Bjorn Lomborg challenges apocalyptic climate change predictions and discusses his work with the Copenhagen Consensus. He presents 12 efficient solutions for the global poor, arguing they could save 4.2 million lives and generate $1.1 trillion in value annually. Topics also include addressing tuberculosis, investing in primary education, the declining reputation of the UN, skepticism in environmental discussions, and overcoming pessimism in media.

Johan Norberg, Swedish economist and author, discusses Sweden's pandemic policies. Topics include media coverage of Sweden's approach, low COVID-19 death rate, political culture, elder care homes, and debunking myths about Sweden's socialism.

Explore the resurgence of psychedelic drugs like MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD and their potential to revolutionize mental healthcare. Learn about the history of psychedelics, tensions between indigenous communities and medical practitioners, and arguments against the war on drugs. Discover the importance of involving indigenous populations in discussions about psychedelic legalization and harm reduction, and the potential benefits and risks of a world where psychedelics are normalized. Dive into the concept of neurodiversity and its potential to transform mental health interventions, while also exploring tensions surrounding authenticity and appropriation of psychedelics.

Psychiatrist Aaron Kheriaty discusses the persistence of COVID restrictions in schools and explores the impact of authoritarian measures on American society. They cover topics such as the influence of teachers unions, the effectiveness of interventions like masks, and the requirement of vaccine passports. The conversation also touches on the long-term effects of COVID setbacks on language acquisition, debates surrounding vaccine mandates in higher education, and strategies for opposing the implementation of surveillance and digital identification systems.

Former Texas governor and Trump administration member Rick Perry discusses the conservative case for psychedelics as legal medicine for veterans and individuals with PTSD. He highlights Ibogaine as a potent substance and advocates for logical conversations on immigration reform. The podcast also explores the potential benefits of psychedelic therapy for trauma survivors and emphasizes the importance of proper diagnosis, dosing, guidance, and follow-up. The host concludes by recommending other Reason-produced podcast series.

This is an audio version of The Reason Livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel. Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe sat down for a live discussion about the political and social ramifications of the indictments of Donald Trump with George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin. "Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election well deserves punishment from the standpoint of both retribution and deterrence," wrote Somin following the four-count indictment filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith in early August. "For the head of state in a democracy, there are few more serious crimes than using fraud to try to stay in power after losing an election." Somin also says "some of the charges seem compelling" in the case against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia. Critics of the indictments have pointed out the conspicuous timing of a scheduled trial date, accused Trump's prosecutors of trying to "criminalize speech," and suggested that the former president is being held to a double standard. Others worry the prosecution will inspire "ever more aggressive tit-for-tat investigations." Sources referenced in this conversation: "Retribution, Deterrence, and the Case for Prosecuting Trump for Conspiring to Overturn the 2020 Election," by Ilya Somin "The Georgia Case Against Trump," by Ilya Somin William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen on Trump's presidential eligibility and the 14th Amendment "FBI resisted opening probe into Trump's role in Jan. 6 for more than a year," by Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis John Eastman's memo for how to challenge the 2020 election results "Conservative Legal Luminaries Release Report Entitled 'Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election,'" by Ilya Somin "Section 3 Disqualifications for Democracy Preservation," by Ilya Somin Today's sponsor: Why We Can't Have Nice Things. A six-part Reason podcast series about the frustrating and foolish aspects of American trade policy that make everyday items more expensive. From last year's sudden shortages of baby formula to the Jones Act and President Lyndon Johnson's infamous "chicken war," host Eric Boehm sits down with industry experts and libertarian policy wonks to explore how these counterproductive rules got made—and explains why they can be so difficult to undo. BetterHelp. Are you at your best? Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of you—because when you feel empowered, you're more prepared to take on everything life throws at you. If you're thinking of giving therapy a try, BetterHelp is a great option. It's convenient, flexible, affordable, and entirely online. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. If you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there. The post Ilya Somin: Should Libertarians Support the Prosecutions of Trump? appeared first on Reason.com.

In June, I traveled to Denver with Zach Weissmueller to cover the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference, which was organized by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a group that has been working to gain approval of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and related ailments since the late 1980s. We produced a 30-minute documentary about what is rightly called today's "psychedelic renaissance," or a new flourishing of substances and subcultures that mostly went underground at the end of the 1960s. The documentary tells the history of psychedelics and how today's proponents of better living through chemistry are doing things in a very different way than Timothy Leary and others did back in the '60s. Rather than confront and antagonize the mainstream, MAPS is working within the system. You can watch the documentary here. MAPS founder Rick Doblin is, more than any other single person, the man behind today's psychedelic renaissance. Reason has been writing about him and MAPS for decades and his goal of getting Food and Drug Administration approval for MDMA-assisted therapy is on the near horizon (he predicts it will happen within a year). We spoke about a lot of topics related to drug policy, self-actualization, and the relationship between mainstream culture and countercultures. Doblin, who earned a Ph.D. in public policy to help him be more effective in changing laws, is a deep and nuanced thinker about the nuts and bolts of legislation and social change along with the more abstract and visionary "cognitive liberty" he hopes to accelerate. He's also one of the increasingly rare people who has built wide-ranging, beyond-partisan coalitions to effect policy change (at the opening of the MAPS conference in Denver, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a liberal Democrat, and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a conservative Republican, both spoke). Long-lasting social change only happens when a true consensus forms, and it takes a lot of work to build that sort of agreement, especially when you're talking about something as powerful and scary to many as psychedelics. Today's sponsor: Why We Can't Have Nice Things. A six-part Reason podcast series about the frustrating and foolish aspects of American trade policy that make everyday items more expensive. From last year's sudden shortages of baby formula to the Jones Act and President Lyndon Johnson's infamous "chicken war," host Eric Boehm sits down with industry experts and libertarian policy wonks to explore how these counterproductive rules got made—and explains why they can be so difficult to undo. BetterHelp. Are you at your best? Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of you—because when you feel empowered, you're more prepared to take on everything life throws at you. If you're thinking of giving therapy a try, BetterHelp is a great option. It's convenient, flexible, affordable, and entirely online. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. If you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there. The post Rick Doblin: The Man Behind the 'Psychedelic '20s' appeared first on Reason.com.

This is an audio version of The Reason Livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel. The topic this week was a lawsuit challenging California Community Colleges' new diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility—or DEIA—teaching standards, which allegedly "mandate viewpoint conformity" and "compel professors to teach and preach the State's perspective," according to the lawsuit Palsgaard v. Christian, filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE.   Reason's Zach Weissmuller and Liz Wolfe welcomed FIRE attorney Jessie Appleby and Bill Blanken, a plaintiff in the case and a chemistry professor at Reedley College in California. Blanken says the standards advanced by the state's community college board amount to  "compelled speech" in the classroom and that he will not comply with them.   We talked about the details of the case, dove into the substance of the proposed changes in the classroom, discussed the origins of the DEIA standards that now pervade academia and the corporate world, and examined FIRE's other case against Florida's Stop WOKE Act, which prohibits exactly the kind of classroom instruction that California's new standards compel. Today's sponsors: Why We Can't Have Nice Things. A six-part Reason magazine podcast series about the frustrating and foolish aspects of American trade policy that make everyday items more expensive. From last year's sudden shortages of baby formula to the Jones Act and President Lyndon Johnson's infamous "chicken war," host Eric Boehm sits down with industry experts and libertarian policy wonks to explore how these counterproductive rules got made—and explains why they can be so difficult to undo. The post Jessie Appleby and Bill Blanken: Do California Community Colleges 'Mandate Viewpoint Conformity'? appeared first on Reason.com.

Eli Lake, a leading national security journalist, discusses the excessive state secrecy, the concept of the 'deep state' and its actions, the FBI's approach to domestic terrorism, the controversial legacy of the Iraq war, Vivek Ramaswami's criticism of the FBI and CIA, and the decision-making process in war intervention.

Today's episode is an audio version of The Reason Livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel. The topic this week was the rise of Javier Milei, a self-described libertarian and Austrian school economist who defied polling expectations in Argentina's recent presidential primary elections, finishing in first with 30 percent of the vote. Milei will head into the October general election as the frontrunner.  Reason's Zach Weissmueller spoke with Gloria Álvarez, a libertarian author and radio and TV host who is a fierce critic of socialism and populism in Latin America and who has declared she's running for president in her home country of Guatemala, and Eduardo Marty, an Argentine political economist who founded the Foundation for Intellectual Responsibility and supports Milei's candidacy. They talked about Milei's economic policies—which include slashing taxes, abolishing the central bank, and dollarizing an economy beset by triple-digit inflation—and reacted to fiery media appearances in which he lashes out at socialists and calls for the removal of a "parasitic" political class that he says has wrecked and plundered Argentina. They also analyzed U.S. media coverage of Milei, with some outlets characterizing him as an Argentinian Trump and a "far-right libertarian." Today's sponsors: Why We Can't Have Nice Things. A six-part Reason magazine podcast series about the frustrating and foolish aspects of American trade policy that make everyday items more expensive. From last year's sudden shortages of baby formula to the Jones Act and President Lyndon Johnson's infamous "chicken war," host Eric Boehm sits down with industry experts and libertarian policy wonks to explore how these counterproductive rules got made—and explains why they can be so difficult to undo. The post Gloria Álvarez and Eduardo Marty: The Potential for a Libertarian President in Argentina appeared first on Reason.com.