Reason Podcast

Donald Trump has promised to slash taxes, junk regulations, repeal Obamacare, and expand school choice. Given all that, shouldn't libertarians give him at least a little (maybe even a whole lotta) love? No, says Reason Senior Editor Brian Doherty in the latest Reason podcast, because Trump is actually trafficking in a "Dangerous Anti-Libertarian Nationalism" that is actually the antithesis of classical liberalism. "Free trade and free migration are...the core of the true classical liberal (libertarian) vision as it developed in America in the 20th century," says Doherty, author of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern Libertarian Movement. "If you don't understand and embrace them, you don't understand liberty, and you are not trying to further it." In a wide-ranging conversation, Doherty and Nick Gillespie talk about the rise of Trump and the role of Steve Bannon in the president's administration; why being a "rootless cosmopolite" isn't in any way antithetical to patriotism; and why the great Austrian-born economist Ludwig Von Mises—a Jew who escaped Nazism—provides the strongest possible case against Trump's "America First" message. Produced by Mark McDaniel.

"I think [Trump] kind of has a zero-sum view of the world," says Cato Institute Senior Fellow Trevor Thrall. "'We're going to win, and we're going to beat people up hard to do it.'" Reason TV's Nick Gillespie sat down with Thrall to discuss the Trump Doctrine, its potential effect on global stability, and America's role as an indispensable nation.

"We often focus a lot of attention on these big racial gaps and confidence towards the police. How well they do their jobs. Are they accountable? Do they use too much force? What the polling data suggests is that people are far more unified when it comes to what the police should be doing." says Cato Institute Director of Polling Emily Ekins, author of Policing in America: Understanding Public Attitudes Toward the Police. "For instance, we asked people what they thought the top priorities of the police should be, and across racial groups and partisan groups it was the same. It was fighting violent crime, protecting you from being a victim of violent crime, and fighting property crime like robbery. The drug war was very low on that list." Reason TV's Nick Gillespie sat down with Ekins at the International Students for Liberty Conference to discuss public opinion toward the police, criminal justice reform, and the millennial vote.

At the 10th annual International Students for Liberty Conference, Reason magazine Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward, former editor and longtime head of the Institute for Humane Studies Marty Zupan, and Nick Gillespie discussed the history and future of Reason and libertarianism in President Donald Trump's America. Each talked about the signature issues of the decades we were at the magazine's helm (the 1980s for Zupan, the '00s for me, and currently for Mangu-Ward) and whether libertarianism is waxing or waning. Short version: Waxing! This podcast was recorded live on Friday, February 17. Now finishing up its first decade, Students for Liberty reported that about 1,700 guests from all over the world attended this year's conference. Produced by Mark McDaniel.

"Libertarians, in particular, should be really worried" about having a class of people with secret knowledge about our foreign policy than isn't available to "the average American," says Bloomberg View columnist Eli Lake. "These are the classic dangers of statism." In our latest podcast, Lake—a self-described "big neocon, Putin-hating, war hawk on Russia"—talks about his recent column, "The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn," which argues that the mandarins of the national security state misused their access to sensitive information to undermine a member of a democratically elected government.

When the government puts "quantitative restrictions on immigration" it's attempting to centrally plan "a complicated market with people who have heterogeneous skills," argued economist Ben Powell at an immigration debate held Monday night in New York City. Powell, who's head of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, went up against Mark Krikorian from the Center for Immigration Studies, who argued that if the U.S. were to eliminate numerical caps on immigration "100 million people per decade" might come here—"a revolutionary policy" that would destroy our social fabric. The event was hosted by the Soho Forum, a monthly libertarian-themed debate series. The following proposition was on the table: "U.S. immigration policy should be to issue migration visas, without any numerical limitations, to all applicants who are not on a terrorist watch list, and who do not otherwise have criminal records or contagious diseases."

"There's a shocking level of continuity from Bush's policies to Obama's policies to Trump's policies," says Reason.com Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie. "And that's what's so frustrating about partisan politics...if you don't want the government to be able to kick people out of the country who've broken no crime other than to come here without the authorization to work, you should really be a libertarian." In the latest episode of the Reason Podcast, Nick Gillespie, Matt Welch, and Katherine Mangu-Ward discuss immigration raids, the "selective sense of moral outrage" over Trump, our surprisingly apolitical Grammys, Beyoncé's rebirth as a goddess of fertility, deep-state douche bags, and more.

Flemming Rose isn't going to watch the decline of free speech without a fight. In 2005, while an editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Rose commissioned twelve cartoons about Muhammad to encourage artists to overcome self-censorship. Extremists responded to the cartoons with attacks on western embassies and riots, resulting in the deaths of over 200 people. Rose is no rogue provocateur. He is one of the planet's most committed defenders of free speech, the open society, and enlightenment values of tolerance and human rights. For the video of this interview go here: https://reason.com/reasontv/2017/02/10/flemming-rose-tyranny-silence

When Rockwall County Sheriff Harold Eavenson told Donald Trump that a state senator was pushing civil asset forfeiture reform in Texas, the president responded: "Who is the state senator? Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career." That prompted Pennsylvania State Senator Daylin Leach (D-17) to tweet: Hey @realDonaldTrump I oppose civil asset forfeiture too! Why don't you try to destroy my career you fascist, loofa-faced, shit-gibbon! So what is this legal process prompting threats of career destruction? In our latest Reason podcast, Nick Gillespie chats with Reason's criminal justice reporter C.J. Ciaramella about the history of civil asset forfeiture and the prospects for reform now that Jeff Sessions has been confirmed as attorney general.

Super Bowl LI between the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots was a stunner of a game, the first Super Bowl to be decided in overtime. But the playing on the field was hardly the only topic of conversation. Conspiracy nut Alex Jones prophesied that performer Lady Gaga would perform a satanic ritual during her half-time show while others complained that pro-immigration TV commercials from Anheuser-Busch and 84 Lumber were spoiling the pleasure of seeing millionaires beat each other for the Vince Lombardi trophy. In the end, Lady Gaga didn't spill any blood or summon any demons, though she did jump off the roof of Houston's NRG stadium in a remarkable entrance. After the Patriots staged an unparalleled comeback, it was the alt-right that politicized the effort, with the vile Richard Spencer tweeting an image of QB Tom Brady kissing his supermodel wife and announcing, "For the White race, it's never over." That the official pre-game show honored Black History Month by saluting football Hall of Famers who had graduated from historically black colleges and universities doubtless enraged Pepe the frog fans all over the planet. Reason Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward, Editor at Large Matt Welch, and Reason.com's Nick Gillespie talk about all this plus Donald Trump's second week on the job as president of the United States. Trump spent part of last week attacking the "so-called judge" who issued a temporary stay against his refugee and immigration ban and just minutes before the Super Bowl he caused a stir by responding to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly charge that Russia's Vladimir Putin is a killer by saying, "You think our country is so innocent?" We discuss all that, plus the increasingly tight confirmation votes slated for Trump's picks for Secretary of Education and Attorney General in the newest Reason Podcast.

The CEO of the Amsterdam-based Backpage.com—the "world's largest online brothel"—was arrested at the Houston airport on October 6, 2016, charged by the state of California with pimping, conspiracy, pimping of a minor, and attempted pimping of a minor. Two months later, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman threw out the government's case on the grounds that the law protects online platforms from criminal liability for user-generated content. "Congress has spoken on this matter," Bowman wrote in a preliminary decision citing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). "[A]nd it is for Congress, not this court, to revisit." The prosector in that case, state's attorney general (and now junior senator from California) Kamala Harris immediately filed new criminal charges against Backpage. Last month, the company decided to close its adult ads section after years of legal harassment. On today's podcast, our guest is legendary free speech attorney Robert Corn-Revere, who represented Backpage.com. The conversation touched on the history of the Communications Decency Act, why Backpage's move to close of its adult ads section has made it more difficult for law enforcement to catch sex traffickers, how Anthony Comstock "set the playbook" for today's censors, and what Trump's election means for the First Amendment. (Note: The conversation was recorded on January 17, before the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.)

Georgetown Law's Randy Barnett sat down with Reason's Nick Gillespie to weigh in on Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme court. Barnett said he was cautiously optimistic about Gorsuch. "Of all the people on [Trump's] list, he was certainly near the top," Barnett said. Gorsuch, he says, is well-read, smart, and a staunch defender of originalism like Justice Scalia. "There's the old 'framers intent,' which people say if they don't know what they're talking about," Barnett said. "Gorusch says 'original public meaning,' which means he knows what he's talking about" when it comes constrained interpretation of laws. Barnett said he believes the addition of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court could have a significant impact on whether or not a reinterpretation of abortion rights is in the future. "Roe v. Wade is not settled," Barnett said. "Could [a decision] happen? I think it could...in the sense that it's been contested since it was decided. As a result I can seem them undoing it and sending [the issue of abortion] back to the states." Edited by Mark McDaniel. Cameras by Josh Swain and McDaniel.

As president Trump's immigration crackdown prompts nationwide protests, Reason Foundation convened three policy experts in Washington, D.C., to discuss the moral and economic case for reform. PANELISTS Ilya Somin - Law professor, George Mason University. Contributor, The Volokh Conspiracy, at The Washington Post. Tim Kane - Economist, Hoover Institution at Stanford University; editor of Peregrine, an immigration journal. Shikha Dalmia - Senior Analyst, Reason Foundation. Produced by Todd Krainin.

Donald Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees is anathema to our core beliefs—as is his proposed tariff, border wall, and a slew of other anti-globalist policies—but he's also talking about deregulating industry, and has nominated (or is considering nominating) several pro-freedom cabinet members. So where do libertarians fall in Trump's America? "The future of politics is going to be more oriented around a purely issue-by-issue consideration of things," says Reason's Editor at Large Matt Welch. "You're going to have a lot of temporary coalitions." On the other hand, "we also seem to be seeing the rise of a permanent anti-Trump coalition," notes Reason magazine Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward, "and at some point the true Trump oppositionists will consider any kind of coalition building with Trump to be evidence of non-trustworthiness." In our latest podcast, Nick Gillespie chats with Mangu-Ward and Welch about "rage exhaustion," tribalism, and how Trump is making us more like Western Europe.

School choice is flourishing in America, with millions of kids now using vouchers to attend private schools, going to publicly funded charter schools, benefiting from open-enrollment policies, being schooled at home, and more. What are the forces that are driving the acceptance of choice programs, does choice increase student performance, and are traditional public schools being left behind? These are some of the questions Nick Gillespie puts to Lisa Snell, the director of education research at Reason Foundation. Snell is one of the architects of the reform that's known as the "weighted student formula," in which education dollars follow a particular student to whatever school he or she attends (extra dollars are added for students with learning problems and other issues). Not only does the weighted student formula give more control and options to students, it also allows for an end-run around conventional school districts, which often soak up huge amounts of per-pupil funding before it reaches the classrom—or a teacher's paycheck. Snell explains the growing appeal of Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), which allow parents to spend money on a wide variety of educational services and hyper-personalize their children's education.