Free Thoughts

Over a century ago most Americans gave birth and died at home, with minimal medical intervention. But today, most Americans today begin and end their lives in hospitals. Over time policies have forced people away from community-based providers, like birth centers, and toward more costly care in fully-equipped hospitals. Lauren K. Hall joins the show today to talk about the medicalization of birth and death.

Has our health care system gone too far? Do we receive too much care? What is the purpose of hospitals? Do we standardize health care too much?

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What is human nature? It’s a question that’s intrigued philosophers for as long as there’s been philosophy. It’s also where quite a lot of political philosophy begins, imagining how our nature would have us live in a world before government.

How and why do humans cooperate? Why do we interact with people at all? Is there an issue with freedom of assembly? What kind of society is good for us to live together successfully?

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George Selgin and Diego Zuluaga are back on the show today to talk about the potential of bitcoin. Throughout the conversation they discuss how bitcoin has had it’s up and downs, but this fluctuation does not indicate whether bitcoin is a successful alternative money.

How old is Bitcoin? Does the price of Bitcoin tell us anything meaningful? Is Bitcoin a meaningful money alternative? Where is Bitcoin accepted as payment?

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Bobby Duffy draws on his research into public perception across more than forty countries, offering a sweeping account of the stubborn problem of human delusion: how society breeds it, why it will never go away, and what our misperceptions say about what we really believe.

How do we consume information differently now than we did in the 1950’s? How do we gain knowledge about the world around us? Why are Americans high in confidence but low in true knowledge? Are Americans creating false beliefs from false information?

Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding, written by Bobby Duffy

Crime, terrorism and teen pregnancies: is it all doom and gloom? Only in our minds, written by Bobby Duffy

Who Elected Donald Trump?, Free Thoughts Podcast

How the Media Really Works, Free Thoughts Podcast

Social Media’s Moral Panic, Free Thoughts Podcast

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Yuval Levin argues that we do not need to tear down our current institutions and restart from nothing, but it is definitely a time to re-commit to make our institutions trustworthy once again. And by institutions he means from the military to church groups and everything in between. He argues that we can then use these trustworthy institutions to provide the form and structure we need to really be free.

What counts as a institution? Is there a decline in the public trust of institutions? Are institutions failing across the board? When is distrusting an institution a good thing? Should we work to make institutions more trustworthy?

A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream, written by Yuval Levin

How did Americans lose faith in everything?, written by Yuval Levin

Beyond the Welfare State, written by Yuval Levin

Stuck in Political Nostalgia, Free Thoughts Podcast

The Collapse of the Local Community, Free Thoughts Podcast

Big Business Loves Big Government: Cronyism in American Politics, Free Thoughts Podcast

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There are many contentious areas in science because groups are looking for universal truths that validate their preconceived beliefs. Peter Van Doren comes back to the show today to talk about the role of science in the policy world. We look to scientists to conduct research that may better inform our policy decisions, but at the same time we have to make sure the science is trustworthy.

How should we use scientific evidence to make decisions? What kind of environmental regulation should there be? How much politics go in to scientific evidence? What is the role of science in policymaking?

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the California Waiver, written by Peter Van Doren

EPA’s scientific advisers warn its regulatory rollbacks clash with established science, written by Juliet Eilperin

Trump proposes change to environmental rules to speed up highway projects, pipelines and more, written by Juliet Eilperin

Anti-vaxxers surge past rate allowed by herd immunity: Gallup, written by Tiana Lowe

History of the Clean Water Act, EPA

The Politics of Science, Free Thoughts Podcast

Science Doesn’t Need Public Funding, Free Thoughts Podcast

Capitalism Can Save the Environment, Free Thoughts Podcast

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Scientific research is the time-honored key to objective knowledge. In the past it was funded pluralistically, but today certain portions of the market for knowledge are dominated by a single buyer, namely the government. This is especially true in the research fields that impinge on the regulatory sphere, such as pollution and climate change.

What’s wrong with science today? What sciences can you trust? How are scientists incentivized? Are scientists just obsessed with getting published? How is science publicly funded?

Scientocracy, written by Patrick J. Michaels and Terence Kealey

More Breakfast Science to Sink Your Teeth Into, written by Terence Kealey

More Proof That Breakfast Is a Dangerous Meal, written by Terence Kealey

Science Doesn’t Need Public Funding, Free Thoughts Podcast

Bias in Scientific Research, Free Thoughts Podcast

The Moral Arc of Science and Reason, Free Thoughts Podcast

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The political left seems to think that wealth inequality undermines democracy. There are many reasons why this fear is incorrect. The political views of the wealthy are not homogeneous, and on many issues, they track the views of the rest of the population. Many political leaders consider wealth inequality to be a major economic and social problem. Ryan Bourne and Chris Edwards join the show to talk about their new study that tackles this issue from multiple fronts.

How do we measure inequality? Has wealth inequality gotten drastically worse in the last decade? What is a wealth tax? What is cronyism?

Exploring Wealth Inequality, written by Chris Edwards and Ryan Bourne

A Wealth Tax Is a Tax on Business, written by Chris Edwards

Top Wealth Is Business Assets, written by Chris Edwards

The Forbes 400: The Definitive Ranking Of The Wealthiest Americans, edited by Luisa Kroll & Kerry A. Dolan

Downsizing the Federal Government

Survey of Consumer Finances

Wealth Tax Advocates Muddle Stocks and Flows, written by Steven Horwitz

Taxation: How the Government Funds Itself, Free Thoughts Podcast

Are Taxes a Democratic Alternative to Charity?, written by David S. D’Amato

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Jacob Sullum goes beyond the debate on legalization or the proper way to win the “war on drugs,” to the heart of a social and individual defense of using drugs. He believes that the conventional understanding of addiction, portrayed as a kind of chemical slavery in which the user’s values and wishes do not matter, is also fundamentally misleading.

How does someone defend heroin use? Is alcohol more addictive than opioids? What are the expectations that surround marijuana use? What can and can’t make drug use dangerous? Does marijuana actually make people violent? What is the benefit of legalizing some illegal drugs?

Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use, written by Jacob Sullum

Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, written by Alex Berenson

For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health, written by Jacob Sullum

Is the DEA Trippin’? (with Rick Doblin), Free Thoughts Podcast

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Free Thoughts Podcast

How Drug Prohibition Caused the Opioid Crisis, Free Thoughts Podcast

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Christopher Preble and John Glaser talk about how Donald Trump’s rise in the Republican primaries and eventually to the presidency represented an astonishing break with the foreign policy consensus that had prevailed from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. And they detail this more extensively in their book, Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America’s Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse, which is a comprehensive explanation of how Trump’s “America First” mentality was more a campaign slogan than a coherent vision of American grand strategy and foreign policy.

How did Donald Trump change the messaging on foreign policy? Does the public support an adventurous foreign policy? What does the military think of Trump’s rhetoric? Does President Trump have a foreign policy doctrine? Is Trump obsessed with status and prestige? How is Donald Trump erratic?

Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America’s Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse (and How We Can Recover), written by Christopher A. Preble, John Glaser, and A. Trevor Thrall

Trump Clears Three Service Members in War Crimes Cases, written by Dave Philipps

Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World, written by Walter Russell Mead

The Jacksonian Revolt, written by Walter Russell Mead

Peace, War, and Liberty: Understanding U.S. Foreign Policy, written by Christopher Preble

Three Arguments Against War, written by Jason Kuznicki

Understanding U.S. Foreign Policy, Free Thoughts Podcast

Free Thoughts/Power Problem Crossover: Are Libertarians Isolationists?, Free Thoughts Podcast

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