often forgotten—a shared utopian root. The dream of a perfect world has inspired each generation; that hope is universal. The vision of a demigod-superman who destroys all evil, thereby inaugurating a utopia of perfection and bliss, is at least as old as the book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. But behind that apocalyptic vision lies a fatal conceit, to borrow a phrase from Hayek, which the Greeks called hubris. It reemerged in some sects of early Christianity and again in medieval millenarianism, Jacobinism, Marxism, Fascism, antisemitism, modern-day Salafi Islamism, and even “liberal” collectivism. In an age of rampant skepticism, religious and quasi-religious ideologies bent on the vilification and destruction of entire communities confront and undermine a confused, guilt-ridden, materialistic, often nihilistic Western society. In this book, political philosopher Juliana Geran Pilon argues that a strong defense of freedom and pluralism, which form the basis of constitutional democracy, is necessary for survival.
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1 hr 21 min
October 15, 2019 The Rediscovery of Tobacco: Smoking, Vaping, and the Creative Destruction of the Cigarette
Public discussions about vaping nicotine products have changed dramatically in the last few months. Vaping, an activity generally regarded as safer than smoking, is now viewed by many lawmakers and health officials as a serious threat. People who vape have begun to face restrictions similar to those placed on cigarettes. While there’s no question that cigarette smoking is one of the biggest causes of mortality in the world, the failure to differentiate among many possible sources of nicotine is detrimental to public policy. Jacob Grier’s new book, The Rediscovery of Tobacco, provides a nuanced take on the history, policy, and health consequences of tobacco and the new world of vaping and makes the case for treating vapers and smokers with dignity and respect.
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45 min
October 14, 2019 The Search for Meaning in the Age of Abundance
We live in an age of unprecedented prosperity. Yet a recent psychological study found that anxiety “is significantly more prevalent and impairing in high-income countries than in low- or middle-income countries.” Clay Routledge argues that these and related research findings are a warning that prosperous societies such as the United States are facing a crisis of meaning that may ultimately undermine liberty and prosperity. Affluence and liberalism, he claims, benefit humanity by reducing material concerns and liberating individuals to pursue their goals. At the same time, however, Routledge argues, affluence and liberalism uproot individuals from traditional sources of meaning like religion and interdependent communities. He says that people who are uprooted from traditional sources of existential security can become psychologically vulnerable and anxious, demotivated and pessimistic, and attracted to extreme and dangerous secular ideologies, which all threaten the sustainability of a free and flourishing society. Is he right? Please join us for a topical conversation about the search for meaning in affluent and free societies.
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1 hr 24 min
October 03, 2019 Patients, Privacy, and PDMPs: Exploring the Impact of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs
Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. These statewide electronic databases of prescriptions dispensed for controlled substances were established in response to the opioid overdose crisis. Their purpose is to facilitate drug diversion investigations by law enforcement, change prescribing behavior, and reduce “doctor shopping” by patients who seek drugs for nonmedical use. In 28 states it is mandatory for providers to access the database and screen each time before prescribing any controlled substance to any patient. There is evidence that PDMPs have contributed to the dramatic 42 percent decline in prescription opioid volume since 2011. Many healthcare practitioners cite the inconvenience and workflow disruptions of mandatory-access PDMPs as deterrents to prescribing, while others fear scrutiny from law enforcement and licensing authorities — even for appropriate medical prescribing. This is unintentionally causing the undertreatment of patients with acute and chronic pain and, in some cases, the abrupt withdrawal of treatment from chronic pain patients. There is also evidence that PDMPs increase crime by driving nonmedical users from diverted prescription opioids to more harmful heroin and fentanyl, thus fueling overdoses. Finally, PDMPs pose a serious risk to medical privacy by allowing law enforcement to access confidential medical records without a warrant based on probable cause, which may be in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
An expert panel will examine the positive and negative effects of PDMPs on patient care, patient privacy, the overdose rate, and crime, hoping to learn whether they do more harm than good.
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1 hr 31 min
October 02, 2019 Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud
Daniel Ellsberg. Edward Snowden. Elin Baklid-Kunz. Lynn Stout. Diane Roark. Franz Gayl. They and others like them come from all across the country. Some worked for the federal government; others worked in the private sector. All have one thing in common: in the organizations for which they worked, they saw things they knew were morally and legally wrong. Each made a life-altering decision to do something about it.
In his new book, Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud, journalist Tom Mueller takes us into the world of the whistleblower. What makes them different? Why did they elect to act when others would not? Do the pathologies in large organizations — whether in government or the private sector — inevitably produce whistleblowers? Is Congress serious about protecting whistleblowers? How do protections for federal whistleblowers differ from agency to agency and from the private sector? Are new federal “insider threat” programs just a bureaucrat smokescreen for cracking down on internal dissent?
Join us as an expert panel talks with Mueller about his book and the state of government and corporate whistleblowing in the Trump era.
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1 hr 34 min
October 02, 2019 Saving Lives from Opiate Overdoses
Naloxone—an opioid antagonist that reverses overdoses—is a safe, effective, critical tool for preventing opioid-overdose deaths. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration nevertheless continues to require a prescription for each naloxone purchase, an unnecessary requirement that limits access to this life-saving drug.
On October 2, the Cato Institute will hold a two-part Capitol Hill Briefing to discuss how naloxone can save even more lives. First, Cato senior fellow Jeffrey A. Singer and Cato adjunct scholar David A. Hyman will discuss the effectiveness of naloxone and the effect of, and reasons for, the FDA’s prescription requirement. Second, the Washington, DC, Department of Health will conduct naloxone training for all willing adult attendees and will distribute easy-to-use Narcan, a nasal-spray version of naloxone, to those who complete the training.
Attending this event could help you save a life. We encourage each congressional office to designate at least one staffer to attend this event, train in naloxone administration, and keep this life-saving drug on hand anywhere someone may need it.
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1 hr 36 min
September 30, 2019 How to Be a Dictator
In his forthcoming book How to Be a Dictator, Frank Dikötter examines the cults and propaganda surrounding twentieth-century dictators, from Hitler and Stalin to Mao Zedong and Kim II Sung. These men were the founders of modern dictatorships, and they learned from each other and from history to build their regimes and maintain their public images. Their dictatorships, in turn, have influenced leaders in the 21st century, including Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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58 min
September 26, 2019 The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America
Data are the lifeblood of public policy analysis. In criminal justice policy, crime data can be used to determine whether crime victimization is trending up or down in a given area or whether an innovative type of policing is effective. But how data are analyzed can have extraordinary effects on policy outcomes and future recommendations.
In his re-released award-winning book, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (Harvard University Press, 2019), Khalil Gibran Muhammad details the history of how crime data became evidence of racial inferiority that helped shape criminal justice policy and American thought for more than 100 years.
While urban elites viewed crime committed by European immigrants as a call for palliative social remedy, crime by black migrants from the American South was considered racially endemic and thus was to be dealt with punitively. Condemnation of Blackness is essential reading to understand how ideas of black dangerousness and criminality are legacies of slavery, racism, and discrimination.
Please join us on Thursday, September 26, for a conversation with Muhammad as he discusses his extraordinary book with the Cato Institute's Jonathan Blanks.
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3 hr 16 min
September 24, 2019 Realistic Solutions to Big College Problems: Overhauling the Higher Education Act
American higher education is in a bad place: public confidence is dropping, prices are daunting, and presidential candidates are clamoring to fundamentally change how it’s funded. Join us to hear U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) discuss his interest in finding solutions to the many problems with higher education policy. Attendees will then hear from the authors and editors of three new books tackling higher education’s myriad ailments and how to fix them. Many things must change in the ivory tower, and you’ll hear clear, grounded ideas about what those should be.
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1 hr 26 min
September 24, 2019 Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian
James Grant’s new book,Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian, tells the story of Walter Bagehot — a 19th century banker, an essayist, and a former editor ofThe Economist. Born in a small town in late-Georgian England, Bagehot became one of the most influential figures in Victorian-era finance and politics. Indeed, thanks to his celebrated 1873 treatise,Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market, Bagehot remains influential today, not just in England but in financial centers everywhere.Lombard Streetis a work to which all modern central bankers pay homage, even if they often fail to heed its advice.
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1 hr 24 min

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The Cato Events Podcast brings you live recordings from the Cato Institute's events, where leading scholars, policymakers, journalists, and experts come together each week to discuss the ideas and…