Free Thoughts

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Free Thoughts episodes

May 05, 2017 Why We're Too Complacent
Tyler Cowen joins us this week to talk about the slowing pace of innovation and growth in the United States over the past few decades. Has American society become too complacent? What would a more dynamic society look like?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Cowen’s book on the subject is The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream (2017).

Cowen refers to this study by Enrico Moretti and Chang-Tai Hsieh called “Why Do Cities Matter?,” which claims that “Lowering regulatory constraints in [major] cities to the level of the median city would expand their work force and increase U.S. GDP by 9.5%.”

Trevor mentions this episode of Free Thoughts featuring Yuval Levin, “Stuck in Political Nostalgia.”
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50 min
April 28, 2017 The War on Sex Work
Elizabeth Nolan Brown joins us this week for a discussion about sex work. What’s the difference between sex trafficking and prostitution? How much sex trafficking is going on in the United States?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Much of Brown’s work at Reason focuses on sex work, here’s a reverse-chronological list of all the articles she’s written there.

We talked in detail about Brown’s September 2016 Reason cover story, “The Truth About the Biggest U.S. Sex Trafficking Story of the Year.”
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47 min
April 25, 2017 Introducing Liberty Chronicles, a New Podcast from Libertarianism.org
Liberty Chronicles is a weekly podcast with Dr. Anthony Comegna that combines historical reflection with specialist interviews, primary and secondary sources, and answers to listener questions.
Our first episode on the history of the bathtub launches on May 2, 2017.
You can find out more and subscribe to the show (available in iTunes, Google Play, and via RSS), by going to www.libertychronicles.com.
3 min
April 21, 2017 Guantanamo Bay Is Still Open
Andrew Turner joins us to talk about his experience being stationed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in 2009 and 2010.

What is working at Guantanamo Bay like? Who are the detainees? How did they end up there? Are we ever going to be able to close the facilities there?
Show Notes and Further Reading
Here’s the Vice News article by Jason Leopold that Turner was interviewed in, “Guantanamo’s Untold Trauma,” and the accompanying Vice News Tonight video.

Turner’s Reddit AMA.
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51 min
April 14, 2017 How Much Should We Worry About ISIS?
Emma Ashford joins us this week to discuss the rise of the Islamic State. How is ISIS different from Al Qaeda and other terror groups? Does it pose an existential threat to the Western world?

Where did the Islamic State come from? What do they believe? Is America responsible for ISIS’s rise to power? What’s their end game? How will Trump “deal with” ISIS, and how is that different from Obama’s policies?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Ashford mentions the work of Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross on understanding links between terrorist groups and lone-wolf attackers. This op-ed in Foreign Affairs is a good summation of that work.
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48 min
April 07, 2017 Stuck in Political Nostalgia
Yuval Levin joins us to talk about political nostalgia and American individualism. Why do the political right and left both seem to be stuck yearning for the 1950s and early 60s?

Why do baby boomers have such an outsized influence on American culture and politics? Did government work better in the 1950s and 60s? How has the country changed in the last half-century?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Levin’s most recent book is The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism (2016).
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49 min
March 31, 2017 Can Anarchy Work?
Peter T. Leeson joins us this week to discuss rational choice theory as it applies to self-governance. What happens in the absence of government?

We discuss the difference between government and governance, what it means to be stateless, and how anarchy is perceived in the world today.

Show Notes and Further Reading

Leeson’s book on this topic is Anarchy Unbound: Why Self-Governance Works Better Than You Think (2014).

Leeson cites Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (1949) as highly influential to his thinking.

Here are a few other Free Thoughts episodes having to do with anarchy and self-governance:
The Distinction Between Governance and Government with Edward StringhamThe Legacy of Roy A. Childs, Jr. with George H. SmithMust You Obey Government?The Problem of Political Authority with Michael Huemer
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49 min
March 25, 2017 The CIA Listens to Free Thoughts
Patrick G. Eddington joins us this week to tell us about the history of the Central Intelligence Agency, how the CIA operates, and what the new Wikileaks revelations mean for our privacy online.

What does the CIA do, and how does it go about that? How close to reality does Hollywood get when portraying the CIA? What’s the difference between the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA? What have these new revelations told us about what the CIA is doing?
Correction: Eddington states that the Privacy and Civil Liberites Oversight Board was composed of three Republicans and two Democrats under Obama; it was actually composed of two Republicans and three Democrats. Today, the only remaining board member is a Republican.

Show Notes and Further Reading

Eddington mentions Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State (2015).

He also mentions a new study by our colleague Adam Bates, “Stringray: A New Frontier in Police Surveillance.”

Here is the previous Free Thoughts episode we recorded with Eddington on the CIA’s torture program. Listeners may also be interested in this episode with Julian Sanchez, “Deconstructing the Surveillance State,” and this episode with Matthew Feeney and Adam Bates, “How New Technology Is Changing Law Enforcement.”
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59 min
March 17, 2017 Must You Obey Government?
Aaron and Trevor have a discussion about the political authority of the state. Should one obey the government? Is there a compelling reason to? Why does it matter?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Listeners interested in this topic should check out our episode of Free Thoughts with Michael Huemer on this topic, and this Guide lecture with Jason Brennan.

Aaron mentions Socrates’ actions in Plato’s Crito, here is our Free Thoughts episode on that dialogue.
Trevor talks about his lecture “The Statrix: How Government Warps Our Perception of the World.”
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1 hr 2 min
March 10, 2017 The Cato Institute at 40
Peter Goettler joins us this week to talk about his role at the Cato Institute, Cato’s history of 40 years of advancing liberty, and what’s next for public policy organizations more generally and for Cato specifically.

What is a think tank, and what does it do? What does Cato do and how is it different? What’s the difference between being oriented towards politics and being oriented towards ideas and principles?
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52 min

About Free Thoughts

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A weekly show about politics and liberty, featuring conversations with top scholars, philosophers, historians, economists, and public policy experts. Hosted by Trevor Burrus.

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