The Curious Task

In this conversation from 2023, Matt speaks with Mark Mercer about academic freedom, the changing mission of universities themselves, and what role faculty, administrators, and students should play in shaping the future of the institution. 

References:

• Mark’s Interview in C2C Journal: https://c2cjournal.ca/2023/05/confronting-the-post-academic-university-in-conversation-with-mark-mercer/ ...

In this episode from 2021, Alex Aragona speaks with Dennis Rasmussen about his findings on how the American Founding Fathers truly felt about the experiment they designed and built as time went on.

References

• Dennis Rasmussen previously joined The Curious Task to speak about his book The Infidel and the Professor, and you can listen to that episode here.
• The book discussed on this episode of The Curious Task is ...

Alex Eames speaks with Moshe Lander about whether Canada’s billion-dollar FIFA bill is a smart investment, or if politicans and taxpayers are being sold a bill of goods. Moshe argues that while the World Cup will absolutely be fun and meaningful for fans, the public was sold a dollars-and-cents case that does not really hold up once you factor in temporary jobs, displaced spending, s...

Alex speaks with Darrell Bricker about whether Canada is at a breaking point, drawing from Bricker and John Ibbitson’s book Breaking Point to explore Canada’s economic stagnation, regional alienation, generational anxiety, and fragile national identity. Bricker argues that Canada’s challenges are serious but not fatal if Canadians are willing to stop kicking hard problems down the road and start building a country...

In this episode from 2022, Alex speaks with James Harrigan about popular culture as a source of social change and the many ways in which the export of American pop culture has shaped the world.

References

1. “Brown v. Board of Education” by the National Archives

Link: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education 

2. “Roe v. Wade” by Britannica

Link: https:/...

In this episode, Alex speaks with Matt Zwolinski about whether markets are coercive, and why the answer is more complicated than either “markets are voluntary” or “capitalism is coercion.” They discuss Robert Hale’s classic argument, the limits of standard libertarian responses, and why a better liberal defence of markets has to take real-world coercion seriously without treating all coer...

Matt speaks with Matt Dinan about why AI is not so much ruining liberal education as exposing it's main shortcoming: treating education as a system of credentials rather than a challenging process of reading, writing, discussing, and learning how to learn. Dinan argues that the best response is not to become an "AI cop", but to design courses that incentivize students to learn skills they will need in any scenario where AI has an i...

In this episode from 2022, Alex speaks with Moin Yahya about debates both new and old surrounding the causes and history of inflation.

References:

Inflation and Paper Money: An Historical Perspective: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4076420 

In Defense of the Free-Banking Stablecoins: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4056359  George Selgin's page at the Cato Institute:

https://www....

Matt speaks with Nadine Strossen about why free speech is under pressure across the political spectrum, from left-wing campus cancel culture to right-wing government coercion and censorship pressures. Strossen argues that the answer to hateful or harmful ideas is not censorship, but a stronger culture of free expression, viewpoint neutrality, and fighting bad speech with better speech.

References

Matt speaks with Casey Kennedy, co-founder of Acton Academy Calgary Central, about what makes the Acton model different from traditional schooling: guides instead of teachers, Socratic discussions instead of lectures, mastery instead of grades, and an emphasis on letting kids struggle, fail, and become passionate about the process of learning itself. Casey also explains why she and her husband started the school for t...

Matt speaks with James Czerniawski about proposed bans on children using social media and AI, exploring concerns around mental health, digital literacy, free speech, privacy, and the consequences of regulation. James argues that while online harms are real, outright bans are ineffective and often counterproductive, advocating instead for parental awareness, digital literacy, and a more optimistic approach to AI.

Alex sits down with Holly Doan to discuss Accountability Journalism and the role that non-mainstream journalistic media has in the current Canadian political landscape. They discuss the decline of traditional newsrooms, subsidies for Canadian media companies and the lack of transparency that has led us to a climate where the press is struggling to keep up with the times.

References

Blackloc...

In this episode, Alex speaks with Aris Trantidis about his book Clientelism and why it matters for anyone concerned with democracy, public choice, and the modern state. Trantidis explains clientelism as a system of political exchange in which politicians trade targeted favours, contracts, regulation, and other private benefits for support, campaign resources, and loyalty - arguing that this dynamic is not a "bug" but ...

In this episode from 2020, Alex Aragona speaks with Dan Griswold as he explores the benefits of open markets and free trade, and whether you can "win" a trade war.

References

1. “Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization” by Daniel Griswold

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Mad-About-Trade-America-Globalization/dp/193530819X 

2. “Section 232 Investigation on the Effect of ...

In this episode from 2024, Alex speaks with Bryce Tingle about corporations, how these unique legal entities are governed, how changes we have made to corporate governance has discouraged companies from joining Canada’s public markets, and how the decline in our public market is hurting Canadians. 



Episode Notes:

1. Bryce’s article “Returning Markets To The Centre Of Corporate Law”

https://jcl.law.uiowa.ed...

In this episode from 2023, Alex speaks with Nigel Ashford about the prospects for a freer world and how the memory of history, the hope of younger persons, and the teaching of ideas can shape the future of classical liberalism. 

Further Reading: https://libertarianism.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/socin003.pdf

Chapter 2 of this book: https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Blundell-interactive.pdf https://fee.org/art...

In this episode, Alex speaks with Nick Cowen about why an “examined education” is better than an unexamined one. Drawing on his paper, Nick argues that exams are valuable not just as external assessments but as opportunities for students to test themselves, build confidence, develop resilience, and discover what they actually know rather than what they merely think they know.

References

In this episode from 2023, Alex speaks with Stefanie Haeffele about her book Living Better Together, which explores the work of Elinor Ostrom and Viviana Zelizer. 

Episode Notes:

"Living Better Together" by Stefanie Haeffele and Virgil Henry Storr:

https://a.co/d/hJNCxw6 

Viviana Zelizer's homepage at Princeton:

https://sociology.princeton.edu/people/viviana-zelizer 

Elinor Ostrom's bio and short autobiography on the...