The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Transformation Economy by THRESHOLD

One of the epigraphs in Adam Thierer's book is an old Chinese saying: "The higher-ups have measures. Those lower down have countermeasures." Join Ed and Ron for a fascinating look at a new breed of entrepreneurs, Evasive Entrepreneurs, the title of Adam Thierer's latest book. Evasive entrepreneurs, those innovators who don't always conform to social or legal norms, are using new technological capabilities to circumvent traditional regulatory systems, or at least to put pressure on public policymakers to reform or selectively enforce laws and regulations that are outmoded, inefficient, or illogical. They rely on a strategy of permissionless innovation in both the business world and the political arena, following the adage that "it is easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." A remarkably timely book given the COVID-19 crisis and all the useless regulations that have been suspended.

We are honored to welcome back Professor Deirdre McCloskey to discuss her work. No other body of work has had such a profound influence on our worldviews, especially with respect to how what she calls the Great Enrichment came about. Her latest scholarly book Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World, was the final volume of the Bourgeois Era trilogy. It argues for an "ideational" explanation of the Great Enrichment of 3,000 percent per person from 1800 to the present in places like Britain and Japan and Finland. The second book in the trilogy, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World, had shown that materialist explanations such as saving or exploitation, don't have enough economic oomph or historical relevance to explain the Enrichment. The inaugural book in the trilogy, The Bourgeois Virtues, had established that the bourgeoisie is pretty good, and that commercially tested betterment is not the worst of ethical schools.

Ron and Ed welcome author Connor Boyack to the show. Connor Boyack is president of Libertas Institute, a free-market think tank in Utah. He is the author of over a dozen books on politics, education, and culture, along with hundreds of columns and articles championing individual liberty. He is also president of The Association for Teaching Kids Economics, a national non-profit helping K-8 students learn free-market ideas. A California native and Brigham Young University graduate, Connor currently resides in Lehi, Utah, with his wife and two children.

Ed and Ron welcome back, for the second time, Adam Davidson, a staff writer for The New Yorker since 2016. We will be discussing his latest book: The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century. Adam first appeared back in January 2015, Episode #26.

Ed and I are honored to have the chance to interview economist Dan Mitchell. As former Presidential candidate Steve Forbes said of Mitchell's 1996 book, The Flat Tax: Freedom, Fairness, Jobs, and Growth, "Mitchell marvelously demonstrates how the flat tax will rip away the principal source of political pollution in Washington." He also is the nation's leading opponent of tax harmonization schemes developed by the Brussels-based European Union, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations. His September 2000 analysis of the OECD's "harmful tax competition" initiative was the opening salvo in a campaign that ended with the United States announcing it could no longer support international proposals to persecute low-tax jurisdictions. He has now turned his attention to the EU's infamous "Savings Tax Directive" and a UN proposal to undermine the sovereign right of nations to determine their own tax policy.

We are honored to have Dr. Azra Raza on the show. She is a sought after speaker in scientific circles and the recipient of numerous awards including The Hope Award in Cancer Research 2012 and named as one of the 100 Women Who Matter by Newsweek Pakistan. She is a member of the Founder Group designing Breakthrough Developments in Science and Technology with President Bill Clinton and met with Vice President Joe Biden to discuss the Cancer Moonshot initiative in 2015. She is the author of The First Cell: And the human costs of pursuing cancer's last published by Basic Books, October 2019. Dr. Raza believes that the best way to "tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world" is by promoting and publicizing the achievements of humanity in science, art, and literature. She was married to the late Harvey D. Preisler, Director, Rush University Cancer Center in Chicago and has a daughter Sheherzad Raza Preisler who also lives in New York.

Join Ed and Ron for their third interview with Doug Sleeter, accounting thought leader and technology visionary. We'll discuss blockchain, bitcoin, technology, the accounting profession, COVID-19, along with many other topics.

Ron and Ed are excited to bring back to the show Jody Thompson, co-founder of the Results-only Work Environment. The sudden transition of many of us to work from home status is really only the first step toward transforming the culture of our organizations. Jody will share with us what has to happen next. About Jody Jody Thompson is a world-recognized future workplace expert and change-maker who has been featured on the covers of BusinessWeek, Workforce Management Magazine, HR Magazine, and HR Executive Magazine, as well as in the New York Times, TIME Magazine, USA Today, and on Good Morning America, CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN. Since 2003, Jody and her team are leading the effort to permanently change the way work gets done. They are at the forefront of workplace reinvention across the globe in multiple industries, with both location-specific and knowledge-based roles. Jody is the co-creator of the proven management innovation system, the Results-Only Work Environment™ (ROWE™).

Join Ed, Ron for our second interview with Dr. Paul Thomas, Founder of Plum Health DPC (Direct Primary Care), to discuss COVID-19, and his experience dealing with this from the front lines. Also, his new revolutionary business model in medicine. Is this the cure for our broken healthcare system, and how's it going so far?

In the glorious tradition of afternoon naps and Taco Tuesday, we are fast approaching the last Friday of the month which can only mean one thing…Free Rider Friday As many know, our typical show is "topic" driven. We dive deep into one subject for the length of the show, usually with a guest or two. Free Rider Fridays are designed to be "event" driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no advanced knowledge of the events either will bring up.