It’s easy to take a revisionist view of our initial attitudes toward the COVID-19 lockdowns now that several years have passed and the initial fog of confusion has been replaced by a series of increasingly inconvenient facts for the COVID-authoritarians. But Matt Kibbe’s guest this week has had the courage not only to revisit his former views but even to publish them! Tom Woods is the host of “The Tom Woods Show” and author of “Diary of a Psychosis: How Public Health Disgraced Itself During COVID Mania.” Woods catalogues how, as the pandemic progressed, the folly and foolishness of lockdowns became ever more clear as public health officials backtracked, contradicted themselves, and made a series of entirely arbitrary recommendations with no basis in science or sound policy.

Political polarization in the United States has never been worse. At least, that’s what we’ve been told by a media culture that feeds on sensationalism and fearmongering. But it turns out the truth is somewhat more complicated. In their new film, “Undivide Us,” Kristina Kendall and Benjamin Klutsey bring Americans together to have the kinds of difficult conversations that we’re told we can’t have any more. What they find is that, far from being too tribally entrenched to hear one another, most people are actually eager to hear other points of view and to humanize viewpoints besides their own. In this conversation, Matt Kibbe and his guests explore the idea that we can disagree without being disagreeable and that we can use our differences to make social progress rather than to simply attack one another.

All over the country people are relocating in search of better living conditions, greater economic opportunity, and more freedom. But where to go? Conventional wisdom would probably suggest states like Texas or Florida, but two economists from the American Institute for Economic Research say that conventional wisdom is for suckers! In a new study entitled "Freedom in the Fifty States", Will Ruger and Jason Sorens use science to discover which state really is the freest of them all. In this conversation, Matt Kibbe digs into the data while trying to defend his decision to remain in the festering swamp that is Washington, DC in spite of all the available evidence.

Concluding a series focusing on different points of view on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Matt Kibbe is joined by three members of the Israeli liberty movement for firsthand accounts of what it’s really like to live in the midst of war. Moshe Gorin and Lior Abutbul of the Kohelet Policy Forum, along with Boaz Arad of the Ayn Rand Center Israel, share their experiences surrounding October 7, Israel’s response to the attacks, and whether the policies of the local government contributed to a lack of preparedness.

In this latest in a series of conversations highlighting different perspectives on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Matt Kibbe talks to Sheldon Richman, author of Coming to Palestine and executive editor at the Libertarian Institute. Richman argues that it's possible to feel empathy for the tragedy of the October 7th attacks on Israel, without having to support American involvement in the war or the policies of the Israeli government. While there is a tendency to equate any criticism of Israel or support for the Palestinian people with antisemitism, Richman points out that the Jewish community has itself been historically divided on the question of Zionism, rendering such accusations patently ridiculous.

When COVID lockdowns were imposed, the focus by policymakers was on protecting the citizens of developed countries from the virus. While they failed to do this, they also neglected to consider the impact of people struggling with poverty around the world. David Malpass, former president of the World Bank, talks with Matt Kibbe about how lockdowns created grievous harms for people living in developing countries. This does not just include economic hardship, but also impacted the development of children, health, nutrition, and death rates. It’s ironic that many of the people who claim to care most about helping the poor turned a blind eye to these damages in their uncritical support of lockdown policies.

The international monetary system is a mess, but how did it get that way? In large part, it is due to a deal that was cut in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. At the scene of the crime 80 years later, Matt Kibbe sits down with economics professor Larry White to dissect how the pre-World War I stable gold standard was transformed into one of fiat currencies that encourage overborrowing, overspending, and the rampant inflation we are seeing today.

Following the horrific attacks on October 7, the war between Israel and Hamas has sparked a heated debate about whether the Israeli government’s response has been appropriate and what role, if any, the West should play in supporting the Israeli cause. In a series of conversations with people holding diverse views on this topic, Matt Kibbe sits down with Craig Biddle, founder and director of the Objective Standard Institute. Biddle argues that Israel is a society that respects the rights of its citizens in a way that the surrounding Islamic theocracies simply do not and that Western liberals have an obligation to support societies that stand up for human freedom. He rejects the non-interventionist claim that this is a regional conflict and none of America’s business but say rather that it is a battle between civilization and savagery in which we all have a stake.

Following a series of highly visible (and highly embarrassing) congressional hearings with the heads of major universities, the debate over what speech should be permitted on college campuses has reignited. Matt Kibbe sits down with Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of FIRE and author of "The Canceling of the American Mind," to discuss cancel culture and the hypocrisy of college administrators who are fine with allowing vocal anti-Semitism while also maintaining a “speech is violence” attitude toward more conservative opinions.

Israel is the new Ukraine! As Congress shifts its interest from funding a war against Russia to funding a war against Hamas, there are few people in Washington willing to push back against reckless spending, even though our own national debt is spiraling out of control. Thomas Massie is one such voice, although his principled commitment to fiscal responsibility has earned him plenty of animosity, including but not limited to accusations of antisemitism. He sits down with Matt Kibbe to defend his votes, and highlight how America’s overspending is the greatest threat to our own national security.