The Reason Roundtable

As disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein half-asses his way through sex-addiction rehab, more and more women, ranging from Oscar winner Lupita N'Yongo to former teen star Molly Ringwald, keep coming forward with stories about his abusive and sometimes criminal behavior. Even his brother and longtime business partner Bob Weinstein has disowned him, calling him "indefensible," "crazy," and "remorseless."

But the Weinstein story is not just about the end of a career. It's about the end of an era.

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

Media slam "profit-seeking" military contractors, yet evidence shows they're more efficient and even helped end piracy in Somalia.

Trump recently agreed to send more troops to Afghanistan, instead of adopting a proposal from military contractor Erik Prince that would have meant fewer troops at a fraction of the cost.

How could it be done so cheaply by private contractors? Erik Prince says private is better because the military–like all government agencies–is bloated and bureaucratic.

Produced by Maxim Lott. Edited by Josh Swain.

In the early 1990s, California tax authorities traveled to Las Vegas in pursuit of Gilbert Hyatt, an inventor who earned a fortune as the patent holder of the microcomputer. They staked out his home, dug through his trash, and hired a private eye to look into his background. He'd moved to Nevada in 1991, but California made a claim that the state was entitled to millions of his recent earnings.

What transpired over the next twenty-five years is a story of greed, harassment, anti-semitism, and the abuse of power. And it wasn't the first time that the California tax agency has strong-armed a former state resident. What's so unusual about Gilbert Hyatt is that he fought back—and won.

Representatives from the Franchise Tax Board declined to participate in this documentary.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Additional Graphics by Brett Raney. Music by Kai Engel.

President Trump's move to raise "barriers to people, to goods, to services," says Gabriel Calzada Alvarez, executive president of Guatemala's Universidad Francisco Marroquín (UFM), "is a danger not just for Central America [but] for the U.S. and for the world." The great irony, Calzada says, is that the U.S. has benefited immensely from free trade and immigration and "now wants to raise barriers."

Calzada sat down with Reason's Nick Gillespie at Freedom Fest 2017 to talk about the impact of trade restrictions on Latin America, the changing role of higher education, and how students are bringing capitalism to the region. UFM, a private, secular university in Guatemala City, teaches free market economics and emphasizes the importance of intellectual debate on campus.

"Being uncomfortable because of the ideas of others is one of the experiences you have to have," says Calzada.

Edited by Paul Detrick. Shot by Justin Monticello and Meredith Bragg.

Biohackers have often been compared to computer hackers of the 1980s, but instead of breaking into and manipulating information technology systems, they're focused on hacking living organisms with the hopes of curing illnesses and in some cases obtaining superhuman powers.

Their shared mission is to put this technology into the hands of as many people as possible.

Produced by Alexis Garcia and Justin Monticello. Camera by Garcia, Monticello, and Zach Weissmueller.

The recent hurricanes took a heavy toll. The cost of rebuilding will be significant.

Politicians from the areas hit now want tens of billions of dollars in aid.

When disaster strikes, the federal government definitely has a role because the feds control resources like the military and other first responders. After Hurricane Harvey, FEMA housed 42,000 people in 692 shelters. After Irma, 13,000 National Guard soldiers helped rescue and evacuate people. That's the kind of emergency response we expect from the federal government.

But why is rebuilding afterwards the federal government's responsibility? Until recently, businesses and charities handled most disaster response.

Produced by Naomi Brockwell. Edited by Joshua Swain.

Today there's a small but growing movement of doctors who are opting out of the traditional health care system by no longer accepting insurance. This new approach is is called "direct primary care," but it's essentially a throwback to an era before insurance companies were responsible for covering routine services like ear infections or strep cultures.

When companies like Aetna, Blue Cross, and Oxford started signing the checks for even minor health care expense, it had a destructive impact on the doctor-patient relationship. The direct primary care movement is an attempt to reverse the damage.

Shot and produced by Mark McDaniel. Music by Candlegravity, Podington Bear, and Nine Inch Nails. All music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license.

CNN just released a two-part "exclusive" on the potential disaster about to befall Alaska: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt is planning to let a mining company destroy pristine Bristol Bay.

The network repoted that after a secret meeting took place between Pruitt and Pebble Mining CEO Tom Collier, the agency approved a mine that previously had been rejected by the Obama administration for being too destructive.

In fact, Obama's EPA denied the application to build Pebble Mine before it even saw an environmental impact statement. Pruitt is simply allowing the normal review process to move forward.

CNN made that look like a scandal. The real scandal is CNN's smear.

Produced and edited by Naomi Brockwell.

"The administrative state is the leading threat to civil liberties of our era," says Philip Hamburger, the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and author of the recent books, Is Administrative Law Unlawful? (2015) and The Administrative Threat (2017). "We have a system of government in which our laws are made by the folks that we elect, and these laws are enforced by judges and juries in the courts, but we have within that an administrative state, a state that acts really by mere command and not through law." Hamburger argues that by reducing the role of elected officials to set policy, the administrative state, which has grown rapidly since World War II, disempowers blacks, women, and other minorities who have only recently gained full voting rights and political power.

Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Hamburger to discuss why the administrative state is unconstitutional, and what, if anything, can be done reduce its power.

Edited by Ian Keyser. Introduction produced by Todd Krainin.

Ai Weiwei is arguably the best-known contemporary artist alive today. Years of beatings, detention, and house arrest by the Chinese government only fueled his fame in the West. Now living in exile in Germany, the artist has shifted focus from the repressions of his homeland to the global refugee crisis.

His debut feature film, Human Flow, which will be released in the U.S. this week, chronicles the physical and emotional journeys of some of the world's 65 million refugees as they flee their homelands. It was shot in over 20 countries.

Coinciding with the release of the film, Weiwei is unveiling a major public art project in New York City, erecting hundreds of symbolic barriers around the five boroughs.

Produced and edited by Meredith Bragg. Shot by Austin Bragg. Music by Kai Engel.