Free Thoughts

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Free Thoughts episodes

January 21, 2022 How The Force Can Fix The World (with Stephen Kent)
The Star Wars saga isn't just an epic story of galactic conflict. It's also a moral parable, exploring virtues, and probing questions of how to live, and how to live with each other. Stephen Kent, author of How the Force Can Fix the World: Lessons on Life, Liberty, and Happiness from a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
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53 min
January 14, 2022 Punishment Without Trial (with Carissa Byrne Hessick)
Carissa Byrne Hessick joins the podcast to discuss the fact that 97% of convictions in the United States every year are the result of people pleading guilty, often via a plea bargain, rather than having a trial before a jury of their peers.

How did we get to a situation where the vast majority of criminal convictions come prior to any trial taking place?

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56 min
January 07, 2022 Rerun: Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future
Johan Norberg joins Trevor this week to talk about the notion of progress and gives us all a few reasons to look forward to the future.

Why is there a systemic bias towards pessimism when hard data shows the world is getting better and better every day?
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53 min
December 31, 2021 Rerun: Why Can't You Email Your Doctor?
Dr. Ryan Neuhofel joins us this week to talk about his practice, NeuCare, which is a very different way to approach primary care medicine in the United States.
What is direct primary care? How should health insurance work, and how is it broken in our health care system today? How do primary care doctors currently get paid? Why is managed health care so expensive? Is direct primary care part of what a free market in medicine might look like?
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53 min
December 24, 2021 Rerun: Lessons from a Bank-Robbing Law Professor
Shon Hopwood joins us this week to tell about his journey from bank robber to federal prisoner to U.S. Supreme Court practitioner and Georgetown law professor.

What’s it like in federal prison? How did Hopwood become a jailhouse lawyer? If people do in fact “age out” of criminal activity, then what should our prison system look like?
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47 min
December 17, 2021 Tech Panic (with Robby Soave)
Not so long ago, we embraced social media as a life‐changing opportunity to connect with friends and family from across the world. But now, many people are choosing to see or argue the negative impact of social media and large tech companies. Robby Soave provided a comprehensive overview of this phenomenon in his new book, Tech Panic.
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55 min
December 10, 2021 Do Markets Make Us Worse? (with Ginny Choi)
Individuals like to argue that as we engage in market activity, the more likely we are to become selfish & corrupt. Even Adam Smith, who famously celebrated markets, believed that there were moral costs associated with life in market societies. Ginny Choi explains that successful markets require and produce virtuous participants. Markets serve as moral spaces that both rely on and reward their participants for being virtuous.
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47 min
December 03, 2021 A Libertarian in Government (with Mark Calabria)
Mark Calabria is the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates and supervises Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. During his service at the agency, Calabria led the response to COVID-19, as well as laid the groundwork for a removal of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from government conservatorship.

Prior to his heading of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Calabria served as chief economist to Vice President Mike Pence. In that role, he led the vice president’s work on taxes, trade, labor, financial services, manufacturing, and general economic issues, including serving as a key member of the team that enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and on the team that crafted the United States‐Mexico‐Canada trade agreement. Calabria served as the vice president’s primary representative for the U.S.-Japan Economic Dialogue.
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55 min
November 26, 2021 Rerun: Remaining Grateful with Steven Horwitz
Steve knows the world has truly gotten better for human beings. Not enough people recognize or appreciate that. We hope that this episode inspires you to help a neighbor or call a friend.

How does gratitude compare to resentment? Do we have the mental space to be thinking about the welfare of everyone else? How different are you on social media compared to real life? Why do GoFundMe’s work? Is the demand curve for chemotherapy vertical?
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53 min
November 19, 2021 Nationalism in America
Samuel Goldman highlights three pillars of mid-twentieth-century nationalism, all of which are absent today: the social dominance of Protestant Christianity, the absorption of European immigrants in a broader white identity, and the defense of democracy abroad. Most of today's nationalists fail to recognize these necessary underpinnings of any renewed nationalism, or the potentially troubling consequences that they would engender.
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53 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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