Reason Video

Whether or not you like Facebook, it was hard to watch Mark Zuckerberg's congressional hearing without liking congress a lot less. In between the rampant showboating and clumsy soundbites, it became clear that a lot of legislators don't know enough about technology to competently regulate it. And even if they did, the federal government's track record on surveillance and privacy rights is less than sterling.

In the latest Reason video, we explore what we would have liked to see during Facebook's congressional hearing.

Written by Austin Bragg and Andrew Heaton. Starring Bragg and Heaton. Produced and edited by Bragg.

One Republican member of Congress who won't be sorry to see Speaker of the House Paul Ryan leave office is the libertarian-leaning Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who also served under John Boehner.

Boehner famously had no use for Amash's principled stand on shrinking the size, scope, and spending of government and was known to swear ferociously at the Michigander. Yet Amash told Reason that compared to Ryan, "In many respects, Boehner was the better speaker." That's because Boehner believed in letting Congress actually debate, argue, and vote on amendments to legislation in a relatively open manner. Ryan, in contrast, controlled the process tightly and thus stifled the legislative process.

With Paul Ryan's departure in January 2019, that opportunity just might arrive.

Cameras by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg. Edited by Alexis Garcia.

Mark Zuckerberg is the multi-billionaire founder and CEO of Facebook. This week he testified before Congress, assuring lawmakers that his company will play nice with government regulators.

Richard Hendricks is a character on HBO's sitcom Silicon Valley, the bumbling CEO of the unfortunately named Pied Piper. His memorable moments include evacuating his bowels, vomiting, and then lunging into a glass wall in front of his workers.

One is poised when being grilled by Congress and the other can't deliver a pep talk to his staff without hurling under his desk.

But Hendricks is a better hope for the future of the internet than Zuckerberg. Here's why.

Written by Jim Epstein and Nick Gillespie, who also narrates. Produced by Todd Krainin.

"Americans do not like to be manipulated," Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his appearance before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. "They do not like to be spied on."

We can think of at least one whistleblower who agrees.

Produced and edited by Austin Bragg.

Tax Day gets a lot of attention, but John Stossel says that attention is misleading, because the April 17 deadline is only for income tax. That's just a fraction of the taxes that Americans pay.

You probably know about property, payroll, and sales taxes, but there are also lots of hidden taxes. Kristin Tate reports on them in her new book, How Do I Tax Thee? A Field Guide to The Great American Ripoff.

Tate found a hundred hidden taxes—a rifle tax, airplane and hotel taxes, dog license fees, a blueberry tax in Maine, a sliced bagel tax in New York City (whole bagels aren't taxed), and so on.

Our camera followed her as she asked people if they knew about these taxes. Few did.

Since arriving in Washington in 2011, Justin Amash has cast more consistently libertarian votes than any other member of Congress. A lawyer by training, the 37-year-old Michigan Republican is an outspoken defender of due process, civil liberties, and defendants' rights. He is also resolutely non-interventionist and friendly toward immigrants. Outspoken in his principles, he rarely misses an opportunity to excoriate his GOP colleagues when they fail to live up to the party's limited-government rhetoric.

Edited by Alexis Garcia.

After Cardi B launched an anti-taxation tirade against Uncle Sam on Instagram, Remy took on the challenge of explaining what's happening with all her money.

'Bodak Yellow' parody written and performed by Remy.

Shot and edited by Austin and Meredith Bragg.

Mastered by Ben Karlstrom. Beat by JEOnTheButtons.

There is a rape culture on college campuses that creates an unsafe environment for female students."

That was the resolution for the Reason-Soho Forum debate at the Subculture Theater in New York's East Village.

Arguing in the affirmative was Michael Kimmel, the SUNY distinguished professor of sociology and gender studies at Stony Brook University and multiple books, including the best-selling Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (2009).

Taking the negative position was Cathy Young, a contributing editor at Reason magazine, a weekly columnist at Newsday, and a regular contributor to the Jewish Daily Forward and The Weekly Standard. She's also the author of two books: Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood (1989), and Ceasefire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality (1999).

Susette Kelo bought a run-down home. She fixed it up and painted it pink. Then the government came and took it.

"Eminent Domain" has long allowed politicians to grab your property to build roads, railroad tracks, a border wall–anything they claim is for "public use." But they wanted Kelo's house so they could give the property to a private developer. Is that right?

A new movie called "Little Pink House" tells the story of how Susette fought for her home, all the way to the Supreme Court.

Eventually she lost her case, and her home.

Several years after the Supreme Court's decision, John Stossel went with Susette to look at the place where her home used to stand, where politicians had said "the tax-paying development" would be. There was nothing there, just unused land. Even today, 13 years later, there's still no development. The politicians were wrong. Susette and others lost their homes anyway.

Stossel says this new movie, "The Little Pink House," which comes out at the end of the month, is a good reminder of just how powerful, and wrong, politicians often are.

Anyone over age 21 in California can now walk into a store and pick up some marijuana. After three months of legalized recreational cannabis sales, how is the industry doing?

To learn more, we tracked one product—the Kiva chocolate bar—up the supply chain, from seed to sale.

What we found was surprising: Cannabis entrepreneurs are anxious about the future of the legal market under California's highly regulated and highly taxed system. Under these conditions, some industry insiders expect the black market will continue to thrive.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Alex Manning and Weissmueller.