Reason.tv's Best Interviews of 2011: Penn Jillette, Ken Burns, Walter Williams, Ed Koch, & Sen. Rand Paul

With the new year days away, Reason.tv is looking back at some of our favorite videos of 2011.

Here is a five-video playlist of the best interviews from 2011, including Penn Jillette on God, Ken Burns on PBS funding, Sen. Rand Paul on politics, Ed Koch on New York City, and columnist Walter Williams on his life and work.

Comments

[Suki]

I can't wait to hear about this on NPR.

[Pro Libertate]

Could Williams be VP to Ron Paul? Is that crazy to suggest?

[SIV]

Dr Williams guest-hosting the Rush Limbaugh show tomorrow. I'm curious what he'll have to say about Ron Paul.I'm going to have to make time for the first hour at least

[Pro Libertate]

He's got to mostly like him, though I think Williams is more of a conservative at times than a libertarian.

[SIV]

Williams really likes him. I'm curious to hear what he has to say. Mark Steyn seemed to be offering Paul "praising with faint damns" today while totally ridiculing Newt. Quite a different attitude than the frothing rightwing bloggers and the regular host of the show.

[Pro Libertate]

If Paul does win the early states, it'll be interesting to see what people like Limbaugh and Hannity do. They can't safely go full bore after him, as they'd be potentially stabbing the party in the gut for the general if he gets nominated.

I predict exploding heads and lots of stuttering if that happens.

[Field Marshall Gill]

Really? I am a big fan of Steyn. He is a libertarian leaning conservative, who often quotes Matt Welch.

I have been writing him asking which is the worse of two evils (in his mind). Would an America that is broke be able to implement ANY kind of foreign policy which he favors and for which Ron Paul is opposed. There won't be an America to "stand alone" against Islamism if we are bankrupt. Maybe he is starting to come around.

[Pro Libertate]

That's the fundamental disconnect for the tough guy side of the GOP and their opposition to Paul. Without Paul, the money they'll need to continue the Pax Americana is going away. It may even with him, but he's the only chance they have to preserve their preferred lifestyle.

[Anna Keppa]

And when has Steyn or Limbaugh ever said they favor America going bankrupt?

When has either NOT proposed cutting back on government and its spending so that we do not go bankrupt? Isn't Steyn's latest book about the dire consequences of NOT returning to fiscal and social sanity?

Seems you might want to try arguing Paul's foreign policy visions "on the merits", rather than yoke them to a supposed unique position on avoiding American bankruptcy.

[Field Marshall Gill]

If Steyn or Rush don't support a Ron Paul presidency, they don't believe we will really go bankrupt, apparently.

Talking about cutting government but failing to support the only candidate who will actually do it doesn't make much sense now does it?

I disagree with most of Paul's foreign policy positions "on the merits". We will not have a foreign policy, however, if we do not have a country.

[rho]

Williams is among the sanest of voices in economics. So, clearly, he must be ignored.

[Sane = KOCHsucker?]

LOL

[Tom Walls]

I haven't watched the video yet, but I'll bet Walter refers to himself in the third person at least once. "Williams..."

[Tom Walls]

I lost my own bet. Great interview, though.

[Field Marshall Gill]

He does that when he hosts Rush, so it was a good bet.

[Thursday]

Speaking of lists and predictions and best-ofs, I predict that this coming weekend thread(s) will be like the worst weekend thread(s) ever.

[Field Marshall Gill]

They made a movie about Barbara Erenrich's idiot book, Nickeled and Dimed. They had three or four sob stories about people who just couldn't get ahead because the system was fixed against them and only socialism could save them. Dr. Williams had something like 5 minutes in a two hour movie and he simply pummeled the book's claims.

Reason should dump that idiot Chapman and run WW columns instead.

[SIV]

Reason should dump that idiot Chapman and run WW columns instead.

I'll second that.