Today's guest is Harvard economist Jason Furman, who was one of former President Barack Obama's chief economic advisers and an architect of the Affordable Care Act. These days, he's in the news for his withering critique of former President Joe Biden's dismal economic record and two-fisted attacks on President Donald Trump's trade policy. We talk about Furman's defense of global markets, Obamacare's unfulfilled promises, and why he now thinks the national debt and AI are bigger deals than he used to believe.

0:48— Failure of Bidenomics & the 'neoliberal delusion'
6:00— The neoliberal coalition breakdown
9:37— Trump's post-neoliberal economics
13:08— Biden's biggest economic failures
16:25— Why 'free money' is a bad thing
18:28— The Age of No Accountability
20:19— Why tariffs make no sense
23:52— How Furman 'zigzagged' on debt
29:42— How to get politicians to take the debt seriously
36:32— How to fix social security and Medicare
39:58— Has Furman changed his mind about Keynesian economics?
43:10— Furman's background and the future of Economics
46:50— Furman's outlook on AI
50:16— The Luddite impulse towards technological advancement

Today's sponsor:

• The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie. The next one is Tuesday, May 6, and features investor and Open To Debate founder Robert Rosenkranz, author of The Stoic Capitalist: Advice for the Exceptionally Ambitious. Go here to buy tickets and go here to http://https//opentodebate.orgsign up for Reason's NYC Events newsletter.

Photo credits: CNP/AdMedia/Newscom, Andrew Leyden/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom, KEVIN DIETSCH/UPI/Newscom

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post Jason Furman: Why Everyone Is Wrong About the Economy appeared first on Reason.com.

Today's guest is Mark Clifford, former editor in chief of the South China Morning Post whose recent book, The Troublemaker, chronicles the life of Jimmy Lai, a man who escaped mainland Communist China to Hong Kong as a child and went on to become a self-made billionaire. But now at age 77, Lai is a political prisoner, currently on trial in China for his unwavering criticism of the government, particularly as it relates to a pro-democracy publication he founded called Apple Daily.

Clifford and Reason's Billy Binion talked about Lai's humble beginnings; his cinematic escape to freedom; his fearless pro-democracy activism; his life in prison, where he's been held in solitary confinement for years; and the importance of safeguarding free expression around the world.

1:01—Who is Jimmy Lai?

4:50—Lai's astounding business success in Hong Kong

5:15—Lai's turn toward politics after June 4, 1989

6:06—The Lai family during the Cultural Revolution in China

10:37—Lai's gradual political awakening

18:42—Lai's newspaper and magazine promoting free speech and democracy

20:51—How the Chinese government tried to intimidate Lai

28:12—Mass protests and Chinese Communist Party crackdowns in Hong Kong

32:28—How meeting with Mike Pence, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo got Lai arrested

38:47—Lai's prison life and friendship with Natan Sharansky

48:28—Clifford's career in Asia

52:18—How Clifford got out of Hong Kong

54:18—Why people should care about Jimmy Lai

• Video editor: Ian Keyser
• Graphics: César Báez

The post Mark Clifford: A Political Prisoner Fights for Free Speech in China appeared first on Reason.com.

Satire is a powerful force for political and cultural change. But is it even possible in a world that outstrips our imagination on a daily—or even hourly—basis?

Today's guests are two young novelists who are redefining satire in the 21st century. Leigh Stein is the author of Self Care, which is set at a women's wellness startup where things go very wrong. Her next novel, If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You, takes place at a social media hype house and comes out in August. Julius Taranto is the author of How I Won a Nobel Prize, which is set at a secretive university funded by a reclusive billionaire and staffed exclusively by faculty who have been canceled elsewhere. His reviews and essays have been published in The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere.

Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with them about the widely pronounced post-election vibe shift by which artists feel emboldened once again to slay sacred cows with impunity. And they explore whether contemporary markets for books, movies, plays, music, and other forms of creative expression are actually capable of supporting a new era of satire, parody, and self-examination.

This interview was recorded at The Reason Speakeasy, a live monthly event in New York City that doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview. Go here for more information on upcoming Reason events.

1:30—What is the purpose of a novel?
4:49—What is the function of satire?
9:03—Philip Roth declared satire impossible in 1961
12:30—How culture has fractured
15:17—Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and figures beyond satire
18:31—Class dimensions of satire
22:52—How Stein's feminist activism inspired Self Care
23:58—Tom Wolfe and satirical realism
31:25—Is the world becoming post-literate?
32:54—Has the novel been feminized?
34:25—Joe Rogan as the successor to Marcel Proust?
35:28—How women dominate the publishing industry
47:43—Stein's cultural criticism and poetry

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post Leigh Stein and Julius Taranto: Did Wokeness and Trump Kill Literary Satire? appeared first on Reason.com.

You've probably heard about microdosing, which involves taking a small, "sub-perceptual" dose of psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin on a regular basis to ward off depression, anxiety, and chronic pain—or to optimize focus and boost energy.

Today's guests are James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber, authors of the new book Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance. Fadiman, a Stanford-trained research psychologist who has been working with psychedelics since the early 1960s, popularized the concept of microdosing over a decade ago. They talk with Reason's Nick Gillespie about the mechanics of and theory behind microdosing, its promise and limits, and how it fits into the larger psychedelic renaissance that has been flowering for most of the 21st century. And they discuss the prospects for legalization and cultural normalization of psychedelics under the Trump administration.

1:19 — New book: Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance
5:12 — How Fadiman discovered microdosing
8:10 — How Gruber began microdosing
8:57 — Microdosing is similar to a vitamin protocol
11:17 — MDMA, ketamine, and cannabis work differently
12:50 — Microdosing for depression
16:02 — Other conditions microdosing could help alleviate
19:09 — Is microdosing for life?
21:17 — How to quantify the efficacy of microdosing
30:14 — Psychedelics and drug law
37:30 — Psychedelic-assisted therapy
39:40 — Psychedelics and their benefits are nonideological
46:15 — Fadiman and Gruber's 2020 book: Your Symphony of Selves
53:45 — Drug legalization under Donald Trump

Today's sponsor:

• The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie podcast. The next one takes place on Tuesday, April 8, with Jeffrey Singer, who recently authored Your Body, Your Health Care. Go here to buy tickets and go here to sign up for Reason's NYC Events newsletter.

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber: Psychedelics Legalization Will Continue No Matter Who Is President appeared first on Reason.com.

Today's guest is Reason Senior Editor Brian Doherty, who has just published Modern Libertarianism: A Brief History of Classical Liberalism in the United States. His previous books include Radicals for Capitalism, the indispensable history of the libertarian movement, and titles covering the Ron Paul revolution, gun rights, Burning Man, and underground comics.

Modern Libertarianism analyzes the political and cultural legacies of figures such as Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman, and Barry Goldwater. Doherty talks with Reason's Nick Gillespie about Ayn Rand and the other two women who helped conceptualize libertarian thought—Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson. Doherty and Gillespie also discuss how libertarians have played leading, if often underappreciated, roles in battles over free speech, international trade, immigration, deregulation, drug legalization, and lifestyle liberation.

This interview was recorded at The Reason Speakeasy, a live monthly event in New York City that doubles as a live taping of this podcast. For information on upcoming events, go here.

1:59 — New book: Modern Libertarianism
3:26 — Isabel Paterson and The God of the Machine
5:14 — Rose Wilder Lane and the libertarian roots of Little House on the Prairie
9:59 — How did libertarianism get so male-dominated?
18:08 — Ayn Rand
26:15 — Is the Trump administration libertarian at all?
29:17 — Robert LeFevre and Murray Rothbard's thoughts on blackmail and violence
34:14 — Kerry Thornley and his unlikely connection to Lee Harvey Oswald
39:19 — Barry Goldwater's influence on libertarianism
47:00 — The rising respectability of libertarianism
48:17 — Libertarianism is not conservatism or reactionary
52:27 — The Libertarian Party
55:00 — The Cato Institute
56:16 — Libertarianism's wins
58:00 — Burning Man

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post Brian Doherty: The Fascinating Women and Weirdos Who Founded Libertarianism appeared first on Reason.com.

This week's guest is Rachel Barkow, a professor of law at New York University and the author of the book Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration, which was just released this month.

Barkow and Reason's Billy Binion talked about the importance of the presidential pardon power—which is a controversial topic these days, after former President Joe Biden used it to preemptively pardon Anthony Fauci and members of his own family, and President Donald Trump used it to pardon January 6 defendants, some of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement. They also discussed Barkow's view that certain Supreme Court precedents around criminal justice are alarming for anyone who cares about the Constitution and individual liberty. Finally, they chatted about what it was like for her to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia—as a Democrat.

0:00 — Introduction

1:03 — Presidential pardon power under Biden and Trump

9:35 — Biden's "clumsy" end-of-term pardons

13:03 — Trump's January 6 pardons

18:55 — Historical context for pardon power

24:20 — Philip Esformes' pardon limbo

30:07 — Ford's commission on Vietnam War draft dodgers

33:15 — Pardon power and the death penalty

37:57 — Barkow's new book, Justice Abandoned

41:45 — Coercive plea bargaining

57:17 — "Repeat offenders" in the news

1:05:18 — Barkow's clerkship with Scalia

1:15:42 — The biggest misconception about the Supreme Court

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post Rachel Barkow: Did Trump and Biden Turn Pardons Into a Corrupt Joke? appeared first on Reason.com.

Our guest today is Alton Brown, who for years hosted Good Eats on the Food Network and brought his interest in science to the making of dinner. He's currently touring the country, and he has also just published Food for Thought, a great collection of essays about food, culture, and his life on and off the screen. In this episode, Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Brown about how food transcends politics, why fusion cooking isn't cultural appropriation, and why there's always room for Jell-O salad on his menu.

0:43— Brown's Last Bite tour
1:55— Brown's new book: Food for Thought
6:40— Curiosity and surprise are essential to life
12:03— The pizza that made Alton Brown
16:21— When Indian immigrants made kadhi that blew Brown's mind
18:57— The positive case for 'cultural appropriation'
26:53— Food media's impact on cooking skills
30:40— How Martha Stewart's perfectionism ruined dinner parties
32:07— Julia Child, Mr. Wizard, and Monty Python
39:56— Good Eats motivated food exploration
48:19— Ozempic & the moral value of restraint
51:01— USDA & FDA were created to support industry, not consumers
55:28— Southern cuisine and Jello salads
57:00— On being from the South and embracing its full history

Today's sponsor:

• The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie. Go here to buy tickets and go here to sign up for Reason's NYC Events newsletter.

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post Alton Brown: A Culinary Legend Offers Food for Thought appeared first on Reason.com.

Today's guest is Columbia University linguist and New York Times columnist John McWhorter. In 2021, he published Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America, which argued that politically correct "antiracism" was not only a new religion but a dangerous form of illiberalism that quashed free expression, individual liberty, and social progress.

McWhorter talks with Reason's Nick Gillespie about how far we've come since 2021—and whether we are entering a new era of open debate and cultural possibilities. They also discuss the apparent end of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, McWhorter's own experience with affirmative action over his decades in academia, and his forthcoming book Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words, which comes out in April.

0:00—Introduction
1:10—The "woke racism" recession
7:01—The arts and academia are still "woke"
11:30—Donald Trump's attacks on DEI
16:40—Individuals vs. groups
18:24—The emotional cost of affirmative action
20:05—The immaturity of the "woke right"
21:46—McWhorter's political identity
27:20—Attitude shifts about race and class
32:27—TV got better, movies got worse
36:10—McWhorter's new book, Pronoun Trouble
41:51—They is a pretty good gender-neutral pronoun
44:57—Mixing high and low culture

Previous appearances:

"John McWhorter: How To Defeat 'Woke Racism,'" November 17, 2021
"John McWhorter: 'The Idea That America Is All About Despising Black People? That's Fantasy,'" May 5, 2021
"John McWhorter: America Has Never Been Less Racist," April 11, 2019

Today's sponsor:

The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie podcast. Go here to buy tickets and go here to sign up for Reason's NYC Events newsletter.

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post John McWhorter: Is 'Wokeness' Finally Dead? appeared first on Reason.com.

Jim O'Shaughnessy is a superstar investor and venture capitalist who leads O'Shaughnessy Ventures and hosts the popular Infinite Loops podcast. He's also the coauthor of the new collection Two Thoughts, which compiles provocative quotes from figures ranging from Sam Adams and Ludwig von Mises to Frank Zappa.

O'Shaughnessy chats with Reason's Nick Gillespie about the power of free minds and free markets to improve the world, why societies thrive or perish, and how to build a better "bullshit detector" in an age of information overload. They discuss what went wrong during Joe Biden's presidency, particularly in relation to COVID-19 and AI policy, and what might go right under President Donald Trump's second term, especially if special interests are kept at bay.

1:17—Two Thoughts: A Timeless Collection of Infinite Wisdom
6:30—We're living through "The Great Reshuffle"
8:53—Thinkers vs. provers: Don't reach conclusions too quickly
13:43—Big plans fail better
25:58—Live your life, not just perform it
32:22—Using AI to stress test arguments
40:00—Bernays' rebranding of propaganda as identity
41:25—Free markets deliver through persuasion
44:59—Regulatory capture and crony capitalism
54:36—O'Shaughnessy's podcast Infinite Loops
1:12:12—Biden's economic legacy
1:17:35—Trump could possibly be better for innovation
1:20:24—How to curb rent-seeking from billionaires

Today's sponsor:

• The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie podcast. The next one takes place on Thursday, February 27, and features Brian Doherty talking about his new book, Modern Libertarianism: A Brief History of Classical Liberalism in the United States. Go here to buy tickets and go here to sign up for Reason's NYC Events newsletter.

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post Jim O'Shaughnessy: Don't Squander This Age of Innovation appeared first on Reason.com.

The Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991, taking down with it the threat of international communism, right? Today's guest says no, writing that, "Far from dead, Communism as a governing template seems only to be getting started." Sean McMeekin is a historian at Bard College and the author of the mesmerizing book To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism. Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with him about the history of communism, how its focus on forced equality is inherently violent, and how Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, and others each brought particular flourishes and horrors to its practice.

Gillespie and McMeekin talk about why communism has enduring and resurgent appeal in the West despite its history of violence and economic disaster. "We dodged a certain bullet" with the election of Trump, McMeekin says, but he argues that "whatever party is in power in Washington, I think we always have to jealously guard our civil liberties and we have to just constantly remind ourselves of what our values are and are supposed to be."

1:41 — The enduring appeal of communism
3:55 — The "whitewashing" of Karl Marx's appetite for violence
7:02 — How Vladimir Lenin changed communism
16:38 — American attitudes toward communism
23:44 — Leon Trotsky's idea of "permanent revolution" and Lenin's legacy
28:35 — Violence didn't deter communism's appeal to many
33:33 — The left's flip-flopping on interventionism in World War II
36:54 — Mao, Khmer Rouge, and communism in Asia
45:22 — Western radicals and Maoism
50:27 — Black intellectuals' engagement with communism
57:51 — Is communism making a comeback?
1:06:20 — Does communism still appeal to the young?
1:11:19 — How does Donald Trump map onto all this?
1:16:43 — The politicization of the means of communication

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

The post Sean McMeekin: Don't Whitewash the History of Communism appeared first on Reason.com.