The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

Why does Congress start every session with a prayer? And is the breakdown of trust and confidence in legacy media over the past 25 years a good thing? Nick Gillespie talks with Howard Mortman, communications director for C-SPAN and author of When Rabbis Bless Congress, about the past, present, and future of political news in America.

In a world where workplace diversity sessions increasingly resemble Maoist struggle sessions, Chloé Valdary's Theory of Enchantment seminars seek to bring people together using popular culture to explore our common humanity and generate empathy rather than division. Her program employs materials as varied as Disney's Lion King, music from Kendrick Lamar, and writings by James Baldwin and Cheryl Strayed. 

She spoke to Reason about how her life experiences inform Theory of Enchantment, why the demand for her program is growing, and why she's optimistic about the future of race relations and individualism.

Comedian and podcaster (Part of the Problem, Legion of Skanks) Dave Smith talks with Nick Gillespie about why he wants to run for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination in 2024, his views on the intersection of big government and Big Tech, why he has no plans to vaccinate himself or his young daughter, and why he believes libertarians should be more engaged in the culture war.

The Pulitzer-winning author, Harvard professor, and New Yorker contributor Louis Menand discusses how major figures and movements such as Lionel Trilling and other literary and cultural critics, Allen Ginsberg and the Beats, Andy Warhol and the pop art movement, James Baldwin and black protest artists, Betty Friedan and feminists, the Beatles and pop musicians pushed all sorts of boundaries in relentless attempts to express themselves and radically transform cultural, economic, and political life. He talks with Nick Gillespie about how those quests took on distinct but different forms depending on the backgrounds of the people involved, and how understanding them is essential to understanding contemporary America.

Historically massive protests in Cuba are underwritten by social media and the internet, which only came to Cuba in a big way in late 2018, when President Miguel Diaz-Canel allowed citizens access to data plans on their cellphones.

To better understand exactly how Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms are connecting and the Cuban people and undermining state control, Nick Gillespie speaks with Ted Henken, who teaches sociology and Latin American studies at City University of New York's Baruch College and is the co-editor of the collection Cuba's Digital Revolution. He explains the near-term and long-term implications of the recent protests, how the United States might respond, and the potential—and limits—of the internet when it comes to challenging an authoritarian government that has held power for over 60 years.

Abigail Shrier's Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters was one of last year's most celebrated—and condemned—books. It showed up in year-end lists of top books but was also banned by Amazon, Target, and other retailers.

Few figures in the bitcoin community are as controversial and visionary as Erik Voorhees, founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift. At the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Voorhees talked to Reason's Nick Gillespie about the immense growth not just in the market caps of cryptocurrencies but in their economic and cultural legitimacy, the ways they challenge central banks and political power, and why he believes in multiple coins and continuing innovation in digital currency.

If the organization's dismal, 50-year track record in winning elections isn't discouraging enough, now the L.P. is in disarray after its chairman and two members of its national committee resigned in the wake of an attempt to decertify the New Hampshire affiliate due to conflicts over its social media presence. To get a better sense of what's going on, Nick Gillespie spoke with former Rep. Justin Amash (L–Mich.), who finished his five terms in office as the first and only Libertarian to hold national office.

The Bullish Case for Bitcoin author Vijay Boyapati talks about inflation, the Austrian school of economics, and libertarianism with Nick Gillespie.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) forcefully tells Nick Gillespie that bitcoin not only provides a legitimate alternative store of value and medium of exchange but can act as a check on the devaluation of the U.S. dollar and other currencies through the runaway creation of fiat money. She also believes that the growth of bitcoin—mistakenly assailed for its heavy use of electricity—is acting as a spur to create renewable energy in places such as Wyoming, and she extols its privacy features in a world of increasing surveillance by governments and corporations alike.