Shows
ReImagining Liberty092: Liberalism's Common Ground (w/ Matt Zwolinski and Matthew McManus)institutions now and to reform them when the time comes. As my friend, and past ReImagining Liberty guest, Jason Kuznicki says, "The future is a conversation." So today I've brought on two smart liberals, with very different ideas about what liberalism means in practice, for a conversation about common ground.Matthew McManus is an assistant professor at Spelman College, author of The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, and frequent ReImagining Liberty guest. Matt Zwolinski is a first time ReImagining Liberty guest, an omission I'm thrilled to rectify. He's a professor of philosophy at the University of San...
2025-10-3158 min
12 Week Year for WritersPitch Perfect: How to Write a Letter That Lands You a Publishing DealSend us a textLanding a publishing deal often feels like an impossible dream for aspiring authors. What makes one manuscript stand out among thousands? How can you ensure your pitch letter doesn't end up in the rejection pile? In this revealing conversation, former book editor Jason Kuznicki pulls back the curtain on what really happens when editors evaluate submissions.Drawing from his experience reviewing hundreds of pitch letters at the Cato Institute, Jason dispels common myths about the publishing process. Contrary to what many writers believe, editors aren't looking for authors who can dazzle...
2025-08-1141 min
The Curious TaskJason Kuznicki - What Does Technology Have To Do With Gender?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
2024-02-2848 min
Tech Policy Podcast#366: Tech, Gender, and FreedomIt’s a big picture episode! One day (soon?), technology will enable convenient, low-cost gender transition. What does that say about human “nature”? What are the implications for society? What are (some) people getting so upset about? Jason Kuznicki (TechFreedom) joins the show to discuss.Gender as Essence and as Economic ChoiceCosmos + Taxis issue on gender (including articles by Nathan P. Goodman and by Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak)Pacification (Jason’s Substack)Tech Policy Podcast #327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (2022 Big Picture Episode)Tech Policy Podcast #301: The Realignm...
2024-02-1452 min
The Curious TaskAkiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak - How Do Markets Influence Gender?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":
ht...
2024-01-311h 05
ReImagining Liberty040: The Future is a Conversation (w/ Jason Kuznicki)The future is a conversation. What the future looks like, and how and which technologies will shape it, isn’t something we can plan, or dictate, or demand in advance, but rather something that emerges from the back-and-forth bargaining of everyone with a stake in it.That’s the argument presented by my guest today, Jason Kuznicki, Editor in Chief of TechFreedom. Jason recently published an essay responding to the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” which presents the future as under assault by enemies of progress. Jason and I talk about what it means to be a fu...
2023-11-0450 min
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2023-09-3000 min
Freedom: Ideas that Matter001: The Idea that Explains the Political Order w/ Jason KuznickiRead a transcript of this episode.Welcome to the inaugural episode of Freedom, a show about ideas that matter. For our first conversation, we wanted a big idea. One that has the potential to reconfigure how we think about politics and political institutions. And that meant bringing back one of our favorite guests, our good friend Jason Kuznicki. Jason is the author of the fascinating book, Technology and the End of Authority: What Is Government For?, and was a frequent guest on Free Thoughts. Today he introduces us to the domus mindset, a way of understanding the...
2023-06-0255 min
The Curious TaskJason Kuznicki - Why Is It So Hard To Think About Freedom?Alex speaks with Jason Kuznicki about the societal tendency towards stagnation - and away from liberalism - and its roots in some of the earliest human civilizations.
References
1. “Technology and the End of Authority: What Is Government For?” by Jason Kuznicki
Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Technology-End-Authority-What-Government/dp/3319486918
2. Jason’s previous episode “What Is Government For?” on The Curious Task
Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-12-jason-kuznicki-%e2%80%94-what-is-government-for/
3. “The Domus Mindset: The Origins of Civilization, the Ruling Class, and Why It’s so Hard to Think About Freedo...
2023-05-0359 min
The Living Jewishly PodcastREPLAY: Free to Be: The Ethics of Libertarianism“I’m not going to say that ‘greed is good.’ Greed can be made to DO good, but we’ve got to get the institutional designs right.”— Jason KuznickiWhen people think of freedom, they usually associate it with the idea of being able to do whatever they want… as long as their actions don’t harm others. The political ideology of Libertarianism is particularly concerned with institutional restrictions on freedom, and pushes for the idea of less governmental control.But what if freedom alone isn’t enough? What if some...
2023-04-1838 min
ReImagining Liberty009: Power, Knowledge, and Michel Foucault (w/ Jason Kuznicki)When I was a scholar at the Cato Institute, interns frequently asked me for reading recommendations. My advice was typically to read books outside of the libertarian canon. This was for a couple of reasons.First, because understanding the ideas of those who disagree with us helps us be better advocates for our own ideas. But, second, because thinkers who aren't necessarily aligned with our politics perfectly, or who reject them entirely, nonetheless have valuable insights to offer. Intellectual provincialism leads nowhere.It's with that lesson in mind that I brought intellectual historian Jason Kuznicki...
2022-06-291h 03
ReImagining LibertyPower, Knowledge, and Michel Foucault (w/ Jason Kuznicki)Available now for supporters. Available for everyone else July 13.Subscribe to (Re)Imagining Liberty: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTubeWhen I was a scholar at the Cato Institute, interns frequently asked me for reading recommendations. My advice was typically to read books outside of the libertarian canon. This was for a couple of reasons.First, because understanding the ideas of those who disagree with us helps us be better advocates for our own ideas. But, second, because thinkers who aren't necessarily aligned with our politics perfectly, or who reject them entirely, nonetheless...
2022-06-291h 03The Living Jewishly PodcastFree to Be: The Ethics of Libertarianism“I’m not going to say that ‘greed is good.’ Greed can be made to DO good, but we’ve got to get the institutional designs right.”— Jason KuznickiWhen people think of freedom, they usually associate it with the idea of being able to do whatever they want… as long as their actions don’t harm others. The political ideology of Libertarianism is particularly concerned with institutional restrictions on freedom, and pushes for the idea of less governmental control.But what if freedom alone isn’t enough? What if some...
2022-02-0138 min
Free ThoughtsThe Art of Gender (with Jason Kuznicki)Jason Kuznicki describes two common theories of gender, both of which have viable critiques. He goes on to describe a theory of gender that is neither essentialist nor constructivist, but something else entirely – a liberal and individualist account of gender.What is the difference between sex and gender? What’s an essentialist account of gender? What’s a constructionist account of gender? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2020-11-1345 min
Cato Event PodcastIs Free Speech Still Alive on the American College Campus?Featuring Donald A. Downs, Author, Free Speech and Liberal Education: A Plea for Intellectual Diversity and Tolerance; Alexander Meiklejohn Professor of Political Science Emeritus; Affiliate Professor of Law and Journalism Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; Jason Kuznicki, Editor, Cato Books and Cato Unbound, Cato Institute (@JasonKuznicki); Katie Harbath, Public Policy Director, Global Elections, Facebook (@KatieHarbath); Robby Soave, Senior Editor, Reason Magazine (@RobbySoave); and Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, New York Law School, and Past President, American Civil Liberties Union; moderated by Kat Murti, Associate Director, Audience Engagement and Acquisition, Cato Institute (@KatMurti). Se...
2020-09-1400 min
Aaron Ross Powell ShowTalking about Postmodernism with Akiva MalametIt feels like nobody knows what postmodernism is, yet everyone has an opinion about it. Today’s conversation with Akiva Malamet is an effort to bring some clarity to an unclear topic. We explore the basic ideas of postmodernism and then move on to their implications for culture, society, politics, and individuals.
About my guest:
Akiva Malamet is completing his degree in Government at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel, where he was a long-time senior member of the RRIS Debate Society. He is a contributor to the sites Liberal Currents and Sweet Talk Conversation. His paper “Spontaneous Order as S...
2020-04-0155 minAaron Ross Powell ShowTalking about Buddhism with Jason KuznickiJason Kuznicki talks with Aaron about Buddhism, its appeal, what we think is true about it, what might be questionable, and our own practices.
At the end of the episode, Jason recommends two books by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. Both are available as free downloads.
"With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation"
https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#eachandeverybreath
"The Wings to Awakening: An Anthology from the Pāli Canon"
https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#wings
2020-03-231h 04
Free ThoughtsForeign Policy and the Trump DoctrineChristopher Preble and John Glaser talk about how Donald Trump’s rise in the Republican primaries and eventually to the presidency represented an astonishing break with the foreign policy consensus that had prevailed from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. And they detail this more extensively in their book, Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America’s Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse, which is a comprehensive explanation of how Trump’s “America First” mentality was more a campaign slogan than a coherent vision of American grand strategy and foreign policy.How did Donald Trump change the messaging on foreign...
2019-12-2049 min
Learning By Living PodcastOne Family’s Transition from Conventional to Sudbury School (w/ Jason Kuznicki and Allie Starin)Jason Kuznicki and his 11-year-old daughter Allie Starin talk about transitioning from a conventional to a Sudbury school, from the decision process to the differences in Allie from then to now. Jason Kuznicki1:46 - The decision to remove Allie from conventional school and place her in a Sudbury school. "We decided 'Okay, this is enough.'"8:04 - What Jason sees Allie learning at Fairhaven: "We started having a lot more interesting conversations."10:41 - How Allie's new school has affected the family relationship and philosophy: "We have fun in the evenings instead of doing work that...
2019-11-3038 min
The Curious TaskJason Kuznicki — What Is Government For?Alex Aragona speaks with Jason Kuznicki as he explores some history on how intellectuals viewed the state, and how we should view the state.
References from Episode 12 with Jason Kuznicki:
You can buy Jason Kuznicki’s book Technology and the End of Authority: What Is Government For? here on Amazon Canada
2019-10-2359 minFree ThoughtsHow the World's Poorest are Educating Themselves (with James Tooley)While researching private schools in India for the World Bank, and worried he was doing little to help the poor, James Tooley wandered into the slums of Hyderabad’s Old City. Shocked to find it overflowing with tiny, parent-funded schools filled with energized students, he set out to discover if schools like these could help achieve universal education.Do private schools exist across the world in the poorest of areas? In third world countries, how do you find private schools? Are there low-cost private schools? How much does teacher engagement matter in education?Further Reading:
2019-09-0654 minFree ThoughtsWhat's Wrong with National Conservatism?The National Conservatism Movement is trying to continue Trumpism long after Trump is out of the White House. Recently, they held a conference in D.C. in order to streamline their message. The keynote speakers were Tucker Carlson, John Bolton, Josh Hawley, Peter Thiel, and Yoram Hazony, whose speech announced that “today is our independence day”. In this episode, Aaron Ross Powell, Paul Matzko, Jason Kuznicki, & Matthew Feeney analyze Josh Hawley’s America’s Epicurean Liberalism by defining what it means to be an American. What is the religious angle to national conservatism? What civic virtues does Joshua Ha...
2019-08-3046 min
Building TomorrowA Smarter Kickstarter (with Alex Tabarrok)If you, as a private citizen, want to build a bridge across the river to shorten your commute, you run into a few problems. The incredible cost of the proposed bridge puts it beyond your limited resources, so you try and convince thousands of your neighbors to chip in donations. But you don’t want to contribute money unless you reach the total amount necessary to build the bridge; a half-built bridge is worse than no bridge at all.One answer to this problem is to use the State to coerce contributions (taxes) from the co...
2019-08-1522 minFree ThoughtsEducation in the Marketplace (with Kevin Currie-Knight)Kevin Currie-Knight joins our podcast to talk about the libertarian case for markets in education. His book, Education in the Marketplace, explores the variety of arguments that libertarians have made in the past as well as the impact that they each have had on the ever-evolving education systemWhat is the government’s role in education? How decentralized did our school system use to be? When did our K-12 education system get so structured? When did we first start seeing grade levels for schooling? Who was Albert Jay Nock?Further Reading:Our Enemy, th...
2019-08-0254 minFree ThoughtsHow America Gullibly Supported Bogus Foreign Democratic Movements (with Ted Galen Carpenter)Over the last forty years, there is a distressing history of foreign insurgent groups being able to manipulate U.S. policymakers and opinion leaders into supporting their cause. Frequently, that support goes far beyond rhetorical endorsements to include financial and even military assistance to highly questionable individuals, organizations, and movements. Sometimes those efforts have even entangled the U.S. military in bloody, unnecessary, and morally dubious wars, as in Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.What is a freedom fighter? Why did we consider so many different groups to be freedom fighters? Is foreign policy messy? Should we...
2019-06-1442 minFree ThoughtsUnderstanding U.S. Foreign PolicyHas the United States been a force for liberty around the world? Should it be? And if so, how? To answer these questions, Christopher A. Preble, in his new book, traces the history of U.S. foreign policy from the American Founding to the present, examining the ideas that have animated it, asking whether America’s policy choices have made the world safer and freer, and considering the impact of those choices on freedom at home. Preble explains the need to question the assumptions that drive American foreign policy in the modern era―especially the assumption that American politicians can a...
2019-04-2649 minFree ThoughtsUnbundling the State (with Jason Kuznicki)Jason Kuznicki joins us again to discuss the problem of political authority. His new book, Technology and the End of Authority: What is Government For?, examines the relationship between the state and technology over time. Technological developments may make the state more or less necessary over time, which is a consideration that is relatively new in the history of political philosophy, but increasingly important.What is the state? What is a nation? What is the difference between ‘the state’ and government? Why do libertarians oppose coercion? How has the state evolved over time? What is the ‘bundle theory...
2019-04-1953 min
Liberty ChroniclesEp. 99: Mushrooms & MenFor classical liberals and libertarians, class is a social phenomenon marked by largely artificial distinctions between people based mainly on their access (or lack of access) to raw physical force and a willingness to use force against other people. Classes do not form in society simply because some people have more material wealth racked up than others, nor because some people are better at drawing or sewing or rollerblading than others. Even ideological content of the mind is not really the stuff of class. Sure, plenty of societies have divvied up rights and privileges based on religious or political...
2019-03-2627 minLiberty ChroniclesEp. 95: The Politics of the ConfederacyThe Confederacy, being far less developed industrial-wise than the Union, had to revolutionize their approach to the war before they could ever hope to win it. Therefore, they had to create the conditions that allowed for the expedition of war-effort necessities. For example, some southern railroads companies existed almost entirely to service the government’s military efforts.During the Civil War, what was the difference between a ‘conservative’ and a ‘revolutionary’? Were the confederates conservatives or revolutionaries? Did the Confederacy exhibit a type of wartime socialism?Further Reading:Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History...
2019-02-2628 minLiberty ChroniclesEp. 90: Lincoln the Colonizationist Part 1, with Phil MagnessColonization was the process to actually remove the freed slaves and settle them elsewhere, other parts of the world that whites thought were more suited for the African-American race. Lincoln was a supporter of the Colonization Society and it is debated whether or not he helped start a chapter in Illinois. Lincoln was first and foremost a Whig who viewed Henry Clay as a hero. However, going into the 1860 election Lincoln was viewed as an underdog candidate.What was the “Whig formula”? Why was Pennsylvania integral to the 1860 Presidential election? What was Lincoln’s tariff strategy for Pennsy...
2019-01-2221 minLiberty ChroniclesEp. 89: What did the Civil War Smell Like? with Mark SmithAll history is a string of sense perceptions linked together by individual minds in meaningful patterns we call moments, minutes, hours, days, months, years, wars, eras, periods, ages, and so on. History is sensation, and all sensation is done by the fundamental units of the human species; the individual. In this episode, we explore the Civil War through sensor history in order to fully understand what it was actually like on the battlefield and at home from the perspective of all 5 senses.What is sensory history? Is sensory history important to understand the depth of the human...
2019-01-1544 minBuilding TomorrowHas Your Phone Hacked Your Brain?If you have kids, you know how alluring smartphones and social media can be for a generation raised with (and, at times, seemingly by) the technology. But researchers are starting to worry that engagement with this technology is rewiring peoples’ brains by design. Tech companies have invented mechanisms like the “infinite scroll” and notification systems which trigger chemical releases in the brain, habituating users.But as concerns about these effects grows, companies have responded with new ways of consumer self-regulation. Paul, Aaron, and Will talk about whether government ought to play a role in regulating these...
2018-12-2750 minLiberty ChroniclesEp. 72: There's No Excuse for Slavery (Updated)This is a updated version of “There’s No Excuse for Slavery” which was released on July 3rd, 2018. Enjoy!The planters of the South believed that slavery had grown up with American society and its’ institutions. John C. Calhoun argued that slavery was a “positive good” because he believed that no well-off society existed in which “one portion of the community did not in point of fact, live on the labor of the other”. How did beliefs like these and those of Calhoun’s followers further split the Union?How could a man like Jefferson at once declare al...
2018-09-1928 minFree ThoughtsHow Superpowers See the World (with Christopher Fettweis)Chris Fettweis joins us this week to discuss his book Psychology of a Superpower: Security and Dominance in U.S. Foreign Policy. Fettweis argues that as a country, Americans, tend to be so fearful of our perceived enemies that we are willing to spend much more on national security measures than is neccessary. Ultimately, we may end up doing more harm than good.What is unipolarity? Is the United States the most fearful country in the world? Do we spend more money on national security because of that fear? Is the world safer than it was during...
2018-09-1449 minLiberty ChroniclesEp. 28: The Haitian Revolution, with Jason KuznickiFew concepts or examples in history have a total sample size of exactly one. With history-making resolve, the slaves in Haiti seized their freedom, which revolutionary Paris only begrudgingly recognized. When the planters, the British, the Spanish, and finally Napoleon himself tried to re-enslave them, they simply refused and resolved themselves to fight to the death for the liberties they’d won.Further Readings/References:James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. New York: Vintage. 1989.Scott, Julius Sheppard. “The Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communication in the...
2017-11-1439 minLiberty ChroniclesEp. 27: Comparative Revolutions, with Jason Kuznicki Who are the actual revolutionists?—the radicals or extremists who end up overpowering the moderates and installing the new regime?Further Readings/References:Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution, Revised Edition. Vintage. 1965.Klooster, Wim. Revolutions in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History. New York: New York University Press. 2009.Palmer, R.R. The Age of Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800, Volume One: The Struggle. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1959. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-11-0738 minFree ThoughtsArguments for Liberty: KantianismJason Kuznicki joins us to discuss his chapter on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant in our newest book, Arguments for Liberty.What’s Kant’s conception of the good, and what kind of government follows from that?Who was Immanuel Kant and what were his moral and political theories? What does Kant’s categorical imperative tell us about how to live a good life? How do we get from the categorical imperative to a form of government? And why are some libertarians seemingly anti-Kant?Show Notes and Further ReadingArguments for Libert...
2017-01-0651 minFree ThoughtsThe Conscience of the ConstitutionTimothy Sandefur joins Trevor Burrus and Jason Kuznicki for a conversation about America’s founding documents: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.Which is the Constitution’s primary value: liberty or democracy? Is it enough to tell lawmakers to just “go back to the Constitution” when Constitutional interpretation varies so wildly? What does the Constitution have to say about slavery? Individual rights? Voting rights?Sandefur is a principal attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation and the author of the 2014 book The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right...
2014-02-2458 minFree ThoughtsThe Ethics of DynamiteThis week we’re discussing a relatively unknown essay by Auberon Herbert called “The Ethics of Dynamite,” wherein Herbert compares the coercive political force of the state (the majority) to the coercive, terroristic use of force by the dynamiter (the minority), a 19-century reference to violent anarchist sects. Herbert points out that the means of the state and those of the dynamiter really do not differ all that much, and offers his solutions for “unmaking” the coercive nature of each.Jason Kuznicki is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of Cato Unbound.Show Notes...
2014-02-0349 minFree ThoughtsIs There a Purpose to History?Jason Kuznicki, a research fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of Cato Unbound, joins Aaron and Trevor to discuss historicism: the idea that historical forces work to determine the ideas and values of individuals, and that as a result, historical trends have a direction or purpose to them.To understand a person or event in history, you need to look at their historical context. That’s not so crazy all by itself—it’s actually pretty reasonable. But the trouble starts when historicist thinking begins to deny individual agency. Not always—but very often—historicism is at odds wi...
2014-01-0653 min