The Great Antidote

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Ryan Yonk on the China Dilemma May 17, 2024

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Ryan Yonk is a Senior Research Faculty at the American Institute for Economic Research where he is the director of the Public Choice and Public Policy Project. He is also a co-author of The China Dilemma: Rethinking US-China Relations Through Public Choice Theory, with Ethan Yang.
Today, we talk about the book and how to apply public choice thinking to a topic like international relations, and how it diverges and critiques the mainstream thought on this topic. He gives us examples and breaks down how this analysis can help US policy makers and citizens think about China. I ask him if he is optimistic or cynical about the future of US-China relations. His response might shock you, so tune in to find out!

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Erik Matson on Adam Smith, David Hume, and the New Paternalists May 10, 2024

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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 the difficultly of knowing one’s own preferences and how important freedom and choice are to the discovery of the good life and how to obtain it.

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Alice Temnick on Adam Smith as an Educator May 03, 2024

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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 University and the ways that we as modern day learners benefit, but how it impacted his students at the time.

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Russell Sobel on the Economics of Entrepreneurship Apr 26, 2024

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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 governmental --- uplift entrepreneurs, and why we want more entrepreneurs. He explains the work of the economist Joseph Schumpeter, walking us through his views on entrepreneurship to his pessimistic view that capitalism necessarily ends in socialism. We talk about ways to prevent that, if indeed we are on that path.

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Byron Carson on Malaria's Collective Action Problem Apr 19, 2024

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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 respond quickly and how individuals moving towards an emergency solution can align with societal interests. He gives examples of private malaria prevention action and private COVID prevention action, giving us insight into how we as members of our communities can solve problems held up by collective action.

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Matt Mitchell on the Realities of Socialism in Estonia Apr 12, 2024

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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 Estonia broke away from socialism. Join us for stories of oppression, cultural resilience, and to hear what makes real the realities of socialism.

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Kristi Kendall on Human Action and Inspiring Through Ideas Apr 05, 2024

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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 applicable to inspiring action in media. We discuss how to inspire and make our communication relevant to audiences, and how audiences have changed over time.

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Stan Veuger on the Dutch Farmer Protests and Cannabis Legalization Mar 29, 2024

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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 not only the Dutch political situation, but the differences between Dutch populism and populism elsewhere. We talk pros and cons about the American system versus parliamentary systems of government and their ability to get us to the correct political outcome. Then we pivot to cannabis, talking about what the costs of legalization are and correcting the record of what’s to come on the road to legalization. We talk trade, healthcare, and more, Veuger explaining to us the different ways legalization could cost the government- and as a result, taxpayers- in the future.

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Giandomenica Becchio on Feminist Economics Mar 22, 2024

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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.
She talks to us about how to measure these statistics, the history of the field, and the differences between types of feminists. We later discuss how to account for religion or other cultural preference-shaping institutions in measuring what equality looks like. She tells us about her favorite feminist economist, Barbara Birdman.

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David Henderson on Robert Solow Mar 15, 2024

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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 economic growth, and we discuss its origin and its flaws. He talks to us about Solow’s career, his reputation, and his attitude (Solow had a career-long grudge against Milton Friedman). Henderson leads us on a multi-media experience, where he reads us quotes from a book containing and interview of Solow about Friedman, and you can listen to it here, on the podcast!

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