People like to talk about the “good old days” where everything used to be so much better than it is today. Everybody feels nostalgic on occasion, and it’s perfectly normal to misremember the past, but were the good old days really all that great? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they compare then and now on the 100th episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits:Cat parasiteElizabeth Warren

Foolishness of the Week: NY Times crossword

Topic of the week: Comparing Life Today to Life 100 Years Ago

See the accompanying chart for data and data sources.

Join the Conversation:Antony Davies on TwitterJames R. Harrigan on Twitter Antony Davies on Minds.com James R. Harrigan on Minds.com Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy 2019, everyone!

On our first episode of Words & Numbers in the new year, professor James Stacey Taylor joins Antony and James this week to discuss the ethical implications of creating markets for human organs.

According to Prof. Taylor, nearly 18 people a day die from a shortage of kidney donors. Economists have argued for decades that these kinds of markets could save lives by creating better incentives for people to donate their organs to people in dire need, but critics say that it would encourage poorer people to put their health at risk for money.

Who's right?

Quick Hits:

University of Missouri says tall men asking short women on dates is policy violationUniversity of Missouri and Title IX (court transcript)No one wants to buy Sears

Foolishness of the Week:

Union dues eat worker’s entire paycheck

Topic of the week: Organ Markets

James Stacey Taylor People in need of kidney donors

Join the Conversation:

Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on TwitterAntony Davies on Minds.comJames R. Harrigan on Minds.comWords & Numbers Backstage

www.fee.org/shows

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Within less than a decade of ratification of the Bill of Rights, President John Adams signed the Sedition Act, which blatantly violated the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Since that time, the Supreme Court has repeatedly taken a firm stand in defense of the First Amendment against government encroachment. Yet, within the past couple of years, we’ve heard Congressional Democrats and now a Republican President call for restrictions of both the press and speech that is critical of the government. The freedom to criticize government is the last tool available to peaceful people who seek change. A government that prohibits critical speech, leaves its people with no option but to take up arms. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Corona brewing replaces plastic six-pack rings

Iowa high schools require gun safety courses

Foolishness of the week

TSA switching to floppy eared dogs

Topic of the week: The Alien and Sedition Acts

Congressional party results

The enemy of the people

Sedition Act 1

Sedition Act 2

Sedition Act 3

Sedition Act 4

Join the conversation

Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Antony Davies on Minds.com James R. Harrigan on Minds.com Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Americans have the distinct reputation of being incredibly selfish. All things considered, it’s not exactly unearned. That said, every year, Americans also quietly give a rather astonishingly large amount of money to charities, particularly during the holiday season. Over $400 billion, in fact, 75 percent of which was for those less fortunate. And that’s simply the cash and goods. Beyond that, 60 million Americans each donated an average of 120 hours of their time to charities. This is, incidentally, more than the federal government spends on all of its welfare programs combined. What does this actually mean? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Penguins fan gets a kidney

South African politician calls on people to kill whites

Foolishness of the Week

Nurse denied life insurance

Topic of the Week: Giving

Giving Tuesday

Statistics of US generosity

Arthur Brooks: Who Really Cares?

Join the Conversation

Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Antony Davies on Minds.com

James R. Harrigan on Minds.com

Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Money is one of those things that is so ubiquitous, so completely taken for granted, that we rarely stop to think about what it actually is. The colored bits of paper that we call dollars don’t have any particular worth on their own, yet we use them as though they do. John Locke, in 1689 when he wrote his Second Treatise of Government, touched on it, hinting at the three qualities money possesses. But what are those three things? What happens when one or more of those three attributes is abandoned? And how does the government fit into all of this? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they examine this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Payless Shoes’s social experiment

Japan 1

Japan 2

Foolishness of the Week

Instructions for making toast

Topic of the Week: What is money?

Money

Join the Conversation

Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Antony Davies on Minds.com

James R. Harrigan on Minds.com

Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We hear a lot about jobs, these days. We have monthly government jobs reports. Our politicians talk about job creation. Some people fear others will “take our jobs!” But what is a job? Is it the prize of some sort of economic vending machine where you have a few inputs, press a few buttons, and out comes a shiny new job? Is it an empty space at a company that needs to be filled? Or is it something else altogether? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Fed signals that interest rates won’t rise much further

North Carolina voter fraud

Foolishness of the Week

Oakland University

Hockey pucks

Michigan state gun law

Topic of the Week: Jobs

Employment statistics

Join the Conversation

Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Antony Davies on Minds.com

James R. Harrigan on Minds.com

Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s no secret that social media is in a bit of a shambles. The big players like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are purging accounts, censoring content, and mining data. Many users are very unhappy with them. But what alternatives do we have? Maybe more than you think. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies along with Minds.com founder Bill Ottman as they talk about social media alternatives and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Small business Saturday

Dimming the sun

We’re all related

Foolishness of the Week

Florida gun buyback

Topic of the Week: An Alternative to Facebook

Minds.com

Join the Conversation

Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Antony Davies on Minds.com

James R. Harrigan on Minds.com

Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There was once a time when politicians were civil to each other. Neighbors and friends who disagreed politically remained neighborly and friendly to each other. Opponents were graceful in defeat and generous in victory. But somewhere along the line, we lost that. These days, it seems that all there is is vitriol and hate. That is what happens when an electorate focuses solely on the outcomes that they want instead of the principles they believe in. What are these principles and why do they matter? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Eye drops to correct vision

Foolishness of the Week

Rejecting the measles vaccine

Topic of the Week: Principles

Why libertarians start at first principles

The roots of political polarization

Ford-Carter presidential debate

Join the Conversation

Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the wake of the midterm elections, there’s been a lot of talk about democracy and how it works. Many—largely on the left—are confused and angry because, despite garnering the higher number of votes, Democrats failed to take a majority of seats in the Senate. This demonstrates a basic misunderstanding about American government, the electoral process, and how they work. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they break it down for us on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Pittsburgh shooting

Smoking rate hits a low

Foolishness of the Week:

Man claims he is age-fluid

Topic of the Week: Democracy:

The View blames Senate win on gerrymandering

The problem of factions

Winning the popular vote but losing the election

Democrats got more votes but Republicans won

Arrow Impossibility Theorem

Join the Conversation:

Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“It’s the most important election in history.” That’s the rhetoric you see plastered across the news and social media. Perhaps, people view this election as such because they believe it to be the government’s job to provide things for them. This is apparent on both sides of the aisle. Democrats want free health care and education. Republicans want a border wall and tariffs on imported goods. But, is it the government’s job to provide services that Democrats want? Is the government a tool of protection for American businesses that Republicans view it as? Join hosts Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan as they discuss the proper role of government and more on this episode of Words & Numbers.

Foolishness of the week.

CBO reports $782 billion deficit for fiscal year ending 9/30/2018

Why does the deficit not match the increase in the debt?

Topic of the week: The midterm elections.

Is this the most important election ever?

This isn’t the most important election ever!

Join the conversation.

Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Words & Numbers Backstage

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices