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Economist and author Phil Magness debunks a recent 'New York Times' piece and shoddy academic work about the rich and their taxes. Subscribe YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcast/2024/05/16/phil-magness-who-really-pays-the-most-taxes How much do billionaires really pay in taxes?

Executive VP of FIRE Nico Perrino discusses the history and legality of campus protests Subscribe YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcast/2024/05/09/nico-perrino-when-does-protesting-become-a-crime/ What should colleges do about pro-Palestinian encampments? College students across America are camping out to demand their universities divest all investments with Israeli-linked companies that they claim profit from the occupation and oppression of Palestine. It's gone on for weeks, and even administrators at schools known as bastions of progressive activism are finally getting fed up. Harvard's president is threatening "involuntary leave" for protesters. Columbia announced on Monday that it canceled its main commencement ceremony for safety reasons. The University of Southern California has, too. UCLA called in the cops to clear its encampment, and police have arrested more than 2,100 protesters across all U.S. campuses since April, according to the Associated Press. Congress has continued to interrogate Ivy League presidents, and a bill to explicitly define antisemitism for civil rights law enforcement purposes just passed the House with overwhelming support last week. Joining us today to talk about the protests, the backlash, and what it all means for free speech on campus and the wider world is Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and host of the free speech podcast So to Speak. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher. Sources referenced in this conversation: Full Text of the Antisemitism Awareness Act International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism. Columbia students define "divest" Harvard President Garber Breaks Silence on Encampment, Threatens 'Involuntary Leave' for Protesters Columbia cancels commencement amid campus protests Map: Where College Protesters Have Been Arrested or Detained Polling 1,200 college students on Encampments What Americans think about recent pro-Palestinian campus protests | YouGov Americans' Views of Both Israel, Palestinian Authority Down Majority in US Say Israel's Reasons for Fighting Hamas Are Valid | Pew Research Center Letter from judges saying they won't hire Columbia grads as clerks Timestamps: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:33 Free Speech on Campus: A Conversation with Nico Perrino 00:02:13 The Historical Context of Campus Protests and Free Speech Debates 00:07:28 The Legal and Social Implications of Campus Encampments 00:31:38 The Role of Civil Disobedience in Campus Activism 00:38:31 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Campus Protests Through Polling Data 00:43:07 Congressional Involvement in Campus Free Speech Issues 00:50:48 The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2023: A New Legal Battleground 00:54:56 The Complexities of Free Speech and Political Expression on Campus 00:59:17 Navigating the Tensions of Privacy and Free Speech 01:03:42 The Role of Public Shaming and Cancel Culture in Free Speech Debates 01:20:03 Nico wants you to ask yourself this question about censorship 01:23:58 Just Ask Us Questions: A Libertarian's Evolving Stance on Immigration

Elica Le Bon, an attorney and Iranian-American activist, talks about Iran's recent strike on Israel

The News2Share cofounder, Ford Fischer, is revolutionizing news coverage.

Radley Balko debates Coleman Hughes about his recent column arguing that Derek Chauvin may have been wrongly convicted of George Floyd's murder on this latest episode of Just Asking Questions. Subscribe YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcast/2024/03/14/coleman-hughes-vs-radley-balko-whos-right-about-george-floyd 0:00- Summary of Coleman Hughes' and Radley Balko's disagreement about George Floyd's death 2:09- Balko asks Hughes to correct his article 9:27- Hughes' response to Balko 19:27- What is maximum restraint technique (MRT)? 27:20- Derek Chauvin ignored warnings from his colleagues and the surrounding crowd 32:42- Why did Chauvin keep kneeling on Floyd after he went limp? 37:18- Was “The Fall of Minneapolis” a trusthworthy documentary? 47:02- Did Floyd die of positional asphyxia? 1:10:50- Would Hughes change anything if he had to rewrite the article? 1:21:14- The aftermath of George Floyd's death 1:36:00- Is there systemic racism in policing? 1:43:13- How do we hold police officers accountable? 1:51:24- Did Derek Chauvin get a fair trial?

Should kids medically transition between genders? The number of kids diagnosed with gender dysphoria has surged in recent years. In America, diagnoses have almost tripled from about 15,000 to more than 42,000 from 2017 to 2021. In the United Kingdom, the number of minors referred to the national Gender Identity Development Service grew from 51 in 2009 to 1,766 by 2016, leading to yearslong waitlists for care within the government-run health system. This surge caused England's National Health Service to commission an extensive study of youth gender treatment. That study is known as the Cass Review, and its results dropped on April 10. The review's author, former head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Hilary Cass, concluded that modern youth gender dysphoria interventions are informed by "remarkably weak evidence" drawing on studies "exaggerated by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint" and that "we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress." The science, it turns out, is not settled—or anywhere close to it. NHS England opted to stop routine prescriptions of puberty blockers following the review's publication, as have NHS Scotland and the Welsh government. Major American medical groups such as the American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics, all of which endorse prescribing puberty blockers for gender-dysphoric kids, have yet to officially respond. American media coverage of the Cass Review, which could throw the entire youth gender treatment paradigm in this country into question, has been remarkably muted. But today's guest is never muted. Jesse Singal has been covering this topic—and taken a lot of heat for it—for years in the pages of publications such as The Atlantic, The Dispatch, and on his Substack, Singal-Minded. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher.

Psychologist and bestselling author Steven Pinker is one of the leading defenders of academic freedom and liberal values of limited government, secularism, tolerance, and free enterprise.

The business journalist, Charles Gasparino, discusses his new book "Go Woke, Go Broke" and how CEOs accelerated corporate political activism only to regret its impact on the economy.

"I'm concerned about a Trump-Biden rematch," argues Riedl. "You have two presidents with two of the worst fiscal records of the past 100 years." reason.com/video _______ You probably already know that the national debt is bigger than our whole economy. But relax, because things can always get worse! And they will, regardless of whether Biden or Trump gets elected in the fall. Each has a proven track record of spending like a drunken sailor and most projections show that debt will grow to between 181 percent and 340 percent of GDP over the next few decades. Reason's Nick Gillespie discussed all of this and more with Brian Riedl, a budget expert at theManhattan Institute. Riedl explains why massive and growing debt is really bad, why reducing it is really hard but really important, and why young people should be really pissed.

The Dirty Jobs host talks about patriotism, history, and his new movie for Independence Day 2024.

Serial entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale, who founded the Cicero Institute to fix government and University of Austin to fix higher education, wanted space to flourish in Texas.

Former NPR and Slate fixture Mike Pesca discusses media meltdowns, objectivity vs. moral clarity, and whether we are better or worse off now that media gatekeepers have less influence.

Abigail Shrier is author of the best-selling new book Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up. She argues that the mental health of Gen Z—people born between 1997 and 2012—is a mess because an infantilizing therapeutic culture pervades every aspect of their lives. 0:00- Why do kids have no interest in growing up? 3:37- Do kids see too many doctors? 4:10- The difference between adult therapy and child therapy 7:48- How many children are in therapy? 9:32- Therapy in K-12 education 13:00- Who is Elizabeth Loftus? 16:35- Has every child been traumatized? 18:05- What is trauma? 20:33- Who is Viktor Frankl? 24:20- The redefinition of trauma 28:20- How to understand what our ancestors experienced? 30:44- Are we delaying adulthood? 32:04- What happened to after school jobs? 34:06- Is social media making kids sad? 37:02- Why do parents surrender authority to experts? 42:36- Are we done with the cult of experts? 48:38- How to be a good parent 50:16- How to fix mental health at school https://reason.com/podcast/2024/04/10/abigail-shrier-stop-obsessing-over-our-childrens-happiness --- Shrier stresses that she's not against psychological counseling and help per se, but she believes too many unqualified and misguided people are causing far more problems than they solve. Her previous book was the controversial Irreversible Damage, which looked at the rapid rise of girls identifying as transgender. We talk about the roots of today's therapeutic culture, the extent of the problems it causes, and how parents, teachers, and young people themselves might find a better way forward.

The podcasting pioneer discusses capturing the real J.K. Rowling, quitting The New York Times, and his new podcast show Reflector.

The former New York Times reporter explores the collective madness that washed over us in 2020, tracing the path from #MeToo to “Intifada Revolution!”

The Nayib Bukele model in El Salvador means security without liberty. https://reason.com/video/2024/02/27/the-bukele-model-means-security-without-liberty/ --- "They were delicious," said a woman about the pupusas she received after casting her vote in El Salvador's recent presidential election. The stuffed corn tortillas, the country's best-known dish, were handed out courtesy of the federal government and its incumbent President Nayib Bukele, who was running for reelection despite a constitutional ban on serving consecutive terms. Giving out food at polling stations might qualify as illegal voter interference. Bukele was undeterred. Bukele ended up winning 85 percent of the popular vote, and his New Ideas party held on to its majority control in Congress. The 42-year-old president called the landslide victory "a record in the entire democratic history of the world." El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America with a population of about 6.3 million, but Bukele has made himself one of the best-known political leaders in the world. His outsized public profile stems from his public embrace of bitcoin and the staggering decline in crime and violence in El Salvador since he took office. Bukele's gang crackdown suspended constitutional protections and drew allegations of human rights abuses. People were arrested without a judicial order or access to a lawyer. Arrest quotas were handed out and thousands were wrongfully detained. Mass hearings are being held for as many as 300 defendants at a time. There are reports of over 250 people being placed in a single prison cell, and inmates are often denied food for extended periods. There are allegations of torture. And Bukele's government is accused of secretly negotiating a truce with gang leaders, buying their support with financial benefits and special privileges. But Bukele remains incredibly popular thanks to the dramatic improvement in public safety. According to a recent poll, he has the support of 70 percent to 90 percent of the country. Bukele brushes aside claims that he is forming a single-party state, pointing to his landslide victory and broad support. There's an understandable tendency to overlook rule-bending for expedience in deeply troubled nations, but if robust institutions don't constrain El Salvador's political majority, it could become yet another Latin American dictatorship. Music Credits: “Eyes on the Ball” by Sémø via Artlist; “Yelema” by Captain Joz via Artlist; “Piki Piki” by Captain Joz via Artlist; “CloudCity” by Out of Flux via Artlist. Photo Credits: Valter Campanato/ABr, CC BY 3.0 BR, via Wikimedia Commons; nicolas genin from Paris, France, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Dilma Rousseff, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Alexander Pe?a / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; La Prensa Gráfica, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Salvador alc, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; MPfoto71/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; 總統府, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Franklin Reyes from La Habana, Cuba, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; The photographer is Carlos Granier-Phelps., CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons; Alexander Pe?a / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; DPST/Newscom; Album / Oronoz/Newscom; Claudia Guadarrama/Polaris/Newscom; La Prensa Gráfica, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Joka Madruga, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Fernanda LeMarie - Cancillería del Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Cancillería Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Camilo Freedman/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Jonathan Alpeyrie/SIPA/Newscom; Joel Alvarez (Joels86), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Russian Foreign Ministry/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; RICARDO BARBATO / BlackStar Photos/Newscom; Eneas De Troya, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; LEONARDO GUZMAN / GDA Photo Service/Newscom; Prensa Miraflores; Darafsh, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Secretaría de Prensa El Salvador; Javier Campos/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Francisco Arias/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Notimex/Newscom; Allison Dinner/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Jimmy Villalta/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Cindy Miller Hopkins / DanitaDelimont.com / "Danita Delimont Photography"/Newscom. Producer: Katarina Hall Video Editor: Regan Taylor Graphics: Adani Samat

Political reporter Dave Weigel joins the show to discuss Biden's decline and the possibility of replacing him.

Jane Coaston, a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times with self-described libertarian tendencies, discusses the DNC and the current state of the Democratic Party. How do Democrats define “freedom”? It’s Democratic National Convention week, so we wanted to talk about what’s been unfolding there so far: the rhetoric, the thematic choices, and what it all reveals about the Democrats’ 2024 agenda. And how should we state power skeptics and liberty appreciators view that agenda? We’ve invited on Jane Coaston to discuss all that with us this week. She’s a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, former politics reporter at Vox, and exhibits self-described “libertarian tendencies.”

Fox News commentator Mary Katharine Ham discusses Trump's new policy agenda.

Bryan Johnson, venture capitalist and founder of Blueprint, discusses his $2 million a year effort to reverse aging on Just Asking Questions. Subscribe YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcast/2024/02/27/bryan-johnson-can-this-rich-transhumanist-beat-death 0:00- A day in the life of a transhumanist trying not to die 3:18- How important is our sleep cycle? 8:30- Humanity's imminent "evolutionary transition" 14:02- How close are we to finding the real "Fountain of Youth"? 16:30 - Do genetics trump lifestyle? 22:30- Self-experimentation and scientific progress 24:50- Why Bryan Johnson measures his nighttime boners 35:01- Liz reacts to Bryan Johnson's daily meal plan 48:00 - Coping with the "existential crisis" of AI 1:00:00- In defense of blood boys --- Bryan Johnson made his fortune when he sold his company Braintree to PayPal for $800 million, netting about $300 million for himself. He spends about $2 million a year creating a system to reverse his "biological age." He's 46 years old, chronologically, but claims he's de-aged himself following a program he's branded "the Blueprint protocol." "I wanted to pose the question in this technological age: Can an algorithm, paired with science, in fact, take better care of me than I can myself?" Johnson tells Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions. They talked with Johnson about his daily routine, the results he's published including measurement of his nighttime erections, the transhumanist philosophy he outlines in his free e-book Don't Die, the role that artificial intelligence is likely to play in prolonging human life and health spans, and the value and limitations of self-experimentation in an era of pharmaceutical stagnation. Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or on the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher.

How's it going in Javier Milei's Argentina? Milei, Argentina's self-described libertarian president, notched his first legislative victory last week. Argentina's Senate passed a major omnibus bill, also known as the "Bases Law", that's been debated since February. It would further deregulate the labor market, privatize national industries, cut taxes for foreign companies investing in Argentina, and hand emergency powers to Milei. Because Milei's party controls seven out of 72 Senate seats, the bill only passed with a lot of compromise and a tie-breaking vote by the vice president, and it could get pared down even more by the lower chamber before reaching the president's desk. Nevertheless, the proposed changes were dramatic enough to inspire large, raucous, and destructive protests outside of the National Congress building during the debate. Reason's Zach Weissmueller was in Argentina last week during that debate shooting a forthcoming documentary. While there, he attended a conference jointly hosted by the Cato Institute and Libertad y Progreso, a libertarian think tank. Milei gave a keynote speech there, following a warm-up act by Elon Musk.

Honk Honk HODL raised more than $1 million of bitcoin for the Canadian truckers. About two-thirds of it got to them. Financial censorship, or cutting off access to the global banking system, is one of the most powerful tools that governments have for punishing people. The U.S. Department of Justice used it in 2013 through a program known as Operation Choke Point. It went after firearms dealers, payday lenders, and sex workers by pressuring banks to cut off their access to financial services. The federal government blocks marijuana businesses that are legal under state law from opening bank accounts. And the U.S. Department of the Treasury financially censors other governments around the world that commit human rights abuses or senselessly attack other nations, most recently Russia for invading Ukraine. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau financially censored the Canadian truckers occupying the country's capital city, Ottawa. It's clear that governments can use financial censorship to squeeze worthy and unworthy targets alike for the time being, but it's less clear if governments can maintain this power for much longer. The moment raises a pressing question for cryptocurrency enthusiasts: Does bitcoin solve this? Does a global, decentralized monetary system that nobody can manipulate or control take away the power of the state to use financial censorship as a weapon, for good or for ill? A surprisingly successful bitcoin-based crowdfunding campaign called "Honk Honk HODL," which raised more than $1 million worth of bitcoin for the Canadian truckers, shed some additional light on that question. And the answer appears to be, "eventually, maybe, but there's more work to be done." Nick, who goes by @NobodyCaribou on Twitter, started talking with Canadian truckers in early February, teaching them about bitcoin, raising small amounts to hand out, and eventually partnered with a pro-bitcoin YouTuber to launch Honk Honk HODL on the bitcoin-based crowdfunding site Tallycoin. "My idea was like, if we get to a thousand or 2,000 dollars, and I can go around and give a hundred bucks to different truckers, that would be amazing. It would be a cool experiment to do. So why not do it?" says Caribou. Then crypto investors Jeff Booth and Greg Foss jumped in to lend their names and credibility—as did the popular Canadian YouTuber and streamer Ben Perrin, who goes by "BTC Sessions." "So things just started snowballing a lot quicker than anticipated," says Perrin. "My initial thought was, 'Oh, maybe we'll get a few thousand dollars and some people can buy some gas cards and some food or something.'" But the fundraiser took off after GoFundMe was pressured into canceling a fundraiser that had accumulated $10 million for the Canadian truckers, and then a judge blocked the distribution of $9 million from another crowdfunding platform. And when the Canadian government announced it would be freezing truckers' bank accounts, some supporters of the movement began to turn to cryptocurrency. The Honk Honk HODL fundraiser eventually surpassed $1 million U.S. dollars' worth of bitcoin. Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Graphics by Nodehaus. Photos: Normand Blouin/Polaris/Newscom; CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Newscom; Lin Wei / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Arindam Shivaani/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Richard B. Levine/Newscom; Marco Verch; Nazareth College

"People are not in politics for truth-seeking reasons," argues the data journalist and author of "On The Edge: The Art of Risking Everything." 0:00- The difference between liberals and the left. 11:00- Is progress slowing? 14:57- Is the two-party system dead? 20:00- The future of journalism 27:44- Free speech is in trouble 30:07- Is Biden too old? 35:57- Silver's new book, "On the Edge" 45:00- Questions from the live audience. https://reason.com/podcast/2024/03/06/nate-silver-libertarians-are-the-real-liberals/ __________ Journalist Nate Silver burst onto the national scene in 2008, when he correctly predicted 49 out of 50 states in that year's election, outstripping all other analysts. His former website FiveThirtyEight became a must-visit stop for anyone interested in political forecasting and helped mainstream the concept of "data journalism," which utilizes the same sort of hard-core modeling and probabilistic thinking that helped Silver succeed as a professional poker player and a staffer at the legendary Baseball Prospectus. Reason's Nick Gillespie talked to Silver about the 2024 election, why libertarian defenses of free speech are gaining ground among liberals, his take on the "crisis" in legacy media, and his forthcoming book, "On The Edge: The Art of Risking Everything." Photo Credits: Brian Cahn/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Sandy Carson/ZUMA Press/Newscom; 157014269 © Ilnur Khisamutdinov

Podcaster Dave Smith and philosopher Chris Freiman debate open borders on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions.

Economist Bob Murphy explains the technical details of government debt and why Modern Monetary Theory is so dangerously wrong.