The Curious Task

03/07/2024

Episode Notes

26/06/2024

Matt speaks with Joanna Baron about how government measures during the pandemic undermined civil liberties in North America and beyond. Episode Notes: - Brian Bird's PhD Thesis: https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/4j03d4180 - Fraser Institute: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/ - The Forgott...

19/06/2024

Sabine speaks with Jonathan Blanks about a buzzword that is not commonly used in classical liberal circles: Systemic Racism. Jonathan defends the notion that it does in fact exist, while providing nuance and context for what exactly systemic racism is. Episode Notes: - An article by Jonathan on Cato...

12/06/2024

Alex speaks with Kevin Erdmann about how zoning, the 2008 economic crisis, and the desire to live away from "those people" is effecting the state of housing today. Episode Notes: Kevin's page at the Mercatus Centre: https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/kevin-erdmann The Erdmann Housing Tracker: https:/...

05/06/2024

Alex speaks with Dominic Parker about his 2023 paper with Dean Lueck entitled "The Economic Origins And Extent Of America's First Environmental Agencies" Episode Notes: Dominic's paper:https://aae.wisc.edu/dparker/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2023/12/Lueck-Parker-Origins-December-2023.pdf Some histo...

29/05/2024

Alex speaks with Ryan Bourne as he explores the misconceptions around inflation and the dangers of price controls, emphasizing how prices act as signals to coordinate economic activity and promote growth. Ryan explains the adverse effects of government intervention in setting prices, such as shortag...

22/05/2024

Alex speaks with Kent Roach about a topic that many Canadians may overlook when thinking about issues that are recurring at home: wrongful convictions and the victims thereof. Episode Notes: - Kent's award-winning book "Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to....

15/05/2024

Matt speaks with Ethan Nadelmann about drug decriminalization, legalization, and the slow end to the drug war in Canada and the United States, and how successes and failures in both countries compare to those abroad. Episode Notes: The Drug Policy Alliance website: https://drugpolicy.org/ Some histo...

08/05/2024

Matt speaks with Craig Biddle about the legacy of Ayn Rand and how her Objectivist though relates to classical liberalism, the American ideal and post-modernism. Episode Notes: Craig's work for the Objective Standard: https://theobjectivestandard.com/author/cbiddle/ Craig on X: https://twitter.com/C...

01/05/2024

Alex speaks with Bryce Tingle about corporations, how these unique legal entities run on efficiency and how an over-reliance on the public market is hurting Canadians. Episode Notes: Bryce’s article “Returning Markets To The Centre Of Corporate Law” https://jcl.law.uiowa.edu/sites/jcl.law.uiow...

24/04/2024

Matt speaks with Eric Merkley about NIMBYism, the surprising touchpoints for unity between left and right on the subject of housing, and how uncovering the true motivations of NIMBYs has altered Eric's view of the housing crisis. Episode Notes: "Housing for Me, but not for Thee", Eric's paper servin...

17/04/2024

Sabine speaks with Ben Klutsey about political polarization, commonalities between the United States and Canada, and his documentary on the subject entitled "Undivide Us" Episode Notes: The documentary's website with more information, a trailer and the option to request a screening: https://undivide...

10/04/2024

Alex speaks with Rachel LaRose about the hidden costs of the pandemic, especially as they effected our commercial relationships, loose ties with individuals that once provided much value to our lives, and orthodox communities who rallied to prioritize faith in the face of fear. Episode Notes:

03/04/2024

Matt speaks with Sam Bowman about the global housing crisis and why, in English-speaking countries in particular, a growing consensus across the political divide is pointing to problems with central planning, NIMBYism and a supply limit as the causes. Episode Notes: Sam Bowman’s on substack: https...

20/03/2024

In May 2022, Alex spoke with Deirdre McCloskey in a wide-ranging conversation that addresses the economic, philosophical, and political reasons why liberalism just works. We're reposting that important conversation today on The Curious Task.

13/03/2024

Alex speaks with Alex Nowrasteh about nationalism as more of an innate tendency towards ethnic tribalism than anything resembling patriotism, and how this tendency may never disappear, but is worth resisting nonetheless. Episode Notes: Alex's page at the Cato Insitute: https://www.cato.org/people/al...

08/03/2024

“A woman needs the state like a fish needs a bicycle.” - Sarah Skwire

06/03/2024

Alex speaks with Oyebade Oyenrinde about the state of federalism in Nigeria, and how western ideas of democracy, liberalism and centralization of powers have influenced the current state of politics in the African nation. Episode Notes:

28/02/2024

21/02/2024

Alex speaks with Marian Tupy about the notion that human progress has increased quality of life worldwide for centuries, making today the greatest time to be alive in the history of human life (in spite of what you may have heard elsewhere). Episode Notes:

14/02/2024

Sabine speaks with Aeon Skoble about the harms of limiting access to information, including book bans and why a better understanding of ideas we disagree with often strengthens rather than weakens our arguments in support of the ideas we endorse.Episode Notes: - “Free Speech and the Function of a ...

07/02/2024

Alex speaks with Eric Schliesser about the growing declarations of the end of liberalism and what this means for the socio-political future in general. Episode Notes: Eric Schliesser’s page at the University of Amsterdam https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/s/c/e.s.schliesser/e.s.schliesser.html ...

31/01/2024

Sabine speaks with Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak about the effects of market forces on gender as a social construct, the unlikely pairing of free markets and gender in an age of socialist feminist theory, and their recent co-authored article in Cosmos + Taxis. Episode Notes: "Gender as a Discovery...

24/01/2024

Sabine Speaks with Ryan Thorpe about the state of Journalism in Canada and about how bills C-18, C-11 and government subsidies for journalism are compromising an industry necessary for democratic participation in an age when accountability is more important than ever. Episode Notes: Ryan's page on t...

17/01/2024

Matt speaks with Tyler Cowen about his recent book "GOAT:Who is the Greatest Economist of all Time and Why Does it Matter?", as they discuss the case for and against each of the top finalists, and the interactive AI features that Tyler has integrated into the book's online release. Episode Notes: Th...

10/01/2024

Alex speaks with Peter Boettke and Matthew Mitchell about their recent book co-authored with Konstantin Zhukov about the unusual rise of Estonia from the ashes of Stalinism to their current status as one of the freest nations on earth. Episode Notes: The conversation focusses on the book "Road To Fr...

03/01/2024

Alex speaks with Nick Cowen about democracy, markets, and his forthcoming article "Include The Ignorant" Episode Notes: - Jason Brennan "Against Democracy" https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691178493/against-democracy - On the Compatibility of Epistocracy and Public Reasonby Thomas Mul...

27/12/2023

Alex speaks with Mike Munger about the state of classical liberalism in an era in which conservatism seems intent on wielding the tools of central planning and the left prefers the term "progressive" to "liberal". Episode Notes: The Classical Liberal Diaspora by Mike Munger: https://t.co/xoRnPIUXXi....

20/12/2023

Sabine speaks with Lauren K Hall, who defends the notion that feminism is an emergent order, and speaks about her recent special edition of Cosmos+Taxis. Episode Notes: All articles in the most recent edition of Cosmos+Taxis are linked here: https://cosmosandtaxis.org/current-issue/ Sarah Blaffer Hr...

13/12/2023

Matt speaks with Clara Piano about the relationship between economic freedom, fertility, and the roles that modernization and increasing well-being for women have on the number of babies that are born in countries around the world. Episode Notes: "The Fertility Gap and Economic Freedom" by Clara Pia...