The Tom Woods Show

In 2015 Ross Ulbricht was convicted of crimes related to the operation of the Silk Road marketplace, where people could buy and sell goods anonymously. He was sentenced to an astonishing two life sentences plus 40 years. The case was shot through with irregularities, outrages, and horrific precedents. His mother, Lyn Ulbricht, joins me to discuss Ross's case and where it goes from here. Show notes for Ep. 1031

Mike Maharrey, national communications director for the Tenth Amendment Center, joins me for a lesson in local activism, as he describes his public awareness campaign about police surveillance practices. (He's being sued, if you can believe it.) Show notes for Ep. 1030

Bill Binney, a cryptanalyst-mathematician and (formerly) highly placed intelligence official within the National Security Agency (NSA) blew the whistle on NSA activities in 2002. Since then, he's been through everything from a raid on his home to having a sympathetic documentary made about him. He joins me to discuss his ordeal, plus his views on alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Show notes for Ep. 1029

In this episode I talk to Dave Smith and Bob Murphy on Dave's podcast Part of the Problem, recorded aboard the Contra Cruise. We hit on lots of topics: what we'd do without state-run "help the needy" programs, where the biggest threat to liberty is coming from these days, what it means to be a good teacher, what happened to the prospects for liberty after 9/11, and plenty more. Show notes for Ep. 1028

In the age of social media, the quality of discourse seems to have hit a low point. We find ourselves bombarded with criticisms that (to put it mildly) don't rise to the level of an argument. I discuss arguments and non-arguments with Stefan Molyneux, author of the new book The Art of the Argument. Show notes for Ep. 1027

Insurance, as it exists today, is shot through with government subsidies and regulations that make practically everyone worse off. Almost no one besides experts in the field is even aware of the government's role in making insurance premiums higher and insurance products less able to meet the public's needs. Stacey Giulianti, chief legal officer for a Florida insurance company, and who's been practicing law for 25 years, knows all of it inside and out, joins me to tell the story. Show notes for Ep. 1026

Ron Paul joins me for a look at the ten years since the birth of the Ron Paul Revolution, plus a lot more. Topics include the Deep State, the CIA's records on the JFK assassination, the question Edward Snowden asked him, and the present state of the liberty movement. Show notes for Ep. 1025

Businessman and consultant Larry Sharpe, who's seeking the governorship of New York on the Libertarian Party ticket, joins me by popular demand to discuss finding the libertarian message, making it appealing, and what the role of the LP can be. Show notes for Ep. 1024

Today's episode focuses in on three major episodes in American labor history: Haymarket, Homestead, and the Pullman strike. These are generally related with a predictable bias, which this episode challenges. Show notes for Ep. 1023

Karen Straughan joins me to discuss feminism, many feminists' caricature of men, girls in the Boy Scouts, the enablers of Harvey Weinstein, the left-libertarian Pence/Weinstein comparison, gender-fluid children, and more. Show notes for Ep. 1022

Gene Epstein of Barron's joins me to discuss Richard Thaler, this year's recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics, who has helped to popularize "behavioral economics," and how to deal with situations in which people behave "irrationally" (that is, unlike the way neoclassical economics expects them to). Show notes for Ep. 1021

Pete Earle, author of the study A Century of Anarchy, joins me to discuss a little-known case study of statelessness. Show notes for Ep. 1020

We recorded this episode live in Orlando on September 30, 2017. It features Eric July, Michael Malice, Dave Smith, Michael Boldin, and Tom DiLorenzo, along with some surprise guests (Dave Smith and Michael Boldin were also surprises, not being on the official bill).   Lots of fun: Michael Malice dominates Part I, while Part II includes a Dad joke-off between Eric July and me, as well as the roast. Enjoy!   Show notes for Ep. 1000

Haven't labor unions improved the standard of living of American workers? Why, wouldn't we not even have the weekend without them? My father belonged to the Teamsters, so I have a natural inclination to side with unions, but the facts won't let me, and in this episode I explain why. Show notes for Ep. 1019

I keep hearing success stories from people who got started in eCommerce at my urging, so I finally decided to make an episode out of a few of them. A little good news for a change! Show notes for Ep. 1018

In 2010 I addressed the annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. I spoke about government and health care, yes, but I also spoke about state nullification -- not your usual topic at a physicians' gathering. Show notes for Ep. 1017

It's fashionable again for libertarians to urge the abandonment of the nonaggression principle, the bedrock of our entire philosophy. It's dumb, you see. But what they propose in its place is dumb x 1000. Show notes for Ep. 1016

With Donald Trump publicly undermining Rex Tillerson and calling Kim Jong Un "Rocketman," should we be concerned about a potential nuclear conflict? Is there a strategy behind Trump's comments and actions? Michael Malice joins me for an update. Show notes for Ep. 1015

In this episode I check in with James Damore, author of the notorious memo on the "gender gap" in tech, to find out what he's up to now, what his plans are, and how he looks back on the incident that got him fired as a senior software engineer at Google. Show notes for Ep. 1014

Fred Lam is an eCommerce expert who went from washing dishes to doing over $20 million in sales. His book Starting from Zero, which he explains how to get for free in the episode, features a foreword by Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Show notes for Ep. 1013