Across nearly a decade, and over four hundred episodes, of the Free Thoughts podcast, Trevor Burrus and I talked a lot about liberty.

Today I invited him on ReImagining Liberty to continue that conversation. At issue is the question of how to approach being an advocate for radical liberalism in a political environment that seems to have lost its taste for it.

We range, as we often do, rather broadly, from how not to talk about liberty, to how to start fruitful arguments, to the dangers of contrarianism and over-attachment to narratives.

Trevor Burrus is a research fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and editor of the Cato Supreme Court Review. He's also the continuing host of my beloved Free Thoughts podcast, and it was joy getting to sit across microphones from him again.

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

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

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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.

What's the relationship between libertarianism or radical liberalism and the ideas of the left? Most place them in clear and direct opposition, and argue that liberty advocates should have more affinity for conservatism, at least in its American variety.

My guest today argues otherwise. Akiva Malamet (@akiva_malamet), a writer and philosopher, and contributor to my old website, Libertarianism.org.

We discuss the shared concerns those of us who see radical liberty have with the political left, but also draw important distinctions between socialism and liberalism.

(Here's the article on libertarian and leftist views of power that Akiva and I discuss.)

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 can argue at length about the proper role of government. But if we're to have any state at all, one of its clear jobs is to protect us from crime, and to punish criminals.

And yet the American criminal justice system is anything but just, and a full accounting of just how bad it is can be pretty harrowing. The criminal justice system is the most direct application of violence by government on its citizens, and it's overrun by corruption, self-interest, racism, and brutality.

To talk about just how bad things are and how we can build a more humane system, I'm joined by journalist Radley Balko (@radleybalko). For years, he's been the top writer in the country when it comes to investigating, exposing, and cataloging the horrors and corruption of the American criminal justice system.

Radley and I talk about the state of our system, the prospects for reform in the wake of the widespread protests after the murder of George Floyd, and why many in the liberty movement tend to turn into law and order, bust some heads conservatives whenever those pushing back on police violence and state injustice get even the slightest bit unruly.

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.

A lot of people seem to be pretty down on freedom right now. Some take it so far as to blame liberty, and political liberalism, for not just our economic woes, but also for allowing our culture to drift away from some kind of socially conservative, right-leaning, often religious imagined ideal. These “post-liberals” have found intellectual purchase, writing talked-about books, headlining conferences, and catalyzing a new reactionary movement.

But do their arguments work? Or are they in fact self-defeating?

My guest today is Michael Tolhurst (@MikeTolhurst), senior director of research at the Institute for Humane Studies. Michael has graduate degrees in philosophy and political science, and today's conversation features a bit from both.

We talk about the problems of post-liberalism, and why so many are ready to throw away liberty to force their peculiar cultural preferences upon the rest of us.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell

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

What's the best economic system for achieving prosperity, while maximizing liberty and autonomy? Capitalists give one answer, socialists another.

Capitalists say that free markets not only produce wealth, but that wealth then empowers workers to have more say over their conditions and more freedom to exit from bad working situations, as well as experiment with different workplace organizational structures.

Socialists might counter that capitalism concentrates so much power in the hands of owners and bosses that workers have little or no say in their circumstances, and lack the resources to exit or organize.

To dig into this debate between socialism and capitalism, I'm joined by two guests today. First is socialist, and frequent ReImagining Liberty guest, Matt McManus (@MattPolProf). He's a Lecturer at the University of Michigan and the author of, among other books, The Rise of Postmodern Conservatism.

Taking the capitalist side is Christopher Freiman (@cafreiman), associate professor of philosophy at William & Mary, and author of Unequivocal Justice and Why It's OK to Ignore Politics.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell

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

Cory Massimino (@corymassimino) is back on (Re)Imagining Liberty to talk about the politics of radical freedom at their most radical. Namely, anarchism.

I get asked every so often whether I'm an anarchist. My honest answer is I'm not sure. I believe anarchism as a moral claim is clearly correct. State power is illegitimate. No one has a right to rule, and no one has an obligation to be ruled just because some people call themselves the government. Arguments for why the state is morally permitted to use violence against us and extract resources from us don't hold up to scrutiny.

At the same time, I have worries that a society without any state at all won't be a paradise, but instead unbearable—potentially so bad that avoiding it outweighs the harms of enforcing illegitimate authority. But I'm not certain of that, and I believe thinking through those issues is central to the liberty project.

We shouldn't assume we need the state, but should instead tackle the question of its necessity head on. Today's conversation is about that.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell

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

Today's episode is about transgender rights, and the growing cultural backlash among conservatives against the very idea of transgender identities.

My guest is Kelly Wright (@anarchakelly), a Brooklyn-based writer and activist and an affiliate of the Center for a Stateless Society.

We explore the myths and objections that conservatives have about transgender people, gender affirming healthcare, and the greater prevalence of transgender identification. We look at how treating transgender people with respect and acceptance, and giving them the healthcare they need, improves lives and lowers suicide rates. We dig into the nature of gender identity, and what it means for self-expression.

And we tie it all in to the cause of liberty, which means nothing if it doesn't support and embrace the right of everything to live lives, and express identities, of their own authoring.

Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell

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

When I was a scholar at the Cato Institute, interns frequently asked me for reading recommendations. My advice was typically to read books outside of the libertarian canon. This was for a couple of reasons.

First, because understanding the ideas of those who disagree with us helps us be better advocates for our own ideas. But, second, because thinkers who aren't necessarily aligned with our politics perfectly, or who reject them entirely, nonetheless have valuable insights to offer. Intellectual provincialism leads nowhere.

It's with that lesson in mind that I brought intellectual historian Jason Kuznicki (@JasonKuznicki) on today to talk about the French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Foucault is often either looked at skeptically by non-leftists, or just ignored entirely. But his studies of knowledge and power, and the relationship between the two, offer powerful tools for critiquing the state, as well as other forms of coercion.

With Jason's help, we explore Foucault's core ideas and some of his most famous works. And we place them in the context of the broader struggle for liberty.

“The Use of Cruelty in Society: A Qualified Appreciation of Michel Foucault” by Jason Kuznicki

Join the ReImagining Liberty Patreon to get episodes a week early, listen ad-free, and become part of the Discord community. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/AaronRossPowell

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

Today's episode begins with a discussion of how border militarization and foreign intervention create a feedback loop of increasing violence and restrictions on freedom.

We then take those lessons and apply them to the broader question of how we should approach politics and public policy, and the ways our thinking can get tripped up by over-investment in narrow paths to change.

My guest is Nathan Goodman, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Economics at New York University. His research focuses on defense and peace economics, self-governance, institutions, and public choice.

ReImagining Liberty is produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte.

Today we're looking at Robert Nozick's classic work of libertarian philosophy, Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Released in 1974, it's the book that put libertarianism on the map within contemporary academic philosophy. 

Nozick argued for a strong conception of rights and then traced out what that means for government, including whether rights allow for any government at all. Anarchy, State, and Utopia deserves its classic status and is a genuine delight to read. But that doesn't mean that its arguments are air tight or that it's the best defense of libertarianism. 

To help me (re)assess Nozick's book, I'm joined by professor Matthew McManus (@MattPolProf), author of The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism: Neoliberalism, Post-Modern Culture, and Reactionary Politics, and Julian Sanchez, senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

Whether you agree or disagree with Nozick's arguments in Anarchy, State, and Utopia, is a terrifically fun book to discuss.

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.