The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

Last week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) became the most-hated man in Washington when he unsuccessfully tried to force a recorded vote in the House of Representatives on the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. He defends his actions and explains why the federal government's response to coronavirus is nothing more than "central planning on steroids."

How many people are infected with the coronavirus, what will it mean for our hospitals, and how many will die? Nick Gillespie talks with Reason's science correspondent, Ronald Bailey, about the constantly changing, often contradictory information coming from official channels.

Alex Tabarrok, a professor of economics at George Mason University and one of the co-founders of the popular blog and online university Marginal Revolution, is an outspoken critic of the government's actions, including the FDA's refusal to allow for home testing of the coronavirus. Reason spoke with him about official responses to past pandemics, which countries are doing things right, and how the government can get a better handle on stopping the spread of this novel coronavirus.

NYU's Richard Epstein tells Nick Gillespie why he expects the worldwide death toll from coronavirus to peak below 50,000; why planned economic stimulus packages will not work; and why the worst will be over by summer.

How should the United States government and the rest of us respond to the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization has just declared a global pandemic?

Balaji Srinivasan, who was on a short list to run Donald Trump's Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has some strong opinions on the matter.

Reason's Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey tells Nick Gillespie that the freakout over coronavirus/COVID-19 is mostly overblown and that the pandemic currently shutting down trade and travel around the world will likely resemble a "particularly bad flu season," not a death-dealing epidemic such as the Spanish flu in 1918.

The New York Times' Taylor Lorenz is the sharpest chronicler of online culture, especially how it plays out among Millennials and Gen Z. She talks with Nick Gillespie about the "OK Boomer" meme, Mike Bloomfield's multi-million-dollar gambit to buy cool social media presence, and how TikTok is encouraging individual expression.

"What sets the Trump era apart is the rank incompetence of the people" surrounding the president, say Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng, reporters for The Daily Beast and authors of the new book Sinking in the Swamp. In a wide-ranging interview with Nick Gillespie, they also discuss Hillary Clinton's incompetence, deeper forms of corruption that enable make-work jobs Hunter Biden and other children of the D.C. establishment, and why Donald Trump is a near-lock to be re-elected.

Rob Long, a former writer and executive producer of Cheers, talks with Nick Gillespie about being a conservative in Hollywood; the politics of comedy, what he dislikes about Trump, Sanders, and the rest of the 2020 field; and why he is a big supporter of psychedelic drugs.

"Say what you will about ISIS but at least they're not Islamophobic." Meet Titania McGrath, the wokest SJW on Twitter, and her creator, the socialist comedian and writer Andrew Doyle.