The Curious Task

Matt speaks with Craig Biddle about objectivism and the legacy of Ayn Rand, and how it all ties to classical liberalism, the American ideal, and post-modernism. 

Episode Notes:

Craig's work for the Objective Standard:

https://theobjectivestandard.com/author/cbiddle/ 

Craig on X:

https://twitter.com/CraigBiddle 

Free Ayn Rand books courtesy of the Ayn Rand Institute, including almost all of those referenced throughout this episode:

https://aynrand.org/students/free-books/ 

Craig's talk "Choosing a Philosophy for Loving Life":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzhwsK6dyuE 

Alex speaks with Bryce Tingle about corporations, how these unique legal entities are governed, how changes we have made to corporate governance has discouraged companies from joining Canada’s public markets, and how the decline in our public market is hurting Canadians. 



Episode Notes:

1. Bryce’s article “Returning Markets To The Centre Of Corporate Law”

https://jcl.law.uiowa.edu/sites/jcl.law.uiowa.edu/files/2023-09/Tingle_Final.pdf 

2. Bryce’s profile at UofCalgary

https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/bryce-tingle 

3. Jensen and Meckley’s “The Theory Of The Firm”

https://www.sfu.ca/~wainwrig/Econ400/jensen-meckling.pdf 

4. Introduction to Douglass North’s theory of Institutions:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40803-016-0028-8 

5. Summary of Montesquieu’s “Doux Commerce”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doux_commerce 

6. Mill on Trade As a Social Act:

https://www.utilitarianism.com/ol/five.html 

7. The Voltaire quote referenced regarding the London Stock Exchange:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7351337-go-into-the-london-stock-exchange-a-more-respectable 

Matt speaks with Eric Merkley about NIMBYism, the surprising touchpoints for unity between left and right on the subject of housing, and how uncovering the true motivations of NIMBYs has altered Eric's view of the housing crisis. 

Episode Notes:

"Housing for Me, but not for Thee", Eric's paper serving as the basis for most of this conversation:

https://osf.io/preprints/7vmt3 

Eric on X:

https://twitter.com/EricMerkley 

Eric's article on the subject on Policy Options:

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/march-2024/nimby-housing-opinion/ 

Some background on Premier Ford's backtracking on housing policy: https://www.robinsappleby.com/post/bridge-beat/conservative-housing-policy-backtrack.-a-setback-to-home-builders-and-new-home-owners-alike 

Sabine speaks with Ben Klutsey about political polarization, commonalities between the United States and Canada, and his documentary on the subject entitled "Undivide Us" 

Episode Notes:

The documentary's website with more information, a trailer and the option to request a screening: https://undivideusmovie.com/ 

Kevin Vallier's "Trust in a Polarized Age": 

https://a.co/d/gDm6pjz 

John Inazu's "Learning To Disagree":

https://a.co/d/1OmKckQ 

Kevin Vallier on the Curious Task:

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-isuwy-d16f34 

 

 

Alex speaks with Rachael LaRose about the hidden costs of the pandemic, especially as they effected our commercial relationships, loose ties with individuals that once provided much value to our lives, and orthodox communities who rallied to prioritize faith in the face of fear.

Episode Notes:

- Rachael's webpage with past publications, etc.: https://www.rachaelbehr.com/ 

- "The Strength of Weak Ties" Mark S. Granovetter https://www.jstor.org/stable/2776392 

- A summary of Ostrom's work on the governance of the commons: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2012/06/17/elinor-ostroms-work-on-governing-the-commons-an-appreciation/

- Rachael's coverage of the Orthodox Jewish community's healthcare action during the pandemic: https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2024/larosehealthcare.html  

Matt speaks with Sam Bowman about the global housing crisis and why, in English-speaking countries in particular, a growing consensus across the political divide is pointing to problems with central planning, NIMBYism and a supply limit as the causes. 

Episode Notes:

• Sam Bowman’s on substack: https://substack.com/@sambowman 
• Sam on "Vetocracy": https://www.sambowman.co/p/democracy-is-the-solution-to-vetocracy 
• Sam’s “Housing Theory of Everything” article: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-everything/ 
• Works in Progress website: https://worksinprogress.co/ 
• Michael Giberson on Manser Olson's theory of concentrated costs and dispersed benefits: https://knowledgeproblem.com/2010/10/17/concentrated-benefits-and-dispersed-costs/ 
• Comparison of UK vs. US GDP per capita: https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/usa/uk 

 

Alex speaks with Akshaya Kamalnath about her work on Corporate Diversity, the social pressures and cultural trends that corporations are facing, as well as the jurisdictional realities of handling diversity, amongst other issues.

Episode Notes:

Akshaya's page at ANU: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/kamalnath-a 

Akshaya's blog:

corporatelawacademic.wordpress.com

"Legal and Market Initiatives to Increase Diversity in Corporations—A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis" by Akshaya Kamalnath

https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol46/iss1/5/ 

In May 2022, Alex spoke with Deirdre McCloskey in a wide-ranging conversation that addresses the economic, philosophical, and political reasons why liberalism just works. We're reposting that important conversation today on The Curious Task. 

References

1. “Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All” by Dierdre Nansen McCloskey 

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Liberalism-Works-Liberal-Prosperous/dp/0300235089 

2. “The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce” by Dierdre Nansen McCloskey

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Bourgeois-Virtues-Ethics-Age-Commerce/dp/0226556646 

3. “Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain Modern World” by Dierdre Nansen McCloskey

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Bourgeois-Dignity-Economics-Explain-Modern/dp/0226556743 

4. “Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World”

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Bourgeois-Equality-Capital-Institutions-Enriched/dp/022633399X 

5. “Dierdre N. McCloskey presents the lecture ‘The Impossibility of Policy’ hosted by the Erasmus Forum” by the Cato Institute

Link: https://www.cato.org/multimedia/media-highlights-tv/deirdre-n-mccloskey-presents-lecture-impossibility-policy-hosted 

6. “1984” by George Orwell

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/1984-George-Orwell/dp/0451524934 

7. “Forever Flowing” by Vasily Grossman

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88459.Forever_Flowing

Alex speaks with Alex Nowrasteh about nationalism as more of an innate tendency towards ethnic tribalism than anything resembling patriotism, and how this tendency may never disappear, but is worth resisting nonetheless. 

Episode Notes:

Alex's page at the Cato Insitute:

https://www.cato.org/people/alex-nowrasteh 

Alex on X: 

https://twitter.com/alexnowrasteh?lang=en 

Alex's book "Wretched Refuse?: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions": 

https://a.co/d/2JePWpU 

Alex speaks with Oyebade Oyerinde about the state of federalism in Nigeria, and how western ideas of democracy, liberalism and centralization of powers have influenced the current state of politics in the African nation. 

Episode Notes:

"Polycentric Interstate Federalism Among The Yoruba Of Nigeria: Lessons For Growing An International Federal Order" by Oyebade Kunle Oyerinde https://cosmosandtaxis.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/kunleoyerinde_ct_vol10_iss11_12.pdf

"Polycentric and Centralized Federalism in Africa" (Chapter 3) by Oyebade Kunle Oyerinde https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666902716/Issues-of-Governance-Security-and-Development-in-Contemporary-Africa

"Does Polycentric Order Make Sense?" by Oyebade Kunle Oyerinde https://isonomiaquarterly.com/archive/volume-2-issue-1/disorder-in-west-africa-does-polycentric-order-make-sense/

"Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems" By Elinor Ostrom https://web.pdx.edu/~nwallace/EHP/OstromPolyGov.pdf 

Sabine speaks with Jason Kuznicki about the present, past, and future influence of technology on gender and why he questions the uproar made about a choice made by individuals in the market about their own self-expression and identity.

Episode Notes:

Jason's article "Gender as Essence and as Economic Choice" http://tinyurl.com/2p9byb5d 

The Cosmos + Taxis issue on gender: http://tinyurl.com/2p9byb5d 

Jason's newsletter "Pacification": http://tinyurl.com/yeycjzj 

Alex speaks with Marian Tupy about the notion that human progress has increased quality of life worldwide for centuries, making today the greatest time to be alive in the history of human life (in spite of what you may have heard elsewhere).

Episode Notes:

- Marian's book "Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet" on Amazon Canada: https://a.co/d/boeFBP3 

- Marian's profile and bio on the FEE website: https://fee.org/people/marian-l-tupy/ 

- An article breaking down the Malthusian thinking in the Avengers movie referenced by Marian https://carnegiemnh.org/defeating-thanos-and-his-malthusian-mission-of-population-control/ 

- A Youtube video giving some history and context for the Simon - Ehrlich bet: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw2mn40BVo0 

 

Sabine speaks with Aeon Skoble about the harms of limiting access to information, including book bans and why a better understanding of ideas we disagree with often strengthens rather than weakens our arguments in support of the ideas we endorse.

Episode Notes:

- “Free Speech and the Function of a University” Aeon J. Skoble https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2081&context=br_rev 
- A brief history of Hume’s works being banned: https://oll.libertyfund.org/publications/reading-room/2023-10-25-donway-hume-great-work-on-religion-banned 
- A handy breakdown from the University of Notre Dame on J.S. Mill’s case for disagreement and free speech in “On Liberty”: https://philife.nd.edu/j-s-mills-on-liberty-seek-disagreement/ 
- Jacob Mchangama’s book “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media” https://a.co/d/8lcEV6a  

 

Alex speaks with Eric Schliesser about the growing declarations of the end of liberalism and what this means for the socio-political future in general.

Episode Notes:

1. Eric Schliesser’s page at the University of Amsterdam https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/s/c/e.s.schliesser/e.s.schliesser.html#Publications 
2. Kevin Vallier’s episode of this podcast discussing religious anti-liberalism: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/197-kevin-vallier-what-are-the-new-religious-threats-to-liberalism/ 
3. Adrian Vermeulen’s publications https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/adrian-vermeule/ 
4. Tom Pink’s page at King’s College London: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pink 
5. Yoram Hazony’s book on conservatism: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pink 
6. Jacob Levy on borders and liberalism: https://www.niskanencenter.org/law-and-border/ 

Sabine speaks with Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak about the effects of market forces on gender as a social construct, the unlikely pairing of free markets and gender in an age of socialist feminist theory, and their recent co-authored article in Cosmos + Taxis.

Episode Notes:

"Gender as a Discovery Process: Social Construction, Markets, and Gender" Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak https://cosmosandtaxis.files.wordpress.com/2023/10/malamet_novak_ct_vol11_iss11_12_epub.pdf 

Randall Holcombe on Spontaneous Order:

https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095212458270

David Pozen "We Are All Entrepreneurs Now": 

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1044021 

Immanuel Kant first introduces the concepts of "phenomena" and "noumena" in his critical philosophy, particularly in his work titled "Critique of Pure Reason" (Kritik der reinen Vernunft), which was first published in 1781.  

Isreal Kirzner on Entrepreneurship:

https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Kirzner.html 

Jason Kuznicki "Human, Transhuman, Transgender.":

https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/human-transhuman-transgender 

 

Sabine Speaks with Ryan Thorpe about the state of Journalism in Canada and about how bills C-18, C-11 and government subsidies for journalism are compromising an industry necessary for democratic participation in an age when accountability is more important than ever. 

Episode Notes:

Ryan's page on the Winnipeg Free Press website: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/biographies/ryan-thorpe

A primer on Canada's Bill C-18: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/understanding-bill-c-18-canada-s-online-news-act-and-its-proposed-rules-explained-1.6488532 

Canadaland's statement regarding denial of government subsidies: https://www.canadaland.com/how-to-support-canadaland/ 

A legal perspective on Bill C-11: https://www.lexpert.ca/legal-insights/exploring-the-controversy-around-bill-c-11/380414 

Sy Hersh's C-SPAN speech describing how he exposed the My Lai massacre: https://www.c-span.org/video/?62006-1/vietnam-war-lai-massacre 

Torstar losing approximately 50 million dollars a year: http://surl.li/pqchw 

Blacklocks reporter on the memo to Pablo Rodriguez demonstrating the failure of public subsidies to Canadian media: https://www.blacklocks.ca/media-bailout-failed-memo/ 

 

 

Matt speaks with Tyler Cowen about his recent book "GOAT:
Who is the Greatest Economist of all Time and Why Does it Matter?", as they discuss the case for and against each of the top finalists, and the interactive AI features that Tyler has integrated into the book's online release.

Episode Notes:

The full book plus all interactive AI features can be found for free here: https://goatgreatesteconomistofalltime.ai/en 

 

Alex speaks with Peter Boettke and Matthew Mitchell about their recent book co-authored with Konstantin Zhukov about the unusual rise of Estonia from the ashes of Stalinism to their current status as one of the freest nations on earth. 

Episode Notes:

The conversation focusses on the book "Road To Freedom" which can be read in its entirety here: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/road-to-freedom-estonias-rise-from-soviet-vassal-state-to-one-of-the-freest-nations-on-earth_0.pdf 

A similar publication on the economic history of Poland by these same authors can be read in its entirety here: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/road-to-socialism-and-back-an-economic-history-of-poland-1939-2019.pdf 

 

Alex speaks with Nick Cowen about democracy, markets, and his forthcoming article "Include The Ignorant"

Episode Notes:

- Jason Brennan "Against Democracy" https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691178493/against-democracy 

- On the Compatibility of Epistocracy and Public Reason
by Thomas Mulligan https://www.jstor.org/stable/24575740 

- Hayek on Limited Democracy, Dictatorships, and the ‘Free’ Market: An Interview in Argentina, 1977
"Birsen Filip" https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-91358-2_10 

 

 

 

Alex speaks with Mike Munger about the state of classical liberalism in an era in which conservatism seems intent on wielding the tools of central planning and the left prefers the term "progressive" to "liberal".

Episode Notes:

The Classical Liberal Diaspora by Mike Munger: https://t.co/xoRnPIUXXi 

The Articles of Confederation: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Articles-of-Confederation 

Preamble to the United States constitution: https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/us 

Fusionism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusionism 

Albert Jay Nock and The Remnant: https://mises.org/library/isaiahs-job 

Chile rewriting its constitution: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chilean-congressional-council-finalizes-new-draft-constitution-again-2023-10-30/