Matt speaks with Sam Bowman about the global housing crisis and why, in English-speaking countries in particular, a growing consensus across the political divide is pointing to problems with central planning, NIMBYism and a supply limit as the causes.  Episode Notes: Sam Bowman’s on substack: https://substack.com/@sambowman  Sam on "Vetocracy": https://www.sambowman.co/p/democracy-is-the-solution-to-vetocracy  Sam’s “Housing Theory of Everything” article: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-everything/  Works in Progress website: https://worksinprogress.co/  Michael Giberson on Manser Olson's theory of concentrated costs and dispersed benefits: https://knowledgeproblem.com/2010/10/17/concentrated-benefits-and-dispersed-costs/  Comparison of UK vs. US GDP per capita: https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/usa/uk   

Alex speaks with Akshaya Kamalnath about her work on Corporate Diversity, the social pressures and cultural trends that corporations are facing, as well as the jurisdictional realities of handling diversity, amongst other issues. Episode Notes: Akshaya's page at ANU: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/kamalnath-a  Akshaya's blog: corporatelawacademic.wordpress.com "Legal and Market Initiatives to Increase Diversity in Corporations—A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis" by Akshaya Kamalnath https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol46/iss1/5/ 

In May 2022, Alex spoke with Deirdre McCloskey in a wide-ranging conversation that addresses the economic, philosophical, and political reasons why liberalism just works. We're reposting that important conversation today on The Curious Task.  References 1. “Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All” by Dierdre Nansen McCloskey  Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Liberalism-Works-Liberal-Prosperous/dp/0300235089  2. “The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce” by Dierdre Nansen McCloskey Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Bourgeois-Virtues-Ethics-Age-Commerce/dp/0226556646  3. “Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain Modern World” by Dierdre Nansen McCloskey Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Bourgeois-Dignity-Economics-Explain-Modern/dp/0226556743  4. “Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World” Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Bourgeois-Equality-Capital-Institutions-Enriched/dp/022633399X  5. “Dierdre N. McCloskey presents the lecture ‘The Impossibility of Policy’ hosted by the Erasmus Forum” by the Cato Institute Link: https://www.cato.org/multimedia/media-highlights-tv/deirdre-n-mccloskey-presents-lecture-impossibility-policy-hosted  6. “1984” by George Orwell Link: https://www.amazon.ca/1984-George-Orwell/dp/0451524934  7. “Forever Flowing” by Vasily Grossman Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88459.Forever_Flowing

Alex speaks with Alex Nowrasteh about nationalism as more of an innate tendency towards ethnic tribalism than anything resembling patriotism, and how this tendency may never disappear, but is worth resisting nonetheless.  Episode Notes: Alex's page at the Cato Insitute: https://www.cato.org/people/alex-nowrasteh  Alex on X:  https://twitter.com/alexnowrasteh?lang=en  Alex's book "Wretched Refuse?: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions":  https://a.co/d/2JePWpU 

Alex speaks with Oyebade Oyerinde about the state of federalism in Nigeria, and how western ideas of democracy, liberalism and centralization of powers have influenced the current state of politics in the African nation.  Episode Notes: "Polycentric Interstate Federalism Among The Yoruba Of Nigeria: Lessons For Growing An International Federal Order" by Oyebade Kunle Oyerinde https://cosmosandtaxis.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/kunleoyerinde_ct_vol10_iss11_12.pdf "Polycentric and Centralized Federalism in Africa" (Chapter 3) by Oyebade Kunle Oyerinde https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666902716/Issues-of-Governance-Security-and-Development-in-Contemporary-Africa "Does Polycentric Order Make Sense?" by Oyebade Kunle Oyerinde https://isonomiaquarterly.com/archive/volume-2-issue-1/disorder-in-west-africa-does-polycentric-order-make-sense/ "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems" By Elinor Ostrom https://web.pdx.edu/~nwallace/EHP/OstromPolyGov.pdf 

Exploring technology's impact on gender choices, challenging gender essentialism, discussing societal influences, advocating for diversity in gender expression, delving into political implications of gender, exploring xenofeminism for gender empowerment, discussing technologically supplied gender traits, and examining challenges faced by classical liberals holding gender essentialist views.

Alex speaks with Marian Tupy about the notion that human progress has increased quality of life worldwide for centuries, making today the greatest time to be alive in the history of human life (in spite of what you may have heard elsewhere). Episode Notes: - Marian's book "Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet" on Amazon Canada: https://a.co/d/boeFBP3  - Marian's profile and bio on the FEE website: https://fee.org/people/marian-l-tupy/  - An article breaking down the Malthusian thinking in the Avengers movie referenced by Marian https://carnegiemnh.org/defeating-thanos-and-his-malthusian-mission-of-population-control/  - A Youtube video giving some history and context for the Simon - Ehrlich bet:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw2mn40BVo0   

Sabine speaks with Aeon Skoble about the harms of limiting access to information, including book bans and why a better understanding of ideas we disagree with often strengthens rather than weakens our arguments in support of the ideas we endorse. Episode Notes: - “Free Speech and the Function of a University” Aeon J. Skoble https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2081&context=br_rev  - A brief history of Hume’s works being banned: https://oll.libertyfund.org/publications/reading-room/2023-10-25-donway-hume-great-work-on-religion-banned  - A handy breakdown from the University of Notre Dame on J.S. Mill’s case for disagreement and free speech in “On Liberty”: https://philife.nd.edu/j-s-mills-on-liberty-seek-disagreement/  - Jacob Mchangama’s book “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media” https://a.co/d/8lcEV6a    

Alex speaks with Eric Schliesser about the growing declarations of the end of liberalism and what this means for the socio-political future in general. Episode Notes: Eric Schliesser’s page at the University of Amsterdam https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/s/c/e.s.schliesser/e.s.schliesser.html#Publications  Kevin Vallier’s episode of this podcast discussing religious anti-liberalism: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/197-kevin-vallier-what-are-the-new-religious-threats-to-liberalism/  Adrian Vermeulen’s publications https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/adrian-vermeule/  Tom Pink’s page at King’s College London: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pink  Yoram Hazony’s book on conservatism: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pink  Jacob Levy on borders and liberalism: https://www.niskanencenter.org/law-and-border/ 

Sabine speaks with Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak about the effects of market forces on gender as a social construct, the unlikely pairing of free markets and gender in an age of socialist feminist theory, and their recent co-authored article in Cosmos + Taxis. Episode Notes: "Gender as a Discovery Process: Social Construction, Markets, and Gender" Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak https://cosmosandtaxis.files.wordpress.com/2023/10/malamet_novak_ct_vol11_iss11_12_epub.pdf  Randall Holcombe on Spontaneous Order: https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095212458270 David Pozen "We Are All Entrepreneurs Now":  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1044021  Immanuel Kant first introduces the concepts of "phenomena" and "noumena" in his critical philosophy, particularly in his work titled "Critique of Pure Reason" (Kritik der reinen Vernunft), which was first published in 1781.   Isreal Kirzner on Entrepreneurship: https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Kirzner.html  Jason Kuznicki "Human, Transhuman, Transgender.": https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/human-transhuman-transgender