The Curious Task

Exploring the threat of populism to liberalism, the podcast discusses the rise of populist parties in Europe, the shift from economic to social political identities, the decline of social democracy and conservative Christian democratic parties, the role of open borders, the influence of classical liberal parties, setting the political agenda, and the importance of finding new allies for individual freedom and economic liberties.

Jacob Levy speaks with Alex about how liberals should approach the ideas of freedom of association and civil society, and what that means for the way groups interact with other groups and the state.  References from Episode 29 with Jacob Levy: You can purchase Jacob Levy’s book Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom on Amazon Canada here You can purchase the book Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott, which was mentioned by Jacob on the podcast, at Amazon Canada here

Alex Aragona speaks with economist Vincent Geloso about whether we should care about inequality, and how we should approach measuring and understanding it.  References from Episode 28 with Vincent Geloso: For further reading, you can check out this paper written by Vincent Geloso and Steve Horwitz, one of our other previous podcast guests, here

Alex Aragona speaks with Trevor Burrus as he explores the many ways the drug war has failed drug addicts and society. References from Episode 27 with Trevor Burrus: You can read the article ‘Locked Up and Loaded’ that Alex refers to in this episode that was written by Trevor here

Alex Aragona speaks with Kevin Vallier about conflicts in politics and how ideology aggravates them, and whether liberal institutions can help us trust each other more. References from Episode 26 with Kevin Vallier: You can purchase Kevin Vallier’s book Must Politics be War here You can purchase the book Polarization: What Everyone Needs to Know here You can purchase From Politics to the Pews here

Alex Aragona speaks with Glenn fox as he explores whether environmentalism from a free market perspective creates a contradiction. References from Episode 25 with Glenn Fox: If you have Sage journal subscription, you can read Glenn Fox’s research on this subject in an article here You can read more about Carl Menger on The Library of Economics and Liberty here

Alex Aragona talks with Sandy Ikeda as he explores why a city can't be thought of, and specifically designed as, a work of art. References from Episode 24 with Sandy Ikeda You can read an article from Sandy Ikeda entitled What is a city? on the Market Urbanism website here Alain Bertaud’s book Order without Design that Sandy mentioned on the podcast can be purchased on Amazon Canada here Sandy appears in the documentary Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, you can find it on all online rental platforms, but Canadian who subscribe to Crave can find it here You can purchase a copy of Jane Jacob’s popular book Death and Life of Great American Cities on Amazon Canada here 

Alex Aragona talks with Mike Munger as he explores his views on the sustainability of capitalism and the factors that contribute to it. References from Episode 23 with Michael Munger You can order Michael Munger’s book Is Capitalism Sustainable on Amazon Canada here You can order his book Tomorrow 3.0 on Amazon Canada here

Alex Aragona talks with Matt Bufton about the future of liberalism (and why it's not as bad as you might think!). References from Episode 22 with Matt Bufton Fear the Boom and the Bust: Keynes vs. Hayek Rap Battle Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Rap Battle Round Two You can purchase a copy of F.A. Hayek’s The Fatal Conceit at Amazon Canada here You can read F.A. Hayek’s essay The Intellectuals and Socialism here

Alex Aragona chats with Alex Tabarrok on this very special Christmas episode of The Curious Task as he explores whether gift giving is inefficient, and if there are better ways to give to others. References from Episode 21 with Alex Tabbarok You can watch a video of Alex Tabbarok and Tyler Cowen discuss gift giving here Giving to my Wild Self article can be found here