The Great Antidote
Adam Smith said, "Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition." So join us for interviews with the leading experts on today's biggest issues to learn more about economics, policy, and much more.
Episodes
Erik Matson is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the Deputy Director of the Adam Smith program. He recently released a new book, New Paternalism Meets Older Wisdom: Looking to Smith and Hume on Rationality, Welfare, and Behavioral Economics. Today we talk about paternalism, and how new paternalists differ from classic paternalists and how this arose. We talk about...
Alice Temnick joins us today on The Great Antidote. She is an IB economics teacher at the United Nations International School in Manhattan and is an education consultant for Liberty Fund’s Adam Smith Works. We continue a previous conversation on Adam Smith, this time exploring his time at Glasgow and his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belle Lettres, lectures from his time there. We talk about why he left the Univer...
Russell Sobel is a Professor of Economics and Entrepreneurship at the Baker school of Business at The Citadel and he just put out a new book with the Fraser Institute, The Essential Joseph Schumpeter. He has also written an introductory economics textbook and many, many papers on the economics of entrepreneurship.
Today, we talk about what an entrepreneur is, what institutions ---both cultural and g...
Byron Carson is an associate professor of economics and business at Hampton-Sydney College in Virginia. He is also the author of a recently published book, Challenging Malaria, which we talk about today. He explains to us what malaria is and the different ways that individuals and private interests responded to it before the invention of pesticides. We talk about why it is so difficult for larger groups to re...
Matt Mitchell is a senior fellow in the Center for Economic Freedom at the Fraser Institute and senior research fellow at the Knee Regulatory Research Center at West Virginia University .
Today, we talk about what socialism really means and what it meant for a country like Estonia, which was first occupied by Hitler and then Stalin. He tells us about what life under occupation was like and how Eston...
Kristi Kendall is the director of Undivide Us, a documentary about political polarization in America, what it does to us, and how to fix it, along with many other productions.
Today, we’re going to be talking about what’s in a documentary, or film generally, that makes it so moving, especially with members of my generation. We talk about Ludwig von Mises’s human action model, and how it’s actually ...
Stan Veuger is a senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, with a myriad of different research areas including the political situation in the Netherlands, which he’s written about at The Unpopulist, and the “Implications of Cannabis Legalization for the U.S. Federal Budget”, a paper which he wrote with Alex Brill and Brian J Miller for AEI.
Today, we talk about both. He explains n...
Giandomenica Becchio is a professor of economics and the history of economic thought at the University of Torino. Today, she tells us about feminist economics and why it’s an important criticism of neoclassical economics. Without understanding the role of typical gender and family roles, we cannot correctly understand or think about the true division of labor between genders in the workforce and in the home. ...
David Henderson is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the editor of the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. He is also an emeritus professor of economics with the Naval Postgraduate School. Today, we talk about another famous economist who has recently passed, Robert Solow. Henderson tells us about the Solow model, a still relevant model used in macroeconomics relating to economi...
David Boaz is a distinguished senior fellow of the Cato Institute and for over more than four decades, he was the executive vice president. He has written many books, including The Libertarian Mind and Libertarianism: A Primer. Today, we talk about the historical origins and importance of liberalism and rehash the discussion of what to do about it and the current disillusionment with it.
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Thomas Stratmann is a Distinguished University Professor of economics and law at George Mason University, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Institute, and the creator of the Reservation Economic Freedom Index.
Today, we talk about reservations in America and the economic wellbeing of Native Americans. He explains to us how he got interested in reservation economics and the barriers to increas...
Kristi Kendall is the director of the documentary Undivide Us, about the toxic polarization in America and practical steps to solving it through deep, face to face conversations in our communities.
Today, we talk about the production of the documentary and how to communicate ideas through film. She tells us about how her career led her to directing the documentary and why she did it, all while expla...
Alice Temnick teaches IB Economics for the United Nations International School in Manhattan and is an education consultant with Liberty Fund’s Adam Smith Works and Econlib. Today, we begin what is going to be a long conversation about Adam Smith and education. We begin with Adam Smith’s upbringing and education and talk about our own. We discuss how important being a student is to being a teacher. Stay tuned ...
Alain Bertaud is an urbanist and a senior research scholar at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management. He is the author of a book about urban planning that is titled Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities. He has worked as an urban planner in a multitude of cities around the world.
Today, we talk about his view of a city and what he’s observed as an urban planner. He gives us examples a...
Ben Klutsey is the Director of Academic Outreach and the Director of the Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is also one of the masterminds behind a recent documentary, Undivide Us, which tackles the affective polarization in America and how to remedy it through thoughtful conversation.
We talk about Ben’s journey and how it led him to this p...
Robert Lawson is the Jerome M. Fullinwider Centennial Chair in Economic Freedom and is director of the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.
Today, we talk about James Gwartney, a great economist who recently passed but leaves a significant legacy, from accessible and interesting textbooks to the creation of the Economic Freedom of th...
Adam White is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Co-Director of the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University. He also leads seminars with the Hertog Foundation, one of which I had the chance to attend this summer.
Today we talk about the American judicial system, from its structure to its founding to its role in American soc...
Brent Orrell is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where his research lights the path in job training, workforce development, and criminal justice reform. Today, we talk about the state of work in the United States and the main issues that the labor market faces. We talk about the importance of meaning and dignity in one’s work and how it is tied to economic growth. Tune in for some good a...
Lauren Hall is the author of several books, the author of the wonderful Substack The Radical Moderate’s Guide to Life, and a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Today, we talk about radical moderation, what that is, and why it's important. We talk about the importance of breaking away from the political binaries and models we currently have and how to do so.
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Cheryl Miller is the executive director of the Hertog Foundation, an educational philanthropy organization in Washington, DC. Today, we talk about the mission of the foundation and the importance of the humanities in policy making and being a human more generally. We talk about the state of the youth, optimism, and Edith Wharton!
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