The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

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Mark Clifford: A Political Prisoner Fights for Free Speech in China Apr 09, 2025

Show notes

Today's guest is Mark Clifford, former editor in chief of the South China Morning Post whose recent book, The Troublemaker, chronicles the life of Jimmy Lai, a man who escaped mainland Communist China to Hong Kong as a child and went on to become a self-made billionaire. But now at age 77, Lai is a political prisoner, currently on trial in China for his unwavering criticism of the government, particularly as it relates to a pro-democracy publication he founded called Apple Daily.

Clifford and Reason's Billy Binion talked about Lai's humble beginnings; his cinematic escape to freedom; his fearless pro-democracy activism; his life in prison, where he's been held in solitary confinement for years; and the importance of safeguarding free expression around the world.

1:01—Who is Jimmy Lai?

4:50—Lai's astounding business success in Hong Kong

5:15—Lai's turn toward politics after June 4, 1989

6:06—The Lai family during the Cultural Revolution in China

10:37—Lai's gradual political awakening

18:42—Lai's newspaper and magazine promoting free speech and democracy

20:51—How the Chinese government tried to intimidate Lai

28:12—Mass protests and Chinese Communist Party crackdowns in Hong Kong

32:28—How meeting with Mike Pence, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo got Lai arrested

38:47—Lai's prison life and friendship with Natan Sharansky

48:28—Clifford's career in Asia

52:18—How Clifford got out of Hong Kong

54:18—Why people should care about Jimmy Lai

The post Mark Clifford: A Political Prisoner Fights for Free Speech in China appeared first on Reason Magazine.

Leigh Stein and Julius Taranto: Did Wokeness and Trump Kill Literary Satire? Apr 02, 2025

Show notes

Satire is a powerful force for political and cultural change. But is it even possible in a world that outstrips our imagination on a daily—or even hourly—basis?

Today's guests are two young novelists who are redefining satire in the 21st century. Leigh Stein is the author of Self Care, which is set at a women's wellness startup where things go very wrong. Her next novel, If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You, takes place at a social media hype house and comes out in August. Julius Taranto is the author of How I Won a Nobel Prize, which is set at a secretive university funded by a reclusive billionaire and staffed exclusively by faculty who have been canceled elsewhere. His reviews and essays have been published in The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere.

Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with them about the widely pronounced post-election vibe shift by which artists feel emboldened once again to slay sacred cows with impunity. And they explore whether contemporary markets for books, movies, plays, music, and other forms of creative expression are actually capable of supporting a new era of satire, parody, and self-examination.

This interview was recorded at The Reason Speakeasy, a live monthly event in New York City that doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview. Go here for more information on upcoming Reason events.

1:30—What is the purpose of a novel?
4:49—What is the function of satire?
9:03—Philip Roth declared satire impossible in 1961
12:30—How culture has fractured
15:17—Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and figures beyond satire
18:31—Class dimensions of satire
22:52—How Stein's feminist activism inspired Self Care
23:58—Tom Wolfe and satirical realism
31:25—Is the world becoming post-literate?
32:54—Has the novel been feminized?
34:25—Joe Rogan as the successor to Marcel Proust?
35:28—How women dominate the publishing industry
47:43—Stein's cultural criticism and poetry

The post Leigh Stein and Julius Taranto: Did Wokeness and Trump Kill Literary Satire? appeared first on Reason Magazine.

James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber: Psychedelics Legalization Will Continue No Matter Who Is President Mar 26, 2025

Show notes

You've probably heard about microdosing, which involves taking a small, "sub-perceptual" dose of psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin on a regular basis to ward off depression, anxiety, and chronic pain—or to optimize focus and boost energy.

Today's guests are James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber, authors of the new book Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance. Fadiman, a Stanford-trained research psychologist who has been working with psychedelics since the early 1960s, popularized the concept of microdosing over a decade ago. They talk with Reason's Nick Gillespie about the mechanics of and theory behind microdosing, its promise and limits, and how it fits into the larger psychedelic renaissance that has been flowering for most of the 21st century. And they discuss the prospects for legalization and cultural normalization of psychedelics under the Trump administration.

1:19 — New book: Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance
5:12 — How Fadiman discovered microdosing
8:10 — How Gruber began microdosing
8:57 — Microdosing is similar to a vitamin protocol
11:17 — MDMA, ketamine, and cannabis work differently
12:50 — Microdosing for depression
16:02 — Other conditions microdosing could help alleviate
19:09 — Is microdosing for life?
21:17 — How to quantify the efficacy of microdosing
30:14 — Psychedelics and drug law
37:30 — Psychedelic-assisted therapy
39:40 — Psychedelics and their benefits are nonideological
46:15 — Fadiman and Gruber's 2020 book: Your Symphony of Selves
53:45 — Drug legalization under Donald Trump

Today's sponsor:

The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie podcast. The next one takes place on Tuesday, April 8, with Jeffrey Singer, who recently authored Your Body, Your Health Care. Go here to buy tickets and go here to sign up for Reason's NYC Events newsletter.

The post James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber: Psychedelics Legalization Will Continue No Matter Who Is President appeared first on Reason Magazine.

Brian Doherty: The Fascinating Women and Weirdos Who Founded Libertarianism Mar 19, 2025

Show notes

Today's guest is Reason Senior Editor Brian Doherty, who has just published Modern Libertarianism: A Brief History of Classical Liberalism in the United States. His previous books include Radicals for Capitalism, the indispensable history of the libertarian movement, and titles covering the Ron Paul revolution, gun rights, Burning Man, and underground comics.

Modern Libertarianism analyzes the political and cultural legacies of figures such as Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman, and Barry Goldwater. Doherty talks with Reason's Nick Gillespie about Ayn Rand and the other two women who helped conceptualize libertarian thought—Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson. Doherty and Gillespie also discuss how libertarians have played leading, if often underappreciated, roles in battles over free speech, international trade, immigration, deregulation, drug legalization, and lifestyle liberation.

This interview was recorded at The Reason Speakeasy, a live monthly event in New York City that doubles as a live taping of this podcast. For information on upcoming events, go here.

1:59 — New book: Modern Libertarianism
3:26 — Isabel Paterson and The God of the Machine
5:14 — Rose Wilder Lane and the libertarian roots of Little House on the Prairie
9:59 — How did libertarianism get so male-dominated?
18:08 — Ayn Rand
26:15 — Is the Trump administration libertarian at all?
29:17 — Robert LeFevre and Murray Rothbard's thoughts on blackmail and violence
34:14 — Kerry Thornley and his unlikely connection to Lee Harvey Oswald
39:19 — Barry Goldwater's influence on libertarianism
47:00 — The rising respectability of libertarianism
48:17 — Libertarianism is not conservatism or reactionary
52:27 — The Libertarian Party
55:00 — The Cato Institute
56:16 — Libertarianism's wins
58:00 — Burning Man

The post Brian Doherty: The Fascinating Women and Weirdos Who Founded Libertarianism appeared first on Reason Magazine.

Rachel Barkow: Did Trump and Biden Turn Pardons Into a Corrupt Joke? Mar 12, 2025

Show notes

This week's guest is Rachel Barkow, a professor of law at New York University and the author of the book Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration, which was just released this month.

Barkow and Reason's Billy Binion talked about the importance of the presidential pardon power—which is a controversial topic these days, after former President Joe Biden used it to preemptively pardon Anthony Fauci and members of his own family, and President Donald Trump used it to pardon January 6 defendants, some of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement. They also discussed Barkow's view that certain Supreme Court precedents around criminal justice are alarming for anyone who cares about the Constitution and individual liberty. Finally, they chatted about what it was like for her to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia—as a Democrat.

0:00 — Introduction

1:03 — Presidential pardon power under Biden and Trump

9:35 — Biden's "clumsy" end-of-term pardons

13:03 — Trump's January 6 pardons

18:55 — Historical context for pardon power

24:20 — Philip Esformes' pardon limbo

30:07 — Ford's commission on Vietnam War draft dodgers

33:15 — Pardon power and the death penalty

37:57 — Barkow's new book, Justice Abandoned

41:45 — Coercive plea bargaining

57:17 — "Repeat offenders" in the news

1:05:18 — Barkow's clerkship with Scalia

1:15:42 — The biggest misconception about the Supreme Court

The post Rachel Barkow: Did Trump and Biden Turn Pardons Into a Corrupt Joke? appeared first on Reason Magazine.

Alton Brown: A Culinary Legend Offers Food for Thought Mar 05, 2025

Show notes

Our guest today is Alton Brown, who for years hosted Good Eats on the Food Network and brought his interest in science to the making of dinner. He's currently touring the country, and he has also just published Food for Thought, a great collection of essays about food, culture, and his life on and off the screen. In this episode, Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Brown about how food transcends politics, why fusion cooking isn't cultural appropriation, and why there's always room for Jell-O salad on his menu.

0:43— Brown's Last Bite tour
1:55— Brown's new book: Food for Thought
6:40— Curiosity and surprise are essential to life
12:03— The pizza that made Alton Brown
16:21— When Indian immigrants made kadhi that blew Brown's mind
18:57— The positive case for 'cultural appropriation'
26:53— Food media's impact on cooking skills
30:40— How Martha Stewart's perfectionism ruined dinner parties
32:07— Julia Child, Mr. Wizard, and Monty Python
39:56— Good Eats motivated food exploration
48:19— Ozempic & the moral value of restraint
51:01— USDA & FDA were created to support industry, not consumers
55:28— Southern cuisine and Jello salads
57:00— On being from the South and embracing its full history

Today's sponsor:

The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie. Go here to buy tickets and go here to sign up for Reason's NYC Events newsletter.

The post Alton Brown: A Culinary Legend Offers <em>Food for Thought</em> appeared first on Reason Magazine.

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