Free To Choose Media Podcast

Adam Smith was a moral philosopher, a bold voice of the Scottish Enlightenment, the world’s first economist, and author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. But in todays’ seemingly ruthless competitive environment, where the stakes are high, can ethical and honest businesses still prosper? How are Smith’s ideas about markets and morality relevant today? Today’s podcast is from our public television documentary film, Morality and Markets, the first of a two-part series, The Real Adam Smith: A Personal Exploration by Johan Norberg. Listen now.

In our 2009 documentary, The Power of the Poor, Hernando de Soto and his team of researchers found that an astonishing 98% of all businesses in Peru were extralegal, as was 88% of all rural property. Extralegals had constructed seven out of every ten buildings, had run almost all of its public transportation system, and built and owned the vast majority of Lima’s markets. It was clear the majority of Peru’s entrepreneurs had been locked out of the legal system. De Soto and his researchers at the Institute for Liberty and Democracy would risk their lives to let them in. …

Somewhere on Earth, at this very minute, a child is beginning its journey through life. 250 babies are born every minute, 15 thousand an hour, 132 million a year – each and every year. Among them may be the potential to cure disease, or change the course of world history, because people are the world’s ultimate resource. Around the world, there are enormous and complicated challenges. But extraordinary change can happen when ordinary people have the tools and the freedom to make their own decisions. Free market incentives are spectacularly changing lives and entire economies over much of the world. …

While still in college, Barbara Branden, and her soon to be husband Nathaniel, began a relationship with Ayn Rand that lasted for almost two decades. They studied and discussed her ideas in depth and travelled the country speaking about Rand’s objectivist philosophy. The ideas were controversial and were not well accepted by the general public. In 1987 Bob Chitester sat down with Barbara to talk about the time she spent with Rand, creating a deeper understanding of Rand, her ideas and philosophy. This one-hour interview is a fascinating look into Rand’s life and her relationship with the Brandens.

Although recorded in the early 1990s, self-esteem was discussed as much then as it is today. Do you think it’s true that “…many, many groups that are the targets of prejudice and discrimination don’t show terrible low levels of self-esteem that a lot of psychological theory suggests they ought to have?” Listen in as Dr. Jennifer Crocker, former Professor of Psychology at SUNY-Buffalo, and Dr. Roy F. Baumeister, former E.B. Smith Professor in Liberal Arts at Case Western Reserve University, discuss surprising research findings on the methods people use to protect their self-esteem. The results may surprise you. Listen to …

In 1993 three giants in the field of neural research got together to discuss their work and how it related to learning and memory. Dr. Timothy Tully, former Senior Staff Investigator at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Dr. Eric Kandel, 2000 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology/Medicine, and the late Dr. Patricia Goldman-Rakic, Professor of Neuroscience at the Yale University School of Medicine, spent time discussing their different research approaches and what they were discovering about how human beings learn, acquire new information, and hold on to it. From Pavlov to genetics, these scientists were opening new doors to understanding how …

Larry Arnn, current President of Hillsdale College, met with his former teacher in 1999, the late distinguished fellow of the Claremont Institute, Harry Jaffa, to discuss his political philosophies. Jaffa believed the American Founders, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington, established the nation on political principles traceable from Locke to Aristotle. While he believed that governments are instituted to protect rights, he acknowledged the higher ends they serve, primarily happiness. Listen to this week’s Free To Choose Media Podcast, “Founders.”

When two giants in their respective fields get together for a casual conversation, what topics are on the agenda? Listen in as the late George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, and the late Nobel economist Gary Becker discuss the International Monetary Fund, America’s dependence on oil, micro-lending, demography, immigration, and drugs. The subjects are as relevant today as they were in this 2006 recording, “A Conversation with George P. Shultz and Gary Becker.”

The late George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, and the late Robert Conquest, former Stanford Research Fellow and noted Soviet researcher, shared anecdotes about their contacts and experiences with the Soviet Union. Both men were impressed with former Soviet President Gorbachev’s candor and intelligence. During a visit to Stanford to see Shultz, Gorbachev talked about an earthquake in Armenia that was of similar severity to one experienced by San Francisco and how all the buildings in Armenia had fallen down – not so in San Francisco. Gorbachev said, “… we can’t get people to build things …

In 1987, David Horowitz, a political activist, author, and founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, sat down with Bob Chitester to talk about his transformation from far left to far right. Born into a family that were members of the Communist Party USA, he spent his youth attending marches and communist summer camps. In the mid-’80s, Horowitz had a final reckoning with his years of doubts about his affiliation with the left and became a conservative. “The best intentions can lead to the worst results,” he wrote in “The Village Voice” in 1986. “I had believed in the left …