Many very rich men who support Trump fancy themselves heroes from the novels of Ayn Rand. I've never done an episode of this show on Rand's ideas, because I'm not a Randian, and don't think about political questions through anything like an Objectivist perspective. But the fact that so many men breaking the country believe they are Randian archetypes makes her ideas now, I think, worth talking about. Particularly because, as my guest argues, Rand would hate these guys.
Paul Crider is an associate editor at Liberal Currents and an admirer of Rand. But he comes at from an interesting perspective, being on the whole pretty progressive, and decidedly not an Objectivist libertarian. He recently published an essay at The Bulwark about how Elon Musk, far from being a Randian heroes, is in fact a representative of her villains.
Paul and I discuss Rand's ideas and their influence, and then walk through how men like Musk are just the sort of people she loathed.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
I wanted to try to do a hopeful episode. The world look pretty grim right now, and many of us feel discouraged. The unlawful and authoritarian actions of the Trump administration keep coming at a relentless pace, and it can be difficult to see any reasons for optimism. It can also be lonely. Someone mentioned to me recently that, in times as dark as these, we need friends, but we also need comrades. We need people who share a common purpose in defending liberalism and who are working, alongside us, to fight back against those who threaten it.
Which is why I'm so happy today to welcome my friend—and, in the sense above, comrade—Carolyn Fiddler to the show. She’s Director of Communications at the Democratic Attorneys General Association, and an expert in state politics. We talk about what attorneys general are doing to challenge the worst of Trump's policies, and how they've already found some success. And we look ahead to future challenges and the tactics the legal system offers to protect liberal institutions from the forces of the populist right.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
The right-wing ideologies we see most active in the world right now aren't intellectual by any stretch of the imagination. But there is a rich tradition of conservative political and social philosophy and, as liberals, it's important to understand what its objections to liberalism look like.
ReImagining Liberty stalwart Matthew McManus, a lecturer in political science at the University of Michigan, wrote an article for Liberal Currents not too long ago about the philosopher Roger Scruton's criticism of liberalism from a conservative perspective. Scruton's work is perfect—because of its erudition, accessibility, and exemplariness—for understanding the philosophical conservative perspective.
Today Matt and I use Scruton's ideas as a way to interrogate the conservative intellectual tradition and to argue that conservative philosophy aims less at a society organized around truth than it does a society where certainty rarely faces challenge.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
How we navigate the new political environment the voters thrust upon on, and the new regime that seeks to tear up the very foundations of our liberal society, is a matter of ethics. And ethics is bigger than just political questions. It's about how you live, what you aspire to, and what makes for an admirable life, both inside and outside of politics.
My guest today has written an important book about just that. Seth Zuihō Segall is a clinical psychologist who served for nearly three decades as an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Medicine and is a former Director of Psychology at Waterbury Hospital and a former President of the New England Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. He is also a Zen Buddhist priest, and if you're a regular listener to ReImagining Liberty, you'll know how much I think Buddhist philosophy contains insights of great value in understanding our current moment.
Segall's newest book is The House We Live In, which explores the crises imperiling American democracy and argues that progress depends on our arriving at a new consensus on what it means to be a good person and lead a good life and re-imagines an ethics suitable for our time.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
We talk a lot on this show about the benefits of free and open markets and, given the growing hostility to economic freedom, not just from the Trump administration, but from populist governments around the world, we'll continue to do so.
Today I wanted to approach that conversation a little differently from usual though. Most of the time, when people say markets are good, what they mean is that markets make us richer, driven innovation, and so on. But markets do more than that. They make us better people, too.
This is a controversial claim, because so many criticisms of markets will admit that they create wealth, but then chastise them for promoting selfishness and greed, or replacing cooperation with callous competition.
That's wrong, however. And to discuss why, and why markets aren't just economically better, but morally bettering, as well, I've brought back my good friend Tom Palmer. He is executive vice president for international programs at Atlas Network, where he holds the George M. Yeager Chair for Advancing Liberty, and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
The information environment in which Americans form and discuss their political views has gotten weird. Walter Cronkite is gone. The editorial pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal have lost influence to podcasters, social media influencers, and internet conspiracy theorists. Trump's rise, and return to power, was in large part fueled by figures on the far-right who knew how to take advantage of this changed environment in a way liberals haven't yet figured out.
This means that, if liberalism is to have a political future, liberals need to understand how media today looks nothing like media twenty years ago. And there's no one better at explaining how weird things have become, how they got that way, and how we can navigate through it than Renée DiResta. She's an Associate Research Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown. Prior to that, she was the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory. And she's the author of the indispensable book Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Last fall, I had the extraordinary opportunity to travel to Delhi, India, to give a talk to young Indian liberals. The topic was the connection between Buddhist philosophy and liberalism. If you’re a regular reader of my work, or listen to my podcast, you’ll know this connection has been central to my work for some time. I believe that Buddhist ideas give us important tools for understanding not just why we ought to be liberals, but why liberalism is the best political system for make the world better.
This bonus episode of ReImagining Liberty is the audio of that talk. You can also read a transcript of it if you prefer.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
The rise of Trump is, in many ways, a story about status. Plenty of Americans feel like their relative status has fallen in recent decades, and they believe Trump, both as an embodiment of their identity and values and as a wielder of vast power, can give them that status back.
That's the argument my guest made in a recent essay at the Bulwark called "Trump’s Secret Weapon Has Always Been Status Anxiety." Alan Elrod is President & CEO of the Pulaski Institution and columnist at Arc Digital.
We explore how status is perceived, the role of attention in shaping political narratives, and the generational shifts in attitudes towards status and authenticity. We discuss the exhaustion of political engagement, the importance of civic connection, and the challenges posed by online interactions in fostering a civil society. Ultimately, this is a conversation highlighting the need for community engagement and the restoration of social capital in addressing the current political climate.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
In this conversation, Aaron Ross Powell and Anthony L. Fisher (Senior Editor at MSNBC Daily) discuss the political landscape following Trump's second inauguration, focusing on the rapid changes in governance, the Democratic response, and the fractured media environment. They explore the implications of these dynamics on public opinion and the importance of engaging in new media spaces, particularly podcasts, to effectively communicate liberal values and counteract authoritarian tendencies.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
We've talked a lot about gender on this show, in the context of transgender rights, the way declining relative status drives men to the political right, and the broader role gender plays in the political environment. The results of the presidential election in November proved just how central gender is to story of rising illiberalism, with men shifting right while women shifted left.
To discuss how we should read this shift, and dig into what's causing it, I've brought back Samantha Hancox-Li, who I last had on the show in September to talk about the distinction between progressivism and liberalism. Samantha's a writer, game designer, and associate editor at Liberal Currents, where she recently published an excellent essays called "The Crisis of Gender Relations."
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty, I encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
For this first episode to be recorded after the results of the presidential election, I've brought on my friend and former colleague Walter Olson. Walter is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a staunch defender of democracy and liberal institutions, and an expert in the processes and law of American elections.We talk about why the election went the way it went, avenues for electoral reform, and what lessons liberals should take from the results, given that we now need to commit ourselves, over the next four years, to a rigorous defense of liberalism.If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty, I encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Today's episode was recorded a few weeks before the results of the November presidential election, and before an unrelated change I've made to this podcast. So before we jump into my conversation with Matthew McManus, I wanted to take a moment to give some context and talk about ReImagining Liberty going forward.
First, for all of its life, ReImagining Liberty has been a listener supported show, and the way listeners supported it was to become paying members and get early access to new episodes. Starting today, I'm no longer doing that. Every episode of ReImagining Liberty will come out when it's ready, and I've turned off paid memberships. I did this primarily because I had an increasingly difficult time being consistent with the show's release schedule, and I didn't want people paying to get early access to episodes that weren't coming out on time. If you're listening to the show right now, nothing changes for you. You'll continue to get episodes right here--just now at the same time as every else.
That said, if you do want to support ReImagining Liberty, there are three ways you can do it. First, leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This helps Apple to show the podcast to more people, and encourages people who find it to subscribe. Second, tell your friends. If you like an episode, forward it along to someone. If you like the show, tell people about it. Third, I have a free newsletter at www.aaronrosspowell.com. Sign up for that to get my new writing. Any or all of those three is a huge help and does a ton for the show.
Okay, now on to today's episode.
The election results very much have liberalism on the defensive. The Trump years are likely to be quite dark, the darkest most of us have seen in our lifetimes. There's a lot liberals can do to fight back, and we'll explore that in future episodes.
One area we need to pay a lot of attention to is why the arguments we make--and by "we" I mean what we might label "market liberals"--fail to persuade everyone they need to persuade.
Today's episode is very much about that. It's about a position that overlaps with a lot of liberal principles, but also rejects a lot of the free market positions I and other market liberals take.
My guest is my friend Matthew McManus, a ReImagining Liberty regular. He's a lecturer in Political Science at the University of Michigan. In his new book, The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, he argues that not only are socialism and liberalism compatible, but that the future of
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Unless you're an early access supporter of the show, this is the last episode you'll hear before the presidential election, which will profoundly shape the state, or looming absence, of American democracy.
The critical importance of the choice between Harris and Trump has much of the country thinking about getting more people involved in politics—and the question of political participation, and particularly how much of it is reasonable, is what my guest spends a great deal of his time thinking about.
Kevin J. Elliott is a political scientist and Lecturer in Ethics, Politics, & Economics at Yale University. He's the author of Democracy for Busy People, and I've brought him back on the show to discuss the barriers to democratic participation, the "Paradox of Empowerment," and what it would look like to get more Americans interested in the political process.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
An important theme of this show is the role of rhetoric in politics. It's not just the arguments we make that matter, but when we choose to make them, and how we talk about political issues. And we can learn a lot about the people who disagree with us not just by parsing their arguments, but by paying attention to when and how they make them.
This is critically important in a political environment as charged, fraught, and arguably on-the-brink as ours in the days before a presidential election. And the fact is, with the acute threat from the right to the very foundations of our liberal, open, and democratic society, much of our journalism has fallen into a particularly worrying rhetoric, one that downplays these threats, while stirring up resentment towards vulnerable groups.
I can't think of anyone better to talk with about these issues central to our political life than Parker Molloy. She's a Chicago-based writer and author of the indispensable The Present Age, a newsletter about communication in a hyperconnected world.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
We're staring down the barrel of a presidential election, one that highlights deep questions about democracy and political participation. If our goal is radically more freedom, how should we think about democracy's place in achieving that, given that the popular will often isn't for more freedom. And if the system, as it exists, is rather far from fully just, how should we approach participating in it? These are questions libertarians, and others, raise frequently, and they're worth taking more seriously than most people do.
To help us think through them, I'm joined by my good friend Andy Craig. He's a Fellow in Liberalism at the Institute for Humane Studies and an expert on election laws and democratic theory.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
When Biden dropped out of the presidential race and Harris took over, we witnessed not just a change in candidate, but a change in rhetoric. Harris's campaign began talking in the language of "freedom" and "liberty." Harris's running mate, Tim Walz, contrasted himself with the meddlesome social conservatism of JD Vance by saying he was for "minding your own business."
For those of us who have long championed a politics of radical liberty, this was met by both enthusiasm and suspicion. Enthusiasm, because it's good for the country to have a major party talking in those terms, especially as the GOP has abandoned anything like a commitment to political and social liberty. Suspicion because, despite all there talk, there are plenty of ways Harris and Walz want the government to get in the way of minding your own business.
To talk about this shift, and the opportunities it might offer to better make the case for radical liberalism, I'm joined by Joshua Eakle, co-founder and president of Project Liberal.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
This, as it says on the tin, is a show about liberalism. But teasing out what that term means can be challenging. Not just because it's philosophically complex, but because common usage of terms doesn't always conform to rigorous conceptual categories, and even when it does, language evolves.
That's the jumping off point for today's conversation. My guest is Samantha Hancox-Li and she's a writer, game designer, and associate editor at Liberal Currents.
We discuss what it means to be liberal, and how that's distinct from being a progressive. Then we talk about what liberals can learn from progressives, and where progressives sometimes go wrong in matching their political actions to their values. It's a conversation about political engagement, political rhetoric, and the right way to change the world.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
A liberal society is necessarily an open and diverse one. When people are free to move and free to choose, a country's population and culture will reflect all those differences in tastes, preferences, and ways of living. And that's part of what makes liberalism so great.
But a pluralistic society can be bothersome for those who'd prefer everyone be just like them. And if those sorts get uncomfortable enough with cultural diversity and dynamism, they can turn against liberalism itself.
To help think through these tensions, and how liberalism can defend itself against those who would rather it weren't so diverse, I've brought on my friend Jacob T. Levy. He's the Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University and author of the terrific book Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
I'm joined today by Janet Bufton, Program Coordinator & Co-Founder at the Institute for Liberal Studies. I'm a little embarassed it's taken me this long to get her on the show, because she's one of the most thoughtful advocates out there of the kind of genuine and broad liberalism--and liberal values--that are at the heart of ReImagining Liberty.
We discuss the link between liberalism and liberation, the intellectual history that's led many self-described liberals and libertarians to be skeptical of robust social liberalism, and how we can better position liberalism to meet illiberal challengers.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
On June 7th, David Boaz died. He was the Executive Vice President of the Cato Institute, author of *The Libertarian Mind*, and the most important figure in the libertarian movement in the last half century. He was also my mentor, my close friend, and, for twelve years, my boss.
I had the privilege of holding, for the first two of those years, what is among the most exclusive, challenging, and rewarding jobs in Washington: Staff Writer at the Cato Institute, a role that primarily meant being David's right-hand man and primary conversation partner.
David's life and work are worth celebrating, and his legacy worth cherishing. He set the standard for how to live one's principles, lead a profoundly moral life, and change the world for the better while doing it.
I'm delighted to bring together a group of my fellow staff writers to talk about what David meant to the libertarian movement, what it was like to work for him, and how he enriched our lives.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Politics gets pretty emotional, and we typically view that as bad. The political scene would be better, we suppose, if more people could set aside their emotions and rationally engage with the hard questions.
My guest today isn't so sure. Jason Canon is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge in political science, and while he doesn't reject reason, he argues that emotion plays, and ought to play, a much larger role in how we think about and approach politics than it typically gets. Reason doesn't work without emotion, and emotions can lead us to better political outcomes.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Among the various ideologies opposing liberalism that have seen new or renewed prominence in the last decade is Christian nationalism. It motivates quite a lot of the far right in the culture war, played a role in the attempted overthrow of American democracy on January 6th, and seems to be everywhere on social media.
But what is it? Where did it come from? And how can liberalism respond?
My guest today is my good friend Paul Matzko. He's an historian and author of The Radio Right: How a Band of Broadcasters Took on the Federal Government and Built the Modern Conservative Movement.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Today's conversation is a good one, but I struggle to come up with a straightforward summary for this intro. I brought back on my good friend, and frequent guest, Cory Massimino to discuss anarchism in theory and practice. And that where we start. But we also get into a larger conversation about the nature of political debate, and the rhetoric of political change that goes well beyond the narrow confines of whether anarchism is good or bad, or what we can learn from it.
This is one of those big ideas episodes of ReImagining Liberty, and why I so value talking with Cory. He's an independent scholar and a Fellow at the Center for a Stateless Society, where he hosts the podcasts "Mutual Exchange Radio" and "The Long Library."
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
One of my goals for this show is to explore the complexities of issues people have strong opinions about and assume are straightforward. And it's difficult to think of one that fits that bill better than guns.
Today I'm joined by my long time friend and Free Thoughts podcast co-host, constitutional lawyer Trevor Burrus. We talk about the causes of and misconceptions around gun violence, and how a free society should approach both the role of guns and the challenges of limiting the harm they do.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
We’re all ideological, even if we don’t admit it. We like to think of everyone else as ideological, but imagine our own views to be “reality-based,” simply a clear-eyed picture of how things really are. That's nonsense, and today's episode is all about why.
My guest is Jason Blakely, a political science professor at Pepperdine University and author of the new book Lost in Ideology: Interpreting Modern Political Life. We discuss what ideology is, what purpose it plays, how it differs from religion, and why we should think of ideology as both a culture and a map.
Want to listen to new episodes of ReImagining Liberty two weeks early? Become a supporter and get early access and other perks.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Discuss this episode with the host and your fellow listeners in the ReImagining Liberty Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReImaginingLiberty/
If you enjoy ReImagining Liberty and want to listen to episodes free of ads and sponsorships, become a supporter. Learn more here: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/upgrade
I also encourage you to check out my companion newsletter, where I write about the kinds of ideas we discuss on this show. You can find it on my website at www.aaronrosspowell.com.
Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.