The Curious Task

In April of 2023, Alex speaks with Monica Guzman about the need for curiosity as a remedy for the increasing polarization in American discourse and her recent book on the subject "I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times" Monica's book: https://a.co/d/j6xKME7 

Kevin Vallier, an expert on conflicts in politics and the aggravating effects of ideology, discusses the role of trust and liberal institutions in politics. The conversation explores the measurement and restoration of social trust, the importance of trust in resolving conflicts and avoiding dehumanization, and the significance of trust in social interactions and political institutions. Vallier also delves into the concept of toleration in liberalism and advocates for the restoration of trust through more liberal arrangements.

Alex speaks with Jayme Lemke about the life, work, and legacy of American Nobel Prize-winning political economist Elinor Ostrom. References 1. “Elinor Ostrum and the Bloomington School: Building a New Approach to Policy and Social Sciences” by Jayme Lemke and Vlad Tarko Link: https://www.amazon.com/Elinor-Ostrom-Bloomington-School-Building/dp/0228004152  2. Elinor Ostrum Publications  Link: https://ostromworkshop.indiana.edu/library/bibliographies/ostrom-elinor.html  3. Elinor Ostrum Fellowship, Mercatus Centre Link: https://www.mercatus.org/students/elinor-ostrom-fellowship

Sabine interviews our regular host Alex Aragona as they discuss the first 200 episodes of The Curious Task. References 1. Camden Hutchison’s episode “Why Restrict Freedom of Expression” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/?s=hutchison  2. Sigal Ben-Porath’s episode “How Can Speech Be Protected on Campus” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-11-sigal-ben-porath-%e2%80%94-how-can-speech-be-protected-on-campus/  3. Jacob Levy’s episode “What is Academic Freedom?” of The Curious Task Podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-137-jacob-levy-what-is-academic-freedom/  4. “Different Kinds and Degrees of Private Censorship Matter” by Alex Aragona Link: https://speaking-liberally.com/2021/04/13/different-kinds-and-degrees-of-private-censorship-matter/  5. Nathan Goodman’s episode “What Does Immigration Have to Do With Climate Change” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-199-nathan-goodman-what-does-immigration-have-to-do-with-climate-change/  6. Fiona Harrigan’s episode “How Does Immigration Make Us Freer?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-188-fiona-harrigan-how-does-immigration-make-us-freer/  7. Chandran Kukuthas’ episode “What’s Wrong With Immigration Control?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-127-chandran-kukathas-what-s-wrong-with-immigration-control/  8. Sabine El-Chidiac and Peter Jaworski’s episode “Does Immigration Make A Better World?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-134-sabine-el-chidiac-and-peter-jaworski-does-immigration-make-a-better-world/ 9. Paige MacPherson’s episode “What Does School Choice Look Like?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-151-paige-macpherson-what-does-school-choice-look-like/  10. James Tooley’s episode “Is Low-Cost Private Education Possible?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/special-episode-3-james-tooley%c2%a0%e2%80%94-is-low-cost-private-education-possible/  11. James Harrigan’s episode “What’s Wrong With Utopias?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-187-james-harrigan-what-s-wrong-with-utopias/  12. Rachel Lomasky’s episode “Can A.I. Be Ethical?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-168-rachel-lomasky-can-ai-be-ethical/  13. Thomas Bunting’s episode “What Can Baseball Teach Us About Politics?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-168-rachel-lomasky-can-ai-be-ethical/  14. Janet Bufton and Sarah Skwire’s episode “Why Tweet the Wealth of Nations” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-98-janet-bufton-and-sarah-skwire-%e2%80%94-why-tweet-the-wealth-of-nations/  15. Nimish Adhia’s episode “Did Bollywood Liberalize India?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-52-nimish-adhia-%e2%80%94-did-bollywood-liberalize-india/  16. Chris Freiman’s episode “Is It Okay to Ignore Politics?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-31-christopher-freiman-%e2%80%94-is-it-okay-to-ignore-politics/  17. Jessica Flannigan’s episode “Should We Legalize All Drugs?” of The Curious Task Podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-9-jessica-flanigan-%e2%80%94-should-we-legalize-all-drugs/  18. Mike Munger’s episode “Is Price Gouging Wrong?” of The Curious Task  Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-39-mike-munger-%e2%80%94-is-price-gouging-wrong/ 19. Dan Shahar’s episode “Is It Okay to Eat Meat?” of The Curious Task podcast Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-125-dan-shahar-is-it-okay-to-eat-meat/

Alex speaks with Nathan Goodman about the implications of Climate Change for immigration policy and how coercion and polycentricity factor into that conversation. References:  - Adapting to Climate Change through Migration: Justus Enninga and Nathan Goodman https://www.thecgo.org/research/adapting-to-climate-change-through-migration/  - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Summary for Policy Makers https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/#:~:text=Climate%20change%2C%20through%20hazards%2C%20exposure,adapt%20and%20mitigate%20within%20limits  - Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems: Elinor Ostrom https://www.jstor.org/stable/27871226  - The case for open immigration Chandran Kukathas https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/237298126.pdf     

In August of 2022, Alex spoke with Paige MacPherson about school choice - and the lack thereof - in each of Canada's provinces. References 1. Paige’s articles, The Fraser Institute Link: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/profile/paige-macpherson  2. Paige’s Blog Link: https://www.paigetmacpherson.com/blog  3. “Public, private, and charter schools: How they compare” by Understood Link: https://www.understood.org/en/articles/public-private-and-charter-schools-how-they-compare  4. “Explore: The Canadian education system by province and territory” by Future Learn Link: https://www.futurelearn.com/info/futurelearn-international/canada-public-education-by-province

Alex Aragona speaks with Peter Jaworski as he explores his definition of libertarianism, and how different kinds of morality can lead to certain conclusions about libertarian institutions. References Peter Jaworski is the co-author of the book, Markets without Limits: Moral Virtues and Commercial Interests, which is available for purchase on Amazon Canada at this link. Peter mentions B. van der Vossen’s article on self-ownership published on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which can be read here. The general article on libertarianism starts at this link. You can read more about Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundations theory on the website, moralfoundations.org. Peter mentions the three-way division between people cited in Jason Brennan’s book, Against Democracy, which is also available on Amazon Canada at this link.  This article on libertarianism.org captures David Hume’s is-ought dichotomy that was briefly mentioned by Peter during the podcast.  The Acton Institute publishes many articles that demonstrate how their theological views endorse libertarian institutions on their website, acton.org. You can read John Stuart Mill’s libertarian conclusions in On Liberty at this link. Peter mentions Chris Freiman during the episode, who has published blogposts on learnliberty.org.    You can read more about the natural rights argument of Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in this article on libertarianism.org.  The Lockean-Nozick justification of property rights has also been written about in this article on libertarianism.org. Here is the link to Ayn Rand’s book, The Virtue of Selfishness, that explores the concept of ethical egoism. Michael L. Frazer has a book on Adam Smith’s theory of sentimentalism and how it departs from that of David Hume, which can be accessed here. You can purchase Michael Huemer’s book, Ethical Institutionalism, that was recommended by Peter at this link. Jan Narveson makes a contractarian case for libertarianism in this article on libertarianism.org. Here is Roderick Long’s article, Eudaimonist Libertarianism, that was published on bleedingheartlibertarians.org. Dan Sanchez published an article called, In Defense of Mises’s Utilitarianism, through the Mises Institute and is available for reading here. Here is Kevin Vallier’s article, A Rawlisan Case for Libertarianism, which also draws parallels to F. A. Hayek.  You can explore Milton Friedman’s natural rights-oriented political philosophy in his book, Capitalism and Freedom, which can be purchased from Amazon Canada at this link. Here is a joint article by John Tomasi and Matt Zwolinski called, A Bleeding Heart History of Libertarianism, which was published in Cato Unbound and can be read at this link.  This is a link to the Libertarian Party of the United States. Deirdre McCloskey elaborated on her idea of The Great Enrichment in this article published on the Foundation for Economic Education.

Tony Gill, an expert on tipping, discusses the origins and complexities of tipping, exploring the confusion and frustration associated with the practice. He delves into the concept of price discrimination and its relationship with tipping. Cultural differences and the importance of social norms in supporting free markets are also discussed.

Alex speaks with Kevin Vallier about his new book "All The Kingdoms Of The World", in which he takes a global view of anti-liberal integralist strands in political thought and warns of the consequences of following them toward a rejection of liberal freedom and democracy.  Episode Notes: The conversation focuses primarily on Kevin’s book:https://www.kevinvallier.com/books/all-the-kingdoms-of-the-world-radical-religious-alternatives-liberalism/  Introduction to Catholic Political Integralism: https://thejosias.com/  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integralism  Introduction to islamic political anti-liberalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism  “The Confucian Tradition and Politics” Youngmin Kim, Ha-Kyoung Lee and Seongun Park https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.991

Alex speaks with Stefanie Haeffele about her recent book Living Better Together, which explores the work of Elinor Ostrom and Viviana Zelizer.  Episode Notes: "Living Better Together" by Stefanie Haeffele and Virgil Henry Storr: https://a.co/d/hJNCxw6  Viviana Zelizer's homepage at Princeton: https://sociology.princeton.edu/people/viviana-zelizer  Elinor Ostrom's bio and short autobiography on the Nobel website: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/ostrom/facts/  Nonneutrality of Money in a Social Perspective by Julia Włodarczyk https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274184545_Nonneutrality_of_Money_in_a_Social_Perspective  Zelizer's "Circuits of Commerce" https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520241367.003.0009 Ostrom's "Governing The Commons" https://a.co/d/gcUDVWq  Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy by Viviana A. Zelizer https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691139364/economic-lives  "Testing Circuits of Commerce in the Distant Past: Archaeological Understandings of Social Relationships and Economic Lives" by: Crystal A. Dozier https://www.springerprofessional.de/testing-circuits-of-commerce-in-the-distant-past-archaeological-/23930708