The Tom Woods Show

By Tom Woods

News & Politics Society & Culture Government & Organizations

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Join New York Times bestselling author Tom Woods for your daily serving of liberty education! Guests include Ron Paul, Judge Andrew Napolitano, David Stockman, and hundreds more, with topics like war, the Federal Reserve, net neutrality, the FDA, Austrian economics, and many other subjects of interest to libertarians. Join us!

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	EPISODES LIST
		Ep. 1343 From Blackstone to Marxism: The Strange Journey of American Legal Thought Stephen Presser and I go from William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England played such a central role in influencing early American ideas about the law, all the way to the Marxist-inspired Critical Legal Studies movement, the feminist legal critique, and back again to the originalism movement. Sponsor: Policy Genius Show notes for Ep. 1343	02.15.2019
		Ep. 1342 Money, Morality, and the Crisis of 2008 How many times has this crisis been chalked up to "greed"? As if people hadn't been greedy three weeks earlier. It's time our amateur moralizers learned a little something, and that's the purpose of this episode. My thanks to the Acton Institute, where I delivered these remarks. Show notes for Ep. 1342	02.14.2019
		Ep. 1341 Young Americans for Liberty: A Dissenting Voice Amidst the Groupthink Cliff Maloney, president of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) -- an organization I have enthusiastically supported for over ten years -- joins me to discuss their strategy for the campuses and society at large. YAL developed out of Students for Ron Paul, and are on the front lines of getting our message to young people who might otherwise never hear a dissenting voice. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1341	02.14.2019
		Ep. 1340 Conservatives and Libertarians: Natural Allies? Ben Lewis and I go back into conservative/libertarian history to discuss the work of Frank Meyer, who thought the conservative and libertarian positions were not so difficult to reconcile. Conservative stalwart Russell Kirk wasn't buying it, and the two feuded vigorously. Murray Rothbard, too, weighed in on the controversy. Show notes for Ep. 1340	02.12.2019
		Ep. 1339 The Wrong Way to Argue for the Free Market Friends and foes of the market alike refer to capitalism as a system of "competition." Is that really its characteristic feature, and is that what distinguishes it from other systems? This is actually a misunderstanding, and one that probably turns plenty of people off to the market. What's the right way to think about and explain it? That's what Antony Sammeroff and I discuss in this episode. Show notes for Ep. 1339	02.11.2019
		Ep. 1338 Society Needs the State Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle In this episode I explore the history of the idea that society can more or less run itself, that there are certain observable regularities in our relationships with one another, particularly in commerce, that cannot be interfered with without negative consequences, and do not actually need to be interfered with in the first place. Show notes for Ep. 1338	02.08.2019
		Ep. 1337 Tough Libertarian Questions: Blackmail, Bridges, and Outer Space Walter Block, who holds the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair at Loyola University in New Orleans, joins me to discuss some particularly tricky questions for libertarians. Show notes for Ep. 1337	02.08.2019
		Ep. 1336 Obamacare Unconstitutional? District Court Judge Says So Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law, discusses the grounds on which U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor found Obamacare unconstitutional. We discuss John Roberts' decision for the Supreme Court as well. Show notes for Ep. 1336 Sponsor: Skillshare	02.06.2019
		Ep. 1335 The Myth of Religious Violence That's a provocative title, to be sure. Author William Cavanaugh, a professor at DePaul University, is not saying that what we recognize to be religious beliefs can never inspire violence. What he is saying -- and I won't spoil the episode by spelling out his thesis here -- forces us to rethink what we thought we knew about religion, secularism, and war. Sponsor: Away Show notes for Ep. 1335	02.05.2019
		Ep. 1334 The Government's War on Affordable Housing We hear lots of calls for "affordable housing," and much less discussion about what might be making housing not so affordable. Ryan McMaken of the Mises Institute shows that -- surprise -- the government's fingerprints are all over this problem. Sponsor: Harry's Show notes for Ep. 1334	02.04.2019
		Ep. 1333 The Tom Woods Guide to Seceding From Everything Looking over many Tom Woods Show episodes, I discovered a common theme: finding freedom in an unfree world. It's not true that we libertarians only complain. We build. So I talk secession from: the screwed-up American health care system, the monetary system, the education system, the traditional 9-to-5 job, and a lot more. Sponsor: Blinkist Show notes for Ep. 1333	02.01.2019
		Ep. 1332 Should Libertarians Support Secession? Historian Brion McClanahan joins me to discuss an article on secession, particularly on the nineteenth-century southern secession, that makes the rounds every once in a while in fashionable libertarian circles. Libertarians can't support secession across the board, the author says, because some seceding states intend great evil once seceded. He further says there's no right of secession of an American state anyway. Are these statements sound? That's what we discuss today. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1332	01.31.2019
		Ep. 1331 Do We Need the State for the Sake of the Vulnerable? In one of my Twitter exchanges, I came across a fellow who thought the vulnerable would be worse off under libertarianism, since they'd be less likely to have access to education, etc. Since a lot of people think this way, I thought I'd address issues like this in this episode. Sponsor: Curiosity Stream Show notes for Ep. 1331	01.30.2019
		Ep. 1330 The State Retards Progress and Peace Richard Cobden, the nineteenth-century pro-trade, noninterventionist member of Parliament, once said, "The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of peace and the spread of commerce and the diffusion of education than upon the labor of Cabinets or Foreign Offices." I take this one sentence and riff on it, covering themes in modern European history, development economics, noninterventionist foreign policy, and more. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1330	01.29.2019
		Ep. 1329 Lawyers Against the State Today I talk to Ethan Blevins with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which does pro bono work for people wronged by the state. Crazy laws and regulations in left-wing Seattle keep these folks pretty busy, but they take on cases all over that part of the country. Nice to have an encouraging episode once in a while! Show notes for Ep. 1329	01.25.2019
		Ep. 1328 Are the Media the Enemies of the People? Some libertarians shrink from this kind of language, but I don't see how it can be doubted, especially now. In this episode I discuss not just the Covington high school students, but also the media's general pro-regime bias. Show notes for Ep. 1328	01.24.2019
		Ep. 1327 The Green New Deal Is Insane Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress joins me to discuss the Green New Deal proposal, which seeks a radical transformation of the American economy in the service of "green" energy targets. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1327	01.24.2019
		Ep. 1326 How to Secede From Our Monetary Regime Frequent guest Bob Murphy returns, this time talking about his new (co-authored) book, The Case for IBC. This is an acronym for "Infinite Banking Concept," a strategy that uses properly designed whole life insurance policies as a way to "become your own banker." The concept was developed by Nelson Nash, who besides working in insurance was personally tutored in Austrian theory by Leonard Read himself. Bob explains how the average person can benefit from IBC, and he answers common objections like "Isn't it better to buy term and invest the difference?" and "Why would I put my money in life insurance when the dollar is going to crash?" Show notes for Ep. 1326	01.23.2019
		Ep. 1325 Articles of Impeachment Against Abraham Lincoln A law professor recently included a thought experiment on a constitutional law exam: suppose Lincoln had survived the assassin's bullet, and later wound up facing articles of impeachment for some of his actions during the war. This is obviously a useful exercise, since many people feel an emotional connection to Lincoln and his cause, but this is precisely what law school is supposed to be about: can you suspend such thoughts and think entirely about the law? Well, guess how one critic characterized the exam. You already know the language used to condemn it. Brion McClanahan and I review the accusations against this professor, and the extremely valuable and thought-provoking questions on his exam. Show notes for Ep. 1325	01.22.2019
		Ep. 1324 How to Nudge Non-Libertarians in the Right Direction Musician Tatiana Moroz has an audience a portion of which is new to libertarian ideas, so she asked me newbie-friendly questions: how I get non-libertarians to start thinking differently, who will build the roads, what about the police, the truth about the Federal Reserve -- fun questions like that. Show Notes for Ep. 1324	01.19.2019
		Ep. 1323 Agorism: Anti-Politics, Anti-State, Pro-Freedom Now Author and publisher Victor Koman joins me to discuss agorism, the anti-political, anti-state philosophy and strategy developed by Samuel E. Konkin III. Those chapters that exist of Konkin's would-be treatise, Counter-Economics, have just been released for people to read for the very first time. We discuss those chapters and the ideas found in them, and how what Konkin calls the "counter-economy" can challenge the state. Show Notes for Ep. 1323	01.18.2019
		Ep. 1322 Smashing Fallacies in American Economic History Professor Jeff Herbener just completed the first of two courses for my LibertyClassroom.com website on American economic history, an area where there are plenty of misconceptions and fallacies to refute. In this episode we talk about 19th-century monetary policy and bank panics, fiscal policy in an age of limited government, colonial inflation, and lots more. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1322	01.17.2019
		Ep. 1321 The Progressives' Dream -- Rule by So-Called Experts -- and How to Dismantle It A hundred years ago progressives thought it best that we be ruled by experts. Their vision culminated in the administrative state we have today, in which federal agencies make law, at times even clearly at odds with the actual wording and intent of Congress. Peter Wallison joins me to discuss the problem and the solution. Show notes for Ep. 1321	01.16.2019
		Ep. 1320 "Pro-Family" Economics Makes Me Crazy Tucker Carlson, who's been great on some issues, has been speaking out against what he considers the free-market fundamentalism (I wish!) of mainstream conservatism. He says we need to understand that there's more to life than GDP, etc. Since this line of argument makes me crazy, I devoted this episode to answering it. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1320	01.15.2019
		BONUS Ep. 1319 Your New Business for 2019: What to Do and What to Avoid Steve Clayton was a vice president at LabCorp, where many of us have gone to have blood work done, and took a chance: he left it all behind to go out on his own as an entrepreneur. The gamble paid off magnificently. Today we compare notes on what works and what doesn't, and the features your online business should have to maximize your likelihood of success. Show Notes for Ep. 1319 Sign up for Steve's important presentation!	01.12.2019
		Ep. 1318 Cryptocurrency: Regulatory Hurdles, and Advances in Privacy Today, Sasha Hodder, an authority on the legal and regulatory aspects of cryptocurrency, discusses the regulatory hurdles faced by crypto, but also advances in privacy for users. Sponsor: Skillshare Show Notes for Ep. 1318	01.11.2019
		Ep. 1317 What Can Libertarians Contribute to the Study of Literature? Allen Mendenhall, who holds a Ph.D. in English from Auburn University, joins me to discuss what libertarian literary criticism looks like. Sponsor: Blinkist Show Notes for Ep. 1317	01.10.2019
		Ep. 1316 How to Be Better at (Almost) Everything Pat Flynn -- fitness expert, libertarian, and entrepreneur -- joins me to discuss one of the vanishingly small number of books in personal development that gives you specific action items to improve yourself, as opposed to a ceaseless stream of fortune-cookie maxims. Chances are, your efforts at self-improvement are misdirected; Pat is truly where it's at. Sponsor: Away Show Notes for Ep. 1316	01.09.2019
		Ep. 1315 Everything Should Be Abolished In this episode, I review some themes from my 2011 book Rollback, which makes the case against, well, pretty much everything -- the Fed, the military-industrial complex, the whole kit and kaboodle. I also discuss an interesting development in the James Damore case at Google. Sponsor: Skillshare Show Notes for Ep. 1314	01.08.2019
		Ep. 1314 Ocasio-Cortez Wants 70% Top Marginal Tax Rate She says it's about time people "pay their fair share," and that she needs the dough to fund her Green New Deal. Others are saying that since we had high top marginal rates in the past, it's no problem to have them now -- and maybe the economy would be even better! Well, no, no, and no. Sponsor: Harry's Show Notes for Ep. 1314	01.08.2019
		Ep. 1313 Capitalism Makes Poor Better Off; Left Goes Berserk The latest claim -- if you can believe it -- is that so-called dollar stores make the poor poorer. This isn't the first time the private sector has been condemned for expanding the choices available to the poor; I discuss three such cases in this maddening episode. Show notes for Ep. 1313	01.04.2019
		Ep. 1312 Trump's Mistakes If you say Trump makes political mistakes, you get scolded: why, what do you know, Mr. Know-It-All? He managed to get elected against all the odds! He knows what he's doing! Now while that cautionary note is valid as far as it goes, the man is mortal, after all. And his mistakes are stupefying: truly unforced errors. Show notes for Ep. 1312	01.03.2019
		Ep. 1311 Good News in 2019? War on Terror Takes a Hit, and Peterson/Rubin Challenge Patreon As the new year begins I devote this episode to (1) a review of the decisions by Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin to leave Patreon and build an alternative, and (2) taking stock of the War on Terror, and why we can be cautiously optimistic. Sponsor: Skillshare Show Notes for Ep. 1311	01.02.2019
		Ep. 1310 The Ron Paul Revolution: Grassroots Leaders Look Back In this final episode of the Tom Woods Show for 2018, I'm joined by Michael Maresco (the "Ron Paul rider"), Bryan Thome of the Ron Paul Forums, and Jordan Page, musician of the Revolution. We exchange old stories, talk about what went right and what went wrong, and assess where we are today. Tremendous fun. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1310	12.22.2018
		Ep. 1309 The Syria Withdrawal: Three Cheers Scott Horton joins me to discuss the reality of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, and the hysterical establishment response, from center-left to center-right. We also discuss fears about the fate of the Kurds, whose safety has been used to justify a continued U.S. presence. Sponsor: Blinkist Show notes for Ep. 1309	12.21.2018
		Ep. 1308 Bill Kristol's Weekly Standard Is No More The Weekly Standard, a neoconservative magazine with a 23-year run, is dead. Longtime neocon slayer Paul Gottfried joins me to discuss the magazine, its editorial line, and its demise -- and what, if anything, it all means. Show notes for Ep. 1308	12.20.2018
		Ep. 1307 The Economist Ron Paul Wants You to Know Ron Paul says he can't think of a more prolific free-market economist in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis than my guest today, Bob Murphy. Today we follow Bob's personal and intellectual trajectory, from a high school student who knew he wanted to be an economics professor, to one of the most accomplished and widely praised economists working in the tradition of the Austrian School today. Guest's Podcast: The Bob Murphy Show Show notes for Ep. 1307	12.18.2018
		Ep. 1306 The Stock Market Demystified For lots of people the stock market seems hopelessly complicated, and people who discuss it seem to employ a strange lingo outsiders can never master. So today we answered a bunch of questions submitted by my Supporting Listeners. Guests today: Gene Epstein, formerly of Barron's and now director of the Soho Forum, and Alex Merced, vice chair of the Libertarian Party and a ten-year veteran of Wall Street. Sponsor: Away. Guests' Websites: TheSohoForum.org LearnEconomicsNow.com AlexMerced.com Show notes for Ep. 1306	12.18.2018
		Ep. 1305 Bitcoin vs. Social Media Purges Patreon is a platform that a lot of content creators use to raise money from appreciative fans who want to support them. But Patreon has joined the purge bandwagon, too. What alternative do people have? It turns out that cryptocurrency, and a brand new platform, are major pieces of that puzzle. Naomi Brockwell joins me to discuss. Show notes for Ep. 1305	12.14.2018
		Ep. 1304 How I Got into Harvard Stephan Kinsella, the libertarian theorist and author of "Against Intellectual Property", asked me the other day about my college admission experience. He and I each have a child in the tenth grade, so the topic of college comes up in our households. I didn't think I had much interesting to say about it, but we decided he would in effect host this episode and ask me questions. The resulting conversation turned out to be great! Show notes for Ep. 1304	12.14.2018
		Ep. 1303 The Rise of Victimhood Culture Jason Manning, a professor of sociology at West Virginia University, has accomplished a feat I could never have matched: he's co-authored a scholarly and dispassionate overview of what he calls "victimhood culture," particularly as manifested on college campuses. He traces the origins of the phenomenon and the hysteria, exaggeration, one-sidedness, and intolerance that accompanies it. And he takes the discipline of sociology itself -- at least as studied and promoted today -- for cheerleading for a point of view rather than offering dispassionate analysis. Show notes for ep. 1303	12.13.2018
		Ep. 1302 Michael Malice on the Continuing Social Media Purges The social media purge continues: Sargon of Akkad was just removed from Patreon despite not being an extremist by any definition. Today Michael Malice and I discuss the ongoing case of Gavin McInnes, who was just banned from YouTube after having been removed from other platforms. (His Proud Boys, critics claimed, was an extremist group.) Show notes for Ep. 1302	12.12.2018
		Ep. 1301 Transgender Ideologues Try to Silence Feminist Feminist author Meghan Murphy, who had a large following on Twitter, was recently removed from that platform because of what appear to be fairly innocuous Tweets related to transgenderism, and even lost a book contract as well. The incident highlighted divisions among feminists regarding transgender issues. Show notes for Ep. 1301	12.08.2018
		Ep. 1300 Trump Report Card, Public Speaking Tips, and More In this episode I talk a bit about Trump, then about the cause of the boom-bust cycle, then entrepreneurship, and then public speaking. Quite a potpourri -- and a darn good one, if I may say so. This episode is drawn from my recent appearance on the Justin Mohr Show. Show notes for Ep. 1300	12.07.2018
		Ep. 1299 Reagan Admin's David Stockman on George H.W. Bush, Trump's Prospects, and the Fed David Stockman, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan, shares reflections and anecdotes about the late George H.W. Bush. We then discuss how the Fed, rather than trade deals, has been harming America. (And also: why I won our gentlemen's bet....) Show notes for Ep. 1299	12.06.2018
		Ep. 1298 George H.W. Bush: His Presidency Assessed With the passing of former president George H.W. Bush, we've heard much talk of his having been an underrated president. Daniel McCarthy joins me to offer his assessment. Show notes for Ep. 1298	12.04.2018
		Ep. 1297 Marxism and Other Weirdness in English Departments Allen Mendenhall holds a Ph.D. in English from Auburn University as well as two law degrees (from Temple and West Virginia). He is an associate dean at Faulkner University's Thomas Goode Jones School of Law and executive director of the Blackstone & Burke Center for Law & Liberty. Show notes for Ep. 1297	12.04.2018
		Ep. 1296 Tattoos and the State Leah Farrow and Josh Griffin, co-hosts of the No Regerts podcast, join me to discuss the history of tattoos and the state, regulation and self-regulation, and a lot more. Show notes for Ep. 1296	12.01.2018
		Ep. 1295 If You Criticize Trump, You Must Love Obama! This week David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan, made some comments about the problems with what he called Donald Trump's "statism," and with Federal Reserve policy. He was immediately barraged with criticism from Trump supporters who thought he was a "liberal" (as if liberals are concerned about statism or Fed policy). In this episode I discuss what it all means, particularly in light of what Scott Adams told us two episodes ago. Show notes for Ep. 1295	11.29.2018
		Ep. 1294 Should the Authorities Have Killed This Man? New Ballad Tells His Story Jordan Page, musician of the Ron Paul Revolution, just released "The Ballad of Lavoy Finicum," about a man who was shot and killed by Oregon state troopers in 2016 (Jordan tells the story). We also take a few moments to discuss Jordan's appearance at the #WalkAway march in Washington. Show notes for Ep. 1294	11.28.2018

LAST EPISODE

Ep. 1343 From Blackstone to...

02.15.2019

Stephen Presser and I go from William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England played such a central role in influencing early American ideas about the law, all the way to the Marxist-inspired Critical Legal Studies movement, the feminist ...