Just Asking Questions

Who, exactly, is Chase Oliver? And what does he really stand for? Oliver is the Libertarian Party's 2024 presidential nominee, selected after six rounds of voting at a contentious party convention in Washington, D.C., this weekend, which featured speeches from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and former President Donald Trump, who suggested himself as the nominee to a chorus of boos. Oliver was not the preferred candidate of the Mises Caucus, who remains in control of the Libertarian Party, and several of their higher profile members, such as Dave Smith, have said they will not vote for him, with several accusing him of being too woke, too pro-immigration, and too soft on COVID restrictions. We'll ask him to address all of that today.  Oliver, a 38-year-old sales executive, rose to prominence in the party as the 2022 Libertarian Senate candidate in a highly competitive race in Georgia, where he pulled 2 percent of the vote and forced it into a runoff, which ultimately resulted in the Democratic candidate winning, tipping the balance of the Senate in their favor. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: Dave Smith saying he won't vote for Oliver The "anti-woke" criticism of Oliver Oliver's December 2021 tweet on vaccines as misrepresented by Tim Pool The actual tweet quoted above. Donald Trump's full speech at the Libertarian National Convention Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction to Chase Oliver 01:40 Campaign Message and Strategy 04:02 Foreign Policy Stance 06:31 Internal Party Divisions 12:07 Controversial Positions and Clarifications 13:31 Transgenderism and Parental Rights Debate 25:41 Immigration and COVID Policies 30:07 Debating Vaccine Mandates and Property Rights 31:17 Cultural and Legal Perspectives on Mandates 32:37 Impact of State-Imposed Mandates 33:37 Economic Consequences of Mandates 36:34 Libertarian Views on Free Trade and Tariffs 38:01 Addressing Criticism and Building Unity 42:08 Libertarian Outreach and Big Tents 44:51 Trump's Speech at the Libertarian Convention 48:51 Libertarian Party's Strategy and Goals 52:16 Addressing Past Statements and Moving Forward 57:04 Final Questions Photo Credit: Robin Rayne/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom Producer: John OsterhoudtThe post Chase Oliver: What Does the Libertarian Presidential Candidate Really Believe? appeared first on Reason.com.

How bad is climate change? People are freaked out by climate change, especially young people. Scientists for Nature conducted a survey of 10,000 16- to 25-year-olds in 2021 and found that 59 percent of them were extremely worried or very worried about climate change, and large majorities reported that climate change made them feel sad, anxious, and/or afraid. On Earth Day this year, President Joe Biden shared a picture on X (formerly Twitter) of himself standing next to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) with the caption, "Young Americans know that the climate crisis is the existential threat of our time. They deserve leaders who believe them." Today's guest says it's time to stop catastrophizing. Ted Nordhaus is the co-founder and executive director of the environmental nonprofit The Breakthrough Institute. He recently published an essay in The New Atlantis titled "Did Exxon Make it Rain Today?" which argues that while climate change is a real phenomenon affected by human activity, "we're actually safer than ever before." He says a deliberate campaign of fearmongering and exaggeration about the effects of climate change has misled the public and damaged the credibility and effectiveness of the environmentalist movement.  Sources referenced in this conversation: Nature survey on climate anxiety "Did Exxon Make It Rain Today?" by Ted Nordhaus Global deaths from climate-related disasters Number of tropical cyclones globally, 1980–2023 "Glacier Park's Glaciers Have Shrunk, But They Haven't Disappeared," by Aaron Bolton Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis by the National Snow and Ice Data Center Antarctic Daily Image Update by the National Snow and Ice Data Center Carbon Brief: "Explainer: Nine 'tipping points' that could be triggered by climate change" United Nations 2023 climate change report "Climate Change: Global Sea Level," by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Summary for Policymakers How many people die from air pollution? by Our World in Data CO2 emissions per country Timestamps 00:00:00—Introduction 00:02:50—The Evolution of the Climate Change Narrative 00:05:23—The Political and Social Impact of Climate Change Rhetoric 00:14:57—Analyzing the Science and Misconceptions of Climate Change 00:23:46—The Economic and Societal Resilience to Climate Extremes 00:35:30—A Rational Perspective on Climate Change Anxiety 00:42:55—Human Migration Toward Climate Risks 00:44:50—Revisiting Predictions From An Inconvenient Truth 00:50:03—Addressing the Fear of Climate Tipping Points 00:55:39—Human Ingenuity and Climate Resilience 01:02:35—Carbon Emissions and Economic Growth 01:10:36—The Climate Movement and Public Perception 01:19:02—A Vision for a Focused Environmental Movement Producer: John OsterhoudtThe post Ted Nordhaus: How Bad Is Climate Change? appeared first on Reason.com.

How much do billionaires really pay in taxes? "Today, the superrich control a greater share of America's wealth than during the Gilded Age of Carnegies and Rockefellers," said Gabriel Zucman in a recent New York Times opinion piece entitled, "It's Time to Tax the Billionaires." Zucman is an economist at the Paris School of Economics and the University of California, Berkeley, and a frequent collaborator with superstar economist Thomas Piketty, author of the extremely influential book on wealth inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. But today's guest, Phil Magness—an economic historian, author, and the David J. Theroux Chair in Political Economy at the Independent Institute—says the work of Piketty and his circle of inequality-obsessed colleagues is deeply flawed and sometimes outright deceptive. He points out that billionaires do pay taxes…a lot of taxes. And the inequality literature is riddled with errors and bad statistics. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: Magness' viral post debunking Zucman Zucman's article discussed in the introduction CBO: Tax credits awarded by quintile Zucman's explanation for excluding the Earned Income Tax Credit (p. 19) Tax Foundation: Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2024 Update Piketty's inequality U-graph Auten-Splinter adjustment, after-tax income for top 1 percent Piketty: "r > g" Piketty: Capital income has increased as labor income has fallen Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction to Just Asking Questions: Billionaires and Taxes 01:38 Unpacking the Misleading Tax Rate Graphs 06:38 The Political Motivations Behind Misleading Tax Narratives 15:39 Analyzing the Impact of Tax Credits on Lower-Income Earners 22:32 The Real Tax Burden: A Closer Look at Wealthy Americans' Contributions 27:05 Countering Piketty's Inequality Data With Accurate Accounting 34:58 The Practical Problems With a Wealth Tax 40:04 Piketty's Inequality Narrative and Its Flaws 48:50 Global Financial Transparency and Taxation Proposals 54:40 The Moral and Economic Case Against High Taxation 57:48 Listener Q&A: Defending the Show's Title Producer: John OsterhoudtThe post Phil Magness: Who Really Pays the Most Taxes? appeared first on Reason.com.

What should colleges do about pro-Palestinian encampments? College students across America are camping out to demand their universities divest all investments with Israeli-linked companies that they claim profit from the occupation and oppression of Palestine. It's gone on for weeks, and even administrators at schools known as bastions of progressive activism are finally getting fed up. Harvard's president is threatening "involuntary leave" for protesters. Columbia announced on Monday that it canceled its main commencement ceremony for safety reasons. The University of Southern California has, too. UCLA called in the cops to clear its encampment, and police have arrested more than 2,100 protesters across all U.S. campuses since April, according to the Associated Press. Congress has continued to interrogate Ivy League presidents, and a bill to explicitly define antisemitism for civil rights law enforcement purposes just passed the House with overwhelming support last week. Joining us today to talk about the protests, the backlash, and what it all means for free speech on campus and the wider world is Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and host of the free speech podcast So to Speak. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: Full Text of the Antisemitism Awareness Act International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism. Columbia students define "divest" Harvard President Garber Breaks Silence on Encampment, Threatens 'Involuntary Leave' for Protesters Columbia cancels commencement amid campus protests Map: Where College Protesters Have Been Arrested or Detained Polling 1,200 college students on Encampments What Americans think about recent pro-Palestinian campus protests | YouGov Americans' Views of Both Israel, Palestinian Authority Down Majority in US Say Israel's Reasons for Fighting Hamas Are Valid | Pew Research Center Letter from judges saying they won't hire Columbia grads as clerks Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:33 Free Speech on Campus: A Conversation with Nico Perrino 02:13 The Historical Context of Campus Protests and Free Speech Debates 07:28 The Legal and Social Implications of Campus Encampments 31:38 The Role of Civil Disobedience in Campus Activism 38:31 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Campus Protests Through Polling Data 43:07 Congressional Involvement in Campus Free Speech Issues 50:48 The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2023: A New Legal Battleground 54:56 The Complexities of Free Speech and Political Expression on Campus 59:17 Navigating the Tensions of Privacy and Free Speech 01:03:42 The Role of Public Shaming and Cancel Culture in Free Speech Debates 01:20:03 Nico Wants You To Ask Yourself This Question About Censorship 01:23:58 Just Ask Us Questions: A Libertarian's Evolving Stance on Immigration Producer: John OsterhoudtThe post Nico Perrino: When Does Protesting Become a Crime? appeared first on Reason.com.

Should kids medically transition between genders? The number of kids diagnosed with gender dysphoria has surged in recent years. In America, diagnoses have almost tripled from about 15,000 to more than 42,000 from 2017 to 2021. In the United Kingdom, the number of minors referred to the national Gender Identity Development Service grew from 51 in 2009 to 1,766 by 2016, leading to yearslong waitlists for care within the government-run health system. This surge caused England's National Health Service to commission an extensive study of youth gender treatment. That study is known as the Cass Review, and its results dropped on April 10. The review's author, former head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Hilary Cass, concluded that modern youth gender dysphoria interventions are informed by "remarkably weak evidence" drawing on studies "exaggerated by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint" and that "we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress." The science, it turns out, is not settled—or anywhere close to it. NHS England opted to stop routine prescriptions of puberty blockers following the review's publication, as have NHS Scotland and the Welsh government. Major American medical groups such as the American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics, all of which endorse prescribing puberty blockers for gender-dysphoric kids, have yet to officially respond. American media coverage of the Cass Review, which could throw the entire youth gender treatment paradigm in this country into question, has been remarkably muted. But today's guest is never muted. Jesse Singal has been covering this topic—and taken a lot of heat for it—for years in the pages of publications such as The Atlantic, The Dispatch, and on his Substack, Singal-Minded. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: The Cass Review "Putting numbers on the rise in children seeking gender care" "What Went Wrong at the Tavistock Clinic for Trans Teenagers?" | SEGM "Hilary Cass: I can't travel on public transport after gender report" "Mermaids' response to The Cass Review - In Depth" States with legislation to curb "gender-affirming care" M.P. Dawn Butler admits to misrepresenting the Cass Review Sources referenced in Just Ask Us Questions: Reason TV: "A private libertarian city in Honduras" Reason TV: "Don't 'Abolish the Police.' Privatize Them." Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction to the Show and Topic: Kids and Gender Transition 02:14 Media Coverage and Jesse Singal's Insights 04:50 The Impact of Social Media and Activism on Youth Gender Medicine 09:36 Exploring the Tavistock Controversy and Its Implications 12:38 The Debate on Informed Consent and Medical Ethics 28:37 Social Contagion Theory and Its Effects on Gender Identity 34:03 Scrutinizing the Science Behind Gender-Affirming Treatments 42:32 Navigating the Complexities of Youth Gender Medicine 43:03 The Role of Data and Evidence in Gender Transition Debates 44:34 The Impact of Politics and Misinformation on Transgender Health Care 47:34 Exploring the Cass Review's Recommendations on Gender Medicine 49:24 Comparing Gender Medicine Practices: U.K. vs. USA 51:25 The Influence of Activism and Politics on Medical Standards 55:16 Addressing the Concerns Around Puberty Blockers and Hormone Treatments 01:20:32 Just Ask Us Questions: A Discussion of Anarcho-Capitalist Security Producer: John OsterhoudtThe post Jesse Singal: Should Kids Medically Transition? appeared first on Reason.com.

Why has President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's dark side been hidden? Scholars consistently rank FDR as one of America's greatest presidents. The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey ranked him number two, below Lincoln, and respondents to the Siena College Research Institute studies have ranked him number one in six out of seven survey years.  Perhaps it's understandable that the longest-serving president who saw the country through the Great Depression and a World War II victory would rank so highly. But do presidential scholars exhibit a major blind spot when it comes to the authoritarian aspects of FDR and his New Deal agenda? That's what today's guest argues in his book, The New Deal's War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR's Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance.  Those civil liberties abuses, and how they permanently changed America and the relationship between citizen and state, are the subject of this episode. The book's author, David Beito, is an American historian and history professor at the University of Alabama and a research fellow at the Independent Institute. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: The New Deal's War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR's Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey Hugo Black Audio-Visual Library FDR's Four Freedoms Speech Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:33 FDR's Legacy: A Closer Look at the New Deal's Impact on Civil Liberties 02:03 Exploring FDR's Authoritarian Tactics and Media Manipulation 05:00 The Power of Radio: FDR's Fireside Chats and Control Over Public Opinion 39:09 The Black Committee: The Beginnings of Mass Surveillance in America 44:38 The Black Committee's Investigation and Western Union's Resistance 45:26 The Extensive Telegram Surveillance Operation 48:09 Legal Battles and Public Outcry Against Privacy Violations 51:17 The Minton Committee's Further Overreach and the War on Fake News 58:13 FDR's Court Packing Plan and Its Echoes in Modern Politics 01:04:59 Revisiting FDR's Role in Japanese Internment 01:17:15 The New Deal's Dark Side: A Critical Reexamination 01:24:59 Reflecting on FDR's Legacy and Its Implications Today Producer: John OsterhoudtThe post David Beito: Was FDR a Tyrant? appeared first on Reason.com.

Is war with Iran coming?  Last Saturday, Iran launched hundreds of armed drones and missiles to attack Israel in retaliation for an airstrike on an Iranian consulate in Syria that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, including a general. Israel and the U.S. report that they intercepted most of the drones, and the sole known casualty was a 7-year-old girl critically injured by falling missile shrapnel. Israel has not retaliated…yet.  In the wake of all that, today's guest had something to say about the way some American activists loudly defended the Islamic Republic of Iran after staying conspicuously silent during protests against the regime and crackdowns that began almost two years ago. That was Elica Le Bon, a first-generation Iranian immigrant born in the U.K. and currently living in Los Angeles, where she practices law and runs several large social media accounts that bring attention to the plight of the Iranian people. On the latest episode of Just Asking Questions, she talked to Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe about the Iranian attack, the state of the protest movement and how social media has affected it, and her recent televised exchange with Dave Smith.  Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: Amnesty International: Iran executes 853 people in eight-year high amid relentless repression and renewed 'war on drugs' Mahsa Amini | Flickr  Iran Population 2024 (Live)  Dancing Iranian taxi driver becomes unlikely anti-regime hero Iranian advanced nuclear centrifuges: https://isis-online.org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/Analysis_of_February_2024_IAEA_Iran_Verification_Report_March_4_2024_Final.pdf Producer: John OsterhoudtThe post Elica Le Bon: Is War with Iran Coming? appeared first on Reason.com.

At least 40 U.S. colleges still require a COVID vaccine, according to nocollegemandates.com, an initiative that tracks and opposes the mandates. Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine and biostatistician who lost his job at Harvard for refusing the vaccine even though he'd already survived a COVID infection, says such mandates are "unscientific" and "unethical." Harvard has since dropped the mandate, but Kulldorff likely won't be getting his job there back anytime soon because the Harvard-affiliated hospital that employs medical school faculty still requires a COVID vaccine.    Kulldorff, who created one of the earliest disease outbreak surveillance software systems, was also booted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) COVID-19 vaccine safety commission and regularly de-boosted on Twitter and YouTube for his views. Former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins labeled him and his co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration "fringe epidemiologists" and demanded a "quick and devastating…takedown" of their call to end lockdowns in favor of a "focused protection" strategy.  Kulldorff joined Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions to talk about his ordeal at Harvard, his retrospective on the pandemic and the cultural and governmental response to it, and his involvement in the ongoing Supreme Court case Murthy v. Missouri, in which plaintiffs argue that federal agencies violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to take down certain content about COVID-19.  Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or on the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: NoCollegeMandates.com's Google Sheet list of U.S. colleges with and without vaccine mandates  COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Group at the CDC Flagged Kulldorff tweet  Our World in Data: vaccinated vs. unvaccinated U.S. COVID deaths "Sweden during the pandemic," by Johan Norberg "Serious adverse events of special interest following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in randomized trials in adults" Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo's recommendation on COVID vaccines The Food and Drug Administration and CDC's response to Lapado's recommendation "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False," by John P. A. Ioannidis Timestamps: 0:00 - Forty colleges still require COVID vaccines 2:17 - What happened between Martin Kulldorff and Harvard 5:57 - How vaccine mandates are unscientific and unethical 7:54 - Why is there a push to vaccinate children? 11:30 - Being a dissident at Harvard 14:00 - Fired by the CDC for being too pro-vaccine 19:25 - Vaccines are good for some while bad for others. 21:33 - Being censored online for speaking the truth 25:54 - How masks were ineffective during COVID 28:29 - There has been no reckoning for what happened during COVID. 30:31 - No one should be allowed to violate the First Amendment. 36:21 - How Sweden handled COVID 42:19 - How a good health system kept COVID deaths down 44:25 - What is jawboning? 47:20 - What is the best public health use of the mRNA vaccines? 50:22 - How COVID vaccine data is unreliable 55:32 - What should the COVID policy recommendations be now? 59:16 - Is the peer-review process flawed? 1:03:24 - Will politicians ever be held accountable for their COVID policies? The post Why Did Harvard Fire Martin Kulldorff? appeared first on Reason.com.

"I discovered something remarkably similar to an alien co-intelligence," wrote Ethan Mollick in his new book Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, describing the "sleepless nights" he experienced upon first encountering ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2022. Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of the One Useful Thing Substack, has studied, taught, and written about the effects of artificial intelligence on work and education for years. He joined Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions to discuss the ways in which large language models like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are already transforming the workplace, the classroom, artistic production, and the truth-seeking process itself. In this episode, they discuss why you should treat your chatbot like a person even though it's not, how AI is "decomposing" jobs, what tools like OpenAI's Sora mean for the future of filmmaking, how to protect one's identity in the age of deepfakes, The New York Times' copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, the prospects for AI "doomsday," and whether regulation of AI is necessary or even possible. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or on the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Timecodes: 0:00- Creating a digital clone of yourself 3:21- What exactly is artificial intelligence? 5:40- No one knows why ChatGPT is so good 10:37- Why you should give your AI chatbot a personality 15:03- Microsoft's AI said it was in love with a reporter 22:21- Can AI replace business school? 23:47- How AI has already transformed the workplace 30:02- AI will "decompose" human jobs 35:50- Will AI replace therapists? 40:59- How will AI affect art? 45:05- Do you have a right to your image? 50:02- Why the New York Times is suing OpenAI 57:33-  Does AI content lack originality? 1:02:35- Are deep fakes a threat? 1:11:47- Four possible AI-infused futures Sources referenced in this conversation: "A Case Study on the Impact of ChatGPT on AI Conference Peer Reviews" 2. New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI 3. New York Times reporter Kevin Roose's conversation with Microsoft's AI 4. "Air Head," a short film by shy kids created with OpenAI's Sora The post Ethan Mollick: How Will AI Change Us? appeared first on Reason.com.

Immigration ranks as the second-most important issue among registered U.S. voters and the top issue for Republican voters, according to a Marist Poll/PBS NewsHour/NPR poll released last month. Perhaps that's because of the 3.2 million border encounters documented by Border Patrol in 2023—a new record high that's so far being outpaced this year. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who continues to erect razor wire fencing at the border despite a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting Texas from stopping federal agents from cutting through the barriers, has likely also heightened the salience of the issue for Republican voters. Even politicians in blue cities like New York are calling the influx a problem, with Mayor Eric Adams saying that the arrival of 110,000 asylum seekers over a year and a half would "destroy New York City" as shelters become overwhelmed.  What do libertarians, traditionally in favor of permissive immigration laws, have to say about this? The truth is, there's a divide. Today's episode of Just Asking Questions features two thinkers on either side of that divide laying out what they each believe is the ideal immigration policy. Libertarian podcaster and comedian Dave Smith said on the Liberty Lockdown show last month that "all of our troops should come home and be stationed around our borders." He continued saying that "if you believe in open borders right now, under current circumstances, you're an insane person, and you're as bad as a communist." That sparked a social media firestorm, which included exchanges between Smith and today's other guest, Chris Freiman, a professor at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University and author of several notable papers about the ethics of immigration.  Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or on the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: NPR/PBS NewsHouse/Marist Poll, Feb. 1, 2024  Nationwide Encounters | U.S. Customs and Border Protection (cbp.gov) Gallup: Nearly 900 Million Worldwide Wanted to Migrate in 2021 The Fiscal Impact of Immigration in the United States, by Alex Nowrasteh, Sarah Eckhardt, and Michael Howard, April 2023 U.S. Naturalizations: 2022 Annual Flow Report (dhs.gov) State Dept: Total immigrant visas issued, 2014-2022 Alex Nowrasteh's thread on X: "Immigration reduced the growth of the federal government…" September Startling Stats (house.gov) The post Dave Smith vs. Chris Freiman: What's the Ideal Immigration Policy? appeared first on Reason.com.