The Reason Roundtable

Civil debate, whether on Trump/Russia, gun policy, or fungible abortion funding, begins in the workplace.

Reason editors Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman and Matt Welch argue with each other over Planned Parenthood defunding, the Trump/Russia investigation, gun-policy messaging, and more.

Nadine Strossen, who served as the president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1991 to 2008, is the author of the new book Hate: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship, which lays out a compelling argument against policies that try to restrict what individuals are allowed to say. Attempts to legally prevent and criminalize hate speech, Strossen writes, typically end up being used against the very people and groups they are intended to protect. What's more, she says, the alleged harms caused by ugly speech are routinely overstated.

Strossen, a professor at New York Law School in Manhattan, sat down with Reason's Nick Gillespie to talk about her new book, why hyperpolarization in American politics makes free expression more difficult, and the best ways to counter bad, stupid, and hate-filled speech.

"The beauty of a free country is that you can choose to Twitter or not to Twitter," says Mary Katharine Ham in a wide-ranging discussion about personal privacy, social media, and polarization.

Ham first snuck into America's living rooms as a regular on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, where she made her name sparring with Juan Williams and occasionally O'Reilly himself over everything from drug legalization to partisan politics. A year and a half ago, she made the hop to CNN, where she now serves as the token center-right Trump semi-skeptic. She's also a writer and podcaster for The Federalist.

In our conversation, Ham and I talk about social media, privacy, and civility. We grapple with the question of whether new social media platforms make America great or carry the seeds of our nation's destruction. (Answer: little bit of both.)

"The saving grace of the federal government is often its incompetence," says Ham, as we consider how worried we should be about the eroding barrier between what Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg knows about us and what Attorney General Jeff Sessions knows.

Tune in to hear about why Ham doesn't show her kids' faces in photos online, her love of Waffle House (and that time people tried to get her fired for tweeting about it), CVS coupons, and her recently sullied Star Wars virginity.

We swear, we can quit social media anytime. But in case we can't, you can follow Ham at @mkhammer on Twitter and @mkhammertime on Instagram, and you can follow me at @kmanguward on all the platforms.

From ripping families apart to nominating a torture-enabler as CIA director, the administration is calling the GOP's bluff, Reason editors argue.

From ripping families apart as illegal-immigration deterrence to nominating a torture-enabler as CIA director, President Trump is serially calling the GOP’s populist bluff, Reason editors Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman & Matt Welch argue.

"I think that when you are in that chair, or standing there with a microphone, you are not there for yourself," says CNN anchor Jake Tapper, whose new novel, The Hellfire Club, is a dark thriller set in 1950s Washington. "You're there for the people at home and you should be asking the questions and conducting yourself in a way trying to think about what they would want you to do. 'Well, you didn't really answer that question, or isn't it true that something'—we're there to challenge that. At a time when there is just this waterfall cascading over us of bullshit, it's important for us to put up an umbrella, try to provide a safe space for viewers to know we're trying to not have any bullshit here."

In a wide-ranging interview with Reason's Nick Gillespie, Tapper talks about how his roots in alternative media such as the Washington City Paper, Salon, and the pioneering satire site Suck give him an advantage over journalists trained more conventionally in mainstream media. "I was a crime and police reporter for City Paper and [my editor, the late David Carr,] was always on my case for not being sufficiently skeptical of police. He thought I was too pro-police. He never came out and said it, but I knew that he thought that," says Tapper. "That was good, that back and forth that I had with him, and while I think it's important to support police when they need help and they're doing the right thing, I also...recognize that there are times that the police need to be questioned. That's an important part of my job. Same thing with decision makers in the military, less so individual soldiers on the ground. I think being willing to challenge American institutions while also being respectful of the people who are the beat cop or the private."

Edited by Ian Keyser. Intro by Austin Bragg. 'Deadly Roulette' by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 3.0

In a country that fetishizes youth, writing a book subtitled Why Life Gets Better After 50 is practically an act of revolution.

But that's exactly what the Jonathan Rauch has done. The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 is a mind-blowing synthesis of social science and deeply moving personal accounts that will change the way you think about every stage of your life. Whether you're in your early twenties, the thick of middle age, or your golden years, The Happiness Curve will help to explain not just what's going on in your life now, but what to expect down the road.

Reason editors assess Rudy Giuliani's media tour, make bets about Iran policy, and gently suggest that some economic policies in Seattle may be suboptimal.

Should Robert Mueller subpoena President Trump? Reason editors Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch discuss that plus the Iran/nuclear deal, the slippery politics of Millennials, bizarro econ policies in Seattle, Westworld, and more.