Independent musician Leah McHenry, who's also a libertarian and a homeschooling mom of five, talks about today's opportunities for musicians and really any independent content creators to build audiences and create full-blown careers.

Show notes for Ep. 715

Here's a common objection to the free market: why, it doesn't yield enough scientific research! We need government funding for that. Even some free-market folks have bought this line. Here are some helpful thoughts in favor of the market and science.

Show notes for Ep. 713

Robert Zubrin, founder and president of the Mars Society, replies to objections to the human settlement of Mars.

Show notes for Ep. 712

Julie Borowski is closing in on 200,000 Facebook likes, thanks to her consistent output and quality content. She's learned a lot along the way about spreading the message, about weak points in the message, and about having a thick skin.

Show notes for Ep. 711

Liberty Memes is a wildly successful Facebook page that encapsulates libertarian ideas in provocative graphics. They recently ran afoul of the Facebook police for a meme about Hillary that's so far within the normal boundaries of American political commentary you'll hardly believe it. We discuss that, the page, and what it all means.

Show notes for Ep. 710

The consequences of the US government's interventions in Libya and Syria have been pretty grim. Jim and Michael Ostrowski make a methodical lawyers' case against them, and lay bare the disasters that have resulted.

Show notes for Ep. 709

There are all kinds of ways militarism and even the preparation for war can deform the economy, and many of these are easy to miss. I go through a bunch of them in this talk delivered at the 2016 Mises University program, hosted by the Mises Institute.

Show notes for Ep. 707

J.D. Vance offers a compelling, firsthand account of life among the white working poor, and in particular among a family with roots in the Appalachia region of northern Kentucky. It's easy to devise economic explanations for this group's stagnation and retrogression, but a deeply ingrained set of self-destructive ideas and behaviors renders futile most conventional, political approaches to remedying the problem. This is an episode you won't soon forget.

Show notes for Ep. 706

It's pretty thin gruel, to put it mildly, for freedom lovers in 2016, so I spent the opening talk at this year's Mises University program (hosted by the Mises Institute) contrasting the free society with what Trump and Clinton have to offer. Zingy stuff.

Show notes for Ep. 705

Adam Smith is consistently held up as the great founder of economics and herald of capitalism. Murray Rothbard energetically disputed this characterization. Others, in turn, have criticized Rothbard's criticism. So what are we to think?

Show notes for Ep. 704

What exactly is the ideology of the "Social Justice Warrior"? What do you do when you're targeted by one, whether at work or in general? Vox Day -- popular blogger, author, SJW slayer, and polymath -- joins me for background and strategy.

Show notes for Ep. 703

The infamous 28 pages from a joint congressional intelligence inquiry regarding 9/11 were finally declassified, and the media told us there was nothing to see in them. Not true. Award-winning reporter Larisa Alexandrovna joins me for the real story.

Show notes for Ep. 702

Tom Ciccotta is president of the Bucknell University Class of 2017 and president of the College Republicans. He is also a staff writer for Breitbart News and co-host and producer of the Milo Yiannopoulos Show.

Show notes for Ep. 701

Jeff Deist, Ron Paul's former chief of staff, joins me to discuss current events as well as the coming week's Mises University summer program, which can boast many illustrious graduates and is my favorite week of the year.

Show notes for Ep. 700

Now the fashionable trend on college campuses involves campaigns for university administrations to divest from investments connected to fossil fuels. Pierre Desrochers blasts this to smithereens.

Show notes for Ep. 699

What's going on at the Republican Convention, and in the 2016 race? What should we think of Trump and the Giuliani/Christie convention? And what's likely to happen in November? Murray Sabrin joins me for the inside scoop.

Show notes for Ep. 698

You care only about profits! What about more important things? We've all heard that. Profits are in fact an indispensable ingredient of civilization itself. I explain how in today's episode.

Show notes for Ep. 697

Socialism has become fashionable again, especially among young people. Tom DiLorenzo's new book smashes it in delightful and memorable style.

Show notes for Ep. 696

A listener wrote to ask if I might do a show covering a few names who will be familiar to many listeners as sympathizers but not quite Austro-libertarians, and take a look at the good and the bad. David Gordon joins me to discuss Sowell, Nozick, and Epstein. Enjoy!

Show notes for Ep. 695

Michael Malice discusses his recent Observer article in support of the secession of American states. I throw some common objections at him, and the result is our usual festival of knowledge and fun.

Show notes for Ep. 694

Robin Koerner joins me to discuss how we can most effectively bring people over to our side. And it's not how you may think.

Show notes for Ep. 693

Brian McGlinchey, creator of 28Pages.org, joins me to discuss the much-discussed, but entirely redacted "28 pages" of an important intelligence report on 9/11.

Show notes for Ep. 692

Jim Hale served as media relations director for the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a key pro-war organization that boasted such members as John McCain, George Shultz, and Bob Kerrey (senator from Nebraska). He is now a Tom Woods Show listener and a convert to noninterventionist foreign policy.

Show notes for Ep. 691

Environmental protection is one of those hard subjects for libertarianism. Ryan Yonk, co-author of a new book on the subject, joins us to discuss non-bureaucratic ways to think about it.

Show notes for Ep. 690

When Salon.com attacks libertarianism, it's always the same old arguments. Here's how I answer them.

Show notes for Ep. 689

Tenth Amendment Center founder and executive director Michael Boldin discusses successes, failures, and what he's learned from both, on the occasion of the center's tenth anniversary. This one guy has had a greater impact than entire think-tanks, so we should learn from him. (And since Michael started off as a leftist, we get a good conversion story, too.)

Show notes for Ep. 688

John Tamny and I discuss the Fed and its record, along with money, credit, and the economy in general. We also get into a dispute over fractional-reserve banking. Check it out!

Show notes for Ep. 686

Today four guests of varying perspectives -- Jeff Deist, Dr. Mary Ruwart, Tom Mullen, and Jason Rink -- join me to discuss the Libertarian Party and the prospects for the Johnson/Weld ticket.

Show notes for Ep. 685

Several days ago I moderated a very interesting and productive debate on the subject of free trade between two very sharp guys. Attendees raved about it. I hope you will, too.

Show notes for Ep. 684

Eric July says he was into gangs and lots of bad stuff, and then he read Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, and ultimately became an anarcho-capitalist. Not exactly your run-of-the-mill conversion story. We discuss his ideas and his music in today's episode.

Show notes for Ep. 683

After every mass shooting we have the same conversation about guns. We take up the subject today, and examine a recent article claiming that the militia in the Second Amendment is really just the National Guard.

Show notes for Ep. 682

If libertarians are going to take the nonaggression principle seriously, they have to oppose the doctrine of "public accommodation," even though 99.999% of the public supports it. Ryan McMaken's work on the true history of minority advancement makes our job here a lot easier.

Show notes for Ep. 681

As a refugee from the "conservative movement," I have a special message for any good folks still there: get out now.

Show notes for Ep. 680

Michael Malice and I discuss the merits and demerits of voting -- a contentious subject among libertarians. Although Michael is wrong as usual, it's still fun to talk to him.

Show notes for Ep. 679

Historian Brion McClanahan joins me to discuss pivotal moments in American history to see if they're genuine parallels with the present election cycle.

Show notes for Ep. 678

Keith Preston, who is neither a conservative nor a libertarian but who's never dull, skewers political correctness in this provocative episode. According to Herbert Marcuse, on some things there is no other side to the argument worth considering, so it's all right to suppress alternative voices. That's the key to understanding the enemies of free speech today.

Show notes for Ep. 677

Jonathan Haidt returns to the show to discuss the now-routine campus outrages against free speech. Is it possible to persuade such people? What should college administrators do? Another great discussion with Prof. Haidt.

Show notes for Ep. 676

Fashionable leftist opinion in the U.S. held that Venezuela was a great example of modern socialism, and which was having very good results. Where are they now? Mark Perry and I discuss the fiasco and the fools.

Show notes for Ep. 675

Why do you suppose the officer asks, "Do you know why I stopped you today?" Why doesn't he just say, "Hey, you were speeding"? He's looking to get you to volunteer information. That's the kind of thing we discuss in today's episode.

Show notes for Ep. 674

Libertarian car expert Eric Peters returns to the show to discuss the 55 mph speed limit and its rationales, the Blue Lives Matter movement, and much more from the world of cars and liberty.

Show notes for Ep. 673

Is the nomination of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld for the Libertarian Party's presidential ticket a good thing? Aren't they better than the alternatives? Is someone an incorrigible "perfectionist" to raise concerns? Here's my take.

Show notes for Ep. 672

What's the best way forward for the Libertarian Party? There's some pretty strong medicine in this one, especially toward the end. Key point: product differentiation. We're not 30% different from Republicans and Democrats. We're certainly not "fiscally conservative and socially liberal." So what are we? And how should we spread the message? Juicy stuff here, I promise.

Show notes for Ep. 671

The American people give vastly more in philanthropic donations on a percentage basis than anyone in the world. This is the best-kept secret in American textbooks. Any schoolboy would have the impression that government intervention is required in order to get things done -- after all, who else is going to do it? The suppressed history of American philanthropy is fascinating and compelling, and our expert guest takes us through this important part of American history and culture.

Show notes for Ep 670

We live in a "rape culture," according to many feminists these days, in which men are by definition rapists and in which rape is encouraged and considered normal. In fact, rape is punished severely and some people's lives have been ruined because they were assumed to be guilty when they weren't, so what could this all be about? Wendy McElroy, author of a new book on the subject, joins me to shed some light.

Show notes for Ep. 669

Economist David R. Henderson, deeply affected by the wars following 9/11, turned his research energies toward foreign policy, looking to see how an economist's tools could be brought to bear in deciding on a sensible foreign policy. We talk about that today, in a really outstanding conversation.

Show notes for Ep. 668

The left-wing George Monbiot of The Guardian says the financial crisis was caused by “neoliberalism,” a term Mises and Hayek never used, but a category into which Monbiot places them. He then says pretty much all our problems have been caused by “neoliberalism.” It’s a smorgasbord of stupidity, but (or should I say “so”?) it went viral.

Show notes for Ep. 667

Libertarian entrepreneur TK Coleman confronts the "we're all doomed because of our choices in this election" chorus we hear every four years. As bad as the state is, you still hold a lot of power in your hands.

Show notes for Ep. 666

Entrepreneur Ryan Daniel Moran returns to the show to discuss capitalism, business, and his own success.

Show notes for Ep. 665

We know the Fed inflated during the 1920s and set the stage for the bust, but some people say that if only the Fed had inflated during the 1930s, things would have improved. This is wrong on every conceivable level -- and in fact, the Fed tried its best to inflate in the 1930s. It's very important for us to get this right, because we've got the Keynesians and the Friedmanites united against us. We clear up the Fed's real record during the Depression in today's episode.

Show notes for Ep. 664

Sheldon Richman, author of the new book America's Counter-Revolution, thinks so. (Warning: heads may explode while listening.)

Show notes for Ep. 663

Christians can be libertarians, and vice versa, says Norman Horn, who recently debated a seminary president on precisely this issue.

Show notes for Ep. 662

Renowned International investor Doug Casey recently returned from a trip to Zimbabwe with Nick Giambruno, editor of InternationalMan.com. Lots of interesting stories -- plus, Doug's take on the presidential election in the U.S.

Show notes for Ep. 661

Here's an episode I did of a PBS program, the subject of which was whether capitalism was the cause of or the solution to the problems stemming from the financial crisis of 2008.

Show notes for Ep. 660

Michael Malice makes his triumphant return to the show with a discussion of a possible President Trump, and why Trump Derangement Syndrome seems to make people forget how bad the other presidents have been.

Show notes for Ep. 659

Marc Guttman joins me to discuss his outstanding volume Why Peace, with scores of contributions from fascinating people -- intelligence officers, intellectuals, military figures, war victims, and more -- from a wide variety of ideological backgrounds telling the real truth about war.

Show notes for Ep. 658

Today I look back on the previous 656 episodes and pull out some memorable ones to discuss. I also point out episodes that weren't listened to as much but that deserved a larger audience. And in general I give you -- especially but not exclusively newcomers -- a nice overview of the two and a half years of the Tom Woods Show. Even (especially?) if you've listened to them all, you'll enjoy taking this little trip with me.

Show notes for ep. 657

Would you believe me if I told you something called the Wholesome Meat Act didn't in fact make our meat more wholesome? I mean, it's called the Wholesome Meat Act! Didn't I read the name? As usual, there's more to a benign-sounding bill than meets the eye.

Show notes for Ep. 656

Economist Steve Horwitz recently wrote an article urging Austrians to be not quite so boastful about their business cycle theory. After all, he said, it has serious shortcomings. And we should supplement our view of the Great Depression with the work of Milton Friedman, who blamed it on deflation.

In today's episode, my guests put everything right.

Show notes for Ep. 655

The comic-book version of government portrays it as a benign institution innocently fostering the common good In practice, it creates a labyrinth of rent-seeking regulation that often benefits established firms and industries at the expense of upstarts. Connor Boyack and I discuss this phenomenon on the show today.

Show notes for Ep. 654

Alex Epstein, author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, recently testified before a Senate committee -- and as you might guess, sparks flew.

Show notes for Ep. 653

Donald Trump's April 2016 speech before the Center for the National Interest has sparked discussion, controversy, and debate. Was it really a call for an America First foreign policy? Scott Horton walks through it with us.

Show notes for Ep. 652

Dr. Michel Accad, a physician influenced by Austrian economics, says Austrian insights are essential to a proper understanding of health, which mainstream medicine cannot coherently define. Plus: why we don't need medical licensing.

Show notes for Ep. 651

How about that: fascism has a definition after all, and isn't just a term for whatever people happen to dislike. In his new book, Paul Gottfried traces the meaning of the word and how it's been used over the years as a polemical device in ideological battles.

Show notes for Ep. 650

Liberalism portrays itself as the ideology of liberty and liberation, as neutral between competing views of the good, and as the position all right-thinking people should adopt. None of this is true, but it is all brutally enforced. Jim Kalb and I discuss the true nature of liberalism in today's episode.

Show notes for Ep. 649

Entrepreneur Ryan Daniel Moran recently caused a splash on Facebook with a video showing how much he -- a member of the hated 1% -- was paying in taxes. Hint: it's a lot. And of course the haters, who feel entitled to Ryan's money, were out in force.

My Supporting Listeners insisted I get this guy for the show. Today's the day!

Show notes for ep. 648

What would cause the leading cancer doctor in the world to fly across the country to the funeral of a boy of 8? That's part of today's story.

Past guest Roger McCaffrey discusses the terrible ordeal his family endured when they discovered their 4 1/2-year-old son, John, had CML, a stem-cell cancer. The story involves not only a family's anguish, but also a miracle drug, insurance companies, politics, and the FDA.

My guest today has had tremendous success as a debater and recently debated a university socialist group. As an Australian, John Hajek also lets us in on what's happening at Australian universities. It's almost enough to make you feel good about American campuses.

Show notes for Ep. 646

The standard narrative runs like this: Ngo Dinh Diem was the corrupt and oppressive president of South Vietnam whose removal (which wound up taking the form of assassination) the Kennedy Administration had no choice but to endorse. On top of everything else, Diem's administration was dominated by Roman Catholics in a predominantly Buddhist country, and his outrageous oppression of Buddhists was another reason he had to go.

I myself believed all this, and even taught it in the classroom. According to our guest, it's bunk.

Show notes for episode 645

So much of what's been tried in order to help developing countries has backfired that it's long past time to reexamine the whole question. A brand new documentary, called Poverty, Inc., is gaining plaudits across the ideological spectrum. I talk to director, producer, and writer Michael Matheson Miller today.

Show notes for Ep. 644

If there's one thing our university system is devoted to, it's "diversity." Our universities can boast faculty members who look very different from one another and who come from different places -- but they more or less think the same. Aren't ideas a teensy bit important, too? We discuss why universities have so little interest in intellectual diversity.

Show notes for Ep. 643

We are supposed to believe that the network of organizations promoting a particular view of Israel and the U.S. relationship with that country doesn't exist, and that anyone who says it does is a crank and a hater. Yet it's precisely the network of organizations that would call such a person a hater that we're talking about in the first pace. Grant Smith joins me for a rational discussion of this inexplicably sensitive issue.

Show notes for Ep. 642

Derek Magill discontinued his studies at the University of Michigan -- where he was a member of Young Americans for Liberty, by the way -- in order to go into business for himself and to do work he found rewarding. We discuss the ins and outs of all this in today's episode.

Show notes for Ep. 641

Is an increasing number of jobs always a good thing? We treat job numbers as a proxy for economic health, but should we? The Mises Institute's Ryan McMaken helps us make sense of it all.

Show notes for Ep. 640

Historians haven't been terribly sympathetic to business leaders of the late nineteenth century. What should we think about Andrew Carnegie? Does he deserve the abuse of historians, or is there something to be said in his defense? The author of a new biography joins us!

Show notes for Ep. 639

In order to distract attention from government housing policy and the Federal Reserve, left-liberals claim the financial crisis was brought on by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (the partial repeal of Glass-Steagall) and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. In this episode we'll see if there's anything to this.

Show notes for Ep. 638

Take a glimpse into the Orwellian dystopia of Stalinist Russia in my compelling conversation with Soviet emigre Eugene Yelchin. His young adult book Breaking Stalin's Nose -- which this 43-year-old is still thinking about, weeks after reading it -- superbly captures the terror, the suspicion and paranoia, the irrationality, the loss of life, and much more.

Show notes for Ep. 637

When libertarian scholar Walter Block announced the creation of Libertarians for Trump, he generated a good deal of controversy. Now he explains his support for Donald Trump's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination -- in the context of a debate with Robert Wenzel. Enjoy!

Show notes for Ep. 636

Rags-to-riches entrepreneur and #1 New York Times bestselling author T. Harv Eker discusses his path to success, why prosperity isn't a matter of luck or simply meeting the right people, and why a lack of money or business know-how are lousy excuses for staying in a rut.

Show notes for Ep. 635

Every year the countries of the world are ranked in terms of their economic freedom. What can we learn from the results?

Show notes for Ep. 634

How do you figure out what kind of work you were meant to do? Not by "following your dreams," since a lot of dreams, frankly, shouldn't be followed and won't earn you a dime. The new book by Chris Guillebeau offers case studies as well as practical advice for breaking out of the conventional modes of work -- climb the corporate ladder! work 9 to 5! -- that have been held out to us since childhood. This, surely, is an episode not to be missed.

Show notes for Ep. 633

The Ethan Allen Institute promotes free markets in -- wait for it! -- Vermont, where the ideas of Senator Bernie Sanders have affected the political culture of the entire state. We get some insights into Bernie and into promoting free-market ideas in hostile territory.

Show notes for Ep. 632

Do economics and the virtues have anything to do with one another? How do we reply to those who would say that capitalism and virtue can hardly be mentioned in the same sentence? Is economics a moral science? A highly engaging conversation that wrestles with some darn good questions.

Show notes for Ep. 631

There's a possibly counterintuitive solution to the heroin epidemic, says Mark Thornton: legalization. We discuss his recent article.

Show notes for Ep. 630

Sibel Edmonds is a former translator for the FBI and founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

Show notes for Ep. 629

We've heard about the raw milk controversy, but there's so much more to the issue of food and drink freedom, and the regulatory thicket ordinary farmers are expected to navigate. We get the inside scoop from the executive director of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund.

Show notes for Ep. 628

Libertarian car expert Eric Peters returns to the show to discuss a smorgasbord of topics, including the bubble in the used car market, how to get around government regulations by (essentially) calling a car a motorcycle, and the state of diesel vehicles in the U.S. market in the wake of the VW scandal.

Show notes for Ep. 627

Andrew Cockburn joins me to discuss the drone strategy being deployed in the War on Terror, as well as the High Level Target strategy that motivates it. Do either of them make sense?

Show notes for Ep. 626

By popular demand, Christina Hoff Sommers joins me to discuss feminism, which has become 40% crazier just since she started writing about it. We discuss women in science, women's pay, campus rape statistics, and much more.

Show notes for Ep. 625

Imagine what you would have seen and heard had you been in charge of security for the 2012 Ron Paul presidential campaign. You'd accumulate some stories, right? Well, imagine no more: today's guest was himself Ron Paul's director of security and yes, he has stories.

Show notes for Ep. 624

Are schooling and education the same thing? No way, says Zachary Slayback, who encourages the cultivation of entrepreneurship skills in place of the passive experience of traditional schooling. Almost nothing we've come to believe about education goes unchallenged in this provocative discussion.

Show notes for Ep. 623

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, who was working at the Pentagon on 9/11 and has spoken out about the corruption of the intelligence-gathering process, has her own story. She didn't begin her military career as a Rothbardian libertarian, that's for sure.

But then something happened -- or, rather, didn't happen -- and the ground was prepared for her to begin looking at the world in a different way.

We discuss it all in today's episode.

Show notes for Ep. 622

Wait until you hear the new rules the IRS is set to impose on a wide variety of organizations in September 2016 if all goes as planned. For example, forbidden "electioneering" will include so much as the mention of a candidate's name on a website. We get into the details in this episode.

Show notes for Ep. 621

Another interesting side effect of the Trump insurgency is that salaries of supposedly indispensable political consultants are coming way down. Trump is crushing the field while spending a pittance on such people, and ignoring all standard political advice.

Another person to do this was Pat Buchanan, to whom Trump is often compared. My guest today, Roger McCaffrey, who worked for Pat, describes how Pat did this. It's a freewheeling, informative, and at times hilarious discussion of then and now.

Show notes for Ep. 620

Murray Rothbard, the great Austrian economist, drew on Austrian business cycle theory to describe what should be done to make sure a depression ends as quickly as possible -- and it's the opposite of the advice the American intelligentsia has recommended since the Great Depression. My guest has developed a way to convey Rothbard's point to the mainstream of the profession, using the mainstream's very own tools.

Show notes for Ep. 619

Lauren Southern has become a phenomenon by standing up to the craziest of the crazies among the left, including within the Libertarian Party itself, where an SJW contingent tried to take over the Canadian contingent. Members of the tolerant, open-minded left even poured urine on her,in an incident that made headlines. We discuss all this and more. Warning: this episode probably shouldn't be listened to with children within earshot.

Show notes for Ep. 618

Twelve-term congressman, former presidential candidate, and #1 New York Times bestselling author Ron Paul answers listener questions -- and I limited them to questions he hasn't been asked a million times before. So no "Should I run for office?" or anything like that. Just good, interesting questions, covering the Israel Lobby, whether he regrets any of his votes, what his morning routine is, how he'd contribute if he weren't famous, what he thinks the most positive development in the world is, and much more.

Show notes for Ep. 617

I've had many requests for an episode on Pope Francis and the current state of the Catholic Church. I covered economic issues in episodes 497 and 54, but this episode is a general discussion of Church politics, who Pope Francis is, the state of opinion among the college of cardinals, and much more. Plus, no conversation with Roger McCaffrey is ever boring. Ever.

Show notes for Ep. 616