The Curious Task

Alex speaks with Chris Coyne about the complexities and ramifications of war, focusing on the interplay between media narratives, propaganda, and the impact on civil liberties, drawing insights from Coyne's book co-authored with Abigail Hall, which is a satirical guide on war strategies and their broader societal implications. Episode Notes: Chris and Abigail's book "How to Run Wars": https://www.independent.org/store/book.asp?id=145    1. Bruce Winton Knight's "How To Run A War": https://www.amazon.com/How-Run-War-Bruce-Knight/dp/B000OMR1KG    2. Herman and Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent": https://www.amazon.ca/Manufacturing-Consent-Political-Economy-Media/dp/0375714499  3. Noam Chomsky's website: https://chomsky.info/  4. Alexis de Tocqueville's biography, including reference to his distinction between hard and soft despotism: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexis-de-Tocqueville    5. Otto Neurath's "Through War Economy to Economy in Kind" https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-010-2525-6_5  6. Abigail Hall and Christopher Coyne "Manufacturing Militarism: U.S. Government Propaganda in the War on Terror": https://www.amazon.ca/Manufacturing-Militarism-Government-Propaganda-Terror/dp/1503628361   

Sabine speaks with Greta Lynn Uehling about her research on the effects of war on relationships, an underexplored topic in conflict studies. Episode Notes: - Greta's book "Everyday War: Conflict in Donbas, Ukraine": https://a.co/d/09MHkjov  - Homer's "The Illiad": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad  - Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv: knu.ua  - A primer on the concept of "Understanding Everyday Peace": https://heller.brandeis.edu/news/items/releases/2019/winter-2019-magazine-everyday-peace.html  - The UNICEF report on Mental Health: https://www.unicef.org/topics/mental-health  - The Battle of Ilovaisk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ilovaisk  - The Fullbright program website: https://us.fulbrightonline.org/about  - The Geneva Convention at ICRC: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/geneva-conventions-1949-additional-protocols 

Alex speaks with Marc-William Palen about the evolution of left-wing visions of free trade from the mid-19th century through the Cold War, highlighting key movements and figures like the Anti-Corn Law League, Karl Marx, and the Fair Trade movement, and contrasting these with protectionist and imperialist policies of the era. Episode Notes: Marc-William's book "Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World": https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691199320/pax-economica  Marx on Free Trade: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1888/free-trade/#:~:text=Only%20under%20Free%20Trade%20can,%2C%20wage%2Dlaborers%20there%3B%20hereditary  The Eric Schliesser episode of the Curious Task mentioned by Alex: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/special-episode-5-eric-schliesser-%e2%80%94-what-is-neoliberalism/  Journal of Liberal History's summary of the history of the Anti-Corn Law League: https://liberalhistory.org.uk/history/anti-corn-law-league/  Overview of the history of the Opium Wars: https://asiapacificcurriculum.ca/learning-module/opium-wars-china#:~:text=The%20Opium%20Wars%20in%20the,China%20lost%20both%20wars.  A primer on the origins of Fair Trade and the Haslemere Declaration:  https://imperialglobalexeter.com/2018/05/03/what-fair-trade-was-originally-about-the-haslemere-declaration-of-1968/ 

Matt speaks with Joanna Baron about how government measures during the pandemic undermined civil liberties in North America and beyond.  Episode Notes: - Brian Bird's PhD Thesis: https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/4j03d4180  - Fraser Institute:  https://www.fraserinstitute.org/  - The Forgotten Fundamental Freedoms - Dwight G. Newman https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3803888  - Joanna's book with Christine Van Geyn "Pandemic Panic: How Canadian Government Responses to COVID-19 Changed Civil Liberties Forever" https://a.co/d/0aNNzvLW  - "Let's Declare a Pandemic Amnesty" by Emily Oster https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/covid-response-forgiveness/671879/ 

Sabine speaks with Jonathan Blanks about why and how systemic racism exists in society, and what can potentially be done to curb it in various aspects of institutional life.  Episode Notes: - The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity: https://freopp.org/ - An article by Jonathan on defining systemic racism: https://freopp.org/what-systemic-racism-is-and-isnt-1213c1c972ff - Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America (2015) by Jill Leovy https://a.co/d/8f9JGqB  - 13th trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IXQbXPO3I 

Kevin Erdmann discusses the impact of zoning, the 2008 economic crisis, and housing preferences on today's housing market. Topics include challenges in building homes post-2008 recession, revisiting housing crisis narratives, analyzing the policy impact, class dynamics in home ownership, underwriting practices, housing market dynamics, and overcoming fear of building homes.

Alex speaks with Dominic Parker about his 2024 paper with Dean Lueck entitled "The Economic Origins And Extent Of America's First Environmental Agencies" Episode Notes: Dominic's paper: https://aae.wisc.edu/dparker/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/11/Lueck-and-Parker-Agencies-November-2024.pdf  Some history on the conservation movement from 1850-1920 via the American Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/00529694/       

Alex speaks with Ryan Bourne as he explores the misconceptions around inflation and the dangers of price controls, emphasizing how prices act as signals to coordinate economic activity and promote growth. Ryan explains the adverse effects of government intervention in setting prices, such as shortages, quality declines, black markets, and inefficient resource allocation. Episode Notes: - Ryan’s book that serves as the basis for most of the discussion: https://a.co/d/6B4n1Uf  - Summary of Friedman, Monetarist School and the K-percent rule https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monetarism.asp#:~:text=In%20his%20book%2C%20%22A%20Monetary,a%20fixed%20percentage%20per%20year - Explanation of greedflation: https://cssh.northeastern.edu/what-is-greedflation-and-is-it-driving-higher-prices/  - Kahneman and Thaler's research: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1806070   - Clemens on minimum wage  https://econweb.ucsd.edu/~j1clemens/pdfs/ClemensMinWageCatoPolicyAnalysis867.pdf 

Alex speaks with Donner prize nominee Kent Roach about a topic that many Canadians may overlook when thinking about issues that are recurring at home: wrongful convictions and its victims.  Episode Notes: - Kent's award-winning book "Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice" https://a.co/d/d9mB5cN - Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions: https://www.wrongfulconvictions.ca/  - The Innocence Project at Cardozo: https://innocenceproject.org/about/  - Blackstone's ratio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone%27s_ratio  - Charles Smith (pathologist) background: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/dr-charles-smith-the-man-behind-the-public-inquiry-1.864004  - R v Gladue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Gladue  - Richard Catchaway case: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/richard-catcheway-wrongful-conviction-1.4681737  - The Morin case on CRWC https://www.wrongfulconvictions.ca/cases/guy-paul-morin  - The Goudge report on pediatric forensic pathology: https://wayback.archive-it.org/16312/20211207211516/https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/goudge/index.html  - The David Milgaard case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Milgaard 

Matt speaks with Ethan Nadelmann about drug decriminalization, legalization, and the slow end to the drug war in Canada and the United States, and how successes and failures in both countries compare to those abroad. Episode Notes: The Drug Policy Alliance website: https://drugpolicy.org/ Some history on Portugal's Drug Harm Reduction Programs: https://americanaddictioncenters.org/blog/portugals-harm-reduction-policies  Philip Owen's obituary highlighting some of his successes in Vancouver as mayor: https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2021/10/02/dtes-philip-owens-four-pillars//  Larry Cambell's call for opioid legalization: https://globalnews.ca/news/3260074/make-prescription-opioids-legal-says-senator-and-former-mayor-larry-campbell/  "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness" on Amazon Canada: https://a.co/d/36Y1M4L  Peltzman's original article studying drug availability: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1830639  Ed Preble's "Taking Care Of Business": https://doi.org/10.3109/10826086909061998