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… Read More
For the full list of episodes, click here.
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… Read More
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… Read More
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… Read More
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… Read More
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… Read More
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. About the Guest Walter Block holds an endowed chair in economics at Loyola University New Orleans. Books Mentioned Space Capitalism: How Humans will Colonize Planets, Moons, and Asteroids ,… Read More
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. Sponsor Skillshare is an online learning community with over 25,000… Read More
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… Read More
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 razors, the official razors of… Read More
