The Reason Roundtable

Want a soda? It costs a lot more in Philadelphia, thanks to a new tax on artificially sweetened beverages. A 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola that once cost $2 now goes for $3.

Politicians and activists applauded when the bill was signed. They said the tax was needed to fund early childhood education. But John Stossel points out that the tax has unintended consequences. It harms local businesses.

From emulating China to opening up with North Korea, what to do when the president says the damndest things?

With his tariffs on aluminum and steel, his family-separating crackdowns on nonviolent illegal immigrants, and his authoritarian musings about executing drug dealers, President Donald Trump is a libertarian's nightmare.

Except when it comes to regulatory reform.

Produced by Matt Welch and Alexis Garcia. Camera by Todd Krainin, Ian Keyser, Mark McDaniel, and Jim Epstein.

"How can we optimize ourselves personally to live the happiest, healthiest, longest lives possible? What does that look like? What are ethical ways of doing that? What are unethical ways of doing that? Where are the slippery slopes?"

Those are the sorts of questions that Wired co-founder Jane Metcalfe is exploring at Neo.Life, an online magazine that both chronicles and informs "the early adopters of the Neobiological Revolution." Lushly illustrated and beautifully designed, recent articles include "I Study the Female Brain. Here's What 'The Female Brain' Gets Wrong", "Get Ready for Same-Sex Reproduction," and "Will a $5,000 Checkup Save Your Life?"

"The basis of Neo.Life," Metcalfe tells Reason's Nick Gillespie, "is that computer science and engineering thinking have invaded biology....How do we think about human life differently if we start thinking about 'code'?"

If you're interested in the pioneers, dreamers, and tinkerers who are trying not just to edit a few genes but to overhaul the entire human "operating system," cure their own cancer when doctors have given up, and bring back the wooly mammoth, Neo.Life is a must-read.

"I always thought that honesty would rule the day. I always thought integrity would rule the day. I always thought that telling the truth would rule the day. And it doesn't," says Gary Johnson, the 2016 Libertarian presidential candidate and a two-time former governor of New Mexico, in an exclusive new interview with Reason.

Visiting Washington, D.C. in late February to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in late February, Johnson talks candidly with Nick Gillespie about his presidential run, which mixed memorable gaffes ("Aleppo") with historic triumphs (he pulled 3.27 percent of the final vote, more than tripling the best of any previous LP candidate). "I'm done with elected political office," he avers, even as he discusses his ongoing work with Our America Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to training libertarian candidates and promoting libertarian positions on immigration, sentencing reform, occupational licensing, and more; his involvement in CB1, a hedge fund devoted to publicly traded marijuana investments; and why he's done with running for office.

Johnson also weighs in of the presidency of Donald Trump, whom he said was appealing to racist sentiments during the 2016 campaign. Trump's tone, says the former governor, remains absolutely awful, but some of his policies, such as those regarding regulation and corporate taxes, are worth celebrating. When asked whether Hillary Clinton would have been a better president than Trump, Johnson says, "I think we would have kind of a myriad of other issues with Hillary that would probably be equally as bad.... I think it would be horrible if Hillary would have been president, but I think Trump's got his horrible also."

Edited by Mark McDaniel. Creative Commons music by Ketsa.

The Trump administration says a steel tariff will be announced in the next two weeks to preserve American industries. John Stossel says that won't work.

George Bush tried a similar tariff. Steel production hardly rose at all, and 200,000 jobs were lost in American industries that depend on steel.

Stossel points out that trade also enables amazing things like iPhones. Apple gets raw materials from 63 different countries, and sends the raw materials to 34 different countries for processing. Multiple countries then assemble the products. All that helps make phones affordable, and profitable to produce.

Stossel says: Yes, trade hurts some Americans. But it helps many more of us.

"Known as "the father of Harlem, "Philip Payton Jr.'s role in the formation of what would later become the cultural capital of black America is well established. Less appreciated is the economic philosophy that guided his life's work.

Payton was an unabashed free-marketeer whose approach, as one headline writer put it, was "to make the color line costly." He believed that property owners participating in racial covenants could be forced to pay a penalty in a competitive marketplace, and that even bigoted landlords might choose "profit over prejudice" when faced with the choice.

Video written, produced, and edited by Jim Epstein.

Music: "Jubilee Stomp" by Duke Ellington; "Washboard Wiggles," Tiny Parham And His Musicians; "Liza" and "The Dream" by James P. Johnson; "Babalu" by Jan August; "Serenade" by Herman Chittison Trio; "If I Had You" by Charlie Ventura. Source: archive.org, public domain music.

Forget the Oscars! Here are five great movies made over the past quarter-century that any libertarian will (must?) enjoy.

Produced by Todd Krainin. Written and narrated by Nick Gillespie.

Balaji Srinivasan is a modern-day polymath who venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has called the person with "the highest output per minute of new ideas of anybody I've ever met in my life." A Ph.D. in electrical engineering, a co-founder of the genetic testing firm Counsyl, and a Stanford computer science lecturer, Srinivasan was also on Donald Trump's short list to head up the Food and Drug Administration.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Reason's Nick Gillespie spoke with Srinivasan about his current ventures; how the FDA and other regulatory bodies should adapt to new technologies; the controversy over genetic testing and so-called "designer babies;" how the 1997 book The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age has influenced his thought; his intellectual heroes; and how he's contributing to "Silicon Valley's ultimate exit."

It's time for the Oscars. Hollywood will give actors awards ­for what Hollywood thinks are the best performances.

But they leave out a most important category: political actors. John Stossel says that's wrong: Politicians deceive people just as much actors do, so some of their performances deserve recognition. So Stossel created the Stosscars.

Here are some of this year's winners (and losers):

The Stosscar for "Best Performance by a Rich Elitist" goes to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. In her eagerness to trash Trump's tax cuts, she described $1,000 bonuses as "crumbs."

"Best Democrat on Free Speech" award goes to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. At a Senate hearing, "Exploring Free Speech on College Campuses," she said: "It's dangerous to suppress speech. First, suppression can backfire. Instead of shutting up individuals with disgusting views, it becomes a launching pad to national attention."

The Stosscar for "Best Defense of the Constitution" goes to Sen. Rand Paul for his fight against the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act renewal. Sen. Paul demanded the National Security Agency and FBI follow the Constitution and get warrants before they listen to Americans' phone calls that may have been picked up during surveillance of foreigners. Unfortunately, he lost that fight.

The "Worst Act of Bi-partisanship" Stosscar goes to Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer for their budget deal. It added billions of dollars to our unsustainable debt, and it cut almost nothing.

Finally, Stossel gives a Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Ron Paul for his years of constantly challenging the enemies of liberty.