The Curious Task

Tyler Cowen chats with Alex Aragona about all things food — great things to eat, where to find them, and how an economist gets lunch. References from The Curious Task Episode 100 with Tyler Cowen You can purchase An Economist Gets Lunch by Tyler Cowen from Amazon here. You can read more from Tyler Cowen at the blog Marginal Revolution here. Find their course materials at Marginal Revolution University here. Tyler Cowen also has a food blog here. Read more about locavorism in The Locavore's Dilemma by Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu, available through Amazon here.

Alex Aragona peaks with Aeon Skoble as he outlines his ideas on what anarchism is, how we should think on it, and how it overlaps with classical liberal ideas. References from The Curious Task Episode 99 with Aeon Skoble Aeon Skoble is author of Deleting the State and editor of a collection of essays called The Simpsons and Philosophy. He has a chapter titled “What Is the Point of Anarchism” in The Routledge Handbook of Anarchy and Anarchist Thought. Read more from Aeon Skoble on the blog Radical Classical Liberal here. Aeon Skoble mentions Robert Nozick, who argues for a minimal state in Anarchy, State, and Utopia available for purchase here. Aeon Skoble further discusses Robert Nozick in this video produced by the Fraser Institute here. Learn more about the prisoner’s dilemma here. The relationship between anarchism and law is explored by Bruce Benson in his book The Enterprise of Law, available for purchase here.

Alex Aragona speaks with SmithTweeters Janet Bufton and Sarah Skwire as they describe what drew them to the idea of reading through all of The Wealth of Nations and providing an ongoing commentary on Twitter, and how Adam Smith's ideas remain relevant.  References from The Curious Task Episode 98 with Janet Bufton and Sarah Skwire Janet Bufton previously spoke on The Curious Task, which you can listen to here. Sarah Skwire has also appeared on The Curious Task here. You can read the #WealthofTweets here. The digression on silver in the Wealth of Nations can be read online here. Previous Smith Questionnaires can be watched on YouTube here. Learn more about the works of Adam Smith from Adam Smith Works here. Sarah and Janet reflect on their experience with the #WealthofTweets here.

Alex Aragona speaks with Anton Howes about when the sparks of innovation started in Britain, and what fanned the flames moving forward. References from The Curious Task Episode 97 with Anton Howes You can read more about the Age of Invention at the substack where Anton Howes writes about his ideas here. You can also find his working paper titled The Spread of Improvement here. Deirdre McCloskey details her arguments about ethics and commerce in her series which begins with Bourgeois Virtues, available for purchase from Amazon here. The European Guilds by Sheilagh Ogilvie is available for purchase through Princeton Press here.

Bill Easterly tours some of the concepts from his book The Tyranny of Experts, and explores why technocrats imposing their own form of economic development on cultures and peoples can produce more harm than good. References from The Curious Task Episode 96 with Bill Easterly You can purchase a copy of The Tyranny of the Experts by Bill Easterly here.  The End of Poverty by Jeff Sachs can be found on Amazon here. The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek can be purchased here.

Alex Aragona speaks with Dennis Rasmussen about his findings on how the American Founding Fathers truly felt about the experiment they designed and built as time went on. References from The Curious Task Episode 95 with Dennis Rasmussen Dennis Rasmussen previously joined The Curious Task to speak about his book The Infidel and the Professor, and you can listen to that episode here. The book discussed on this episode of The Curious Task is Fears of the Setting Sun by Dennis Rasmussen, which can be purchased from Amazon here. The rising sun armchair can be seen digitally here. More information on the Federalists can be found here, and the Anti-Federalists here. The soundtrack to Hamilton can be listened to here.

Alex Aragona speaks with Graeme Thompson about the classical liberal tradition in Canada, and what the evolution of that tradition has looked like. References from The Curious Task Episode 94 with Graeme Thompson A collection of the speeches of Wilfred Laurier can be found in an edited edition by Arthur Milnes, available from Amazon here. Macdonald Laurier and the Election of 1891 by Christopher Pennington can be found from Penguin House here. Graeme Thompson’s piece “Whatever Happened to Laurier” can be found in the National Post here. Graeme mentions positive and negative liberty by Isaiah Berlin, which is discussed on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy here. The works of Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and J.S. Mill can be read for free through the Online Library of Liberty.  

Jacob Levy gives a tour of his thoughts on the conversations surrounding social justice, and how liberals might consider the topic from the perspective of social "injustice". References from The Curious Task Episode 93 with Jacob Levy You can listen to Jacob Levy’s other appearances on The Curious Task here and here. Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom by Jacob T. Levy can be purchased from Amazon here. You can purchase Free Market Fairness by John Tomasi from Amazon here. You can read more concepts of spontaneous and emergent order found in Hayek here. Judith Shklar lays out her argument about injustice in her book The Faces of Injustice (which can be purchased here).

In honour of her birthday, Sandy Ikeda explores the ideas of Jane Jacobs and reflects on how her thinking on urban centres is still relevant today. References from The Curious Task Episode 92 with Sandy Ikeda You can listen to Sandy Ikeda discuss “Why Can’t a City Be a Work of Art?” on The Curious Task here. A copy of Jane Jacob’s Death and Life of Great American Cities can be purchased from Amazon here. Some of her other works include The Economy of Cities (available here) and Systems of Survival (available here). For those who want to learn more about Austrian economics, our friends at the Frasier Institute have released an introduction to the subject here. You can read more about the thoughts Sandy Ikeda has on Urban Design and Social Complexity here.

Terence Kealey speaks about the history of state involvement in funding science and technology, and why it may not be as good or innovative of an idea as it may seem. References from The Curious Task Episode 91 with Terence Kealey You can purchase a copy of Sex Science and Profits by Terence Kealey on Amazon here. The story of Katalin Karikó is explored in detail in this article. Terence Kealey has a chapter in Visions of Liberty, available for purchase here.