Cato Event Podcast

Letters in Black and White is an epistolary correspondence between a white woman and black man who are both concerned with the condition of contemporary race relations. The book is a defense of classical liberalism as a guiding ideology for understanding and improving race in America. The authors object to the use of race as a rigid identity, especially in schools, universities, and the workplace. As Twyman starts his correspondence with Richmond: “There are 40,000,000 black individuals with 40,000,000 different stories. Not everyone can correspond with everyone else, but we can get to know and see each other as individuals.” And thus starts an extraordinary correspondence across the color line that sees these two strangers become friends as they wrestle with their different ideas; a diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracy; and a vocal illiberal minority on how to imagine a new American identity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In May 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became effective. The immediate impact was seen in the millions of dollars and man hours spent on compliance; the loss of certain websites or services from the European Union, such as the Los Angeles Times; and changes to user experiences and privacy choices. Advocates of the GDPR have argued that the tradeoffs are worth it for improved cybersecurity and the increased privacy rights of EU citizens, but critics have pointed to the potential impact on other values, such as speech and innovation, and have questioned if the GDPR has actually led to improvements or just increased red tape.Five years on, the impact of the GDPR on Americans and American companies as well as their European counterparts continues to be felt. As the United States debates its own potential federal data privacy law and sees an emerging patchwork of state laws, what lessons can we learn from the GDPR about benefits and consequences of data privacy regulation? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us for a discussion of Eric Claeys’s forthcoming book, Natural Property Rights (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press). The book introduces and defends a theory of property relying on labor, natural rights, and traditional principles of natural law. Justified on those grounds, property rights protect individual freedom, but they also help government officials resolve the basic resource conflicts that arise in property law. Natural Property Rights illustrates this with examples from real estate, oil and gas, tangible personal property, water rights, government regulatory and taking powers (and constitutional limits on those). Claeys’s work in this area was recently the focus of a symposium hosted by Texas A&M University’s Journal of Property Law.Matthew Cavedon will respond by commenting on the historical context for John Locke’s work, on which Claeys relies. Cavedon will argue that Spanish Renaissance scholar Francisco Suárez offers nuances regarding the relationship between natural law and property rights that correct for deficiencies in Lockean theory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage of as many as 48,000 primary care physicians by 2034. Yet there are not enough residency positions for the number of medical school graduates. Missouri became the first state to address this problem by launching a new licensure category: assistant physician (AP). APs are essentially apprentice physicians. The reform lets graduates without a residency position provide primary care in clinics while enhancing their knowledge and skills. Six other states have passed similar laws: Arkansas, Kansas, Utah, Arizona, Louisiana, and Idaho.Please join Kevin D. Dayaratna, PhD, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis; Keith J. Frederick, DO, a former Missouri legislator who spearheaded the country’s first AP law; and Lyman Wostrel, MD, a primary care physician practicing under Missouri’s AP law, to discuss this issue. Cato Institute senior fellow Jeffrey A. Singer, MD, will moderate the discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Sunday, May 14, NATO’s most controversial ally will hold perhaps its most fateful elections since its founding in 1923. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been ruling Turkey for 21 years in an increasingly authoritarian and erratic fashion, may win and drag the nation further toward dictatorship. But there is also a chance that the opposition may win, as the race is tight and as Turkey’s elections are still competitive despite dramatic deterioration in the country’s freedoms and rule of law.Please join us for a discussion of what is at stake just two days prior to what may turn out to be a historic election for Turkey and East‐​West relations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us online for the launch of an inspiring new book from Anthony Sanders of the Institute for Justice, Baby Ninth Amendments: How Americans Embraced Unenumerated Rights and Why It Matters (University of Michigan Press, 2023). The book tells the unheralded story of how Americans carefully sought to protect liberty from overweening government by including in most state constitutions specific provisions (so‐​called Baby Ninths) that expressly protect unenumerated rights.Sanders explains why it is impossible to itemize every right a constitution should protect and shows that however many rights are specifically enumerated, other important rights will inevitably go unmentioned. So what is a constitutional drafter to do? Sanders argues that early in American history, a solution was advanced by drafters of state constitutions in the form of what he calls an “etcetera clause” that contains language borrowed directly from the Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As a result, two‐​thirds of states today contain these “Baby Ninth Amendments” that even skeptics of unenumerated rights must not only acknowledge but also give meaningful substance to. This has important implications for state courts, which have thus far largely ignored these important provisions, and for the larger question of whether it is ever appropriate—or indeed even mandatory—for judges to protect unenumerated rights. The short answers, as Sanders makes clear, are yes and yes.Clark Neily will talk with Sanders about his new book. Join us online on May 10 at noon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is money? What makes money better or worse? And how can the past inform our future? Between the rise of cryptocurrencies and the risks posed by central bank digital currencies, these questions have become more important than ever. The Cato Institute is therefore pleased to welcome both Lawrence White and Dror Goldberg to present their latest books, Better Money: Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin? and Easy Money: American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency, respectively, which seek to answer these questions and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Does the future of environmental stewardship depend more on innovation or regulation? In Time to Think Small, Todd Myers argues that protecting the planet requires small, decentralized technologies, like smartphone apps, rather than sweeping top‐​down government programs. The book explores how these brand‐​new approaches are already helping to win some of the most important environmental struggles humanity faces, including fighting climate change, combating pollution in drinking water, protecting endangered animals, and keeping plastic out of the oceans. Personal technologies are transforming how we address environmental challenges by enhancing the power of individuals to conserve nature. This tremendous power is not only growing but also has the benefit of being independent of shifts in political leadership. And while governments act slowly, lightly regulated companies and nonprofits are comparatively nimble innovators in a marketplace of ideas. Can human ingenuity and free enterprise sidestep political gridlock, diplomatic friction, and bureaucracy to create solutions to our most pressing environmental problems? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.