The Curious Task

Alex Aragona speaks with Tom Palmer as he explores the institutions and conditions that cause peace and war. References from Episode 67 with Tom Palmer Tom Palmer’s book, Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice can be purchased on Amazon Canada at this link. Tom has additionally wrote and/or edited the following works: The Morality of Capitalism: What Your Professors Won't Tell You (link) After the Welfare State (link) Why Liberty (link) Self-Control or State Control? You Decide (link) Peace, Love, and Liberty - the basis of this episode from which many of quotes, interview references, and military case studies were selected (link) Dignity and Democracy with co-author Matt Warner (publication coming out next year) Erik Gartzke found that trading countries are less likely to war in his article, The Capitalist Peace, which is available online. Tom’s Interview with a Businessman for Peace with Chris Rufer on peacemaking in business and trade, appears in Chapter 4 of Peace, Love, and Liberty. Frédéric Bastiat’s was an economist and peace advocate who argued the costs of long-term consumption from tax-produced weaponry in his book, That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen, which can be read on the Mises Institute’s website.   Robert Higgs’ article, Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s, (featured in The Journal of Economic History) clarified how productive efforts in jeeps and vans shipped to other countries do not constitute economic benefit due to the lack of private vehicle production. This article can be accessed here through an active JSTOR account or your educational institution. Tom’s essay, Peace is a Choice, presents a case study on political science professor and former US government official Madeline Albright and her view of the exemplary nation and how professors have a tendency to think about wars differently than those who have witnessed them. This is a chapter in Peace, Love, and Liberty. A transcript of Colin Powell’s infamous 2003 speech to the United Nations on the disarmament of Iraq which touches on themes of human lives and consequence can be read on The Washington Post archives. Tom’s recommended two German novels of the Great War to enrich an understanding of war from different perspectives on anguish and glory, respectively: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich M. Remarque (link) and Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger (link). Parker Thomas Moon’s book, Imperialism and World Politics, highlights the devaluation of important political science questions when personal pronouns are employed during conflict. This book is available on Google Books at this link. Joshua Greene’s book discussing our psychological propensities to cooperate and designate teams to destroy other groups, Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them is available on Amazon Canada for purchase here. Robert Musil’s book, The Man Without Qualities, explores how a nation exists to offset responsibilities without remorse and is available for purchase on Amazon at this link. Samuel P. Huntington’s study, The Clash of Civilizations?, noting how much territory is under military control can be viewed at this link through an active JSTOR or partner institution account. Tom cites Carl Schmitt and his theory on the irreconcilibity of conflicts as a foundation for solidarity in the podcast. An overview of Schmitt’s essential works was published by John P. McCormick from the University of Chicago in the Annual Review of Political Science at this link. Chapter Five of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, covering the types of friendships human beings can have, was briefly mentioned on the podcast and can be read at this link courtesy of McMaster University’s Faculty of Social Sciences. Ernesto Laclau emphasizes the importance of identifying the enemy for successful populist rhetoric in his book, On Populist Reason, available on Amazon Canada here. George Orwell’s essay on how language can be operationalized to “obscure pure violence,” Politics and the English Language, can be accessed online at this link.

Alex Aragona speaks with Virginia Postrel as she explores how her newest book traces how textiles shaped our modern societies. References from Episode 66 with Virginia Postrel Virgina Postrel is the author of The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion; The Substance of Style: How The Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness; The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, and The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World, featuring the majority of this episode’s quotes and chapter references. All titles are available for order on Amazon (book titles are hyperlinked). Steve Horwitz’s book, Hayek's Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions, commentates gender roles over time and can be purchased from Amazon Canada at this link. Virginia mention’s David Friedman’s study on Medieval Iceland’s cloth currency and can be read here. John Styles, a historian of the industrial revolution, noted how Northern Italy outnumbered Lanarkshire’s water-powered factories in his work, Fashion, Textiles and the Origins of Industrial Revolution, available at this link. You can learn more about the Caraglio silk-throwing mill in Piedmont, Italy that Virgina recommends in the podcast at this link.

Alex Aragona speaks with Eric Merkley as he explores the reasons why the public often mistrusts experts. References from Episode 65 with Eric Merkley Eric has a list of his publications on his website.  Alex references the following excerpts from Eric’s article “Anti-Intellectualism, Populism, and Motivated Resistance to Expert Consensus,” which can be accessed through an active account with Oxford Academic or your Institution at this link: “… anti-intellectualism, the generalized mistrust and suspicion of intellectuals and experts...” “Populism and anti-intellectualism have a complex relationship. They are connected to one another, but the latter should not be seen as a component of the former.” Alex also references the following excerpts from Eric’s article “Are Experts (News)Worthy? Balance, Conflict, and Mass Media Coverage of Expert Consensus,” which can be accessed through an active account with Taylor and Francis Online or your Institution at this link: “The fault for sharply diverging opinions between experts and the public may not entirely rest with citizens, however. Scholars must also be attentive to the political information environment – the information space used by citizens to learn about political issues – of which the news media is a critical part.” “News coverage of expert consensus on general matters of policy is likely limited as a result of journalists’ emphasis in news production on novelty and drama at the expense of thematic context.” Bill Clinton’s speech on American protectionism from the Washington Boeing Hangar is available for viewing on Youtube here.  More contextual information on the top-down model of attitude formation is available from this study published on the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health or this article by Ryan M. Stolier and Jonathan B. Freeman. Martin A. Nie published an article on Bill Clinton and Al Gore’s relationship to the environment for Presidential Studies Quarterly, which can be accessed with an active JSTOR account here. You can read Eric’s article, “The causes and consequences of COVID-19 misperceptions: understanding the role of news and social media,” that was featured on the Harvard Kennedy School’s Misinformation Review at this link. It discusses how social media is more responsible for misinformation than newsmedia (infodemic).

Alex Aragona speaks with Bart Wilson as he explores the natural tendencies of humans in relation to their views and attitudes on property. References from Episode 64 with Bart Wilson You can purchase Bart Wilson’s book, The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and The Human Mind on Amazon Canada. Bart referenced a study by linguists Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka on the conceptual semantics of possession found in every language, which may be accessed through ScienceDirect at this link. The full Bing episode, Not Yours, which demonstrates the morality of possession within children is available for viewing on Youtube. Bart’s laboratory study, “Exchange and Specialization as a Discovery Process,” was co-authored with Sean Crockett and Vernon L. Smith and appeared in volume 119, issue 539 of The Economic Journal (2009). You can access an e-version of the article through Wiley Online Library. In the podcast, Bart draws upon the whaling norms in the absence of formal sea jurisdictions featured in Robert C. Ellickson’s publication, Order without Law, and additionally informed one of his experiments’ testing for the rules of competition. Order without Law is available for purchase from the Harvard University Press’ website. A PDF copy of The Case of the Swans that was briefly mentioned by Bart and contains the concept of “hath property in” is available for viewing on CommonLII here.  You can purchase the Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans study, The Semantics of English Propositions, from which Bart illustrates the lingual relationship between physical objects and functionality in the podcast directly from the publisher’s website. 

Alex Aragona speaks with Michael Strong as he explores how entrepreneurship improves the lives of people all over the world.  References 1. “Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems” by Michael Strong and John Mackey Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Be-Solution-Entrepreneurs-Conscious-Capitalists/dp/0470450037 2. “The Magic Washing Machine” video by Hans Rosling Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZoKfap4g4w&ab_channel=TED

Alex Aragona speaks with Cara Zwibel as she offers her thoughts on whether we can maintain our civil liberties during an emergency like a pandemic, and how we can do so. References from Episode 62 with Cara Zwibel This is the website for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. The Government of Canada has sector and industry-specific guidelines in place for the COVID-19 pandemic, which may be reviewed here. You can refresh yourself on the articles of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on the Canada Justice Laws Website. You can read about the Government of Canada’s travel restrictions and position on face coverings (Note: provinces and territories may have varying mandatory rules on face coverings). Provincial and territorial travel restrictions may be accessed through this official masterlist. Taylor v. Her Majesty the Queen, 2020 NLSC 125 is the Newfoundland Court challenge pursued by the CCLA. The transcript of Cara’s interview with The Halifax Examiner can be read here. This is the CCLA’s letter to the Correctional Service of Canada outlining their concerns “regarding the health and well-being of the inmates and staff in Canada’s federal correctional institutions.” A link to the CCLA’s press release on their mission to support Toronto’s homeless population can be accessed here. 

Alex Aragona speaks with Bryan Caplan about the value of a formal education, and compares the alleged benefits against the reality. References from Episode 61 with Bryan Caplan You can purchase Bryan Caplan’s New York Times best-seller, The Myth of the Rational Voter from Amazon Canada at this link. His other publications include Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids (book), The Case Against Education (the book upon which this episode was based), and Open Borders (graphic novel).  This is an outline of Bryan’s upcoming work on Poverty: Who to Blame. You can refer to a breakdown of Bryan’s study of the Economic Models of Education, where he operationalizes his definition of “human capital purism” here. Bryan builds off of Michael Spence’s work on signaling. One of Michael’s publications, Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets, can be accessed with an active JSTOR account. Bryan briefly uses the term Catch-22 that was coined by Joseph Heller’s novel of the same name, which can be purchased through Amazon Canada. There is a reference to the Indian caste system when Bryan was comparing the inclinations of degree-bearers to marry those who have a degree at a similar level. A thorough study of the sociopolitics of identity and status under the Indian caste system may be read here.  While discussing how to discipline thinking about the intelligent life in the universe, Bryan references the Drake Equation whose analysis by Leonor Sierra (University of Rochester) can be reviewed on NASA’s website. The Corporate Finance Institute published a rundown on the meaning of “austerity,” which can be read here. You can watch The Pianist, which Bryan references while forecasting relevancies in employer consideration, on Amazon Prime.

Alex Aragona speaks with Eric Schliesser as he explores the history of the term "neoliberalism," its eventual evolution, and what neoliberalism means today. References from episode 60 with Eric Schliesser Here is a list of Eric Schliesser’s publications. Dr. Karen Horn and Dr. Stefan Kolev’s joint work, entitled Economic Thinking, has a German version available for purchase on Amazon Canada at this link. Walter Lippmann’s book, The Good Society, which went on to become an international hit as for “its insight of neoliberalism as the intellectual status quo in the 19th century” can be purchased on Amazon Canada at this link. Marxist Scholar David Harvey’s book, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, where he equated neoliberalism “to everything he hated about capitalism” is available on Amazon Canada at this link. Mishel Foucault’s lecture series where he traced the history of neoliberalism from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries was published as The Birth of Biopolitics, which can be purchased on Amazon Canada at this link. Mark Buchanan’s article Wealth Happens analyzes the the “butchers and bakers” quote that was mentioned in passing by Alex Aragona at this online publishing from The Harvard Business Review. Milton Friedman’s article, Laws That Do Harm, is available for viewing at the Center of the American Experiment’s blog, which features the quote to “judge public policies by their results, not their intentions.” According to Eric Schliesser, the harm principle is a core liberal value and can be extended to markets. You can read about the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s lesson on John Stuart Mill’s version of the harm principle (Chapter 3.6) here. You can read Milton Friedman’s The Basic Principles of Liberalism here. You can watch Milton Friedman speak about the enemies of markets on the American Enterprise Institute’s website at this link. The Elgar Companian to the Chicago School of Economics can be purchased directly from the publishers here. Alex Aragona quotes this blogpost, How ‘Neoliberalism’ came to refer to Everything I reject from Digressions&Impressions.

Alex Aragona speaks with Lynne Kiesling as she explores the current structure of energy systems and delivery, and how they can be restructured in more market-oriented ways. References from Episode 59 with Lynne Kiesling You can buy Lynne Kiesling’s book, Deregulation, Innovation and Market Liberalization: Electricity Regulation in a Continually Evolving Environment, on Amazon Canada at this link. You can read more about Ben Franklin’s famous Kite-in-a-Thunderstorm Experiment that was briefly mentioned by Lynne here. Paul M. Sweezy’s analysis of Schumpeter’s Theory of Innovation may be accessed through an active account with the JSTOR database. Adam Smith’s law of mutually-beneficial commerce and exchange was introduced in his book, The Wealth of Nations, whose Second Part has been summarized in a module by the Cato Institute here. An in-depth explanation of Adam Smith’s benefits of free trade and commercial society may be read here. You can read Israel M. Kirzner’s article on Hayek and the Meaning of Subjectivism here.

Alex Aragona speaks with Matt Ridley as he explores the nature of innovation and the conditions that enable it to flourish. References 1. Mind & Matter Column, Wall Street Journal Link: https://www.wsj.com/news/types/mind-matter  2. “How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom by Matt Ridley Link: https://www.amazon.ca/How-Innovation-Works-Flourishes-Freedom/dp/0062916599  3. “Northumberlandia” by The Gardens Trust  Link: https://thegardenstrust.blog/2015/08/15/northumberlandia/  4. “Thomas Newcomen” by Britannica Link: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Newcomen  5. “George Stephenson” by Britannica Link: https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Stephenson  6. “The Wright Brothers” by the National Air and Space Museum Link: https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/wright-brothers  7. “How Mary Wortley Montagu’s bold experiment led to smallpox vaccine - 75 years before Jenner” by The Guardian Link: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/28/how-mary-wortley-montagus-bold-experiment-led-to-smallpox-vaccine-75-years-before-jenner  8. “Charles Hard Townes” by Britannica Link: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Hard-Townes  9. “Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Historic Interview”  Link: https://www.everythingsupplychain.com/steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-historic-interview-15-minutes-750k-views/#:~:text=Steve%20Jobs%20and%20Bill%20Gates%20appeared%20together%20for%20a%20rare,Walt%20Mossberg%20and%20Kara%20Swisher.  10. “Samuel F.B. Morse” by Britannica Link: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-F-B-Morse