Power Hour with Alex Epstein

By Alex EpsteinNews News Commentary

Power Hour with Alex Epstein episodes

May 13, 2020 A free-market response to oil price crashes
On this week’s Power Hour I interview Wayne Christian, Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission (the primary governing body over oil and gas in Texas), on why he decided against passing a government-controlled cap on oil production in Texas.
1 hr 25 min
May 07, 2020 “Safer Outside”: Alex Epstein interviews Daniil Gorbatenko
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour. In a bonus episode of Power Hour I interview one of my favorite COVID commentators, economist Daniil Gorbatenko, about the overwhelming evidence that the lockdown mantra “safer inside” is wrong.

Being inside increases our risk of a dangerous infection from COVID-19 by a) exposing millions to higher doses of the virus and b) decreasing immunity.

Being outside by contrast, exposes us to lower doses of the virus and increases our immunity.

So not only are the lockdowns catastrophically destructive to every aspect of life besides COVID-19, they also make many and likely most Americans more vulnerable to harm from COVID-19 itself.
1 hr 22 min
May 07, 2020 The Five Things Planet of the Humans Gets Totally Wrong
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour. On this week's Power Hour I discuss "The Five Things Planet of the Humans Gets Totally Wrong."

1. It evades how bad the “natural” planet was for human life.
2. It evades how good today’s humanized planet is for human life.
3. It evades our ability to create new value and grow indefinitely.
4. It evades our ability to produce more value with fewer side effects (e.g., nuclear).
5. It evaluates the state of the planet by an anti-human standard (unchanged nature), not a pro-human standard (human flourishing).
47 min
April 30, 2020 The Five Things Planet of the Humans Gets (Mostly) Right
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour. On this week's Power Hour I discuss "The Five Things Planet of the Humans Gets (Mostly) Right."

1. Green energy is a high-impact industrial process
2. Green energy has many undesirable environmental impacts
3. Green energy is hugely dependent on fossil fuels
4. "100% renewable" is energy accounting fraud
5. Leading green energy advocates are a terrifying combination of ignorant and dishonest

Next week I'll cover "The Five Things Planet of the Human Gets Totally Wrong."
47 min
April 23, 2020 Onkar Ghate on a More American Approach to COVID-19
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour. This week’s Power Hour features a 2-hour interview with philosopher Onkar Ghate, focusing on why lockdowns were never a necessary or proper response to COVID-19.

Dr. Ghate, a Senior Fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and a longtime colleague (and mentor) of mine, has been doing some great work on what a truly American, pro-freedom, approach to infectious diseases looks like.

Some topics we covered include:
- We need objective, clearly defined laws specifying and limiting the power of government in regard to infectious diseases.
- Why Sweden has more American infectious disease laws than America does.
- How clearly defined laws lead to better preparedness by government, industry, and individuals.
- Why more profit-making in the health care system is key to scaling capacity.
- How governments have failed to do their proper job of identifying and isolating infectious individuals.
- How far greater transparency from government would empower a free people to make rational decisions.
- The right way to handle potential hospital capacity shortages.
- How the idea of “free” health care promotes irresponsible behavior.
- Why state-wide lockdowns were not the right policy with the evidence we had.
- Why lockdowns were a panic-based, not reason-based policy that should be removed as quickly as possible.
- How governments should make policy and communicate to citizens going forward.
- Why now is the time to write to government officials—and what you should write.
2 hr 5 min
April 16, 2020 A Pro-Freedom Approach to COVID-19, Climate Talking Points, the “Denier” Smear
On this week's Power Hour I cover 4 topics:

1: A pro-freedom approach to COVID-19
2: My favorite COVID-19 commentators
3: The fallacy of COVID-19 and climate "denial"
4: New climate talking points
1 hr 21 min
April 09, 2020 Green Energy vs. Recovery, Obama’s Climate Fixation vs. Pandemic Preparedness
On this week's Power Hour I cover 3 big topics:

1: Why green energy mandates would be a death blow to economic recovery

Many political officials are pushing for various green energy mandates, such as the Wind Production Tax Credit, to be part of “phase 4” of the COVID-19 response. In the first segment of this week’s Power Hour I explain why the worst thing we can do at this stage is dramatically increase the price of energy, which would have the “death blow” effects of 1) decreasing American productivity and 2) increasing consumer prices.

I offer a very different approach, energy freedom—including the decriminalization of nuclear energy.

2: Obama draws exactly the wrong lesson on pandemic preparedness

Former President Barack Obama recently tweeted the following to great acclaim.

"We've seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic. We can't afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall."

On the second segment of this week’s Power Hour I explain why this is the wrong lesson, and look at how Obama’s and others’ “climate change fixation” took their eye off pandemic response and other urgent priorities.

3: What is our COVID-19 goal?

In the final segment of this week’s Power Hour, I ask: What is our COVID-19 goal? Is it to eradicate COVID-19 or to manage it? In my view most political officials keep switching between these two goals, leading to mass confusion and unnecessary destruction. I make the case that given the reality of COVID-19 today our goal should definitely be intelligent management and that the eradication goal is doing incredible unnecessary harm.
56 min
April 01, 2020 COVID-19 filters, intellectual persuasion, a new Robert Bryce interview, and more
With in-depth interviews of experts on controversies such as “green energy,” offshore drilling, “energy independence,” fossil fuels, etc, Power Hour seeks to help listeners get clear on these complex but vital issues. Every episode features a new guest, an extended interview/discussion, and a closing segment with my takeaways from the discussion.
2 hr 20 min
March 26, 2020 Don’t stop living, live smarter: a path forward on COVID-19
On this week’s Power Hour I explain why I’ve jumped into the COVID-19 policy debate and why I believe bad thinking methods are driving leading predictions and policies. Then I offer a first draft of a path forward, which I call “Don’t Stop Living, Live Smarter." The six key steps are:

Step 1: Acknowledge the difficult reality we are in.
Step 2: Recognize that an indefinite universal lockdown is both impractical and immoral.
Step 3: Massively increase testing and transparency
Step 4: Liberate American ingenuity to massively increase treatment ability
Step 5: Help the highly vulnerable minority protect themselves.
Step 6: Go back to work (and school) with virus-prevention best-practices.
1 hr 36 min
March 18, 2020 4 ideas about COVID-19 you won’t hear anywhere else
With in-depth interviews of experts on controversies such as “green energy,” offshore drilling, “energy independence,” fossil fuels, etc, Power Hour seeks to help listeners get clear on these complex but vital issues. Every episode features a new guest, an extended interview/discussion, and a closing segment with my takeaways from the discussion.
1 hr