The Curious Task

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   

Sabine Speaks with Ryan Thorpe about the state of Journalism in Canada and about how bills C-18, C-11 and government subsidies for journalism are compromising an industry necessary for democratic participation in an age when accountability is more important than ever.  Episode Notes: Ryan's page on the Winnipeg Free Press website: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/biographies/ryan-thorpe A primer on Canada's Bill C-18: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/understanding-bill-c-18-canada-s-online-news-act-and-its-proposed-rules-explained-1.6488532  Canadaland's statement regarding denial of government subsidies: https://www.canadaland.com/how-to-support-canadaland/  A legal perspective on Bill C-11: https://www.lexpert.ca/legal-insights/exploring-the-controversy-around-bill-c-11/380414  Sy Hersh's C-SPAN speech describing how he exposed the My Lai massacre: https://www.c-span.org/video/?62006-1/vietnam-war-lai-massacre  Torstar losing approximately 50 million dollars a year: http://surl.li/pqchw  Blacklocks reporter on the memo to Pablo Rodriguez demonstrating the failure of public subsidies to Canadian media: https://www.blacklocks.ca/media-bailout-failed-memo/     

Matt speaks with Tyler Cowen about his recent book "GOAT: Who is the Greatest Economist of all Time and Why Does it Matter?", as they discuss the case for and against each of the top finalists, and the interactive AI features that Tyler has integrated into the book's online release. Episode Notes: The full book plus all interactive AI features can be found for free here: https://goatgreatesteconomistofalltime.ai/en   

Alex speaks with Peter Boettke and Matthew Mitchell about their recent book co-authored with Konstantin Zhukov about the unusual rise of Estonia from the ashes of Stalinism to their current status as one of the freest nations on earth.  Episode Notes: The conversation focusses on the book "Road To Freedom" which can be read in its entirety here: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/road-to-freedom-estonias-rise-from-soviet-vassal-state-to-one-of-the-freest-nations-on-earth_0.pdf  A similar publication on the economic history of Poland by these same authors can be read in its entirety here: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/road-to-socialism-and-back-an-economic-history-of-poland-1939-2019.pdf   

Alex speaks with Nick Cowen about democracy, markets, and his forthcoming article "Include The Ignorant" Episode Notes: - Jason Brennan "Against Democracy" https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691178493/against-democracy  - On the Compatibility of Epistocracy and Public Reason by Thomas Mulligan https://www.jstor.org/stable/24575740  - Hayek on Limited Democracy, Dictatorships, and the ‘Free’ Market: An Interview in Argentina, 1977 "Birsen Filip" https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-91358-2_10       

Alex speaks with Mike Munger about the state of classical liberalism in an era in which conservatism seems intent on wielding the tools of central planning and the left prefers the term "progressive" to "liberal". Episode Notes: The Classical Liberal Diaspora by Mike Munger: https://t.co/xoRnPIUXXi  The Articles of Confederation: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Articles-of-Confederation  Preamble to the United States constitution: https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/us  Fusionism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusionism  Albert Jay Nock and The Remnant: https://mises.org/library/isaiahs-job  Chile rewriting its constitution: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chilean-congressional-council-finalizes-new-draft-constitution-again-2023-10-30/