The Tom Woods Show (general)

Rachel Fulton Brown, a professor of history at the University of Chicago, has been at the center of a controversy within medieval studies over race and "white supremacy" within the field. The New York Times recently published a report indicating that if anything the controversy is heating up.

Show notes for Ep. 1407

Direct download: woods_2019_05_16.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EST

In this keynote address to the state convention of the Libertarian Party of Florida, I consider the question: if our position is so compelling, why aren't we doing a better job of persuading people?

Show notes for Ep. 1406

Direct download: woods_2019_05_15.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:44pm EST

Richard Gamble of Hillsdale College examines Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic -- its history and theology -- and how it fits into the American civil religion, whereby the United States government is the instrument of righteousness not only here at home but around the world as well.

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Show notes for Ep. 1405

Direct download: woods_2019_05_14.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00pm EST

Kristian Niemietz joins me to discuss the persistent attraction of socialism despite its terrible track record, and the excuses and apologias its supporters offer in order to justify their ongoing faith.

Sponsor: MVMT

Show notes for Ep. 1404

Direct download: woods_2019_05_13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00pm EST

Randall Holcombe of Florida State University joins me to discuss what he calls "political capitalism," whereby the private and public sectors collaborate for their mutual benefit, and against the public interest. Sometimes the process is open and obvious, but more often it is hidden and obscure.

Show notes for Ep. 1403

Direct download: woods_2019_05_10.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:05pm EST

Following up on a theme I raised with Professor Dan Moller in episode 1399 (if our ideas are so good, why aren't we more popular?), I want to address a related question, which has been thrown at us from time to time: if libertarianism is so great, why aren't there any pure libertarian countries?

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Show notes for Ep. 1402

Direct download: woods_2019_05_09.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:00pm EST

Gene Epstein joins me to respond to Bhaskar Sunkara's new book The Socialist Manifesto. (Sunkara was invited to participate, but declined.)

Show notes for Ep. 1401

Direct download: woods_2019_05_08.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:53am EST

Alex Merced, Libertarian Party vice chair, takes questions submitted by my private Supporting Listeners group, the Tom Woods Show Elite (https://www.supportinglisteners.com) on topics including the Johnson/Weld ticket, whether the LP should avoid presidential politics altogether, whether there's ever a case for not fielding an LP candidate in a particular election, and a lot more.

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Show notes for Ep. 1400

Direct download: woods_2019_05_07.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:29am EST

Dan Moller, a philosophy professor at the University of Maryland, has just produced an intriguing, and to my mind compelling, new kind of argument against the welfare state. He takes on this issue in particular because it is one of the positions libertarians hold for which they are most demonized. His argument compels us to consider the question of how much we may legitimately shift our own burdens onto others, particularly without their consent.

Sponsor: Harry's

Show notes for Ep. 1399

Direct download: woods_2019_05_06.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:33am EST

Big business has become a villain not just to the progressive left but also to the populist right and even to many libertarians, who think they see cronyism everywhere. Lost amid this climate of condemnation is a sober assessment of the true record of big business in improving our lives. Tyler Cowen gives us precisely that assessment: he is frank about the moral faults of big business, but he overwhelms us with arguments in its favor that most people have never heard. Result: an excellent book and episode.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1398

Direct download: woods_2019_05_03.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00pm EST

Eric Peters was recently punished by Google for some of the content on his website, which covers news from the world of cars through a libertarian lens. Wait until you hear what the offending material was. Plus, Eric takes a fascinating array of listener questions submitted by members of my Supporting Listeners group (https://www.supportinglisteners.com).

Show notes for Ep. 1397

Direct download: woods_2019_05_02.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:30pm EST

In this blast from the past from 2009, I'm interviewed by Alex Jones about central banking and the financial crisis.

Show notes for Ep. 1396

Direct download: woods_2019_05_01.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:30pm EST

I often repeat Jonathan Haidt's point that left-liberals understand their opponents far less well than their opponents understand them. The most recent uncomprehending critic I've seen says libertarians "believe every man is an island." This was too ridiculous not to smash. Enjoy.

Show notes for Ep. 1395 - https://tomwoods.com/1395

Direct download: woods_2019_04_30.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00pm EST

Historians love to hate Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, the presidents during most of the 1920s. Historians also enjoy tut-tutting the U.S. for having been "isolationist" during the 1920s. This is all wrong, as usual, so in today's episode I set the record straight.

Show notes for Ep. 1394

Direct download: woods_2019_04_29.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00pm EST

Scott Horton joins me to review the "obstruction" claims on the part of media outlets that in the wake of the Mueller report suddenly dropped the "collusion" talk of the past two years and shifted to "obstruction".

Show notes for Ep. 1393

Direct download: woods_2019_04_27.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EST

I take on more criticisms of libertarianism -- less common but still important, and very interesting: (1) don't we need government-created deposit insurance so people don't lose a fortune if their money is in a bank that fails? and (2) should "insider trading" be allowed?

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Show notes for Ep. 1392

Direct download: woods_2019_04_25.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:47pm EST

In this episode I hit "too big to fail," the military-industrial complex, state pensions, Obamacare, the Federal Reserve, and many more. This episode is drawn from one of my appearances on Financial Sense Newshour.

Show notes for Ep. 1391

Direct download: woods_2019_04_24.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:30pm EST

Madison and Jefferson biographer Kevin Gutzman joins me to discuss Jefferson's real record on slavery, the emphasis on slavery among the Western left (which leaves the impression among most students today that slavery was exclusive to the West, when in fact the West led the world in abolishing it), and whether the Framers would have supported the Green New Deal.

Show notes for Ep. 1390

Direct download: woods_2019_04_23.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:57pm EST

Isaac Morehouse says the people who got duped in the college admissions scandals weren't the schools that accepted unqualified students but the parents who paid the bribes to get their children in. He's right. Today we discuss the increasingly irrelevant preparation for the real world that the existing government/university complex gives Americans -- a preparation so poor that it's turning a frustrated generation toward socialism. What's a better strategy?

Show notes for Ep. 1389

Direct download: woods_2019_04_22.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:21am EST

Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation discusses CIA mischief at home and abroad, and why the national security state is a threat to American liberty.

Show notes for Ep. 1388

Direct download: woods_2019_04_18.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00pm EST

Denis McNamara, author of How to Read Churches, joins me to discuss Notre Dame Cathedral and Church architecture in general, in the wake of the terrible fire just two days ago. Professor McNamara is academic director and associate professor at the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein Seminary, the seminary of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1387

Direct download: woods_2019_04_17.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00am EST

Patrick Moore, who spent nine years as president of Greenpeace Canada and another six as a director of Greenpeace International, joins me to critique the Green New Deal proposal.

Show notes for Ep. 1386

Direct download: woods_2019_04_16.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:55pm EST

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London last Thursday. The media and political sources who despise him are doing their best to make his activities sound nefarious and disreputable. But when Assange's activity is described correctly and precisely, it suddenly appears no different from what any journalist does, in terms of protecting his source's anonymity. Cassandra Fairbanks of The Gateway Pundit joins me for some background.

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Show notes for Ep. 1385

Direct download: woods_2019_04_15.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00pm EST

Antony Sammeroff joins me to discuss Andrew Yang's recent appearance with Ben Shapiro, and how Shapiro might have pushed back a bit more against Yang's proposal of a universal basic income.

Show notes for Ep. 1384

Direct download: woods_2019_04_13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

Today's episode covers a wide array of foundational libertarian topics: positive vs. negative rights, Locke vs. Hobbes, constitutional interpretation, slavery and the U.S. Constitution, subsidiarity, the social contract, and a lot more. It comes from my recent appearance on the Western Canon Podcast.

Show notes for Ep. 1383

Direct download: woods_2019_04_11.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:44am EST

All right, not quite *everything* else... but on: Trump, Russiagate, the media, Barry Goldwater, meeting Rothbard, being Mises' editor, becoming an anarcho-capitalist, and more.

Show notes for Ep. 1382

Direct download: woods_2019_04_10.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00pm EST

I felt uneasy after my recent episode with Michael Malice on the meaning of political left and right, and now I know why: I've been wrong about a major piece of the puzzle. The brilliant Paul Gottfried joins me to walk through the issue: is there really a "left-right spectrum"? What do the terms mean? Has there been a "right" in America? Is "fascism" really resurgent? What books does he recommend? Plenty of provocative stuff here, including Gottfried's contention that politics is not "downstream of culture," but rather that it's the other way around: to a considerable extent, culture flows from politics.

Show notes for Ep. 1381

Direct download: woods_2019_04_09.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:48pm EST

Mark Pulliam returns to the show to discuss the problem of faux originalism in constitutional interpretation, emanating these days from certain libertarian and conservative think tanks. It's easy to be fooled by these arguments. What these arguments promote in the long run is not liberty but centralization and rule by judges.

Sponsor: Harry's

Show notes for Ep. 1380

Direct download: woods_2019_04_08.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00pm EST

Andy Ngo of Quillette.com joins me to discuss recent hate crime hoaxes, particularly in left-liberal Portland, as well as dissident journalism in general and his own philosophical evolution after observing the progressive left up close again and again.

Show notes for Ep. 1379

Direct download: woods_2019_04_05.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00pm EST

The word "socialism" is thrown around constantly these days, usually in favorable contexts. But what in fact is socialism? Hitler wasn't a socialist, socialists insist, who then turn around and say Sweden is socialist, even though no true socialist thinks so. Can we pause a minute to figure out what they favor and what they're talking about? CJay Engel joins me.

Sponsor: Blinkist

Show notes for Ep. 1378

Direct download: woods_2019_04_04.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:07am EST

The news continues to be grim about purges on major social media platforms, but Andrew Torba, creator of Gab, has just released Dissenter, a browser extension that adds an independent comments section to any website. We discuss this, and the future of social media, including alternatives like Gab.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1377

Direct download: woods_2019_04_03.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00pm EST

During the critical year of 2007, between the end of the housing bubble and the onset of the financial crisis, major officials of the Federal Reserve made claims that appear to have been designed more to prop up confidence in a shaky system than to give real insight into what was actually happening. These people were supposed to be the country's experts on the topics involved, and they could not have been more consistently wrong. Why?

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Show notes for Ep. 1376

Direct download: woods_2019_04_02.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:03am EST

José Niño returns to discuss the most common myths of gun control. Before that, I spend some time talking about the fifth volume of Conceived in Liberty, which will be released sometime this year. It takes Murray Rothbard's history of the United States, which he never completed but which began with extensive coverage of the colonial period in the first four volumes, up through 1791. I share my impressions of the manuscript, and Rothbard's coverage of a historical episode that everyone else got wrong until 2002, but Rothbard had somehow figured out in the 1970s.

Show notes for Ep. 1375

Direct download: woods_2019_04_01.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:30pm EST

This episode reviews some of the key moments and claims from the Russiagate fiasco, to help clarify just what a damning indictment of the media it truly is.

Show notes for Ep. 1374

Direct download: woods_2019_03_29.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:02pm EST

Scott Horton, the great libertarian foreign policy expert, brings us up to date on the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen as well as the ongoing peace talks in Afghanistan. We touch a bit on Syria and on Russiagate as well. Any episode with Scott is indispensable, and this one is no exception.

Show notes for Ep. 1373

Direct download: woods_2019_03_28.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:15pm EST

By popular demand, Michael Malice and I discuss the political terms "left" and "right" -- are they meaningful? If so, what do they mean? Do libertarians belong somewhere on that continuum?

Show notes for Ep. 1372

Direct download: woods_2019_03_27.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:35am EST

The year 2019 hasn't been a good one for the news media -- and now the Mueller report, which failed to find evidence of "collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia, has just hit like a 10-megaton bomb. Mike Cernovich and I survey the wreckage.

Show notes for Ep. 1371

Direct download: woods_2019_03_26.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:30pm EST

The "social contract," which we are said to have consented to "implicitly," is the primary way we hear the state justified. Our opponents on social media seem to consider this a devastating reply, as if we've never heard it before. Taxation isn't theft because we've all agreed to it via the social contract, they say. Uh huh. Sure. This episode puts the social contract through the shredder.

Show notes for Ep. 1370

Direct download: woods_2019_03_25.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:30pm EST

Some of my favorite conversations on or off the air are with Catholic publisher Roger McCaffrey (who's the godfather to two of our daughters, incidentally). In addition to being very knowledgeable about a great many things, he is a man of impeccable judgment, such that whenever I need advice I nearly always contact Roger first. In this bonus episode he and I discuss the Francis papacy, the next conclave, the five living people who have most influenced me, and plenty more. It's such a fun discussion.

Show notes for Ep. 1369

Direct download: woods_2019_03_23.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:30pm EST

David Stockman, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan, and who's been a great friend of the Tom Woods Show, returns to discuss his new book, Peak Trump: The Undrainable Swamp and the Fantasy of MAGA. We discuss John McCain (Stockman pulls no punches), the Fed, Trump's economics, Russiagate, and more.

Show notes for Ep. 1368

Direct download: woods_2019_03_22.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:03pm EST

Cambridge University has rescinded a fellowship offer extended to Jordan Peterson, probably the best-known and most followed academic in Canada's history. He hit back in his characteristic style.

Show notes for Ep. 1367

Direct download: woods_2019_03_21.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:31pm EST

On a previous episode I predicted that the Democrats would not let the transformation of the Supreme Court stand, and would instead try to revive the idea of packing the Court. I was right. In this episode I discuss the history behind the number of justices on the Court, the FDR Court-packing episode, and current proposals from Democratic officials.

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Show notes for Ep. 1366

Direct download: woods_2019_03_20.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:08pm EST

You'll never guess what your host did that outraged the delightful "left-libertarian" wing of our little movement this time, but it speaks volumes. I also discuss the ongoing Tulsi Gabbard situation.

Show notes for Ep. 1365

Direct download: woods_2019_03_19.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:15pm EST

Professor Alex Salter discusses his provocative article for The American Conservative: "Why True Conservatism Means Anarchy."

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Show notes for Ep. 1364

Direct download: woods_2019_03_18.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00pm EST

This one just won't go away. Even people who should know better unthinkingly repeat this one. Here's what's wrong with this claim.

Sponsor: Policy Genius

Show notes for Ep. 1363

Direct download: woods_2019_03_16.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00am EST

Frank Karsten returns to discuss myths of discrimination that virtually everyone believes, and which tend to empower the state.

Show notes for Ep. 1362

Direct download: woods_2019_03_15.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:30pm EST

Mike Cernovich has just released Hoaxed, a superb documentary about the media and how it distorts the news, influences public opinion, and demonizes dissidents. The result: a must-listen episode of the Tom Woods Show.

Show notes for Ep. 1361

Direct download: woods_2019_03_14_fixed.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:59am EST

I discuss the difficulties and bad consequences of wealth redistribution, both within a country (welfare programs) and between countries (foreign aid).

Show notes for Ep. 1360

Direct download: woods_2019_03_13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:00pm EST

Gene Epstein returns to discuss the economic side of the brand of nationalist conservatism that's been developing under Trump. Will it help the people it claims to be looking out for? Show notes for Ep. 1359 - https://tomwoods.com/1359

Direct download: woods_2019_03_11.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:17pm EST

Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, joins me to discuss the poor record of post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy. How has the foreign policy elite managed to isolate itself from real-world consequences for these failures? How can we insert sensible ideas into a conversation that always takes for granted the necessary for intervention and hegemony?

Show notes for Ep. 1358

Direct download: woods_2019_03_08.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:45pm EST

People say libertarians aren't interested in good news, and that bad news sells. I'm not sure I buy that, or that that's a specifically libertarian trait. Regardless, I have good news today. Today's episode is a tribute to two partially unsung heroes of liberty. Official Libertarianism pretends they do not exist, which is further evidence of their goodness and importance.

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Show notes for Ep. 1357

Direct download: woods_2019_03_07.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

In episode 1355 we looked at Einstein's famous essay on socialism. In this episode we drive the final stake through the heart of Einstein's version of socialism: the socialist calculation problem.

Show notes for Ep. 1356

Direct download: woods_2019_03_06.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00pm EST

Albert Einstein wrote a famous essay for the socialist publication Monthly Review in 1949 called "Why Socialism?" In this episode I note some of the problems, as well as the surprising admissions, in the essay.

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Show notes for Ep. 1355

Direct download: woods_2019_03_05.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:30pm EST

Last night I asked the folks in the Tom Woods Show Elite, which you can join at SupportingListeners.com, for suggestions for a solo episode I might do. Someone recommended this idea, and I loved it. Enjoy!

Sponsor: Harry's

Show notes for Ep. 1354

Direct download: woods_2019_03_04.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:07pm EST

Every schoolboy learns that Franklin Roosevelt cured the Great Depression with his New Deal programs. This is false, as libertarians well know. But it's still taught, year after year. In this episode I take this narrative apart.

Show notes for Ep. 1353

Direct download: woods_2019_03_01.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00pm EST

I finish my reply to the AlterNet article containing 11 questions that are supposed to demonstrate whether your libertarian friend is a hypocrite or not. Joining me this time is Professor Peter Klein. If the left is going to refute us, it will first need to figure out what we actually believe.

Show notes for Ep. 1352

Direct download: woods_2019_02_28.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:30pm EST

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, discusses what's really wrong with health care (hint: it isn't a lack of government involvement) and how to fix it.

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Show notes for Ep. 1351

Direct download: woods_2019_02_27.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00pm EST

Remember when conservatives used to be antiwar, opposed centralized power, and actually wanted to eliminate government agencies rather than just take them over? Yes, such people once existed. Robert Nisbet, whom you'll never hear mentioned on right-wing radio, but who was one of the great thinkers of that tradition, was one of them. I resurrect him -- not literally, so don't get your hopes up -- in this episode.

Show notes for Ep. 1350

Direct download: woods_2019_02_26.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EST

Bob Murphy and I discuss the view, apparently now mainstream on the left, that socialism has been unjustly demonized, and that it would be quite all right to have the federal government in direct control of fully one-third of the economy. We’re not so sure this is such a super idea.

Show notes for Ep. 1349

Direct download: woods_2019_02_25.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:30pm EST

An article at AlterNet called "11 Questions You Should Ask Libertarians to See If They're Hypocrites" is just crying out to be discussed and demolished on the Tom Woods Show. Today is your lucky day.

Show notes for Ep. 1348

Direct download: woods_2019_02_22.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:30pm EST

"The rich" are one of the few groups we're supposed to hate. Unfortunately, among the so-called rich we have vanishingly few people capable of launching a full-throated defense of themselves against ignorant criticisms. Most are pathetically apologetic, desperately hoping to be loved. Boo. Stand up for yourselves!

Sponsor: Blinkist

Show notes for Ep. 1347

Direct download: woods_2019_02_21.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:30pm EST

Professor Michael Rectenwald, the former Marxist who will deliver the Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture at the Mises Institute's Austrian Economics Research Conference this year, returns for a sneak preview of what he plans to say there about postmodernism, authoritarianism, and "social justice." We also discuss media gullibility, why corporations seem to be jumping on board the SJW bandwagon, and a lot more.

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Show notes for Ep. 1346

Direct download: woods_2019_02_20.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

Both times I've surveyed my listeners, Michael Malice has been chosen as their favorite guest on the Tom Woods Show. Here I try to uncover what makes him tick. That takes us back to his birth in the Soviet Union, his move to the United States, his experiences in school, his exposure to Ayn Rand, the development of his ideas, and a lot more. Plus, I ask him the question he most likes to ask others.

Show notes for Ep. 1345

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Direct download: woods_2019_2_19_FIXED.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:31pm EST

When you read old -- and I mean old, like nineteenth century old -- American writers on money and banking, something jumps out at you: they understood things with a surprising clarity, and had a proto-Austrian conception of why the economy experienced boom-bust cycles. Suddenly it feels less lonely to believe that artificial credit creation leads to a boom that has to end in a bust. In this episode, therefore, I share some unknown American intellectual history.

Show notes for Ep. 1344

Direct download: woods_2019_2_18.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

Stephen Presser and I go from William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England played such a central role in influencing early American ideas about the law, all the way to the Marxist-inspired Critical Legal Studies movement, the feminist legal critique, and back again to the originalism movement.

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Show notes for Ep. 1343

Direct download: woods_2019_2_15.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EST

How many times has this crisis been chalked up to "greed"? As if people hadn't been greedy three weeks earlier. It's time our amateur moralizers learned a little something, and that's the purpose of this episode. My thanks to the Acton Institute, where I delivered these remarks.

Show notes for Ep. 1342

Direct download: woods_2019_2_14.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EST

Cliff Maloney, president of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) -- an organization I have enthusiastically supported for over ten years -- joins me to discuss their strategy for the campuses and society at large. YAL developed out of Students for Ron Paul, and are on the front lines of getting our message to young people who might otherwise never hear a dissenting voice.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1341

Direct download: woods_2019_2_13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00pm EST

Ben Lewis and I go back into conservative/libertarian history to discuss the work of Frank Meyer, who thought the conservative and libertarian positions were not so difficult to reconcile. Conservative stalwart Russell Kirk wasn't buying it, and the two feuded vigorously. Murray Rothbard, too, weighed in on the controversy.

Show notes for Ep. 1340

Direct download: woods_2019_2_12.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:30pm EST

Friends and foes of the market alike refer to capitalism as a system of "competition." Is that really its characteristic feature, and is that what distinguishes it from other systems? This is actually a misunderstanding, and one that probably turns plenty of people off to the market. What's the right way to think about and explain it? That's what Antony Sammeroff and I discuss in this episode.

Show notes for Ep. 1339

Direct download: woods_2019_2_11.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EST

In this episode I explore the history of the idea that society can more or less run itself, that there are certain observable regularities in our relationships with one another, particularly in commerce, that cannot be interfered with without negative consequences, and do not actually need to be interfered with in the first place.

Show notes for Ep. 1338

Direct download: woods_2019_2_8.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EST

Walter Block, who holds the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair at Loyola University in New Orleans, joins me to discuss some particularly tricky questions for libertarians.

Show notes for Ep. 1337

Direct download: woods_2019_2_7.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law, discusses the grounds on which U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor found Obamacare unconstitutional. We discuss John Roberts' decision for the Supreme Court as well.

Show notes for Ep. 1336

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Direct download: woods_2019_2_6.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:30pm EST

That's a provocative title, to be sure. Author William Cavanaugh, a professor at DePaul University, is not saying that what we recognize to be religious beliefs can never inspire violence. What he is saying -- and I won't spoil the episode by spelling out his thesis here -- forces us to rethink what we thought we knew about religion, secularism, and war.

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Show notes for Ep. 1335

Direct download: woods_2019_2_5.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EST

We hear lots of calls for "affordable housing," and much less discussion about what might be making housing not so affordable. Ryan McMaken of the Mises Institute shows that -- surprise -- the government's fingerprints are all over this problem.

Sponsor: Harry's

Show notes for Ep. 1334

Direct download: woods_2019_2_4.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00pm EST

Looking over many Tom Woods Show episodes, I discovered a common theme: finding freedom in an unfree world. It's not true that we libertarians only complain. We build. So I talk secession from: the screwed-up American health care system, the monetary system, the education system, the traditional 9-to-5 job, and a lot more.

Sponsor: Blinkist

Show notes for Ep. 1333

Direct download: woods_2019_2_1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EST

Historian Brion McClanahan joins me to discuss an article on secession, particularly on the nineteenth-century southern secession, that makes the rounds every once in a while in fashionable libertarian circles. Libertarians can't support secession across the board, the author says, because some seceding states intend great evil once seceded. He further says there's no right of secession of an American state anyway. Are these statements sound? That's what we discuss today.

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Show notes for Ep. 1332

Direct download: woods_2019_1_31.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00am EST

In one of my Twitter exchanges, I came across a fellow who thought the vulnerable would be worse off under libertarianism, since they'd be less likely to have access to education, etc. Since a lot of people think this way, I thought I'd address issues like this in this episode.

Sponsor: Curiosity Stream

Show notes for Ep. 1331

Direct download: woods_2019_1_29.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

Richard Cobden, the nineteenth-century pro-trade, noninterventionist member of Parliament, once said, "The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of peace and the spread of commerce and the diffusion of education than upon the labor of Cabinets or Foreign Offices." I take this one sentence and riff on it, covering themes in modern European history, development economics, noninterventionist foreign policy, and more.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1330

Direct download: woods_2019_1_28.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

Today I talk to Ethan Blevins with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which does pro bono work for people wronged by the state. Crazy laws and regulations in left-wing Seattle keep these folks pretty busy, but they take on cases all over that part of the country. Nice to have an encouraging episode once in a while!

Show notes for Ep. 1329

Direct download: woods_2019_1_25.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:36pm EST

Some libertarians shrink from this kind of language, but I don't see how it can be doubted, especially now. In this episode I discuss not just the Covington high school students, but also the media's general pro-regime bias.

Show notes for Ep. 1328

Direct download: woods_2019_1_24.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00pm EST

Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress joins me to discuss the Green New Deal proposal, which seeks a radical transformation of the American economy in the service of "green" energy targets.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1327

Direct download: woods_2019_1_23.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:16pm EST

Frequent guest Bob Murphy returns, this time talking about his new (co-authored) book, The Case for IBC. This is an acronym for "Infinite Banking Concept," a strategy that uses properly designed whole life insurance policies as a way to "become your own banker." The concept was developed by Nelson Nash, who besides working in insurance was personally tutored in Austrian theory by Leonard Read himself. Bob explains how the average person can benefit from IBC, and he answers common objections like "Isn't it better to buy term and invest the difference?" and "Why would I put my money in life insurance when the dollar is going to crash?"

Show notes for Ep. 1326

Direct download: woods_2019_1_22.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

A law professor recently included a thought experiment on a constitutional law exam: suppose Lincoln had survived the assassin's bullet, and later wound up facing articles of impeachment for some of his actions during the war. This is obviously a useful exercise, since many people feel an emotional connection to Lincoln and his cause, but this is precisely what law school is supposed to be about: can you suspend such thoughts and think entirely about the law? Well, guess how one critic characterized the exam. You already know the language used to condemn it. Brion McClanahan and I review the accusations against this professor, and the extremely valuable and thought-provoking questions on his exam.

Show notes for Ep. 1325

Direct download: woods_2019_1_21.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EST

Musician Tatiana Moroz has an audience a portion of which is new to libertarian ideas, so she asked me newbie-friendly questions: how I get non-libertarians to start thinking differently, who will build the roads, what about the police, the truth about the Federal Reserve -- fun questions like that.

Show Notes for Ep. 1324

Direct download: woods_2019_1_19.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:00pm EST

Author and publisher Victor Koman joins me to discuss agorism, the anti-political, anti-state philosophy and strategy developed by Samuel E. Konkin III. Those chapters that exist of Konkin's would-be treatise, Counter-Economics, have just been released for people to read for the very first time. We discuss those chapters and the ideas found in them, and how what Konkin calls the "counter-economy" can challenge the state.

Show Notes for Ep. 1323

Direct download: woods_2019_1_18.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:27pm EST

Professor Jeff Herbener just completed the first of two courses for my LibertyClassroom.com website on American economic history, an area where there are plenty of misconceptions and fallacies to refute. In this episode we talk about 19th-century monetary policy and bank panics, fiscal policy in an age of limited government, colonial inflation, and lots more.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1322

Direct download: woods_2019_1_17.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:58pm EST

A hundred years ago progressives thought it best that we be ruled by experts. Their vision culminated in the administrative state we have today, in which federal agencies make law, at times even clearly at odds with the actual wording and intent of Congress. Peter Wallison joins me to discuss the problem and the solution.

Show notes for Ep. 1321

Direct download: woods_2019_1_16.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:35pm EST

Tucker Carlson, who's been great on some issues, has been speaking out against what he considers the free-market fundamentalism (I wish!) of mainstream conservatism. He says we need to understand that there's more to life than GDP, etc. Since this line of argument makes me crazy, I devoted this episode to answering it.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1320

Direct download: woods_2019_1_15.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:20pm EST

Steve Clayton was a vice president at LabCorp, where many of us have gone to have blood work done, and took a chance: he left it all behind to go out on his own as an entrepreneur. The gamble paid off magnificently. Today we compare notes on what works and what doesn't, and the features your online business should have to maximize your likelihood of success.

Show Notes for Ep. 1319

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Direct download: woods_2019_1_12.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00pm EST

Today, Sasha Hodder, an authority on the legal and regulatory aspects of cryptocurrency, discusses the regulatory hurdles faced by crypto, but also advances in privacy for users.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show Notes for Ep. 1318

Direct download: woods_2019_1_11.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:30pm EST

Allen Mendenhall, who holds a Ph.D. in English from Auburn University, joins me to discuss what libertarian literary criticism looks like.

Sponsor: Blinkist

Show Notes for Ep. 1317

Direct download: woods_2019_1_10.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:30pm EST

Pat Flynn -- fitness expert, libertarian, and entrepreneur -- joins me to discuss one of the vanishingly small number of books in personal development that gives you specific action items to improve yourself, as opposed to a ceaseless stream of fortune-cookie maxims. Chances are, your efforts at self-improvement are misdirected; Pat is truly where it's at.

Sponsor: Away

Show Notes for Ep. 1316

Direct download: woods_2019_1_9.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00pm EST

In this episode, I review some themes from my 2011 book Rollback, which makes the case against, well, pretty much everything -- the Fed, the military-industrial complex, the whole kit and kaboodle. I also discuss an interesting development in the James Damore case at Google.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show Notes for Ep. 1314

Direct download: woods_2019_1_8.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EST

She says it's about time people "pay their fair share," and that she needs the dough to fund her Green New Deal. Others are saying that since we had high top marginal rates in the past, it's no problem to have them now -- and maybe the economy would be even better! Well, no, no, and no.

Sponsor: Harry's

Show Notes for Ep. 1314

Direct download: woods_2019_1_7.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:45pm EST

The latest claim -- if you can believe it -- is that so-called dollar stores make the poor poorer. This isn't the first time the private sector has been condemned for expanding the choices available to the poor; I discuss three such cases in this maddening episode.

Show notes for Ep. 1313

Direct download: woods_2019_1_4.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:03pm EST

If you say Trump makes political mistakes, you get scolded: why, what do you know, Mr. Know-It-All? He managed to get elected against all the odds! He knows what he's doing! Now while that cautionary note is valid as far as it goes, the man is mortal, after all. And his mistakes are stupefying: truly unforced errors.

Show notes for Ep. 1312

Direct download: woods_2019_1_3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:18pm EST

As the new year begins I devote this episode to (1) a review of the decisions by Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin to leave Patreon and build an alternative, and (2) taking stock of the War on Terror, and why we can be cautiously optimistic.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show Notes for Ep. 1311

Direct download: woods_2019_1_2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:42pm EST

In this final episode of the Tom Woods Show for 2018, I'm joined by Michael Maresco (the "Ron Paul rider"), Bryan Thome of the Ron Paul Forums, and Jordan Page, musician of the Revolution. We exchange old stories, talk about what went right and what went wrong, and assess where we are today. Tremendous fun.

Sponsor: Skillshare

Show notes for Ep. 1310

Direct download: woods_2018_12_21.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EST

Scott Horton joins me to discuss the reality of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, and the hysterical establishment response, from center-left to center-right. We also discuss fears about the fate of the Kurds, whose safety has been used to justify a continued U.S. presence.

Sponsor: Blinkist

Show notes for Ep. 1309

Direct download: woods_2018_12_20.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:42am EST

The Weekly Standard, a neoconservative magazine with a 23-year run, is dead. Longtime neocon slayer Paul Gottfried joins me to discuss the magazine, its editorial line, and its demise -- and what, if anything, it all means.

Show notes for Ep. 1308

Direct download: woods_2018_12_19.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:41pm EST