The Tom Woods Show

I strongly urge you to listen to this episode. These are my opening remarks to this year's Mises University program at the Mises Institute. I discuss two sets of ungrateful people. The first: socialists. I go into detail about the improvements in the lives of everyone, but especially the desperately poor, under the free market. The numbers are frankly miraculous. And all these folks can think to do is shout at their employers through bullhorns.   Then I take on those libertarians who spend their time denouncing Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, and other prolific and productive libertarians. This section is especially savage, but not gratuitously so. Just the right amount of savage.   Show notes for Ep. 1197

In popular discourse, consumer safety is one of the most frequently cited reasons for government oversight. Neil Thanedar, my guest today, is co-founder and CEO of Labdoor, which can accomplish more than the FDA even claims to be able to, and more efficiently and inexpensively. Show notes for Ep. 1196

Dan McCarthy, editor of the venerable journal Modern Age, recently suggested in the Spectator that the Trump phenomenon may have taken the air out of the so-called libertarian moment -- partly because that moment wasn't as libertarian as people thought. Plenty to think about here, and no conversation with Dan is ever dull. Show notes for Ep. 1195

Tim Moen, the leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada, is an anarcho-capitalist in the Rothbardian tradition. That gives him an interesting perspective on libertarian politics and strategy, and I ask him some tough questions. A juicy episode! Show notes for Ep. 1194

Once in a while I feature a listener who's doing something particularly interesting. My guest today, Noah Tetzner, hosts a popular podcast on the history of the Vikings, and also has the world figured out far better than I ever did at 17. Show notes for Ep. 1193

The brilliant Murray Sabrin, professor of finance at Ramapo College, is running for U.S. Senate as a Libertarian. We discuss the race, yes, but we cover a great deal else as well: how to help the poor without government involvement, how to understand money (and which book to read), what a professor of finance knows that political candidates don't, Murray's family history in Poland, the right of self-defense, why Rothbard sat on Murray's Ph.D. dissertation committee (Rothbard did this for only two people ever), and a lot more. Show notes for Ep. 1192

Here's a wide-ranging conversation full of the kind of info none of us got in school. When did the federal government first go off the rails? Does the Constitution do any good? (You may be surprised at my answer.) What is the role of the states in the American system? And lots more.   Thanks to the Libertarian Christian Podcast for letting me use my appearance on their program.   Show notes for Ep. 1191

At the recent event in New Orleans sponsored by the Mises Caucus of the Libertarian Party I spoke very bluntly about what a libertarian party should be doing and the good that it could accomplish, and contrasted that with the missed opportunities and self-sabotage that continues to plague it. Show notes for Ep. 1190

I recently joined former game show host Chuck Woolery on his Blunt Force Truth podcast to talk about all kinds of issues, ranging from Confederate monuments to Austrian economics to constitutional law and a lot more. Enjoy! Show notes for Ep. 1189

Gene Epstein joins me to make if anything an even more radical case against the existing education system than Bryan Caplan does in the latter's recent book The Case Against Education. Whatever "but surely you agree we have to have X!" arguments you've heard, Gene anticipates and smashes them in this episode. Show notes for Ep. 1188

Nathan Dempsey, creator of Liberty Minecraft, discusses what a game involving money, property, and nonaggression might teach us about organizing society -- and what he learned when he set up, side by side, a place that recognized and a place that did not recognize private property. Show notes for Ep. 1187

There's plenty of good material in today's episode, but I'm especially pleased with the lightning round, where I was asked ten major questions of interest to libertarians and given 60 seconds to answer each. Fun! (I'm sharing my recent appearance on the Johnny Rocket Launch Pad, which has now been succeeded by Blast Off! with Johnny Rocket.) Show notes for Ep. 1186

My guest today is known on social media by her pseudonym The Pholosopher. She's been very successful at spreading the message of voluntaryism, so we discuss what's been working. Show notes for Ep. 1185

I've had lots of requests for an episode like this, so here it is. Today, at the behest of Steve Patterson, I discuss two things: the how and why of entrepreneurship, at least in my case, and Catholicism. The episode is not about the interrelationship between these two things. But Steve has been wanting to ask me about both, and I've had plenty of requests for these topics, particularly the latter. So here you go. This is my appearance on Steve's podcast Patterson in Pursuit. Show notes for Ep. 1184

Ever heard a socialist brush off the experience of Venezuela on the grounds that that country isn't really socialist after all? Here's how to reply. Show notes for Ep. 1183

Tom W. Bell joins me to discuss the variety of micro-experiments in liberty, of varying degrees of significance, going on all over the world -- like special economic zones, the beginnings of seasteading, even Liberland. Show notes for Ep. 1182

New York Times bestselling author Larry Correia joins me to discuss what's going on in the world of sci-fi and fantasy, where SJW influence has been growing, and non-SJW voices have been demonized with the customary accusations. Correia himself was recently disinvited from an important conference for quite clearly no good reason. We get to the bottom of it here. Show notes for Ep. 1181

Jorg Guido Hulsmann, a senior fellow of the Mises Institute and a professor of economics at the University of Angers in France, discusses those aspects of inflation most people overlook, involving how it changes the very texture of life. Show notes for Ep. 1180

Stefan and I go well beyond the college-is-a-waste-of-time stuff here. College can be fine, and the right thing for some people. But we go through: the ideological environment, quotas, how much people really learn, how to succeed without it, and a lot more. Show notes for Ep. 1179

John Tamny of RealClearMarkets joins me to discuss how progress really works and the extraordinary advances we've lived through that people scarcely notice or appreciate. And robots are going to make us better off, by the way.... Show notes for Ep. 1178