The Best of Reason: American Small Businesses Are Desperate for Foreign Workers
The number of job openings far exceeds the number of unemployed Americans. Seasonal businesses can't get the foreign labor they need.
Reason Podcast
The Best of Reason: The Mirage of China's I.P. Theft
As allegations of intellectual property theft swirl, a deeper look reveals a tale of phony numbers and twisted data.
Should Donald Trump Have Been Convicted?
Plus: A single-issue voter asks the editors for some voting advice in the 2024 presidential election.
The Best of Reason: Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning Work
Revolutionary AI technologies can't solve the "wicked problems" facing policy makers.
Libertarian National Convention: Are You Not Entertained?
Plus: A listener asks the editors for voting advice and commiseration in a predominantly democratic state.
A Bonus Reason Roundtable. Live From Boston!
Plus: Who are the editors' favorite vice presidents of all time?
The Best of Reason: 'AI Bullshit' Makes Poets Mad
Is AI-written poetry cheating if you laboriously trained the AI?
Campaigns Can't Get Worse, Can They?
Plus: A listener asks the editors about President Joe Biden holding up arms shipments to Israel.
Noam Dworman: Free Speech for All, From Finkelstein to Chapelle
The owner of the Comedy Cellar and viral podcaster wants to argue with you about Israel, the media, and whether women are funny.
The Best of Reason: The Future of AI Is Helping Us Discover the Past
Historical teaching and research are being revamped by AI.
Americans Care About Inflation, but Politicians Don't
Plus: A listener asks the editors about cancelling student loan debt.
Stephen Wolfram Is Ready To Be Surprised by AI
Can artificial intelligence overhaul the regulatory system?
Where Do Libertarians Stand on the Campus Wars?
Plus: A listener asks the editors about the magical thinking behind the economic ideas of Modern Monetary Theory.
Ford Fischer: Why You Should Surveil the State
The News2Share cofounder is revolutionizing news coverage.
The Best of Reason: A Big Panic Over Tiny Plastics
Science can detect increasingly small particles of plastic in our air and water. That doesn't mean it's bad for you.
Worst 4/20 Ever
Plus: A listener asks the editors to steel man the case for the Jones Act, an antiquated law that regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters.
Regulating Smartphones? Jonathan Haidt vs. Libertarians
The author of The Anxious Generation argues that parents, schools, and society must keep kids off of social media.
The Best of Reason: Anti-Chinese Xenophobia Fueled America's First Drug War
San Francisco's prohibitionists worried that opium dens were patronized by "young men and women of respectable parentage" as well as "the vicious and the depraved."
Congress Does Not Come Back With a Warrant
Plus: A listener asks the editors for examples of tasks the government does well (yikes).
Abigail Shrier: Stop Obsessing Over Our Children's Happiness
The author of Bad Therapy argues that we have created a generation of "emotional hypochondriacs."
The Best of Reason: Culture Warrior in Chief
The modern presidency is a divider, not a uniter. It has become far too powerful to be anything else.
The White House Lied About Its IRS Funding Only Targeting the Rich
Plus: A listener asks the editors for examples of left-leaning thinkers who also hold libertarian ideas.
Why Palantir Cofounder Joe Lonsdale Left California for Texas
The entrepreneur, who founded the Cicero Institute to fix government and the University of Austin to fix higher education, wanted space to flourish.
Trump's and Biden's Terrible Tariffs
Plus: A listener asks if Trump or Biden have done anything to secure the blessings of liberty.
Steven Pinker: What Went Wrong at Harvard
The psychologist and bestselling author argues that Harvard's free speech policy was so "selectively prosecuted that it became a national joke."
Biden's Antitrust Case Against Apple Is Truly Stupid
Plus: A listener asks about the absurdity of Social Security entitlements.
Hardcore History's Dan Carlin: 'History Is Not Like Math'
The podcasting pioneer argues that "history is a moving target."
David Boaz: Libertarianism Is the Intellectual Core of Liberalism
How Vietnam, Watergate, and stagflation supercharged the libertarian movement.
The Best of Reason: After a Century, the Federal Tea Board Is Finally Dead
Imported tea was required for decades to pass a literal taste test before it could be sold in the United States.
The CCP Sucks. So Does Banning TikTok.
Plus: A listener asks about Republicans and Democrats monopolizing political power in the United States.
Pano Kanelos: 'Ideology Is the Death of Ideas'
The president of the new University of Austin wants to reverse the decline of higher education in America.
The Best of Reason: The Future of Immigration Is Privatization
New immigration pathways are letting private citizens welcome refugees and other migrants—and getting the government out of the way.
The State of the Union Is Shouty
Plus: A listener asks the editors a question about progressive taxation in the United States.
The Best of Reason: Commander in Chains: 7 Scenarios If Trump Is Jailed and Wins the Election
There is nothing in the Constitution that prevents an inmate from winning the presidency.
Rank Choices
Plus: A listener asks the editors for short quotes from fictional works that are representative of libertarian ideas.
The Best of Reason: Why Are Teens Depressed? It's Not Social Media.
Maybe the problem for teens isn't screens, but what they are replacing.
Nikki Haley's Primary Math Isn't Mathing
Plus: A listener asks the editors for big picture thoughts on United States foreign policy interventions in other nation states.
The Best of Reason: The Real Student Loan Crisis Isn't From Undergraduate Degrees
Misled by a bad law, graduate students are drowning in debt.
Goodbye, Navalny
Plus: A listener asks if the editors have criteria for what constitutes a good law.
Shoshana Weissmann: Online Age Verification Rules Are Unconstitutional and Ineffective
"None of these laws prevent kids from viewing anything. They just prevent kids from posting," argues Shoshana Weissmann.
The Best of Reason: The Bankruptcy of Bidenomics
Biden's economic policies gave us three years of excessive, wasteful, and poorly targeted federal spending.
Biden's Cognitive Shrinkflation
Plus: A listener asks if the state of Oregon’s policy on drug decriminalization should be viewed as a success.
Rachel Nuwer: MDMA Is On the Cusp of Legalization
In 2024, the FDA will decide whether or not MDMA can be used to treat patients suffering from PTSD.
The Best of Reason: Can Free Markets Win Votes in the New GOP?
As the party grows more populist, ethnically diverse, and working class, will Republicans abandon their libertarian economic principles?
Trump's Terrible, Popular Tariffs
Plus: A listener asks if it should become the norm for all news outlets to require journalists to disclose their voting records.
David Stockman: Trump's War on Capitalism and Freedom
Reagan's former budget director says Donald Trump killed prosperity—and the GOP's core beliefs in capitalism and freedom.
