Tom Woods Show, Archive 5

Professor Jeremy Bailey joins me to discuss the evolution of the modern presidency and the way key figures like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson tried -- and failed or succeeded, which is the question -- to change and expand it.

This episode is more of an overview of the life and evolution of one of our important thinkers, Paul Gottfried, who holds his Ph.D. in history from Yale. Paul has been an opponent of the neocons from the beginning, and we take the story to the present day.

Bernie Sanders is proposing a nationwide program of rent control -- because why should landlords be allowed to raise rents arbitrarily? I explain why this is a terrible idea.

Michael Rectenwald returns to the show to discuss woke capitalism, big tech, the mob mentality, and the suppression of dissident voices.

As a fan of magic myself, I was delighted to learn not only that I had a professional magician among my newsletter subscribers, but also that he managed to fool Penn and Teller on their "Fool Us" television program. Doc Dixon is a libertarian (like Penn and Teller themselves), and that comes through in our discussion, but we also get into the weeds of what it's like performing for Penn and Teller, as well as plenty of inside baseball about the life of a magician.

Jim Cantrell, co-founder and former CEO of Vector Launch, veteran employee of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab and France's CNES, and founding team member of SpaceX and Moon Express, joins me to discuss the future of space exploration (including Mars settlement) and mankind's activities in space, as well as what the private sector can accomplish in space.

Bestselling author Stephen Kinzer returns to the show to discuss the CIA's research and experiments in mind control.

Peter Schiff returns to answer listener questions about Trump's economics, navigating the ups and downs of the economy, and a lot more.

Lew Rockwell returns to discuss yet another Democratic debate. Join us as we slice through the inanities.

Phil Labonte, the outspoken libertarian frontman of the band All That Remains, joins me to discuss how he became a libertarian, how his views compare to those of other people in his genre, how the Internet has changed the music industry for better and worse, and a lot more.

Scott Horton joins me to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and respond to the rah-rah "they hate us because we're great" view of why the attacks occurred.

The left-wing thought-control site ThinkProgress has closed its doors, after many years of policing allowable opinion. Because of my interests I'm aware in particular of their absurd treatment of the Tenth Amendment Center -- which, unlike ThinkProgress, is alive and kicking. And speaking of kicking, let's kick ThinkProgress while it's down.

I review my refrain about the narrowness of allowable opinion in American (and Western) political discourse: you can argue about the fringes of what the state apparatus should be doing, but no fundamental questions may be raised. Also, at the end of the episode I make note of the latest Twitter casualty, and the absurd grounds on which the person in question was banned.

David Gornoski has taken what sounds like rather an obscure topic -- the mimetic theory of Rene Girard -- and showing the liberty movement how it helps us understand the state and collective violence.

By popular demand, Kirk Sorensen joins me to discuss the energy potential of thorium, which can be tapped safely in overwhelming abundance and which solves every problem that troubles environmentalists.

Comedian Dave Chappelle generated enormous controversy with his recent Netflix special, "Sticks and Stones." Fashionable opinion explained to us that we were to reject this special as "racist" and otherwise insensitive. Comedian Dave Smith joins me to sort it all out.

Eric Brakey served two terms in the state senate of Maine, and has been a Ron Paul supporter and Tom Woods Show listener for years. He's currently seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Congress from Maine's second district, where he is winning key endorsements and has an excellent shot at winning.

Gerry Cramer has been repeatedly ranked as the top affiliate on Clickbank, which in turn has been called the top affiliate network in the United States. His students, for that matter, can frequently be found among Clickbank's top ten affiliates. So you could say the guy has cracked the code. (If you don't know what affiliate marketing is: Amazon has a well-known affiliate program by which people earn commissions when other people purchase Amazon products through their special link. Gerry has taken this simple concept and made a science out of it.) We talk about the system Gerry uses, his successes and failures, and other stuff the rest of us will undoubtedly benefit from learning.

Eric July, the politically incorrect libertarian frontman for the metal band Backwordz, joins me for a freewheeling discussion of music, politics, Malcolm X, the SJW takeover of the world of comics, and much more.

Saifedean Ammous recently debated Professor George Selgin at the Soho Forum on the subject of Bitcoin's suitability to replace existing currencies and challenge central banks. We review that debate in today's episode, and finish with a discussion of Saifedean's latest project.

Murray Sabrin, a professor of finance at Ramapo College, discusses the damage caused by the Federal Reserve, as well as the various approaches to business cycles taken by different economic schools of thought, and Trump's demands for lower interest rates.

Are libertarians too quick to argue that "after all, Sweden is really very capitalist, so you can't use it against us"? One author thinks so. This episode looks more closely at the Sweden story to make sense of it from a libertarian perspective.

The New York Times recently announced its "1619 Project," by which it intends to demonstrate that "nearly everything that has made America exceptional grew out of slavery." Our friend Phil Magness points out that in its economics it relies on now-debunked statistical claims. Also, I discuss the bizarre phenomenon by which the left is now claiming that slavery is a highly efficient system that drives exceptional economic growth.

Larry Ludlow reports from his own experiences within the government school system. It's pretty brutal, folks.

John Moody returns to update us on government and its various agencies, and how they affect farmers, your food, and you.

Gene Epstein returns to discuss People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent, the new book by economist Joseph Stiglitz. It gets the full Epstein treatment.

Gerard Casey, professor emeritus of philosophy at University College, Dublin, joins me to discuss the philosophy of fascism, which he describes as a form of irrationalism.

Dan Fishman recently became executive director of the Libertarian Party. He joins me to discuss (among plenty of other things) his political evolution, where he sees the party going, and whether people are naturally libertarian or anti-libertarian.

Julie Borowski, the popular libertarian content creator, has just released a children's book called Nobody Knows How to Make a Pizza, in which she illustrates how, without a central planner, amazing feats of production that could be carried out (or even fully understood) by no single individual take place. We then discuss the state of the "liberty movement" in 2019.

Today I am joined by two libertarians: Dr. Michael Edelstein and Dr. David Ramsay Steele. Together they wrote Three Minute Therapy: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, which applies an easily replicated technique to conquering all sorts of undesirable conditions and behaviors: depression, excessive drinking, procrastination, overeating, and many more.

Not long ago, the great libertarian foreign policy expert Scott Horton joined me for a full week's worth of episodes. We got some great feedback and a little criticism, so Scott and I decided that replying to critics makes for great episodes, too. So we're talking Syria, Iran, and plenty more in today's episode.

Vince Vaughn has scores of Hollywood films to his credit -- from The Lost World: Jurassic Park to Hacksaw Ridge and many in between -- and has been a Ron Paul supporter since the 2008 presidential campaign. He and Tom discuss Hollywood, libertarianism, and American politics.

John Locke tries to rest the legitimacy of government on the consent of the people. But can they really give consent? Locke himself admitted that unanimous consent was impossible, but thought the state could be legitimized anyway. Lysander Spooner thought otherwise: if we as individuals do not consent to an arrangement, it cannot be enforced on us.

We conclude Brion McClanahan Week with a discussion of a historical topic that fascinates us both: the Russian Revolution. We then clear up some loose ends and bring this week of history to a close.

Brion McClanahan's podcast tagline is "think locally, act locally." We take a deep dive into what this means, including the federalist/decentralist tradition in America, plus: what about issues that seem to require cooperation beyond the local level?

Well, here's the question nobody is allowed to ask, since even to ask it is to invite anti-intellectual, third-grade-level responses. But presumably a region that generated Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, George Mason, James Monroe, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Walker Percy might have something to be said for it. So as Brion McClanahan Week continues, we take a look at this question.

Brion McClanahan Week on the Tom Woods Show begins with a discussion of this important historian's background, and how he came to abandon the neoconservatism so many of us imbibed in our youth.

Brion McClanahan Week continues with a look at U.S. presidents we barely hear about (and who tend, naturally, to be the better ones) and how we should evaluate them.

Phil Magness discusses his new book (with Jason Brennan) about the problems with higher education. They aren't talking about ideological conformity, bad as that is. They are discussing other problems, just as deep and pervasive. For example, most academic marketing and advertising is semi-fraudulent. To justify their own pay raises and higher budgets, administrators hire expensive and unnecessary staff. Faculty exploit students for tuition dollars through gen-ed requirements. Students hardly learn anything, and cheating is pervasive. At every level, academics disguise their pursuit of self-interest with high-faluting moral language.

Last night there was yet another Democratic presidential debate, and the great Lew Rockwell and I watched it so you didn't have to. Winners, losers, and insanity all covered in detail.

Kyle Mann, editor-in-chief of the brilliant satire site The Babylon Bee, joins me to discuss comedy, politics, social media, and Snopes' hilarious "fact checking" of what is obviously satire.

Today Tho Bishop and I review the second night of the second round of Democratic presidential debates (the July 31, 2019 debate, to be exact). Plenty of dull talking points, to be sure, but enough zingers to make this episode fun.

Ben Powell returns to the show to discuss his new book with Bob Lawson, in which the two economists visit various unfree places around the world and share their observations. (It turns out that alcohol, and usually beer, is often a good indicator of degrees of freedom.) In this episode we get a glimpse inside Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, and (a genuine success story) Georgia.

Most of my listeners will be familiar with Praxis, the program that gets young people internships, and their first job, with a business that matches their interests. Clark Davis, a Tom Woods Show listener, learned about Praxis through me, and did his own apprenticeship at the E-Commerce Business School. Today he works for them full time, helping people break into e-commerce as a nice side income source or even as a full-time living.

We wrap up Scott Horton week with a full overview of the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, what the true story behind it is, and precisely why the U.S. regime chose to take sides.

Maybe you favor nonintervention, but are you sure you know all the ins and outs of the situation in Syria in recent years? The great Scott Horton cuts through the propaganda to get to the real story.

Our discussion with Scott Horton about the War on Terror continues today with coverage of Iraq. You think you know the story: the creeps deceived us about WMDs. There's so much more to the Iraq disaster than that, and Scott gives us all the details.

Day two of Scott Horton Week takes us to Somalia, and Scott's discussion of how this of all countries came to find itself in the crosshairs of the U.S. War on Terror. we also discussed the humanitarian catastrophe in that country, and the role the U.S. played in worsening it.

The great Scott Horton joins us for a tour of half a dozen countries with an update on the status of the War on Terror in each.

In 2002 the University of Missouri accepted a multi-million dollar bequest whose stipulation was that it hire professors working within the tradition of the Austrian School of economics. It has recently been discovered that of course it did no such thing. Its efforts to cover its tracks are actually laughable. This is a fun one.