The Human Progress Podcast

Author and optimist Jason Feifer joins Chelsea Follett to discuss change, why we fear it, and how we can embrace it to build a better future. Build for Tomorrow on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Build-Tomorrow-Embracing-Adapting-Future-Proofing/dp/059323538X Jason Feifer is the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine and host of the podcast Problem Solvers, which is about entrepreneurs solving unexpected problems in their business. Outside of Entrepreneur, he is the author of the book Build For Tomorrow, which is an action plan for embracing change and adapting fast, as the host of the podcast Build For Tomorrow (yes, same name as the book), which is about the smartest solutions to our most misunderstood problems. He writes a newsletter about how to find opportunity in change.  Learn more: https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/jason-feifer Chelsea Follett is the managing editor of Human​Progress​.org, a project of the Cato Institute that seeks to educate the public on the global improvements in well‐​being by providing free empirical data on long‐​term developments.  Learn more: https://www.cato.org/people/chelsea-follett

Robert Zubrin is an aerospace engineer and the author of several books on space exploration, with a particular focus on Mars. His work has been subject of favorable press coverage in The Economist, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the London Times, The Washington Post, Fortune Magazine, Newsweek, and many other publications, and he has appeared on the Discovery Channel, CNN, NPR, and the BBC. He is the founder and President of the Mars Society and was formerly a Staff Engineer at Lockheed Martin Astronautics. He holds a Master's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Washington. Keep an eye out for his forthcoming book on nuclear energy and learn more about his most recent book, The Case for Space, here: https://www.humanprogress.org/zubrin-the-future-of-space/  The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGnBGCR-0FU Chelsea Follett is the managing editor of Human​Progress​.org, a project of the Cato Institute that seeks to educate the public on the global improvements in well‐​being by providing free empirical data on long‐​term developments.  Learn more: https://www.cato.org/people/chelsea-follett

Psychologist Gena Gorlin discusses the importance of building for a better future and overcoming our aversion to risk-taking. She explores the concept of entropy and its relationship with the human condition, emphasizing the need for continuous improvement and adaptation. Gorlin also highlights the significance of understanding motivation, the builder's mindset, and recognizing the struggles that have led to progress.

Rosemarie Fike joins Chelsea Follett to discuss the importance of economic freedom to women's wellbeing.  Transcript: https://www.humanprogress.org/rosemarie-fike-the-human-progress-podcast-ep-28-transcript/ Women’s ability to contribute to, and benefit from, market institutions is a topic of vital economic importance. When entire groups of people, like women, are restricted from owning property, moving freely within their countries and abroad, starting a business, or working in a particular occupation, everyone is robbed of the value that could have been created if they had been allowed to share their talents and ideas with the world. Rosemarie Fike is an Instructor of Economics at Texas Christian University and a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute. She received her M.A. in Economics at George Mason University, and her Ph.D. in Economics at Florida State University. She is an alumna of the Mercatus Center’s MA Fellowship and Adam Smith Fellowship programs. Her current research focuses on understanding the effects that different types of economic institutions have on the lives and status of women. She is the author of the Fraser Institute's Women and Progress report. In 2017, she received the Addington Prize for Measurement. Her scholarly work has been published in the Eastern Economics Journal, Journal of Economic Education, and Journal of Benefit/Cost Analysis. She has published opinion editorials in news outlets such as US News and World Report, The Hill, and Roll Call. Learn more: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/profile/rosemarie-fike

Chelsea Follett speaks to Gret Gyler, the founder and CEO of DonorSee, about his private-sector alternative to the traditional foreign aid model.   Transcript: https://www.humanprogress.org/gret-glyer-the-human-progress-podcast-ep-27-transcript/ Gret Glyer is the CEO of DonorSee and has raised more than a million dollars for those in extreme poverty. From 2013 to 2016, Glyer lived with the world’s poorest people in Malawi, Africa where he built more than 150 houses for the homeless, and crowdfunded $100,000 to build a girls’ school in rural Malawi. Glyer has been featured in USA Today, National Review, HuffPo, Acton Institute, and is a TEDx Speaker. Learn more: https://www.donorsee.com/team/gret-glyer Chelsea Follett is the managing editor of HumanProgress.org, a project of the Cato Institute that seeks to educate the public on the global improvements in well‐being by providing free empirical data on long‐term developments.

Dr. Kristian Niemietz and Marian Tupy discuss socialism, its history of failure, and its recent resurgence in popularity.  Transcript: https://www.humanprogress.org/dr-kristian-niemietz-the-human-progress-podcast-ep-26-transcript/ Socialism is strangely impervious to refutation by real-world experience. Over the past hundred years, there have been more than two dozen attempts to build a socialist society, from the Soviet Union to Maoist China to Venezuela. All of them have ended in varying degrees of failure. But, according to socialism’s adherents, that is only because none of these experiments were “real socialism”.   This book documents the history of this, by now, standard response. It shows how the claim of fake socialism is only ever made after the event. As long as a socialist project is in its prime, almost nobody claims that it is not real socialism.   On the contrary, virtually every socialist project in history has gone through a honeymoon period, during which it was enthusiastically praised by prominent Western intellectuals. It was only when their failures became too obvious to deny that they got retroactively reclassified as “not real socialism”.  Purchase book: https://www.amazon.com/Socialism-Failed-Idea-That-Never/dp/B07QPWBNHK/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1652280018&sr=8-1 Dr Kristian Niemietz joined the IEA in 2008 as Poverty Research Fellow, becoming its Senior Research Fellow in 2013, Head of Health and Welfare in 2015 and Head of Political Economy in 2018. Kristian is also a Fellow of the Age Endeavour Fellowship.  He studied Economics at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and the Universidad de Salamanca, graduating in 2007 as Diplom-Volkswirt (≈MSc in Economics). During his studies, he interned at the Central Bank of Bolivia (2004), the National Statistics Office of Paraguay (2005), and at the IEA (2006). In 2013, he completed a PhD in Political Economy at King’s College London. Kristian previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Berlin-based Institute for Free Enterprise (IUF), and at King’s College London, where he taught Economics throughout his postgraduate studies. He is a regular contributor to various journals in the UK, Germany and Switzerland. Learn more: https://iea.org.uk/dr-kristian-niemietz/

Political scientist Axel Kaiser joins Marian Tupy to discuss progress in Chile and the political changes that threaten the country's future.   Transcript: https://www.humanprogress.org/axel-kaiser-the-human-progress-podcast-ep-24-transcript/ Axel Kaiser Barents von Hohenhagen is a Chilean-German lawyer, Master in Investments, Commerce and Arbitration, Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). He is Director of the FA Hayek Chair at the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Santiago de Chile, and co-founder and president of the think tank Foundation for Progress in Chile. He is a columnist for the newspapers Financiero and El Mercurio and his opinions have been published in international media such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Quillette, Forbes.com, La Nación de Argentina, El País de Uruguay and El Mundo, among others. He is an international lecturer and author of several best-selling books including El Engaño Populista (Deusto, 2016), The Pope and Capitalism (2018), The Tyranny of Equality (El Mercurio, 2015) La fatal ignorancia (2009) and The Neo inquisition (Deusto 2020). Learn more: https://www.atlasnetwork.org/partners/center-for-latin-america Marian L. Tupy is the editor of HumanProgress.org, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and coauthor of The Simon Project. He specializes in globalization and global well‐being and politics and economics of Europe and Southern Africa.  Learn more: https://www.cato.org/people/marian-l-tupy

Danish lawyer and author Jacob Mchangama joins Chelsea Follett to discuss the history of free speech and how it protects liberty and democracy.  Transcript: https://www.humanprogress.org/jacob-mchangama-the-human-progress-podcast-ep-23-transcript/ Jacob Mchangama is the founder and executive director of Justitia and a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in Washington. He has commented extensively on free speech and human rights in outlets including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. Jacob has published in academic and peer-reviewed journals, including Human Rights Quarterly, Policy Review, and Amnesty International’s Strategic Studies. Jacob is also the host and narrator of the podcast "Clear and Present Danger: a history of free speech" and the author of the critically acclaimed and is the recipient of numerous awards for his work on free speech and human rights. Learn more: http://justitia-int.org/en/  Chelsea Follett is the managing editor of HumanProgress.org, a project of the Cato Institute that seeks to educate the public on the global improvements in well‐being by providing free empirical data on long‐term developments.  Learn more: https://www.cato.org/people/chelsea-follett

Futurist Isaac Arthur joins Chelsea Follett to discuss humanity's next century.  Transcript: https://www.humanprogress.org/isaac-arthur-the-human-progress-podcast-ep-22-transcript/ Challenges & Predictions for the Next 100 Years. Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur  Isaac Arthur is a science communication YouTuber and futurist. He is best known as producer of his YouTube channel, Science & Futurism With Isaac Arthur (SFIA), where he discusses a broad variety of topics on futurism and space exploration. After getting his degree in physics, Isaac served in the U.S. Army and is a veteran of the Iraq War, and is currently the Chairman of the Ashtabula County Board of Elections in Ohio. In 2020, Arthur was named the recipient of the National Space Society's Space Pioneer Award for Education via Mass Media for his YouTube channel. Website: https://isaacarthur.net/ Chelsea Follett is the managing editor of HumanProgress.org, a project of the Cato Institute that seeks to educate the public on the global improvements in well‐being by providing free empirical data on long‐ term developments.  Learn more: https://www.cato.org/people/chelsea-follett

Psychologist and Author Mark Henry joins Marian Tupy to discuss Ireland's incredible economic transformation.  Mark Henry trained as a psychologist and led the research and strategy functions of Irish technology companies before turning to work in tourism. Having spent two decades telling people all over the world what a great country Ireland is, he is passionate about sharing the incredible progress we have made. Learn more: https://www.markhenry.ie/about  Marian L. Tupy is the editor of Human​Progress​.org, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and coauthor of The Simon Project. He specializes in globalization and global well‐​being and politics and economics of Europe and Southern Africa. Learn more: https://www.cato.org/people/marian-l-tupy