Free Thoughts

Tyler Cowen joins us this week to talk about the slowing pace of innovation and growth in the United States over the past few decades. Has American society become too complacent? What would a more dynamic society look like?Show Notes and Further ReadingCowen’s book on the subject is The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream (2017).Cowen refers to this study by Enrico Moretti and Chang-Tai Hsieh called “Why Do Cities Matter?,” which claims that “Lowering regulatory constraints in [major] cities to the level of the median city would expand their work force and increase U.S. GDP by 9.5%.”Trevor mentions this episode of Free Thoughts featuring Yuval Levin, “Stuck in Political Nostalgia.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown joins us this week for a discussion about sex work. What’s the difference between sex trafficking and prostitution? How much sex trafficking is going on in the United States?Show Notes and Further ReadingMuch of Brown’s work at Reason focuses on sex work, here’s a reverse-chronological list of all the articles she’s written there.We talked in detail about Brown’s September 2016 Reason cover story, “The Truth About the Biggest U.S. Sex Trafficking Story of the Year.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew Turner joins us to talk about his experience being stationed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in 2009 and 2010.What is working at Guantanamo Bay like? Who are the detainees? How did they end up there? Are we ever going to be able to close the facilities there?Show Notes and Further ReadingHere’s the Vice News article by Jason Leopold that Turner was interviewed in, “Guantanamo’s Untold Trauma,” and the accompanying Vice News Tonight video.Turner’s Reddit AMA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emma Ashford joins us this week to discuss the rise of the Islamic State. How is ISIS different from Al Qaeda and other terror groups? Does it pose an existential threat to the Western world?Where did the Islamic State come from? What do they believe? Is America responsible for ISIS’s rise to power? What’s their end game? How will Trump “deal with” ISIS, and how is that different from Obama’s policies?Show Notes and Further ReadingAshford mentions the work of Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross on understanding links between terrorist groups and lone-wolf attackers. This op-ed in Foreign Affairs is a good summation of that work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yuval Levin joins us to talk about political nostalgia and American individualism. Why do the political right and left both seem to be stuck yearning for the 1950s and early 60s?Why do baby boomers have such an outsized influence on American culture and politics? Did government work better in the 1950s and 60s? How has the country changed in the last half-century?Show Notes and Further ReadingLevin’s most recent book is The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism (2016). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter T. Leeson joins us this week to discuss rational choice theory as it applies to self-governance. What happens in the absence of government?We discuss the difference between government and governance, what it means to be stateless, and how anarchy is perceived in the world today.Show Notes and Further ReadingLeeson’s book on this topic is Anarchy Unbound: Why Self-Governance Works Better Than You Think (2014).Leeson cites Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (1949) as highly influential to his thinking.Here are a few other Free Thoughts episodes having to do with anarchy and self-governance:The Distinction Between Governance and Government with Edward StringhamThe Legacy of Roy A. Childs, Jr. with George H. SmithMust You Obey Government?The Problem of Political Authority with Michael Huemer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patrick G. Eddington joins us this week to tell us about the history of the Central Intelligence Agency, how the CIA operates, and what the new Wikileaks revelations mean for our privacy online.What does the CIA do, and how does it go about that? How close to reality does Hollywood get when portraying the CIA? What’s the difference between the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA? What have these new revelations told us about what the CIA is doing?Correction: Eddington states that the Privacy and Civil Liberites Oversight Board was composed of three Republicans and two Democrats under Obama; it was actually composed of two Republicans and three Democrats. Today, the only remaining board member is a Republican.Show Notes and Further ReadingEddington mentions Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State (2015).He also mentions a new study by our colleague Adam Bates, “Stringray: A New Frontier in Police Surveillance.”Here is the previous Free Thoughts episode we recorded with Eddington on the CIA’s torture program. Listeners may also be interested in this episode with Julian Sanchez, “Deconstructing the Surveillance State,” and this episode with Matthew Feeney and Adam Bates, “How New Technology Is Changing Law Enforcement.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aaron and Trevor have a discussion about the political authority of the state. Should one obey the government? Is there a compelling reason to? Why does it matter?Show Notes and Further ReadingListeners interested in this topic should check out our episode of Free Thoughts with Michael Huemer on this topic, and this Guide lecture with Jason Brennan.Aaron mentions Socrates’ actions in Plato’s Crito, here is our Free Thoughts episode on that dialogue.Trevor talks about his lecture “The Statrix: How Government Warps Our Perception of the World.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Goettler joins us this week to talk about his role at the Cato Institute, Cato’s history of 40 years of advancing liberty, and what’s next for public policy organizations more generally and for Cato specifically.What is a think tank, and what does it do? What does Cato do and how is it different? What’s the difference between being oriented towards politics and being oriented towards ideas and principles? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Van Doren joins us this week to talk about health care economics. We talk about risk aversion, risk neutrality, expected value statements, guaranteed renewable care, the ACA as a health care redistribution program, and health-status insurance. How much should we spend on health care, and how would we know the answer to that question?Show Notes and Further ReadingVan Doren mentions “The Market for Lemons,” (1970) a fascinating concept and paper by George Akerlof.Mark Pauly’s 2003 paper “Incentive-Compatible Guaranteed Renewable Health Insurance” is mentioned several times in the episode.Van Doren also talks about John Cochrane’s writings on health-status insurance. Here is a Cato Policy Analysis from 2009 on the topic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.