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Not often do we find people who make the case for how race, liberty, and equality belong together. Even less often do we find them making arguments in the height of racially and economically troubled times. And EVEN LESS do we find audio clips of them doing so. 

These people are inspiring. They stand up against the currents of the time to speak their minds, for the benefit of everyone. In doing so, they garner respect and build coalitions across ideological lines, because they have to. We can learn from them and aspire to be like them today.

In a really unique episode, I am excited to welcome David Beito to the podcast to talk about Rose Wilder Lane’s column, "Rose Lane Says," and how she brought together these three concepts of race, liberty, and equality to make an appealing case for freedom. He shares with us a clip of Lane herself, speaking on these issues. 


Want to explore more?

• Timothy Sandefur on Freedom's Furies, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Nico Perrino on Individual Rights and Free Expression, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Rachel Ferguson on Black Liberation Through the Marketplace, a Great Antidote podcast. 
• Alice Temnick, Prudence on the Prairie, at Speaking of Smith
• Mustafa Akyol, Liberty Was Islam's First Call, at the Online Library of Liberty

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Adam Smith was a man who read the Stoics. He liked them, too, talking them up in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, particularly in the section on grief. 

Then he lost two of his closest relations (old timey, right?), David Hume and his mother. These world-shaking events caused him to reevaluate what he said about grief in TMS and change our interpretation of his commentary on grief.

So what did he say about grief before, and how did the actual experience of grief change his mind? How does grief work, and how do we get through hard times? How do art and philosophy play different roles in the human experience?

Today, I’m excited to welcome Liberty Fund’s Sarah Skwire back to the podcast. She is a Senior Program Officer there, and a resident scholar on people-who-thought-things-and-wrote-things. I truly enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do too! 

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This year’s Nobel Prize winners in economics are Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson, who wrote on the importance of inclusive institutions to economic growth. But what on earth are ‘inclusive institutions’ and how do they differ from exclusive ones?

Inclusive institutions are norms, either written or unwritten, about things like property rights, democracy, and the rule of law. But what other institutions are important to economic growth, if there are others?

Some of this year’s winners endorse a strong antitrust regime. How do you reconcile the importance of property rights to growth with a desire to limit and take down companies built upon those rights?

At the time this episode was recorded, everyone in economics was talking about the Nobel Prize, both this year’s winners and their research. But what other economists (and their work) should we be looking to? 

Today, I am excited to welcome David Henderson back to the podcast. Henderson is the Wall Street Journal’s go-to writer when it comes to the Nobel in economics and an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Naval Postgraduate School and a research fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His substack is titled I Blog to Differ, so go check it out! He answers questions just like these in our interview, so tune in to hear the answers!!

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Picture a policy conversation, perhaps in Washington, about national security. Who’s sitting around the table? It might be the President, national security advisors, military personnel, or generals, but not economists. And yet, national security is often used as a reason to intervene into the economy. 

At the mention of national security, it seems economists often shut their mouths and run away (or hide under a rock, or something). But why? How should economists think about and engage with concerns about national security? 

Today, the wonderful Sam Gregg joins us to talk to us about industrial policy and national security. He is the author of The Next American Economy and he is the Frederick Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research.

He explains how national security is often used as a justification for industrial policy, and how industrial policy actually harms both national security and economic strength. Join us to hear about the economic policy that improves national security!!

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How do you teach about a man who does not fit neatly into a box? Hayek is one such man, and today, we tackle the difficult task of putting him in a box. We conclude that we cannot put someone like F. A. Hayek into boxes such as “economist” or “philosopher” or “political theorist”, because he did it all. How and when do you teach the ideas of a man who did it all? 

I’m excited to welcome Tawni Hunt Ferrarini to the podcast today to talk to us about teaching Hayek and his most important ideas. Ferrarini is a co-author of Common Sense Economics and an economic educator worldwide. We go through multiple ideas of in-class examples and places his thought could be applied in the context of modern education. Keep listening to hear me talk about how I, Pencil is scary. 


Want to explore more?

• Explore the Common Sense Economics website.
• Tawni Hunt Ferrarini, Real Life Economics: Rational or Complex, at EconTalk.
• Ryan Yonk on the China Dilemma, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Come explore Hayek with us in these two upcoming Online Programs led by Dr. Ferrarini:
  • A Timeless [asynchronous] discussion, October 28-November 3 in the LF Portal.
  • Dive Deep into Hayek's "Use of Knowledge in Society," a one session Virtual Reading Group, November 13th.

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It’s often said that if you want to get to know someone, you should look through their garbage. Now, I don’t recommend this method of getting to know someone (it’s kind of gross). But biographers often have the luck of getting to know the people they study by looking through their stuff- that stuff not being actual garbage. 

For example, Bruce Caldwell spent time with Hayek’s skis and botanical photographs. You might be thinking, why do I care? Why does anyone care? Hayek didn’t even write about skiing or photography! 

That’s exactly the point: the minutia of life, those characteristics that are seemingly irrelevant to the output of an academic can give insight into their uniqueness. Hayek’s context, his family, and youth and involvement in certain political parties, shines a light on what, why, and how he thought, which helps us to better understand him and his ideas. 

Join me today in conversation with Bruce Caldwell, one of Hayek’s biographers, to explore the context of Hayek and what it means to be a biographer. Caldwell is a research professor of economics at Duke where he is the Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy. He is also the co-author of the book Hayek: A Life, among other works. He also believes Santa Claus exists (stay tuned to hear why!). 


Want to explore more?

• Don Boudreaux on the Essential Hayek, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Bruce Caldwell on Hayek, an EconTalk podcast.
• Rosolino Candela, Using Reason to Understand the Abuse and Decline of Reason, an Econlib Liberty Classic.
• Peter Boettke, Hayek's Nobel at 50, at EconLog.
• Peter Boettke, Hayek's Epistemic Liberalism, in Liberty Matters at the Online Library of Liberty.

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The title of this episode might confuse you: what on earth do Adam Smith and F. A. Hayek have to say about social justice? A surprising amount, given how much we talk about it!

Smith makes a big point of critiquing men of pride and vanity. What happens when those ultimately negative aspects of humanity go too far, into the territory of what he calls “domineering”? What happens when small acts of domination are aggregated throughout a society? 

So here we are, talking about slavery, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement, through the lens of Hayek and Adam Smith. Our tour guide on this perilous journey towards the implementation and understanding of justice is the wonderful Jacob Levy. 

 Levy is the Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University. He is also the coordinator of the research group on Constitutional Studies at McGill.


Want to explore more?

• Jacob Levy, Rationalism, Pluralism, and the History of Liberal Ideas, a Liberty Matters symposium at the Online Library of Liberty. 
• Don Boudreaux on the Essential Hayek, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Steven Horwitz, Spontaneous Order in Adam Smith, at AdamSmithWorks.
• Dan Klein on Adam Smith's Justice, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Rosolino Candela, Private Property and Social Justice: Complements or Substitutes? at Econlib.

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The month of October 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of F. A. Hayek winning the Nobel Prize. Winning such a prize is obviously a big deal, but someone wins one every year, so what’s the big deal about this guy? 

Well. Hayek’s contributions to the field of economics are significant because they spoke to more than simply economics. Spontaneous order, price signals as information, and the pretense of knowledge all might come to mind, but they might not. (Maybe you’re new to this! If so, helloooo there!) These concepts branch into philosophy, social structure, and the nature of the human mind. Stick with us to learn the depths and beauty of Hayekian thought, in the first of this series! 

Want to explore more?

• Profile in Liberty: Friedrich A. Hayek, at Econlib.
• Don Boudreaux on Reading Hayek, an EconTalk podcast.
• Elaine Sternberg, The Power and Pervasiveness of Spontaneous Order, at Econlib.
• Nicholas Wapshott on Keynes and Hayek, an EconTalk podcast.
• Hayek and Spontaneous Orders, at the Online Library of Liberty.

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 Do you ever take a moment to think about the fact that Americans, the people of the land of the free, spent 13 years under Prohibition? Did you know that Americans used to seriously “drink like a fish”? And no, I’m not talking about fraternity men in college. I’m talking about everyone, everywhere, from George Washington’s parties to lunchtimes in the manufacturing factories (until Henry Ford put a stop to it, you know, for efficiency purposes). Then Prohibition happened. 

What were the forces that drove Prohibition into existence? Our first and only constitutional amendment to be repealed, what was so severe about America under prohibition that it only lasted 13 years? How did a guy smuggle whiskey into America in an egg carton? 

All that and more on this episode with Wabash College Professor Nicholas Snow. Tune in! 


Want to explore more?

• Read John Alcorn's 2019 series on prohibition of all kinds at EconLog.
• Daniel Okrent on Prohibition and his Book, Last Call, an EconTalk podcast.
• Lysander Spooner, Vices are Not Crimes. A Vindication of Moral Liberty, at the Online Library of Liberty.
• Randy Simmons on Public Choice, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Sandra Peart on Ethical Quandaries and Politics Without Romance, a Great Antidote podcast.

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What does it actually mean to run a think tank, to create harmony within an office building full of idea-confident folk? Some have called the think tank a monastery, some have called it an academic social club, and some have even called it a policy incubator. What truly is it and how on earth do you lead one? 

Leading a think tank is a multifaceted job, because you have your own scholarship to do too. Today, I’m excited to welcome the president of AEI, Robert Doar, to the podcast for a similarly multifaceted conversation. Doar talks to us about his work on poverty and, more recently, the Nixon impeachment, as well as his job as the president of AEI. Stay with us till the end to hear us talking about our favorite books!


Want to explore more?

• Daniel Rothschild on Liberalism and Think Tanks, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Yesim  Sayin on the DC Life and Policy, a Great Antidote podcast. 
• Undivide Us: Ben Klutsey on Exploring and Confronting Polarization, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Max Borders, Can We Have Welfare Without the Threat of Violence? at Econlib.
• Richard Gunderman, Joy in Economics...And Tolstoy? at Econlib.

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Even though I hope you’ve been avoiding the election news like I have (as you would the plague), admittedly, it’s hard to do. It’s like someone is blasting it outside your window at 5 AM. Or like a billboard outside your front door that you can’t help but see every time you step outside. Bummer.  

Fortunately, AEI’s wonderful Yuval Levin joins us today to talk about the remedy to the plight of election season and America’s recent malaise (not to echo Jimmy Carter…): the American constitution. Now, I know, you might be rolling your eyes and thinking “Those classical liberals are at it again, always talking about the founding…” But seriously. Remembering and embracing the spirit upon which America was founded—one of intellectual and political dynamism—is key to striking the balance between life, politics, and disagreement that has felt so off-kilter recently.

Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at AEI, as well as the founder and editor of National Affairs. He recently released the book American Covenant, which we are talking about today. Join us today for a livelier, timelier version of what you learned in your 7th-grade civics class. 

Want to explore more?

• How the Constitution Can Bring us Together, an EconTalk podcast with Yuval Levin.
• Yuval Levin on a Time to Build, an EconTalk podcast.
• Darren Staloff on the American Founding, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Christy Lynn Horpedahl, A Skeptic's Guide to the Perfect Commonwealth, at Speaking of Smith.
• Understanding Jefferson: Slavery, Race, and the Declaration of Independence, a Liberty Matters Forum at the Online Library of Liberty.

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