Tue, 31 December 2019
Hayek said that if we misunderstand history and draw the wrong lessons from it, we will make the wrong decisions in the present. This is why even now, over a decade later, it is still essential that we understand and communicate the true causes of the crisis of 2008. In this episode I talk to Jimmy Morrison, with whom I share a writing credit on the new documentary The Housing Bubble. The story behind it is almost as interesting as the crisis itself. |
Fri, 27 December 2019
Immediately after the New York City premiere of our documentary, The Housing Bubble, we were joined by an all-star panel of commentators, including Gene, Peter, and several other important voices. We discussed the true lessons of the 2008 crisis, and what to expect in 2020. |
Sat, 21 December 2019
Last night's debate at Loyola Marymount University saw the candidates rather more combative with each other than they'd been up to now. Lew and I have our usual fun reviewing the proceedings! |
Thu, 19 December 2019
Entrepreneur Toby Baxendale joins me to talk about Labour's crushing defeat in the recent elections and what to expect from Boris Johnson and his party. |
Wed, 18 December 2019
The Washington Post recently released a substantial array of documents showing that the war in Afghanistan has been accompanied by lies and distortion, particularly about the war's progress and success. Scott Horton, who literally wrote the book on the war in Afghanistan, joins me to discuss what it all means. |
Tue, 17 December 2019
Very refreshing to see, of all places, the Claremont Review of Books trumpeting decentralization and nullification as the correct approaches against a hostile regime. I spend this episode elaborating on these important points, which are ignored by the conservative movement and by predictable portions of the libertarian world as well. |
Sat, 14 December 2019
As we wrap up Gene Epstein week, Gene offers various nuggets of wisdom for libertarians which, if followed, will contribute to a happy and successful life. |
Sat, 14 December 2019
I couldn't resist asking Gene Epstein, who was once book review editor for Barron's, to share with us and discuss some of the books that have shaped his thinking as a libertarian, so here we go! |
Thu, 12 December 2019
This episode is devoted to Gene's intellectual hobby horses – and he has a bunch of them. |
Wed, 11 December 2019
As Gene Epstein week continues, I ask Gene to discuss how he moved away from leftism and toward libertarianism. His answer, although honest, is also quite preposterous, and serves to highlight the unique qualities for which we love Gene. |
Tue, 10 December 2019
Gene Epstein joins me for a week of episodes on the Tom Woods Show. Gene is former economics and book review editor for Barron's, and currently serves as director of the Soho Forum, a debate series in New York City. We begin Gene Epstein week with Gene's interesting background story – which includes the story of his card-carrying communist mother, who had an FBI file. |
Fri, 6 December 2019
Michael and I discuss some of the work of Emma Goldman, the left-wing anarchist who held many objectionable and even preposterous views, but who was a genuinely interesting thinker who defied cookie-cutter classification. |
Fri, 6 December 2019
Mitchell Earl of Crash.co joins me to make a case for optimism going into 2020, especially around careers, education, tech, and finance. |
Wed, 4 December 2019
David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan and a critic of Donald Trump, joins me to discuss what he considers the Democrats' laughable case for impeachment, plus the likely Democratic nominee, and how the Federal Reserve hurts the average person. |
Wed, 4 December 2019
How do we account for the impressive spread of libertarian and specifically Misesian thought in Brazil? This phenomenon has been ongoing for years now, so I've invited Raphael Lima, whose massive YouTube channel has helped to fuel this trend, to discuss what's happening as well as what, if anything, folks in other countries can learn from their example. |
Tue, 3 December 2019
Aidan Booth pursued an engineering degree in New Zealand, but went on to excel as an entrepreneur in fields for which he never received formal training. Now in his mid-30s, Booth has employees, facilities, and investment properties all over the world, and has trained thousands in online business fundamentals. We talk about how he did it as well as the pros and cons of different business models online. |
Fri, 29 November 2019
Daniel McCarthy, editor of Modern Age, joins me to discuss recent articles of his, including in the New York Times, on the Democratic primary, the Democrats' battle plan with regard to Donald Trump, and whether Trump did anything involving Ukraine that we ought to consider impeachable. |
Thu, 28 November 2019
Michael Heise of the Libertarian Party's Mises Caucus joins me to discuss recent developments, including some Second Amendment and drug decriminalization efforts the caucus has been supporting. |
Wed, 27 November 2019
Mark David Hall has written an important book on a topic that both sides of the debate tend to treat superficially. We discuss whether the United States can be said to have had a "Christian founding," what such a thing would look like, and what the implications of the answer are. |
Tue, 26 November 2019
It would seem that the right to rent out your property on terms you see fit follows naturally from your ownership of the property. But from the state's point of view, that is not so. Tim Brochu of the Anarchitecture podcast joins me to discuss regulation of Airbnb and short-term rentals, and how private approaches might resolve legitimate concerns about the practice. |
Mon, 25 November 2019
For thousands of years, taxation has shaped history both openly and in ways that are more obscure. Dominic Frisby takes us through a whirlwind tour of the history of taxation, full of outrage and insight, and stories even diehard libertarians don't know. |
Sat, 23 November 2019
Scott Horton and I lay out our battle plan for the next year. We can't do it without you good listeners, though. |
Thu, 21 November 2019
I think this is the best debate analysis Lew Rockwell and I have done yet this election season. We look pro and con at Tulsi Gabbard's performance in particular, but everyone gets subjected to the Woods/Rockwell treatment. |
Wed, 20 November 2019
Gene Epstein's Soho Forum recently hosted a debate between Gene himself and Richard Wolff, the Marxist professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts. The resolution under debate was, "Socialism is preferable to capitalism as an economic system that promotes freedom, equality, and prosperity." Gene joins me to dissent this Oxford-style debate, which Gene won handily (final statistics are in the episode). |
Tue, 19 November 2019
I was blown away at the Ron Paul Symposium in Lake Jackson, Texas, on November 9, 2019, when libertarian foreign policy expert Scott Horton took the stage. Brilliant, powerful, devastating, irrefutable. So much did I love it that I'm making it into today's episode, so you can have the same experience I did. |
Fri, 15 November 2019
On November 14, 2019, in Vienna, I received the 2019 Hayek Lifetime Achievement Award from the Austrian Economics Center, where such figures as Peter Thiel, Arthur Laffer, and Deirdre McCloskey have likewise been honored. The speech conferring the award on me was delivered by Ingo Friedrich, retired vice president of the European Parliament and president of the European Economic Senate. This episode consists of selections from that speech as well as my brief remarks. |
Thu, 14 November 2019
At the Mises Institute's recent (November 2019) event in Lake Jackson, Texas, I had a chance to interview Ron Paul before a live audience, for this episode of the podcast. The theme of the event was "State Propaganda and the 2020 Election," so my questions focused on that theme. |
Wed, 13 November 2019
Peter Klein and I review an article claiming that entrepreneurship is largely about privilege, and (implicitly) that we should be less impressed by entrepreneurs. Daddy's money is what makes it possible, in other words. Peter and I review what's right and what's wrong about this way of thinking. |
Tue, 12 November 2019
Brad and I geek out on American history as we discuss themes and personalities from his new course for Liberty Classroom on the period 1807-1820. |
Mon, 11 November 2019
Chris Dreisbach, CEO of Blueprints for Addiction Recovery, is saving accused drug offenders from prison and helping them avoid having their lives ruined. It is a great, important, and virtually unknown story. |
Sat, 9 November 2019
Whitney Webb is a journalist who has done important work on the Jeffrey Epstein case for MintPressNews.com. She joins me to discuss the true nature of Epstein's operation, and the dubious story that he "committed suicide". |
Fri, 8 November 2019
Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation, returns to the show to discuss his run for the 2020 Libertarian Party presidential nomination. He says he'll stick to libertarian principle come what may, even on the tough issues. He also discusses his strategy for the first time anywhere. |
Thu, 7 November 2019
Lew and I discuss his new book Against the Left, which makes the case that although threats to liberty exist across the ideological spectrum, there is something uniquely evil about the left that makes it a particular danger. |
Wed, 6 November 2019
Richard Ebeling joins me to discuss some of the tough questions libertarians face. |
Mon, 4 November 2019
Today I welcome to the show multimillionaire internet marketer Michael Cheney, one of the kings of email and of sales. he's recently joined the libertarian community, which has welcomed him with open arms. I hope you find his journey there to be interesting and inspiring. |
Fri, 1 November 2019
Libertarian historian Ralph Raico warned that we should always be suspicious of presidents who are "beloved." Theodore Roosevelt was one such figure. Today's episode discusses TR's view of the presidency, foreign policy, and more. |
Thu, 31 October 2019
Ludwig von Mises devoted a section of his book Socialism to what he called "destructionism." Destructionism, like socialism itself, builds nothing. It lives off the accumulated wealth created by a society based on private property. And it is immensely popular, even today. |
Wed, 30 October 2019
Patrick Newman joins me once again to discuss a brand new book by Murray Rothbard, the prolific economist and historian who died in 1995. We cover the process of deciphering Rothbard's notoriously illegible handwriting, and also the contents themselves: Rothbard's assessments of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and more. |
Wed, 30 October 2019
Libertarian podcaster and successful entrepreneur Jason Stapleton joins me for a discussion not just of entrepreneurship, but of how it is that some people manage to build followings of rabid, unfailingly loyal fans. What are they doing right? What do they know that others don't? The market economy rewards people who produce great products, but remember: sometimes you are the product. They want to buy from and interact with you. How do the masters create that kind of following? |
Mon, 28 October 2019
The parental custodianship case of James Younger -- the 7-year-old boy whose mother wants to "transition" into a girl named Luna -- generated much heat, particularly last week. Some people tried to claim that there was really nothing to the case, that it was all overblown, that the boy is too young for medical procedures anyway, and the whole thing was probably hysteria fueled by "transphobia." Madeleine Jacob, a reporter who observed the entire proceeding, joins me to set the record straight. |
Thu, 24 October 2019
It's fashionable to like Karl Marx again, so it's worth remembering that economists dismissed him from the beginning. The Marginal Revolution of the early 1870s upended the foundations of Marxism, and Marx himself never seems to have recognized what happened. Phil Magness, editor of a new volume of Marx's writings, joins me to discuss this. |
Wed, 23 October 2019
Joshua Smith, At-Large Member of the Libertarian National Committee, is seeking to become the party's chairman. We discuss his background, lessons learned from 2018, whether the party is on the right track (it did get a bunch of votes in 2016, after all), and more. |
Tue, 22 October 2019
Peter Schiff interviews me on economic history, Keynesianism, and state nullification. |
Mon, 21 October 2019
The official line of the regime and its media accomplices is that presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is a "Russian asset." Isn't it funny how all the Respectable People suddenly and in unison all have the same opinions about everything, down to the lingo and the talking points? I discuss this creepy phenomenon. (And yes, I know, Tulsi is not a libertarian.) |
Fri, 18 October 2019
Madison biographer Kevin Gutzman joins me for a discussion of the Madison nobody knows. |
Thu, 17 October 2019
Sheldon Richman, author of the new book Coming to Palestine, joins me to discuss the rights and wrongs of Israel and the Palestinians. |
Wed, 16 October 2019
Twelve Democrats debated in Ohio last night, and as usual Lew Rockwell and I watched so you didn't have to. We cover the lowlights as well as who's up, who's down, and more. |
Tue, 15 October 2019
In this highly unusual but weirdly compelling episode in the wake of World Mental Health Day, Michael and I discuss how we've dealt with difficult personal struggles. |
Mon, 14 October 2019
User-friendly cryptography has dramatically altered the world by enabling secure communication and commerce via the Internet. But this is only the beginning: by applying cryptography to the control and ownership of digital assets we can return power to the individual and finally build a world where individual sovereignty is feasible. The biggest challenge that remains is to hide the technical complexities from the average user -- and Jameson Lopp joins me today to discuss exactly how that's being done. |
Fri, 11 October 2019
Lindsey Graham and Bill Weld have been accusing Donald Trump (and Barack Obama) of "isolationism." This is such a deranged thing to say that I had to make an episode about it. |
Thu, 10 October 2019
Kevin Gutzman joins me for some historical/constitutional background on impeachment, how strong the case against Trump is, and what is likely to come of Trump's refusal to cooperate. |
Wed, 9 October 2019
The hysteria reached a fever pitch with Trump's recent announcement about American withdrawal from northern Syria. Scott Horton joins me to explain the real situation, and how a satisfactory arrangement might have been reached had the U.S. government not prevented it. |
Tue, 8 October 2019
Gerard Casey joins me to discuss free speech, why we should be absolutists on it, the perils of "hate crime" laws, and much more. |
Mon, 7 October 2019
In this episode I talk a bit about episodes in my own evolution, including the big turning point that red pilled me, how I went from vice president of the Harvard Republicans to (eventually) a libertarian, my first battle with the neocons, and the people the Libertarian Party should appeal to but won't. |
Fri, 4 October 2019
We conclude Dave Smith Week with questions drawn from the Tom Woods Show Elite, which you can join at SupportingListeners.com. How has he navigated a comedy world and a city that are unsympathetic to his views, to say the least? What libertarian positions does he find most challenging to defend? What is the movement's most effective potential strategy? And a lot more. |
Thu, 3 October 2019
The new rule, evidently, is that if you joke about anything our overlords have told us is Not Funny, or if you are found to have said something naughty on Twitter ten years ago, you are to be destroyed and all ties with you are to be cut. Natch, if you're just a warmonger, nothing happens to you at all. Dave Smith joins me to sort this all out. |
Wed, 2 October 2019
Here Dave takes us into the weeds of comedy itself. How to write a joke (more or less), who's on Dave's Mount Rushmore of comedy, who his influences are, and a lot more. Also whether there's a line, in terms of subject matter, that Dave just won't cross when it comes to comedy. Possibly my favorite episode of the week. |
Tue, 1 October 2019
The second episode of Dave Smith Week covers the libertarian movement itself, with Dave's recent Soho Forum debate against Libertarian National Committee chairman Nick Sarwark the springboard for discussion of larger issues. |
Mon, 30 September 2019
Dave Smith went from being a stand-up comedian to being a stand-up comedian who also happens to be one of our most articulate and indispensable voices. We get into Dave's background and turning points in his life. |
Fri, 27 September 2019
Documentary filmmaker Joel Gilbert joins me to discuss his investigative work into the Trayvon Martin case, where it turns out that a serious case of witness fraud was at the heart of the trial. |
Thu, 26 September 2019
Marc Clair, host of the Lions of Liberty podcast, joins me to discuss how we can reach folks outside our orbit, plus some fun podcaster-to-podcaster inside baseball. |
Wed, 25 September 2019
Professor Jeremy Bailey joins me to discuss the evolution of the modern presidency and the way key figures like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson tried -- and failed or succeeded, which is the question -- to change and expand it. |
Wed, 25 September 2019
This episode is more of an overview of the life and evolution of one of our important thinkers, Paul Gottfried, who holds his Ph.D. in history from Yale. Paul has been an opponent of the neocons from the beginning, and we take the story to the present day. |
Mon, 23 September 2019
Bernie Sanders is proposing a nationwide program of rent control -- because why should landlords be allowed to raise rents arbitrarily? I explain why this is a terrible idea. |
Fri, 20 September 2019
Michael Rectenwald returns to the show to discuss woke capitalism, big tech, the mob mentality, and the suppression of dissident voices. |
Thu, 19 September 2019
As a fan of magic myself, I was delighted to learn not only that I had a professional magician among my newsletter subscribers, but also that he managed to fool Penn and Teller on their "Fool Us" television program. Doc Dixon is a libertarian (like Penn and Teller themselves), and that comes through in our discussion, but we also get into the weeds of what it's like performing for Penn and Teller, as well as plenty of inside baseball about the life of a magician. |
Wed, 18 September 2019
Jim Cantrell, co-founder and former CEO of Vector Launch, veteran employee of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab and France's CNES, and founding team member of SpaceX and Moon Express, joins me to discuss the future of space exploration (including Mars settlement) and mankind's activities in space, as well as what the private sector can accomplish in space. |
Tue, 17 September 2019
Bestselling author Stephen Kinzer returns to the show to discuss the CIA's research and experiments in mind control. |
Mon, 16 September 2019
Peter Schiff returns to answer listener questions about Trump's economics, navigating the ups and downs of the economy, and a lot more. |
Fri, 13 September 2019
Lew Rockwell returns to discuss yet another Democratic debate. Join us as we slice through the inanities. |
Thu, 12 September 2019
Phil Labonte, the outspoken libertarian frontman of the band All That Remains, joins me to discuss how he became a libertarian, how his views compare to those of other people in his genre, how the Internet has changed the music industry for better and worse, and a lot more. |
Wed, 11 September 2019
Scott Horton joins me to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and respond to the rah-rah "they hate us because we're great" view of why the attacks occurred. |
Tue, 10 September 2019
The left-wing thought-control site ThinkProgress has closed its doors, after many years of policing allowable opinion. Because of my interests I'm aware in particular of their absurd treatment of the Tenth Amendment Center -- which, unlike ThinkProgress, is alive and kicking. And speaking of kicking, let's kick ThinkProgress while it's down. |
Tue, 10 September 2019
I review my refrain about the narrowness of allowable opinion in American (and Western) political discourse: you can argue about the fringes of what the state apparatus should be doing, but no fundamental questions may be raised. Also, at the end of the episode I make note of the latest Twitter casualty, and the absurd grounds on which the person in question was banned. |
Fri, 6 September 2019
David Gornoski has taken what sounds like rather an obscure topic -- the mimetic theory of Rene Girard -- and showing the liberty movement how it helps us understand the state and collective violence. |
Thu, 5 September 2019
By popular demand, Kirk Sorensen joins me to discuss the energy potential of thorium, which can be tapped safely in overwhelming abundance and which solves every problem that troubles environmentalists. |
Wed, 4 September 2019
Comedian Dave Chappelle generated enormous controversy with his recent Netflix special, "Sticks and Stones." Fashionable opinion explained to us that we were to reject this special as "racist" and otherwise insensitive. Comedian Dave Smith joins me to sort it all out. |
Wed, 4 September 2019
Eric Brakey served two terms in the state senate of Maine, and has been a Ron Paul supporter and Tom Woods Show listener for years. He's currently seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Congress from Maine's second district, where he is winning key endorsements and has an excellent shot at winning. |
Sat, 31 August 2019
Gerry Cramer has been repeatedly ranked as the top affiliate on Clickbank, which in turn has been called the top affiliate network in the United States. His students, for that matter, can frequently be found among Clickbank's top ten affiliates. So you could say the guy has cracked the code. |
Fri, 30 August 2019
Eric July, the politically incorrect libertarian frontman for the metal band Backwordz, joins me for a freewheeling discussion of music, politics, Malcolm X, the SJW takeover of the world of comics, and much more. |
Thu, 29 August 2019
Saifedean Ammous recently debated Professor George Selgin at the Soho Forum on the subject of Bitcoin's suitability to replace existing currencies and challenge central banks. We review that debate in today's episode, and finish with a discussion of Saifedean's latest project. |
Wed, 28 August 2019
Murray Sabrin, a professor of finance at Ramapo College, discusses the damage caused by the Federal Reserve, as well as the various approaches to business cycles taken by different economic schools of thought, and Trump's demands for lower interest rates. |
Tue, 27 August 2019
Are libertarians too quick to argue that "after all, Sweden is really very capitalist, so you can't use it against us"? One author thinks so. This episode looks more closely at the Sweden story to make sense of it from a libertarian perspective. |
Mon, 26 August 2019
The New York Times recently announced its "1619 Project," by which it intends to demonstrate that "nearly everything that has made America exceptional grew out of slavery." Our friend Phil Magness points out that in its economics it relies on now-debunked statistical claims. Also, I discuss the bizarre phenomenon by which the left is now claiming that slavery is a highly efficient system that drives exceptional economic growth. |
Fri, 23 August 2019
Larry Ludlow reports from his own experiences within the government school system. It's pretty brutal, folks. |
Thu, 22 August 2019
John Moody returns to update us on government and its various agencies, and how they affect farmers, your food, and you. |
Wed, 21 August 2019
Gene Epstein returns to discuss People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent, the new book by economist Joseph Stiglitz. It gets the full Epstein treatment. |
Tue, 20 August 2019
Gerard Casey, professor emeritus of philosophy at University College, Dublin, joins me to discuss the philosophy of fascism, which he describes as a form of irrationalism. |
Mon, 19 August 2019
Dan Fishman recently became executive director of the Libertarian Party. He joins me to discuss (among plenty of other things) his political evolution, where he sees the party going, and whether people are naturally libertarian or anti-libertarian. |
Sat, 17 August 2019
Julie Borowski, the popular libertarian content creator, has just released a children's book called Nobody Knows How to Make a Pizza, in which she illustrates how, without a central planner, amazing feats of production that could be carried out (or even fully understood) by no single individual take place. We then discuss the state of the "liberty movement" in 2019. |
Sat, 17 August 2019
Today I am joined by two libertarians: Dr. Michael Edelstein and Dr. David Ramsay Steele. Together they wrote Three Minute Therapy: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, which applies an easily replicated technique to conquering all sorts of undesirable conditions and behaviors: depression, excessive drinking, procrastination, overeating, and many more. |
Thu, 15 August 2019
Vince Vaughn has scores of Hollywood films to his credit -- from The Lost World: Jurassic Park to Hacksaw Ridge and many in between -- and has been a Ron Paul supporter since the 2008 presidential campaign. He and Tom discuss Hollywood, libertarianism, and American politics. |
Wed, 14 August 2019
Not long ago, the great libertarian foreign policy expert Scott Horton joined me for a full week's worth of episodes. We got some great feedback and a little criticism, so Scott and I decided that replying to critics makes for great episodes, too. So we're talking Syria, Iran, and plenty more in today's episode. |
Tue, 13 August 2019
John Locke tries to rest the legitimacy of government on the consent of the people. But can they really give consent? Locke himself admitted that unanimous consent was impossible, but thought the state could be legitimized anyway. Lysander Spooner thought otherwise: if we as individuals do not consent to an arrangement, it cannot be enforced on us. |
Fri, 9 August 2019
We conclude Brion McClanahan Week with a discussion of a historical topic that fascinates us both: the Russian Revolution. We then clear up some loose ends and bring this week of history to a close. |
Thu, 8 August 2019
Brion McClanahan's podcast tagline is "think locally, act locally." We take a deep dive into what this means, including the federalist/decentralist tradition in America, plus: what about issues that seem to require cooperation beyond the local level? |
Wed, 7 August 2019
Well, here's the question nobody is allowed to ask, since even to ask it is to invite anti-intellectual, third-grade-level responses. But presumably a region that generated Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, George Mason, James Monroe, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Walker Percy might have something to be said for it. So as Brion McClanahan Week continues, we take a look at this question. |
Tue, 6 August 2019
Brion McClanahan Week continues with a look at U.S. presidents we barely hear about (and who tend, naturally, to be the better ones) and how we should evaluate them. |
Mon, 5 August 2019
Brion McClanahan Week on the Tom Woods Show begins with a discussion of this important historian's background, and how he came to abandon the neoconservatism so many of us imbibed in our youth. |
Sat, 3 August 2019
Phil Magness discusses his new book (with Jason Brennan) about the problems with higher education. They aren't talking about ideological conformity, bad as that is. They are discussing other problems, just as deep and pervasive. |