Libertarianism.org Podcasts

Fire up your hyperdrives and pack your kyber crystals because we are headed to a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away for another edition of Pop & Locke: Star Wars edition. This week, Pat Eddington and Aaron Ross Powell join the show to break down Disney+'s latest offering in the Star Wars saga, Andor. How does the gritty prequel series to…

“All men must serve,” as the saying goes—but whom must they serve? That’s the question posed by the new HBO series from the mind of George R. R. Martin, House of the Dragon. Set almost two centuries prior to the enormously successful Game of Thrones series, House of the Dragon sets up House Targaryen’s eventual fall from power, provides context for…

“Clueless” as she may be, Cher Horowitz isn’t just a naive high school student. She’s a pro-immigration, free market friendly, drug decriminalization defender. But what about her tendency to assume what other people want or need? Reason’s Katherine Mangu Ward and Natalie Dowzicky join the show to break down whether her well intentioned “helpfulness…

The Jones Act biases American shippers and shipbuilders at the expense of international competition, passing higher prices onto consumers and kneecapping free trade. The Cato Institute (and others) have been urging the government to reform this protectionist policy for several years now. But new findings prompt us to ask; how could such an ordinary…

The rise of global populism reveals a tension in Western thinking about democracy. Warnings about the "populist threat" to democracy and "authoritarian" populism are now commonplace. However, as Emily B. Finley argues in The Ideology of Democratism, dismissing "populism" as anti-democratic is highly problematic. In effect, such arguments essentiall…

Should you be allowed custody of nuclear powered weapons? It’s questions that’s plagued libertarians before, and one that’s also raised by the animated cult classic The Iron Giant. Through innovative production means, Brad Bird’s box office blunder turned cinematic darling wraps a clear creative vision and Aristotelian characterization of themes up…

The illustrious, ingenious, notorious PVD is back with us once again. Today, he and Trevor sit down to discuss dilemmas of flood damages following Hurricane Ian, the viability of subsidies for nuclear energy, and minimum wage increase’s effects on workers’ wages. Peter references the following: The National Flood Insurance Program: Solving Congress…

Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment profoundly changed the Constitution, giving the federal judiciary and Congress new powers to protect the fundamental rights of individuals from being violated by the states. Yet, according to Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick in their new book The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Sp…

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is an epic adventure based on the novels written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story follows the young Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, as he and the Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring, to ensure the destruction of the Dark Lord Sauron. But what is the Lord of the Rings story really about? And, wh…

After two government bailouts of the US economy in less than twenty years, free market ideology is due for serious reappraisal. In his new book Free Market: The History of an Idea, MacArthur Fellow and USC professor Jacob Soll details how we got to this current crisis, and how we can find our way out by looking to earlier iterations of free market …

American public schooling was established to unify diverse people and prepare citizens for democracy. Intuitively, it would teach diverse people the same values, preferably in the same buildings, with the goal that they will learn to get along and uphold government by the people. But intuition can be wrong; significant evidence suggests that public…

In 1998 the Coen brothers released The Big Lebowski and the theaters were half-​empty. However, the film has since spurred a cult-​like following revolving around its protagonist, The Dude; a dopey but profound conscientious objector to all human conflict with his own special brand of zen. Part slacker manifesto, part sun-drenched noir, the film fo…

Generations of people have been taught that population growth makes resources scarcer. In 2021, for example, one widely publicized report argued, “The world's rapidly growing population is consuming the planet's natural resources at an alarming rate . . . the world currently needs 1.6 Earths to satisfy the demand for natural resources . . . [a figu…

Americans are understandably squeamish about official racial and ethnic classifications. Nevertheless, they are ubiquitous in American life. Applying for a job, mortgage, university admission, citizenship, government contracts, and much more involves checking a box stating whether one is Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American. David Bern…

What’s more faithful to the facts of the founders—1776 or Hamilton? Why does John Adams get the star treatment while James Wilson gets such short shrift? And what does the musical many of us had to watch in high school get wrong about American Revolutionary history? All that and more are answered this week, with the help of David Boaz, Paul Matzko,…

We’re taking a break this week, but in the meantime, enjoy this treasure from the Free Thoughts vault where Trevor explains the “Statrix”, how government warps our perception of the world around us, and how it disproportionately affects the poor. Trevor mentions the recent spate of track problems and fires that have been plaguing Washington D.C.‘s …

We’re taking a break this week, but in the meantime, enjoy this treasure from the Free Thoughts vault with writer and journalist Johann Hari to discuss his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. In it, he seeks to answer questions such as; what was the U.S. government’s original motivation behind drug prohibition? How…

The court of Pop & Locke is now in session! All who have cause to discuss the cult classic comedy of courtroom escapes My Cousin Vinny draw near and you shall be heard. Our honorable guests help us break down the legal fact from fiction as we search for the verdict on Vinny’s veracity and verisimilitude. Plus; would you have taken the public defend…

We’re taking a break from new episodes for a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, enjoy this treasure from the Free Thoughts vault where Matt Ridley joins us t to discuss his book, The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge (2015). In it, he theorizes that much of the order we see in the natural world and in human culture and society is the…

Rachel Ferguson and Marcus Witcher’s new book, Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America, chronicles the achievements and failures of market-based attempts to achievement liberation for the Black community throughout American history. From the great shame of slavery to the racist roots of the minimum wag…