ReImagining Liberty

It seems like everyone is mad at “Big Tech.” Progressives dislike it because they think it’s too permissive of the spread of mis- and disinformation. Conservatives dislike it because they think it’s biased against them. Both sides agree that government should do something about it. Which, if you care about a free, open, and innovative internet, is a terrible idea.

To discuss the state and future of digital expression, I’m joined by my good friend Matthew Feeney, Head of Technology and Innovation at the London-based Centre for Policy Studies.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

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If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A liberal society is a tolerant one. It's a society that allows for pluralism in preferences, lifestyles, religions, and approaches to life. But how far does tolerance go, what are the exceptions, and how can we better cultivate it?

To discuss these questions, I'm joined today by Andrew Jason Cohen. He is is Professor of Philosophy and Founding Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Georgia State University. He is the author most recently of Toleration and Freedom from Harm: Liberalism Reconceived and is working on a new book on civil discourse.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is Kevin J. Elliott, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Murray State University. He's the author of the upcoming book, Democracy for Busy People, and that's the jumping off point for today's conversation, which digs into what it means to be a good democratic citizen, and what democracy demands of us.

Read a transcript of this episode.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a show about liberalism, but liberalism is a bit of a contested term, slippery, evolving, and claimed by lots of people with rather diverse views about what it means.

My guest offers a helpful framework for clarifying what liberalism is by dividing it in what she's called "The Four Corners of Liberalism": related and overlaping, but still distinct, approaches to the the liberal idea.

Emily Chamlee-Wright, the president and CEO of the Institute for Humane Studies, has made a career of defending the liberal tradition, and her insights in our conversation help clarify what liberalism is and how we should approach and respond to those who would seek to overturn it.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club.

Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod | Link | License

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the first episode of ReImagining Liberty at its new home with The UnPopulist. This is a show about the emancipatory and cosmopolitan case for radical social, political and economic freedom. With every episode, host Aaron Ross Powell explores and defends liberalism by talking with scholars, activists and others working to build a freer world.

For this first episode at The UnPopulist, Aaron offers a monologue about why America's political culture seems so broken, and why this has led to rising illiberalism. He traces the problems to what he calls an “unskillful” approach to politics, and to a widespread lack of the virtues necessary for citizens to be good liberal citizens.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club.

Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod | Link | License

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I sometimes hear market anarchists say that "Anarcho-capitalism isn't anarchism." This claim, and the disagreements about the nature and values of a free society underpinning it, raises a lot of fascinating questions about liberty, radical liberalism, the characteristics of capitalism, how you even define that term, and the broader movement for liberty.

My guest today is William Gillis (@rechelon). He a fellow at the Center for a Stateless Society and one of the most interesting writers out there on radical politics.

We talk about freedom and coercion, the legitimacy of power, the role of privilege in political action and inaction, and the ways the culture and incentive structure of the mainstream liberty movement make it less effective, principled, and radical than it should be, and sometimes even lead liberty advocates to become apologists for the status quo.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club.

Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod | Link | License

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Years ago, a then colleague and I pitched the idea of a book called "The Reasonableness of Radicalism," which would've set out the case for an unapologetically radical political liberty and defended it against calls for moderation. The project never went anywhere, though, because we were told by the people making decisions that they didn't like to use the word "radical," because it might turn people off.

Clearly, that's not a worry I share, and neither does my guest today. Jason Lee Byas is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Michigan and a fellow at the Center for a Stateless Society. He's also the author of the best essay I've read in a long time, "Radical Liberalism: The Soul of Libertarianism," which I strongly encourage you to read.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club.

Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod | Link | License

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I've spent my entire career as what you might call a professional liberty advocate. But the last six or seven years have forced a lot of re-thinking on my part about how best to discuss these ideas in the evolving political landscape. The fundamental case for freedom, grounded in shared dignity and mutual respect, remains strong, but it feels like Americas, and much of the world, have proven more willing to reject it recently. Liberalism is ceding ground to the base desire to use power to reward friends and punish enemies.

To help me get a handle on how things have changed, were we stand now, and were it all might be headed, I'm joined today by David Boaz, distinguished senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and my boss for the 13 years I spent at Cato.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club.

Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod | Link | License

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all want to alleviate poverty, and help those living with it. The hard question is how. The left has a set of ideas, focused on redistribution and the welfare state. The right tends instead to view poverty as the result of moral and cultural failings. Libertarians have their own set of answers, but have often been pretty bad at talking about them in persuasive ways, developing a reputation for just not caring about the poor.

My friend Michael Tanner (@MTannerCato), senior fellow at the Cato Institute, has the kinds of ideas we need more of, and talks about them in the way I wish more of us did. He's had great success in bridging ideological divides while advocating for principled, market and liberty based ways of addressing both immediate and long-term poverty.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club.

Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod | Link | License

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few terms in our contemporary political scene provoke stronger reactions than “critical race theory.” If you listen to much of the right, CRT is a Marxist plot to literally destroy America by teaching children to hate the country, its founding principles, and even themselves. The resulting moral panic has led to anti-CRT legislation, and acted as a precursor to the growing anti-trans and anti-gay backlash among reactionary conservatives.

But what is critical race theory? Because few of those people with strong opinions seem to have much of an idea.

Today I'm talking with Sam Hoadley-Brill (@deonteleologist), a PhD student in philosophy and a fellow at the African American Policy Forum. Sam has written extensively about critical race theory, the movement against it on the right, and the way concerns are being manipulated by dishonest activists like Christopher Rufo to roll back the achievements of social liberalism.

ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist, and is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club.

Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod | Link | License

Get full access to Aaron Ross Powell at www.aaronrosspowell.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade

I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at ⁠⁠www.aaronrosspowell.com⁠⁠.

Produced by ⁠Landry Ayres⁠. Podcast art by ⁠Sergio R. M. Duarte⁠. Music by ⁠Kevin MacLeod⁠.

Get early access to ReImagining Liberty, listen ad-free, and get access to our listener Discord community, by joining my Patreon. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/c/AaronRossPowell

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.