This episode features an audio essay written by economics professor and Austro-libertarian Walter Block from 1976, and which comprises Chapter 2 of Defending the Undefendable.
Category: Free Market Voices
John Hasnas: Have Markets Failed? (25m)
This episode features a talk by law and business professor John Hasnas from 2013. He talks about the failures of “market-failure” arguments so often used by bureaucrats to justify government regulation. He explained why he believes that the internal regulatory mechanisms of free markets prove to be far more powerful than anything that politicians can attempt.
Kirby Ferguson: Embrace the Remix (10m)
This episode features a talk by writer and filmmaker Kirby Ferguson from 2013. From Bob Dylan to Steve Jobs, he says our most celebrated creators borrow, steal and transform.
Peter Hill: The Not So Wild, Wild West, Property Rights on the Frontier (48m)
This episode features a lecture by economics professor emeritus Peter J. Hill from 2016. Hill looks at the development of property rights across the American West in the 19th century.
Walter Block: Defending the Speculator (9m)
This episode features an audio essay written by economics professor and Austro-libertarian Walter Block from 1976, and which comprises Chapter 22 of Defending the Undefendable.
Milton Friedman: There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (45m)
his episode features a talk by economist and Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman from 1993. From the grand opening of the Cato Institutes’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1993, Friedman gives a talk about popular political aphorisms, one of his favorites being the one he helped popularize in the title of his 1975 book, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
Thomas Sowell: Discrimination and Disparities (48m)
This episode features an interview of economist Thomas Sowell from 2018 by Dave Rubin, host of the Rubin Report podcast. They discuss his new book “Discrimination & Disparities” which challenges ideas related to economic outcome differences like discrimination, exploitation or genetics. They dive into Dr. Sowell’s upbringing and Marxist past, free speech on college campuses, the role of government, minimum wage laws, his experience as a conservative who happens to be black, and more.
Michael Munger: When is Voluntary Choice Really Voluntary? (48m)
This episode features an interview of economist Mike Munger from 2015 by Trevor Burrus and Aaron Powell, hosts of the Free Thoughts podcast. They talk about voluntary transactions and questions of justice in market pricing. What would everyone agree is truly voluntary? Are disparities in bargaining power coercive? What’s wrong with using the state to address these disparities? What about price gouging situations? What about sweatshops?
Milton Friedman: Myths That Conceal Reality (54m)
This episode features a talk by economist and Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman from 1977. He explores five economic myths that cloud our perception of both the past and the present. Those myths include the Robber Baron myth, the Great Depression myth (from a Chicago School perspective), the expanding government myth, the “free lunch” myth, and the government as Robin Hood myth.
T.K. Coleman: Entrepreneurship As A Theory of Social Change (1h14m)
This episode features a talk by serial entrepreneur and education activist T.K. Coleman from 2016. “I want everyone to leave there feeling convinced that we have a tremendous amount of power to create a freer world without relying solely or primarily on politics. Moreover, I want them to have concrete and inspiring examples of how this is being done and how they can get involved.”