Reason Podcast

Comic-book artist Brett Smith has drawn some of the biggest names in the Marvel and DC universes—The Hulk, Batman, Superman, Wolverine, Thor, and others—but Bill and Hillary Clinton top his list of all-time supervillains. In August, Smith and comics writer Chuck Dixon (he helped create Batman's nemesis Bane, among many other characters) published Clinton Cash: The Graphic Novel, which is based on Peter Schweizer's expose of the Clinton Family Foundation and Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state. Like its inspiration, Clinton Cash: The Graphic Novel rocketed to the top of The New York Times' best-seller list, a success that Smith attributes to the humorous, four-color depiction of just how awful he says the Clintons really are. In a wide-ranging conversation with Reason's Nick Gillespie, Smith explains the convoluted ways he says the Clinton Foundation funneled money to the former—and likely future—First Family of America; why he thinks Donald Trump is more than a neo-protectionist xenophobe; and what it's like to be conservative-with-libertarian tendencies in a creative field like graphic illustration.

Swedish libertarian Johan Norberg talks with Nick Gillespie about the ideas, attitudes, policies, and institutions that will make sure future generations are born into a world that is vastly better than the one we live in today.

In an unbroken chain of best-selling and page-turning thrillers featuring special-ops agent Scot Harvath, Brad Thor has created a fictional universe that reflects our chaotic contemporary world. No stranger to stirring the political pot, the "conservatarian" author discusses his discussion with Glenn Beck about the hypothetical removal of a President Donald Trump. Thor's #NeverTrump call to action got him in hot water with Sirius XM after a vociferous exchange last May on Glenn Beck's radio show, with some listeners claiming he was talking about assassination (a charge Thor absolutely rebuts in this interview). His discussion of his early development as as writer is of interest to his many fans. A writer who can turn the Federal Reserve Bank into a nail-biting thriller – as Thor did in Hidden Order – has valuable lessons to share in the arts of espionage and storytelling. Produced by Todd Krainin. Hosted by Nick Gillespie.

On the latest Reason podcast, Nick Gillespie and Reason magazine editor in chief Katherine Mangu-Ward are joined by Andrew Ferguson, a staffer at The Weekly Standard and author of a series of best-selling books ranging from Land of Lincoln to Crazy U. The choice between leading presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has been likened to having to decide between being shot and being poisoned, contracting different sorts of STDs, or electing a giant douche versus a turd sandwich. So which is it? And is Libertarian Gary Johnson a "buffoon"?. The Libertarian candidate is polling at historically high numbers yet still manages to disappoint some people.

Obamacare may be "standing on the edge of a death spiral" according to Reason Features Editor Peter Suderman. Health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are set to rise dramatically in 2017, an average of 25 percent for middle tier coverage options. What does this increase mean for consumers, taxpayers, and the future of the ACA? Reason TV's Nick Gillespie sat down with Suderman to find out. Produced by Austin Bragg. Interview by Nick Gillespie.

"[James] Madison warned us about devolving into a two-party system," says Utah state senator Mark Madsen. "And we see why now." Earlier this year, Madsen announced he was leaving the Republican party to become a Libertarian. This came on the heels of a contentious Republic National Convention wherein Donald Trump supporters and party loyalists shouted down members of the Utah delegation who attempted to cast a first ballot for Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz later gave a speech and received booes from a crowd angry that he declined to endorse Trump (Cruz eventually did give Trump his endorsement). Madsen refers to this ordeal as the "Cleveland experience" and credits it with spurring him to make the switch he'd been pondering for years. Reason TV sat down with Madsen in the chambers of Utah's capitol building in Salt Lake City to discuss more about what motivated his switch, what he hopes to accomplish as a Libertarian, and what the future of the Republican and Libertarian parties might look like. "We think things are bad now. Four years from now might be when the Libertarians have to step up and save the nation," says Madsen. Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Interview by Weissmueller. Music by Doctor Turtle.

"It used to be college was a place for open dialogue and open debate," says Says Cliff Maloney Jr., Executive Director at Young Americans for Liberty (YAL). "But now we find free speech zones, we find unconstitutional policies. And thats our goal with...our national fight for free speech campaign. How do we tackle them? How do we change them and reform them?" YAL, the non-profit pro-liberty organization that emerged from the 2008 Ron Paul campaign, encourages college students to understand and exercise their constitutional rights. "We try to reach kids with these ideas. We do that through activism. Real events–which college campuses are supposed to be all about–taking ideas to students and having these discussions." Since its founding, YAL has increased chapters from 100 to over 700 nationwide. Maloney sat down with Reason's Nick Gillespie to talk about YAL, the state of free speech on campus, and his goal of making politics "sexy." Edited by Alex Manning. Interview by Nick Gillespie.

Sorry, kids. Life "doesn't get better" once you leave high school behind, says Frank Portman, one of the great chroniclers of adolescent angst and alienation over the past 30 years. "You [just] get better at navigating it, or fighting it off." Portman is a novelist (King Dork, Andromeda Klein) and musician (The Mr T Experience) whose latest project is a soundtrack to his most-recent book, King Dork Approximately, which is just out in paperback. Writing a soundtrack for his novel is an attempt to recapture the hyper-intense and focused multimedia experience that the California native fears has gone missing in an age of digital overload. Like his earlier literary offerings, King Dork Approximately drew rave reviews for its honest, urgent, and wickedly funny take on the big and small ways that our high-school years mark us for the rest of our lives. In a wide-ranging conversation with Reason's Nick Gillespie, Portman talks about his literary inspirations (Philip K. Dick) and musical heroes (Pete Townshend of the Who and Ray Davies of The Kinks), and whether the world is getting more tolerant of oddballs and weirdos or increasingly more repressive of kids and adults who think and act differently.

What's life like for Mike Rowe without a network television show? Since CNN dropped Somebody's Gotta Do It, Rowe has had his privacy violated by a drone, the former host of Dirty Jobs survived the rumors of his own death swirling about the internet, and in the home stretch of an ugly presidential election, he worries more than ever about unemployment, the skills gap, and a widespread loss of meaning in American life. Yet Rowe himself remains more popular than ever. Days after Rowe read a letter from his mother detailing how she lost her purse at Wal-Mart, the post went hyperviral. It was seen by over 100 million people – "a third of the country!" he exclaims. "I've never seen anything like it," Rowe tells Reason TV, "I've talked to people at Facebook who said they've never seen anything like it." Rowe has also found a way to turn C.R.A.P – that's Collectibles, Rare and Precious – into philanthropy. His auction of a swanky Trump Tower bathrobe, signed by The Donald himself, fetched a cool $16,000 on eBay. The money then trickled down from the alleged billionaire to The Mike Rowe Works Foundation, which funds "work ethic scholarships" that provide out-of-luck workers with valuable skills for the modern economy. Nick Gillespie caught up with Mike Rowe in Nashville, Tennessee to chat about his affection for the Second Amendment, his adventures in podcasting, the 2016 election, the secret to extracting semen from a prize racehorse, and more. Produced by Todd Krainin. Hosted by Nick Gillespie.

Reason magazine Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward and standup comic and author Andrew Heaton talk with Nick Gillespie about the final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. While most of the coverage has involved press outrage over Trump's supposedly unprecedented unwillingness to proactively accept his electoral defeat on November 8, we looked at the said and the unsaid. Did the candidates actually lay out plausible, coherent foreign policy plans (no)? Is either serious about addressing mounting debt and entitlement spending (no)? Are there reasons for Americans to feel like the "system" is screwing them over (mixed)? And would the debates have been made better and more informative by letting on the stage Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and other candidates who are on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win the election (yes)?

Running "someone sane and honest is different," says Nicholas Sarwark, the national chair of the Libertarian Party in explaining the "unique selling proposition" of the "party of principle" in the 2016 presidential election. Bolstered by a presidential ticket led Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, two former two-term governors, the LP has received an unprecedented amount of news coverage and popular interest, says Sarwark, who talks about how the systems is indeed rigged against third-party candidates. Between ever-changing ballot-access rules and patently ridiculous exclusions from presidential debates, he says, the one thing Republicans and Democrats agree on is keeping other parties at arm's length. And yet, Sarwark notes, the duopoly is faltering because it no longer is fielding "authentic" and "honest" candidates. Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Sarwark about what the "party of principle" is up to in the final weeks of the 2016 race and the LP's bold new strategy of running electable, pragmatic candidates who are also committed to maximum freedom and minimal government. Produced by Jim Epstein with Ian Keyes.

"Every rule that gets written has a cost," explains Abby Schachter, author of the new book No Child Left Alone: Getting the Government Out of Parenting. "I don't know if parents [understand] that under the headline 'we're going to keep your children safe' [or] 'we're going to protect the kids' that that is really code for 'we're taking your rights away.'" Schachter credits a personal experience with Pennsylvania's restrictive regulations over swaddling in daycare to her interest in documenting how the government is getting more involved in raising children and restricting parents' choices. "I had to go find the people who made up this rule about swaddling and they weren't in my state and they weren't even accountable," Schachter says. Reason TV's Nick Gillespie sat down with Schachter to talk about her book, her fight to have her youngest child swaddled (0:57), how government officials take obese children from their parents (2:52), the loss of unsupervised play among kids (4:01), warning labels (8:06), and the connection between her work and college students' demand for safe spaces (11:03). Edited by Joshua Swain and Ian Keyser. Music by Podington Bear.

Nick Gillespie talks with Reason magazine Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward and Bloomberg View's Eli Lake about Donald Trump's bragging about groping women, Hillary Clinton and Wikileaks, and Gary Johnson's shortcomings as a presidential contender. Also: Does the United States need to bust Russia's lip and are we living in a fully post-fact world?

Nick Gillespie, Reason's Brian Doherty, and The Daily Beast's Andrew Kirell talk about Bob Dylan's inscrutable politics, his glorious inauthenticity and penchant for offending his most-ardent fans, his undeniable individualism, and his richly deserved Nobel Prize for Literature. Each guest also names his favorite album and defends his choice.

LP presidential nominee Gary Johnson says the second debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton set a new low for incivility. The former New Mexico governor also says disgruntled Republicans are ready to endorse him over their own party's candidate - and argues that Bernie Sanders' supporters turned off by Clinton's hypocrisy should give him a look.