Dr. Jennifer K. Thompson is joined Fabio Rojas, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at

Indiana University, during the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 protests, to discuss protests and social change.

The conversation covers several important topics. How do protests work? What makes a protest successful? How does the economic climate affect a protest? What’s happening with the protests that we’re seeing now in the US? How does violence change the effectiveness of protests?

Show Notes

Dr. Jennifer K. Thompson is joined by Adam Thierer, a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercator Center at George Mason University, for a conversation about innovation and regulation during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

What stands in the way of entrepreneurship and innovation today? What can we do to address those obstacles, and why is it so important that we do it?

Show Notes

Professor Larry Diamond returns to Ideas at Work for a conversation with Jennifer and Mike about democracy and freedom during the COVID-19 crisis.

How have different countries responded to the coronavirus pandemic? What have democracies around the world done to balance public health and individual liberty? What concerns should we have about the future of self-government?

Show Notes

This week, Jennifer and Mike are joined by Pacific Legal Foundation's Anastasia Boden for a conversation about economic liberty and competition in the medical industry.

Do regulations like Certificate of Needs laws keep out new entrepreneurs and harm the people they could help? How do anti-competitive barriers affect our ability to fight COVID-19 and provide good healthcare in normal times?

Show Notes

Copyright: © 2020 Center for the Study of Liberty

We’ve had a “war on poverty” for over 50 years.  During the COVID-19 crisis, we’re seeing dramatic changes to the social safety net in an effort to keep Americans housed, fed, and cared for during a national emergency.  

But what have those on the frontlines in the battle against poverty learned about what it takes to move families out of poverty? Are there ideas we should consider outside of the expansion of government programs to support financial recovery and economic mobility? What really breaks the cycle of poverty and helps people flourish?  

Our guest today is Jesús Gerena, the Chief Executive Officer of the Family Independence Initiative. We’ve invited him to join us to shed light on some different approaches to helping families escape poverty in the US.  

Show Notes

Copyright: © 2020 Center for the Study of Liberty

Healthcare is front and center on all our minds, both as a leading policy question for the 2020 presidential race and, in recent days, as we navigate the new realities of life, work, and well-being during the coronavirus crisis.

Our guest today, Dr. Bobbi Herzberg, is a political scientist with extensive knowledge about healthcare policy in the US.  We invited Bobbi to join us to discuss a Civil Squared community question about Medicare-for-all, as well as to weigh in on healthcare today as we consider trade-offs between cost, quality, and access during COVID-19.

Show Notes

Copyright: © 2020 Center for the Study of Liberty

The global pandemic has raised a number of urgent questions about how we should live, how we should relate to each other, and how we should respond to a crisis, as individuals and in our public and private institutions.

Our guest today, Dr. Daniel Bennett, is an economist at Baylor University who studies the historical effects of infectious disease on society. We thought that now would be a great time to ask him about how infectious diseases change us and our institutions, and how we can maintain a flourishing and healthy society as we deal with this crisis.

Show Notes

Copyright: © 2020 Center for the Study of Liberty

How do we support economic opportunity for women and economic well-being for families in America? Are there changes to the US’s “social safety net” that would better support families in times of crisis and beyond?

In this special bonus episode, Jennifer Thompson is once again joined by Dr. Aparna Mathur of the American Enterprise Institute. They discuss her research on the range of factors affecting women and families in the economy. What policy ideas are on the table for addressing issues like paid family leave, childcare, and the gender wage gap? Do they require policy solutions?

Show Notes

Copyright: © 2020 Center for the Study of Liberty

In recent days, legislation has been enacted to provide for paid leave as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Many of us now find ourselves facing professional disruption or even unemployment. We’re juggling child-care, household chores, and meals without our normal networks of support. Questions about paid family leave, medical leave, and who bears the responsibility for childcare are much more immediate for all of us in recent days.

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Aparna Mathur from the American Enterprise Institute to share her thoughts on the new legislation. Her extensive knowledge on the issues of paid parental leave and paid medical leave, and her work on unemployment and the social safety net, help shed light on the policies under consideration.

Show Notes

Copyright: © 2020 Center for the Study of Liberty

In this episode, we’re joined by Robert McNamara for an eye-opening discussion about economic liberty and occupational licensing in America. McNamara, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice (IJ), sheds light on the explosion in occupational licensing we’re seeing in the US today. Listen in to learn fascinating stories of real IJ clients as they fight for the right to work, and why this issue should matter to all citizens – not just budding entrepreneurs.

Show Notes

Copyright: © 2020 Center for the Study of Liberty