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Atlas Shrugged Part II: Behind the Scenes

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:00:00 EDT

ReasonTV visited the set of Atlas Shrugged Part II, the second installment in the new film adaptation of Ayn Rand's epic 1957 novel. The movie is set to hit theaters on October 11, 2012.

About 1.30 minutes. Shot by Sharif Matar and Tracy Oppenheimer and edited by Joshua Swain.

Read Brian Doherty's account of the filming here.

Check out Reason's ever-growing playlist of videos related to Ayn Rand and the continuing interest in her life and work. The videos feature interviews and commentary from Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, Yaron Brook, David Kelley, Robert Poole, biographers Anne C. Heller and Jennifer Burns, and many more.

Read Reason on Ayn Rand.

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FreedomWorks' Matt Kibbe on the Hostile Takeover of The GOP

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"We understand that Republicans helped get us into this fix," says FreedomWorks president and CEO Matt Kibbe, who has been instrumental in supporting Tea Party challengers within Republican primaries. "It's a little bit like Groundhog Day: I feel like we keep teaching Republicans the same lessons over and over again"

Kibbe's newest book, Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government's Stranglehold on America, calls for a grassroots rebellion against the "upper management" of government.

"The phrase Hostile Takeover actually comes from an op-ed [former Rep.] Dick Armey and I wrote leading up the the 2010 election where we argued we had to beat the Republicans before we beat the Democrats."

Reason's Nick Gillespie caught up with Kibbe at FreedomFest to discuss the book, the power of the Tea Party, and the marquee races to watch in 2012.

Shot by Tracy Oppenhiemer and Alex Manning. Edited by Meredith Bragg. About 4:30 minutes.

Held each July in Las Vegas, FreedomFest is attended by over 2,000 limited-government enthusiasts and libertarians a year. ReasonTV spoke with over two dozen speakers and attendees and will be releasing interviews over the coming weeks.

Fan Fiction vs. Copyright - Q&A with Rebecca Tushnet

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"It takes a big studio to make The Avengers, but it doesn't necessarily take a big studio to write a piece of Avengers fan fiction," says Georgetown University law professor and fan fiction advocate Rebecca Tushnet. "Big content companies largely recognize that fan activities are really good for them because they engage people."

The growing popularity of fan fiction, a genre in which fans create their own stories featuring characters or settings from their favorite works of popular culture, raises thorny copyright issues. "Given how broad copyright is now, it's now possible to say fan fiction is an infringing derivative work," Tushnet explains. "In order to deal with that...we now talk about fair use, which allows people to make fair, limited uses of works without permission from the copyright owner."

As a member of the Organization for Transformative Works, Tushnet works to defend fan fiction creators caught in the legal debate between protected intellectual property and fair use.

Nick Gillespie sat down with Tushnet to discuss copyright law, fan fiction, and why media companies should embrace fan-created works.

Approximately 7.34 minutes.

Interview by Nick Gillespie. Camera by Meredith Bragg and Joshua Swain. Editing by Swain.

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America's First Rebel: Roger Williams and the Birth of Liberty

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"Williams was really America's first individualist, the first contradictor of authority, the first rebel," explains John M. Barry, author of Roger Williams and The Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty. While best known as the founder of Rhode Island and for being a leading proponent of a "wall of separation" between church and state, Barry argues that Williams' imprint on America is deeper than most recognize. "When I started writing the book I quickly realized that I was not simply writing about the emergence of the idea of religious liberty, but liberty itself."

Barry sat down with ReasonTV's Nick Gillespie to discuss the book, the enduring lessons of Roger Williams' life, and why he is not yet a household name.

About 9:10 minutes.

Cameras by Meredith Bragg and Jim Epstein. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

Barry is the author of numerous books, including The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History and Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America.

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The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:00:00 EDT

"If you take the local food movement to its logical extreme...people who live beyond their local food chain are essentially parasites," explains economic geographer Pierre Desrochers, co-author of the book The Localvore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet .

Using economic and historical data, Desrochers and his co-author Hiroko Shimizu pick apart the latest food activist trend extolling the benefits of eating local. "If everything was so great when most food was sourced locally centuries ago," asks Desrochers, "why did we go through the trouble of developing a globalized food supply chain in the first place?"

Desrochers sat down with ReasonTV's Nick Gillespie to discuss the book, the benefits of factory farming, and the enduring nature of food activism.

About 5:45 minutes.

Cameras by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

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James V. DeLong on Ending "Big SIS" (The Special Interest State)

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"Obamacare is not, as one judge says, a national solution to a problem," argues James V. DeLong. "It's 2,000 pages...of special-interest-written law."

As such, it exemplifies what DeLong, a long-time Washington insider who has worked for many think tanks and government agencies, denounces as "Big SIS" or the "special-interest state." In his scathing - and utterly convincing - new book, Ending Big SIS and Renewing the American Republic, Reason Contributing Editor DeLong traces how "the political system creates economic advantages for special interests and then demands that part of the profits be fed back into the political system, where they are used to enhance the power of the political incumbents."

Whether the topic is defense spending, agricultural subsidies, health care, or the financial sector, DeLong documents the pervasive rot at the core of Washington's way of doing business - and provides ideas for cutting Big SIS down to size.

For more information on the book and DeLong, go to here. For his Reason archive, go to here.

About 6 minutes. Produced by Joshua Swain. Interview by Nick Gillespie. Camera by Meredith Bragg, Jim Epstein, and Swain.

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Ask a Libertarian 2012

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Got a question for a libertarian? Then give it your best shot on Tuesday, June 12, when Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch answer any and all queries, such as:

Should anything be banned?
Aren't libertarians just Democrats who hate poor people?
Do you really want to legalize Heroin?
Who will you be voting for in November?
Where did you get that blouse?

Gillespie and Welch are the authors of the book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America, out in paperback June 26 .

On Tuesday, from 11AM ET til 4PM ET, Gillespie and Welch will receive questions via Facebook, Twitter, and email, and, with the help of Reason.tv's crack team of videographers, will post rapid-fire video responses to your most probing and provocative queries.

The lines are open, so think up your toughest question and send it our way.

To ask via email, send to letters@reason.com
To ask via Facebook, go to Reason's Facebook page
To ask via Twitter, send to @reason
To ask via YouTube, comment to this YouTube video

And on the day of the event, we'll scan the comments section at Hit & Run and our Ask a Libertarian page.

About 40 seconds. Produced by Meredith Bragg.

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Zack Wahls, His Two Moms, & The Future of Same-Sex Marriage

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:00:00 EDT

What's the most persistent myth about being raised by gay parents? "That you are a child abuse victim," says Zach Wahls, author of the new book, My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength and What Makes a Family.

Wahls became an internet sensation after a video of him defending his mothers' same-sex marriage was uploaded to YouTube. His 2011 testimony before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee has racked up over 18 million views and led to appearances on The Daily Show, Letterman, Ellen, and many other places.

Now comes My Two Moms, in which the 20-year-old University of Iowa engineering student explains what it's like to grow up as a child as the child of same-sex parents and uses the lessons he learned as an Eagle Scout to talk about why marriage equality should be the law of the land.

Wahls sat down with Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie to discuss why his childhood was a lot like yours, the mainstreaming of same-sex marriage, and Obama's "evolving" views on the subject.

About 7 minutes.

Interview by Nick Gillespie. Camera by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain; edited by Swain.

For more Reason coverage on LBGT issues, click here.

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Robert Zubrin: Radical Environmentalists and Other Merchants of Despair

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"We have never been in danger of running out of resources," says Dr. Robert Zubrin, "but we have encountered considerable dangers from people who say we are running out of resources and who say that human activities need to be constrained."

In his latest book, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism, Zubrin documents the history of dystopian environmentalism, from economic impairment inflicted by current global warming policies to the Malthusian concern over population growth. "Just think how much poorer we would be today if the world would have had half as many people in the 19th century as it actually did. You can get rid of Thomas Edison or Louis Pasteur, take your pick."

Zubrin sat down with Reason Magazine editor in chief Matt Welch to discuss his book, the difference between practical and ideological environmentalism, and how U.S. foreign aid policy encourages population control.

Runs about 9.30 minutes

Produced by Meredith Bragg. Camera by Meredith Bragg and Josh Swain.

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The Swing Vote: Why Independents Will Decide the 2012 Election

Sat, 19 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"In the past four years, two and a half million people have left the Democratic and Republican parties," explains Linda Killian, author of the new book The Swing Vote: The Untapped Power of Independents. Not only are these voters sick of the two dominant parties, Killian believes they are increasingly determining electoral outcomes. "They voted for Barack Obama, they voted for the Democrats in 2006, [but] they swung 19 points in voting for the Republicans in 2010."

Killian sat down with Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie to examine what makes a swing voter, their growing importance, and if their socially tolerant and fiscally responsible viewpoints should buoy libertarians.

Runs about 6.40 minutes

Produced by Meredith Bragg. Camera by Meredith Bragg and Josh Swain.

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The Vampire Economist and the Moral Molecule

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:00:00 EDT

In his new book, The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity, neuroeconomist Paul J. Zak discusses his research on oxytocin, aka the "moral molecule." For the past 10 years, Zak has been conducting the same kind of trust games that are common in experimental economics, but with a twist. Before and after the trust games, Zak has been taking blood samples with the goal of gaining a better understanding of how and why people trust others.

Zak's work on oxytocin, which Genome author Matt Ridley calls "one of the most revealing experiments in the history of economics," helps economists understand why people are often generous to complete strangers and why those complete strangers so often reciprocate. The key, Zak explains, is oxytocin. Our brains release oxytocin when we hug others, when we receive gifts and when we are trusted. Because elevated oxytocin levels in the blood make us more likely to trust others, oxytocin plays an essential role in all human interactions, including the process of wealth creation. As Zak puts it, "You can't induce your brain to release oxytocin, you can only give it to somebody else. If you give this gift, our biology has set us up so that people will return it to us."

Approximately 5.5 minutes.

Produced by Paul Feine & Alex Manning.

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Sex and the Supreme Court: The True Story of Lawrence v Texas

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"There are some things a state can not do to direct the moral content of your life," explains author and law professor Dale Carpenter, "and controlling your sexuality is one of those things."

In his new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, Carpenter outlines both the backstory and the importance of the 2003 Supreme Court case that invalidated American's sodomy laws. "It revives a constitutional doctrine that protects a right to liberty and privacy and sexual autonomy for adults."

Reason Magazine's Katherine Mangu-Ward sat down with Carpenter to discuss his book, the story behind the landmark case, and how a baby shower gift became an indicator of changing attitudes inside the Supreme Court.

About 8:45 minutes.

Shot by Meredith Bragg and Anthony Fisher. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

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Charles Murray: Why America is Coming Apart Along Class Lines

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:00:00 EDT

Charles Murray, one of America's most influential social policy thinkers, has come out with a widely discussed new book called Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, which argues that Americans are splitting into two divergent classes, and that this growing divide could end American life as we have known it.

A self-described libertarian, Murray started his career as a liberal Democrat who spent six years in the Peace Corps and voted for Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election. His political transformation came while he was researching his landmark 1984 book, Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980, which marshaled exhaustive evidence that American welfare programs were harming the very people they were supposed to be lifting out of poverty.

Losing Ground was fiercely denounced by the political left, but soon won mainstream acceptance that the War on Poverty was failing. The simple fact is there wouldn't have been welfare reform in the 1990s without Losing Ground.

The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, Murray's 1994 collaboration with Harvard psychologist Richard Herrnstein, was more controversial. The book maintained that differences in genes contribute to differences in IQ, which in turn play a significant role in the life outcomes of individuals. Most controversially, Herrnstein and Murray argued that various ethnic groups have distinct in inherited intelligence. (Economist James J. Heckman reviewed The Bell Curve for Reason back in 1995.)

Murray has written more than 20 books, including What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation, and he's currently the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute .

Reason's Ronald Bailey sat down with Murray in March for a wide-ranging discussion of how his earlier work informs Coming Apart, why he remains libertarian in his outlook, and whether younger Americans face an relentlessly negative future.

Approximately 35 minutes.

Written and produced by Jim Epstein.

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5 Keys to Restoring America's Prosperity: John B. Taylor

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EDT

In his new book, First Principles: Five Keys to Restoring America's Prosperity, Stanford University professor of economics John B. Taylor, details the not-so-secret ingredients to rebuilding American's economic future: predictable policy, rule of law, strong incentives, reliance on markets, and a clearly limited role for government. "America can be great again, economically speaking," Taylor explains, "it's just more recently where we've gone off track."

Taylor sat down with Reason Magazine Managing Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward to discuss his book, the principles that underlie America's economic supremacy and what's gone wrong over the past decade.

Taylor is the Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the George Shultz Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution. He was Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs from 2001 to 2005. His previous books include Getting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis. You can watch a 2009 Reason.tv interview discussing the book with Taylor here.

Shot by Joshua Swain and Jim Epstein. Edited by Meredith Bragg

Approximately 5:30 minutes long.

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Margaret Thatcher, Meryl Streep, & The Iron Lady: Fact vs. Fiction

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

"When I first heard of this movie," says John Blundell, "I immediately was a little worried because of Meryl Streep's own ideas and polices and so on that are very distinctly not Thatcherite."

As a longtime Margaret Thatcher ally, few people are in a better position than John Blundell to assess the veracity of the Oscar-nominated bio-pic, The Iron Lady. The former head of influential free-market organizations such as The Institute of Economic Affairs, The Institute for Humane Studies, and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation , Blundell is also the author of Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of the Iron Lady (2007) and the new Ladies for Liberty: Women Who Made a Difference in American History .

On the eve of the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony, Blundell sat down with Reason.tv to discuss the controversy surrounding the film (which depicts its titular character in the throes of demenita), Streep's widely praised performance, and the continuing power of Thatcher's social and political legacy.

"I must admit," he says, "to being pleasantly surprised. I think overall Margaret comes out of this process with her reputation enhanced and, of course, Meryl Streep's reputation hugely enhanced."

About 5.30 minutes. Produced and edited by Meredith Bragg.

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FDR, The New Deal and The Expansion of Federal Power with Authors Burton and Anita Folsom

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

During his first presidential press conference, Barack Obama defended federal economic intervention, stating "there are several who have suggested that FDR was wrong to intervene back in the New Deal. They are fighting battles that I thought were resolved a pretty long time ago." "We were just amazed to hear him say that," says historian Anita Folsom. While this "idea is taught in colleges all over the country, we have to come to the realization that these big government ideas do not lead to prosperity."

In his 2008 book, New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America, historian Burton Folsom took on the idea that the New Deal "worked." Now he's collaborated on a new book with his wife Anita, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, which tackles the idea that Roosevelt was a great wartime leader. During the war, the book argues, Roosevelt Administration stomped on civil liberties, fixed prices throughout the economy, ballooned the national debt, and brought the top income tax rate up to 94%.

The Folsoms see Roosevelt's big government approach as instrumental in shaping the modern word. From ObamaCare to the Community Reinvestment Act, they draw a direct line from FDR's actions to the worst public policies of today, along with the general view that "government programs are the solution to economic and political problems."

Bert and Anita Folsom sat down with Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie to discuss their new book and the enduring myths of FDR's presidency.

About 9:30 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg, Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain and edited by Bragg.

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Author D.J. Waldie on Being a 'Partisan of Suburban Places'

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST

"Lakewood is not really a suburb anymore, it's a particular kind of urban place that looks suburban superficially but which is netted fully in an urban fabric," says author D.J. Waldie who is most famous for writing Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, set in 1950s Lakewood, California.

Waldie sat down with Reason Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch, who also grew up in Lakewood, to talk about city planning and the unique issues affecting suburbia in 2011. For 34 years, Waldie served as the Public Information Officer for the city of Lakewood and still lives in the house he grew up in.

The film rights to Holy Land were bought in late 2010 by actor James Franco for a possible movie.

Waldie is also the author of the book Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles, blogs at KCET.org and is a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times.

Topics include: Why contract cities pinch every penny; the effects of a recession on suburbia; and why residents are leaving California.

Aproximately 10 minutes.

Camera by Paul Detrick, Alex Manning and Tracy Oppenheimer. Edited by Detrick

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Craig Shirley: How Pearl Harbor - and December 1941 - Made America a Global Power

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:00:00 EST

The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 killed over 2,400 Americans and led directly to the entry of the United States into World War II.

In his powerful, thickly researched new book, December 1941: 31 Days That Changed America and Saved the World, Craig Shirley chronicles the day-by-day shifts in American culture, politics, and national identity through that horrible month. Before December, Shirley tells Reason's Nick Gillespie, a solid majority opposed entry into World War II and the "eminently respectable" America First movement was poised to help select the next president of the United States. Non-interventionism was so universal that Franklin Roosevelt himself had campaigned for his third term as president on a promise to keep "American boys" out of European wars.

By the start of 1942, says Shirley, the long tradition of isolationism was over, never to be seen again. The nation that had rejected the League of Nations after World War I helped create the United Nations and America quickly became not simply a global economic, political, and military power but the dominant player on the globe.

The author of many books, including two biographies of Ronald Reagan and a forthcoming book on Newt Gingrich, Shirley talks with Reason's Nick Gillespie about what was gained - and lost - in the historical hinge point that was December 1941.

Approximately 8 minutes.

Camera by Meredith Bragg and Jim Epstein; produced by Bragg.

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Judge Andrew Napolitano: Why Taxation is Theft, Abortion is Murder, & It's Dangerous to Be Right When the Gov't Is Wrong

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST

"I'll say this plainly, I've said it before - Taxation is theft. It presumes the government has a higher claim on our property than we do," says Judge Andrew Napolitano, the host of Fox Business' Freedom Watch and the author of the new book, It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom.

Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with the outspoken libertarian commentator to discuss topics ranging from abortion (the judge is fiercely pro-life) to Occupy Wall Street (he welcomes the protest against corporatism) to Rep. Ron Paul ("the Barry Goldwater" of our moment) to the role of religion in the quest for freedom.

About 25 minutes. Camera by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain; edited by Swain.

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For previous Reason interviews with Judge Napolitano and to read his Reason archive, go here.

Why We Should Fear Bathtubs More Than Terrorists: Authors John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart on Security Spending

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

The federal government has spent over $80 billion on aviation security in the past 10 years. Yet "your chance of dying in a bathtub is about one in a million, and from terrorism is about one in 3.5 million," says Ohio State political scientist John Mueller.

Mueller and his co-author Mark G. Stewart argue in their new book, "Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security ," that cost-benefit analysis needs to be applied to security expenditures. The authors calculate for current spending levels to be cost-effective, the U.S. government would "have to prevent four Time Square-type attacks every single day." So why are we spending so much for so little added safety?

Mueller and Stewart sat down with Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie to discuss the overestimating of risk from terrorism and zero-cost solutions to prevent another 9/11 attack.

Mueller is Woody Hayes chair of national security studies at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State; he's also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Mark G. Stewart is director of the Center for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

About 7 minutes.

Shot by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain, and edited by Meredith Bragg.

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Shipwrecks, Treasure and Cannon Fire: The True Story of an American Privateer

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

Compared with better-known stories of the Founding Fathers who, author and regular Reason contributor Jackson Kuhl note, "don't do much,” the story of privateer Samuel Smedley is brimming with action. His new book, “Samuel Smedley, Connecticut Privateer,” delves into this true-life tale of revolution, shipwrecks, treasure and cannon fire.

Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie sat down with the author to talk about Smedley, America’s fascination with Revolutionary War biographies and Kuhl’s desire for a film franchise.

Approx. 6 minutes.

Edited by Meredith Bragg. Camera by Meredith Bragg and Josh Swain.

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David Bernstein on Rehabilitating Lochner and the Freedom to Contract

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 EDT

“Either the Commerce Clause gives Congress a plenary power to regulate anything it pleases or it doesn’t; and let’s have that argument,” says George Mason University law professor David Bernstein.

Bernstein goes after progressive attempts to limit economic freedom and liberty of contract in his new book Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform, a history of the 1905 case Lochner v. New York. The decision nullified a state law regulating work hours for bakers and became the impetus for a 40-year period where American courts protected economic liberty.

A Lochner rehabilitation has not been easy, Bernstein admits. Many legal experts that see Lochner as on par with the infamous Dred Scott decision. The government's encroaching power under the Commerce Clause has also held the case for economic liberty back. But Bernstein remains hopeful and believes both liberals and conservatives have something to gain in reexamining Lochner's implications, which range from protecting the right to an abortion to striking down the health care act’s individual mandate.

Approximately 6.36 minutes.

Hosted by Nick Gillespie. Camera by Meredith Bragg and Joshua Swain; edited by Swain.

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Lee Doren - Author of "Please Enroll Responsibly" and How the World Works

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Lee Doren is a former think tanker who now runs the YouTube channel How the World Works. He’s also taken to digital self-publishing; his first ebook, Please Enroll Responsibly: Avoiding Indoctrination at College, was released in August.

Doren has described the book as a “helmet for higher education,” and says he was inspired to write it by emails from parents and students asking him how to deal with an overtly progressive college faculty.

Doren also describes the creation of How the World Works, which he started in 2008. Since then, his series of two-minute videos about his political and economic beliefs has garnered 36,000 subscribers and invitations to speak to a variety of web and broadcast news outlets.

Interview by Reason's Nick Gillespie Shot and edited by Joshua Swain.

About 4.14 minutes long.

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Why We Still Like Ike: Biographer Jim Newton on Dwight Eisenhower's Underrated Presidency

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EDT

“He took it on himself to lower the sense of crisis in the country,” L.A. Times editor Jim Newton says of the subject of his new book Eisenhower: The White House Years. “He was going to sort of calm the country down.”

Yet while his self-effacing leadership, his skepticism about calls for collective action, his lack of sentimentality and his cautious stewardship of the federal budget all make Dwight Eisenhower seem far removed from contemporary Washington, Newton makes the case for Ike’s presidency as a modern, progressive phenomenon.

Among other things, Eisenhower signed a landmark interstate highway act, expanded executive authority, aggressively supported overseas coups and presided over the historic civil rights changes of the 1950s. He also left office with a budget surplus after inheriting a large deficit from Harry Truman.

Newton sits down with Reason.com's Tim Cavanaugh to talk about President Eisenhower’s time in the oval office, a time that Newton calls one of “enormous change in the United States and really an effective presidency”.

President Eisenhower would have celebrated his 121st birthday this Friday, Oct. 14.

Topic include: “The Middle Way”; Eisenhower as a television president; the military industrial complex, Cold War politics and the role of Ike’s brothers in shaping his presidency.

Shot by Paul Detrick, Zach Weissmueller and Sharif Matar. Edited by Tracy Oppenheimer.

Photographs courtesy of Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kan.

About 10 minutes. Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

John Tierney - Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Are you an impulsive marshmallow eater? Your success - or failure - in life may depend on how you answer that question, says John Tierney, New York Times science writer and co-author, with Roy F. Baumeister, of the new book, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.

"The marshmallow test," explains Tierney to Reason.tv, "was this [experiment] where four-year-olds would be given a marshmallow. They were told they could eat but if they waited 15 minutes, they would get two marshmallows. The kids who managed to resist the marshmallow [and waited] did much better in school, did much better in life. That's what really kicked off the modern self-control movement."

Drawing on groundbreaking research - including work done by Baumeister, a social psychologist at Florida State University - Tierney and Baumeister argue that willpower is like a muscle. It can be built up and toned through conditioning, and it can be overworked and strained through "decision fatigue." Eminently readable, Willpower mixes the latest developments in the study of the mind with helpful methods of self-control. In a world in which all too many things seem to scuttling into chaos, Baumeister and Tierney beautifully articulate the science of self-control.

Interview by Reason's Katherine Mangu-Ward. Shot and edited by Joshua Swain.

About 7 minutes long.

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If Bill Gates is Henry Reardon, Who is Paul Krugman? An Interview with Donald Luskin

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:00:00 EDT

"What you really have in Atlas Shrugged is an unholy alliance of corrupt crony capitalists and corrupt government." says author Donald Luskin. "Now that isn't a narrative that conservatives like to tell, [but] that ought to be a narrative libertarins like to tell."

In his newest book, I Am John Galt: Today's Heroic Innovators Building the World and the Villainous Parasites Destroying It, Luskin finds modern parallels to Ayn Rand's characters. From Bill Gates to Paul Krugman, Luskin analyses the Randian heroes and villians of today and examines the impact of Rand's ideas on America.

At FreedomFest 2011, Reason's Matt Welch sat down with Luskin to talk about his book, his crusade against Paul Krugman and the resergence of Ayn Rand.

Held each July in Las Vegas, FreedomFest is attended by around 2,000 libertarians and advocates of limited government. Reason.tv spoke with over two dozen speakers and attendees and will be releasing interviews over the coming weeks. For an ever-growing playlist, go here now.

About 6:16 minutes. Shot by Zach Weissmueller and Jim Epstein and edited by Meredith Bragg.

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George Gilder on "The Israel Test," the Internet, and...the Gays?

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 08:00:00 EDT

"What [President Barack Obama] is doing to the U.S. energy economy couldn't be done with a nuclear bomb," says author George Gilder, who adds that if "Newt [Gingrich] wasn't such a jerk," he'd make a great leader.

Over the past 40 years, Gilder has been not just one of the most influential public intellectuals but one of the most perplexing. He's a utopian visionary who simultaneously predicted the rise of the World Wide Web and the liberatory power of networked computing while fretting that the erosion of traditional gender roles is destroying the country; as co-founder of The Discovery Institute, he's a major proponent of intelligent design theory as well.

His 1981 best-seller, Wealth and Poverty, made such a persuasive case for what became known as supply-side economics that it became the bible of the Reagan Revolution. In it, Gilder used the work of anthropologist Marcel Mauss to argue that capitalism is a "gift economy" in which entrepreneurs create demand by offering up new goods and services, typically at a loss. Visonary volumes such as Microcosm (1989) and Life After Television (1990) anticipated the rise of the Internet as a mass medium that would replace hierarchy with "hetarchy" or distributed intelligence and power. His latest book, The Israel Test, argues that anti-Semitism and the anti-capitalist mentality are effectively the same thing and that Israel provides the best-available model of social organization, a blend of knowledge-based economy and group identity.

A proponent of intelligent design, he railed against Barry Goldwater's anti-intellectualism in 1966's The Party That Lost Its Head and argued that American society was committing "sexual suicide" in a 1973 book of the same name by embracing female equality. The supposed existential threat posed by unmarried men in American society is a recurring theme in Gilder's oeuvre, as is the dread fear that gays are actively recruiting boys to the "homosexual lifestyle." Fully appreciating how the World Wide Web has broken the monopoly of the culture industry in our lives, Gilder nonetheless bemoans the state of "secular culture" as "corrupt" and "depraved."

At FreedomFest 2011, Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Gilder to talk about the mix of the utopian and the apocalyptic in his work.

About 21 minutes. Shot by Zach Weissmueller and Jim Epstein and edited by Meredith Bragg.

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Freedom, Science Fiction and the Singularity: A conversation with author Vernor Vinge

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:00:00 EDT

Vernor Vinge is a former San Diego State University math professor and a Hugo award-winning science fiction novelist. In Vinge's 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity" Vinge wrote, "Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended."

We sat down with Vinge to learn more about his influences, his novels and the coming singularity.

Vinge's latest novel, The Children of the Sky, will be released in October 2011.

Produced by Paul Feine, Alex Manning and Zach Weissmueller.

Approximately 7 minutes.

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Author and Filmmaker J. Neil Schulman Discusses His Work

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

At FreedomFest 2011, Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with author and filmmaker J. Neil Schulman to talk about some of his most recent projects.

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Author Nancy Rommelmann on Her New Novel 'The Bad Mother' and the Myth of Hollywood

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:00:00 EDT

Author and journalist Nancy Rommelmann says that Hollywood sends this message to people: "If you show up, I'm going to deliver your destiny. But you've got to stay, you've got to believe in me."

The death of the Hollywood dream runs through Rommelmann's new novel, The Bad Mother . The work follows teenagers living on the streets on and around Hollywood, Blvd, a place that combines a seedy reality with the enduring Tinseltown dream.

Rommelmann sat down with Senior Editor at Reason Tim Cavanaugh to discuss the book.

Topics include: Why city money can't save Hollywood; Why readers mistake The Bad Mother for a work of non-fiction; and why Spiderman is really just a 60 year old out-of-work actor.

Book Trailer courtesy of Softbox, LLC. Watch the full version of the trailer here.

Shot by Alex Manning, Zach Weissmueller and Hawk Jensen. Edited by Paul Detrick.

About 8:30 minutes. Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

C-SPAN's Brian Lamb Interviews Nick Gillespie

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Reason's Nick Gillespie, co-author with Matt Welch of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America, sat down with C-SPAN's Brian Lamb for an in-depth interview about the themes of the book, the evolution of Reason.tv since its 2007 launch, Gillespie's tenure at Reason magazine, what's with the all-black, all-the-time, and much more.

Approximately 55 minutes.

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Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch Discuss their New Book "The Declaration of Independents" on The Alyona Show

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch and Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie discussed their new book The Declaration of Independence and how the rise independent voters and political decentralization is making American life better on RT's The Alyona Show. Air Date: June 30, 2011.

About 12 minutes.

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Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch Discuss Their New Book The Declaration of Independence w/ Dylan Ratigan

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch and Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie discussed their new book The Declaration of Independence and how the rise independents and libertarianism are reshaping America's polticial landscape with MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan. Air Date: June 24, 2011.

Approximately 8.07 minutes

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Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch Join Stossel on the Declaration of Independents

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie and editor in chief of Reason Matt Welch joins Stossel in a special episode dedicated to the upcoming book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America. Featuring interviews with the authors, plus Kurt Loder, Grant McCracken, Kennedy, and Andrew Breitbart, this hour-long program covered politics–and anti-politics–in a way rarely seen on cable television. Air Date: June 23, 2011.

About 45 minutes.

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Nick Gillespie Discusses The Declaration of Independents on Fox News' Red Eye

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Editor in Chief of Reason.com & Reason.tv Nick Gillespie discusses his recent co-authored book with Matt Welch The Declaration of Independents, and how increasing choices in American lives are challenging government's expanding powers.

The Declaration of Independents hit shelves on June 28. Order your copy in hardcover or as an e-book from your favorite bookstore by clicking here.

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Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch Discuss the End of the Two-Party System with Judge Napolitano

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch and Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie appeared on Freedom Watch With Judge Napolitano to talk about their new book The Declaration of Independence and how the rise independents means the two-party system is in decline.

Air Date: June 24, 2011.

Approximately 5.43 minutes

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Nick Gillespie Discusses the Upcoming Release of The Declaration of Independents on S.E. Cupp's Webshow

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Editor in Chief of Reason.com & Reason.tv Nick Gillespie sit’s down with Brian Sack, filling in for S.E. Cupp, to discuss his co-authored forthcoming book with Matt Welch, The Declaration of Independents and how libertarian politics can fix America's problems.

The Declaration of Independents comes out on June 28. Pre-order your copy in hardcover or as an e-book from your favorite bookstore by clicking here.

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Independents Day is June 28 This Year!

Tue, 24 May 2011 16:00:00 EDT

Coming June 28: The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America, by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch.

The Declaration of Independence talks about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - not the pursuit of politics. Something has gone horribly wrong with a country where we've got more choice at the coffee shop than we do at the ballot box. The Declaration of Independents charts how to bring the same sort of innovation and personalization that has made our private lives richer and more satisfying to the last bastions of government power such as education, health care, and retirement. Written by Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, The Declaration of Independents is a rollicking tour of how we got to be freer when it comes to personal identity, creative expression, the workplace, and more. And it's an operator's manual on how to create a liberatory politics for the 21st century.

"This is the up-to-date statement of libertarianism," says New York Times columnist, George Mason University economist, and Marginal Revolution blogger Tyler Cowen. "Not warmed-over right-wing politics, but real, true-blooded libertarianism in the sense of loving liberty and wanting to find a new path toward human flourishing."

"An enthusiastic, entertaining libertarian critique of American politics, brimming with derision for the status quo and optimism for the future and confident of the right direction." Kirkus Reviews

The Declaration of Independents comes out on June 28. Pre-order your copy in hardcover or as an e-book from your favorite bookstore by clicking here.

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Alan Bock, rest in peace

Fri, 20 May 2011 16:00:00 EDT

Alan Bock, longtime editorial writer at the Orange County Register, died on May 18 at his home in Elsinore, California. Alan was a champion for liberty and a good friend to many of us at Reason. Alan, you'll be missed.

Alan wrote four books, including Waiting to Inhale: The Politics of Medical Marijuana (2000). In 2007, Drew Carey interviewed Alan about that book for a reason.tv program on medical marijuana. Here are some excerpts from that interview.

Approximately 5 minutes.

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Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch Preview Their Book, "The Declaration of Independents"

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT

At Reason Weekend 2011, held earlier this year in Laguna Niguel, California, Reason's Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie previewed their forthcoming book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America.

The book is a rollicking tour of how we got to be freer when it comes to personal identity, creative expression, the workplace, and more. And it's an operator's manual on how to create a liberatory politics for the 21st century.

"This is *the* up-to-date statement of libertarianism," says New York Times columnist, George Mason University economist, and Marginal Revolution blogger Tyler Cowen. "Not warmed-over right-wing politics, but real, true-blooded libertarianism in the sense of loving liberty and wanting to find a new path toward human flourishing."

"An enthusiastic, entertaining libertarian critique of American politics, brimming with derision for the status quo and optimism for the future and confident of the right direction." Kirkus Reviews

Pre-order at your favorite online bookstore and in your preferred format by going to http://declaration2011.com

Approximately 42 minutes. Shot by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick; edited by Meredith Bragg.

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Ayn Rand & The World She Made: Q&A with Anne C. Heller

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 EST

Anne C. Heller's critically acclaimed and best-selling 2009 book, Ayn Rand and the World She Made, is new in paperback (we're tempted to say that it makes a great Christmas gift, though it's clear that Rand didn't believe in the holiday or the altruism that attaches to it!).

Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Heller about Rand, whom the biographer says remains the great explicator of capitalism's virtues and remarkably undervalued by the literary establishment.

"How many novelists of ideas do we have in post-war America?" asks Heller, who says the most surprising thing she learned about Rand during her research was her fearfulness. From double-locking doors to wearing heavy rubber gloves while washing dishes to avoid germs, Heller argues that Rand bore the scars of a Jewish childhood spent in the virulently anti-Semitic confines of czarist Russia and the fledgling Soviet Union.

As Gillespie noted in his review of Ayn Rand and the World She Made and Jennifer Burns' Goddess of the Market, Heller's biography is a rich, sympathetic treatment of a major cultural figure that simultaneously analyzes and humanizes Rand's major, continuing influence on 20th- and 21st-century America.

Approximately 6.30 minutes. Shot by Jim Epstein and Adam Hawk Jensen. Edited by Josh Swain.

To watch Reason.tv's video series about Ayn Rand, Radicals for Capitalism, go here.

To read Reason's archive of articles about Rand, go here

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The Long-Term Meaning of the Mid-Term Elections

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST

Just how libertarian is the Tea Party? Do GOP gains in the midterm elections mean voters like Republicans or are angry at Obama? Are any of the newly elected pols serious about cutting spending?

On November 11, 2010, Reason's Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie, authors of next year's The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America, led a freewheeling discussion with The Winston Group's Kristen Soltis and the Institute for Humane Studies' David Kirby about whether we've just witnessed the first act of a Republican revolution, a speed bump on the road back to Democratic power, or the beginning of something truly strange and new in American politics.

Approximately 47.44 minutes.

Shot and edited by Jim Epstein, Meredith Bragg, and Josh Swain.

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From Ayn Rand to the iPod: Chris Lehmann on "Rich People Things"

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST

What do TARP, Wired Magazine, The New York Times, David Brooks, Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan, Malcolm Gladwell, and libertarianism have in common? They're all "rich people things," according to journalist Chris Lehmann, a veteran of Mother Jones, In These Times, Tikkun, New York magazine, and The Washington Post.

In his engaging new book of essays, drawn from his contributions to The Awl, Lehmann explains why what he calls the "airless dogma" of Rand, the "hollow...comic sociology" of Brooks, and other excresences of wealth suck. Lehmann skewers the iPad: In his view, the hype surrounding Apple products helps the company distract consumers from its practice of outsourcing youth-destroying tasks to Chinese factories staffed by workers living in cockroach-infested dormitories.

Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Lehmann, who has contributed to Reason, to talk about his collection and to ask how "rich people things" like the Democratic Party and Michelle Obama's vacation fit into his worldview. Among the surprises: Lehmann grants that Ayn Rand's popularity remains an interesting phenomenon, that the left is all but dead, and that libertarianism is a vital force in America today.

Approximately 7.26 minutes. Shot by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg. Edited by Josh Swain.

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Author Zack Lynch on How Neuroscience Will Change the World

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Does free will have a place in the neuromarketing revolution? Is mankind poised to drastically reshape our ability to read and control the brain? Does the government have a role in helping this fledgling science flourish?

Zack Lynch, the author of The Neuro Revolution, sat down with Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie to discuss the future of neuroscience and how it will affect every aspect of our lives.

Approximately 9.20 minutes.

Shot by Meredith Bragg and Dan Hayes. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

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Author Jeremy Lott on William F. Buckley Jr.'s Faith and Politics

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 EDT

In William F. Buckley Jr., Reason contributor Jeremy Lott delves into the famed public intellectual's life, politics and Catholicism. From the founding of National Review to his opposition to civil rights legislation to his embrace of pot legalization, Lott details how Buckley's religion hugely shaped his political principles.

Lott, the author The Warm Bucket Brigade (a history of the vice presidency) and In Defense of Hypocrisy, sat down with Nick Gillespie to discuss Catholicism, communism, and Buckley's late-life rebranding of himself as a "libertarian journalist."

They also talked about Lott's new gig as editor of the website, RealClearReligion.org, a just-launched sister site to the immensely popular and influential RealClearPolitics.com.

Approximately 10 minutes.

Shot and edited by Meredith Bragg.

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The Ins and Outs of Hoarding Ferraris: Q&A with Daniel Ben-Ami

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Who the hell's against economic progress?

Author Daniel Ben-Ami tackles that question in his new book, Ferraris For All, which looks at how concerns over inequality, the environment, and excessive greed slow economic growth and hurt the poor. A regular contributor to the British online magazine Spiked, Ben-Ami believes these rationales are partially a cover for the real agenda of the super rich: keeping all the wealth (and Ferraris) for themselves.

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Ben-Ami to talk about the repercussions and ulterior motives of growth skepticism.

Approximately six minutes. Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg. Edited by Josh Swain.

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Author Paul Cantor on The Economics of Literature

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:15:00 EDT

Paul Cantor, professor of English at the University of Virginia, is an anomaly in world of literary criticism and the study of popular culture. While many academics employ an economic approach to the study of literature, they are invariably informed by Marxist critiques. Cantor, who attended the New York lectures of Ludwig von Mises as a teenager, argues that there is much to be learned from a pro-capitalist reading of literature. In August, Cantor sat down with Reason senior editor Michael C. Moynihan to discuss "Literature and the Economics of Liberty," a new book of essays he edited with Stephen Cox, that looks at the work of Walt Whitman, Willa Cather, H.G. Wells, and others through the prism of Austrian economics.

Approximately 6:45 minutes.

Shot by Meredith Bragg and Dan Hayes. Edited by Josh Swain.

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Yankee Warhorse: Mary B. Townsend on her biography of Maj. Gen. Peter Joseph Osterhaus

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:53:00 EDT

Peter Joseph Osterhaus was one of the most accomplished of the wave of "'48ers"—Germans who participated in the 1848-49 Rebellion, then fled their native land—to re-settle in the United States.

Now he is subject of a biography, Mary Bobbitt Townsend's Yankee Warhorse: A Biography of Major General Peter J. Osterhaus, published by the University of Missouri Press.

Townsend, who is Osterhaus' great-great-granddaughter, uses fresh scholarship and never-before-published source material to describe Osterhaus' important battlefield roles in Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, as well as his time as a Major General for the Union Army in the Civil War, military governor of Mississippi during the early days of Reconstruction, and later U.S. consul general in Lyon.

Approximately 3.09 minutes. Shot by Dan Hayes and interviewed by Reason's Matt Welch, who is the Townsend's son. Edited by Josh Swain.

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Young World Revolution! - Youth, Technology and Business with Rob Salkowitz

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EDT

What can global business leaders learn from a 14-year-old kid in a cyber cafe in Bangalore, India?

Just about everything, says Rob Salkowitz, author of Young World Rising: How Youth, Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the World from the Bottom Up.

Reason.tv's Dan Hayes sat down to talk with Salkowitz about Suhas Gopinath, an entrepreneur who started a multimillion dollar business out of a cyber cafe in India at age 14. Salkowitz says young, tech-savvy entreprenuers like Gopinath represent a changing dynamic that global business leaders ignore at their own peril. Understanding this "young world" is critical for making money, developing new business models and combating social problems.

Salkowitz says that the lower cost of entry in the tech world provides unprecendented opportunity to young people in emerging markets. "You don't have to work in the t-shirt factory, you don't need to work in the mine. If you can figure this out you can earn a decent living for yourself in diginified working conditions, give employment to other people, and move society forward in better and different ways."

Approximately 9.30 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg and Josh Swain. Edited by Swain.

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Richard Florida Discusses The Great Reset of Urban Development in Economic Downturns

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:00:00 EDT

How is the current economic crisis remaking American cities?

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Richard Florida, author of The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity. Florida discussed the housing bubble, high speed rail, and how economic shifts give rise to new urban landscapes called "megaregions."

Approximately 10 minutes. Shot by Dan Hayes and Josh Swain. Edited by Josh Swain.

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On the Set of Atlas Shrugged: 53 Years in the Making

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Many actors and producers have talked about adapting Ayn Rand's classic Atlas Shrugged for the big screen, but 53 years after its publication no one has dared tackle the ambitious project—until now.

Reason.tv heads to the set of Atlas Shrugged Part One to offer viewers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of this most anticipated film.

Director Paul Johansson (One Tree Hill) and Grant Bowler (Lost, True Blood, Ugly Betty), who plays Henry Rearden, discuss the perils, pressures, and pleasure involved in telling the epic tale of a society where the "men of the mind" go on strike and refuse to contribute to a collectivist world.

Produced by Ted Balaker and Hawk Jensen. Camera by Austin Bragg and Hawk Jensen. Production support by Sam Corcos.

Music: "Eu Nao Sabia" by Anamar available from Magnatune Records.

Approximately 5.3 minutes.

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Arthur Brooks on the Battle Between Free Enterprise and Big Government

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EDT

America faces a new culture war; a war between free enterprise and big government.

American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks argues in his new book, The Battle: How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future, that "most Americans don't see free enterprise as just an economic matter, they see it as kind of a lifestyle issue, they see it as the bedrock of American culture and that's about 70 percent of the population."

Brooks sat down with Reason.tv Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie to discuss the best way for free enterprise proponents to "stop losing arguments," as well as Brooks' career as a professional French horn player, and his love for Bach and Anton Bruckner.

Approximately 5 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg, Josh Swain and Dan Hayes. Edited by Swain.

This version is an abridged. For the full length, wide ranging interview please click here. (Approximately 51 minutes.)

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Arthur C. Brooks on the Battle Between Free Enterprise and Big Government (Full Version)

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:00:00 EDT

America faces a new culture war; a war between free enterprise and big government.

Approximately 51 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg, Josh Swain and Dan Hayes. Edited by Swain.

For a 5 minute version please click here.

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Michael Moynihan Discusses New Threats to Freedom on Stossel

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Magazine Senior Editor Michael C. Moynihan discusses what new threats are threatening our freedom in a post-Cold War America with Adam Bellow on Stossel on July 15, 2010.

Approximately 6 minutes.

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Paul Revere and His Relevance to Contemporary America with Author Joel Miller

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Is Paul Revere still relevant in contemporary America?

Joel Miller, author of The Revolutionary Paul Revere, says he is. Miller sat down with Reason.tv Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie to discuss the man, his famous ride, and his relationship to the contemporary political landscape.

"There are an awful lot of corollaries to people today who are frusrated with government," says Miller. And that's nothing new: "You go back throughout English history you'll find uprising after uprising about taxes..."

Approximately 10 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg, Josh Swain and Dan Hayes. Edited by Swain.

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Cory Doctorow on The War on Kids, Boing Boing, & His Next Novel

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EDT

As one of the editors of Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow runs one of the best-known blogs on the planet. As the author of best-selling young-adult novels such as Little Brother and the new For The Win, he has his pulse on what it is like to be growing up in the 21st century. As a writer who simultaneously publishes his work online for free and via a traditional bookseller (Tor), he is at the bleeding edge of creating what he calls 21st century art: "contemporary art that is made to be copied."

In July Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie talked with Doctorow about raising free-range children, the future of copyright, and what makes Boing Boing tick.

Approximately 5.26 minutes. Shot by Gillespie and edited by Josh Swain.

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Robert K. Elder on The Last Words of The Executed

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:05:00 EDT

What's the cultural and political significance of the dying utterances of people condemned to death?

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Robert K. Elder, author of The Last Words of the Executed, to discuss the final words people executed by the state, ranging from Sarah Goode, a victim of the Salem Witch Trials, to Gary Gilmore, the Utah murderer who became a pop phenomenon in the 1970s, to Karla Faye Tucker, a killer who famously said she had an orgasm every time she swung a pick axe into flesh during a brutal double murder.

Approximately 8.30 minutes. Shot by Dan Hayes, Meredith Bragg and Josh Swain. Edited by Josh Swain.

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Adam Bellow on The New Threats to Freedom

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:05:00 EDT

Adam Bellow is a well-known figure in publishing circles and the author of the best-selling In Praise of Nepotism. He's also the editor of the collection New Threats to Freedom, just published by the Templeton Press.

New Threats (visit the book's website here) includes contributions from figures such as Christopher Hitchens ("Multiculturalism and the Threat of Conformity"), David Mamet ("The Fairness Doctrine"), Glenn Reynolds ("Liberty and Complacency"), Anne Applebaum ("The Decline of American Press Freedom"), and Reason staffers Katherine Mangu-Ward ("The War on Negative Liberty") and Michael C. Moynihan ("The Anticapitalists").

In his introductory essay, "Where Have All The Grownups Gone?," Bellow calls for a reinvigorated debate about the meaning and necessity of freedom in a world that is a generation past the Cold War. Reflecting on figures such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his own father, the Nobel Prize winning novelist Saul Bellow, he writes,

Many of us assumed that there would always be such people on hand to make the case for freedom and democracy. The loss of many of these outsized intellectual and literary figures in the first decade of this century leaves one wondering whether there are still any grownups around.
But here is a sobering thought: merely to ask the question is to assume responsibility for embracing the task oneself. Resistance doesn't come out of nowhere; it has to be fostered the old-fashioned way, word by word, through magazines and books, think-tank panels, conferences and seminars. We are the grownups now, and we owe it to the next generation to provide a model of how to be serious about ultimate questions.

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Bellow just before a May 17, 2010 panel discussion on the book featuring Bellow, Reason's Katherine Mangu-Ward, Stephen Schwartz ("Shariah in the West"), and Christine Rosen ("The New Behaviorists").

To watch the full panel discussion, go here.

Approximately 4.45 minutes. Shot and edited by Dan Hayes, Meredith Bragg, and Josh Swain.

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New Threats to Freedom: A Reason Event Featuring Adam Bellow, Stephen Schwartz, Christine Rosen, and Katherine Mangu-Ward

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:03:00 EDT

On May 17, 2010, Reason sponsored a panel discussion on the new collection New Threats to Freedom featuring editor Adam Bellow ("Where Have All the Grownups Gone?"), Reason's Katherine Mangu-Ward, Stephen Schwartz ("Shariah in the West"), and Christine Rosen ("The New Behaviorists").

In his introductory essay, Bellow calls for a reinvigorated debate about the meaning and necessity of freedom in a world that is a generation past the Cold War. Reflecting on figures such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his own father, the Nobel Prize winning novelist Saul Bellow, he writes,

Many of us assumed that there would always be such people on hand to make the case for freedom and democracy. The loss of many of these outsized intellectual and literary figures in the first decade of this century leaves one wondering whether there are still any grownups around.
But here is a sobering thought: merely to ask the question is to assume responsibility for embracing the task oneself. Resistance doesn't come out of nowhere; it has to be fostered the old-fashioned way, word by word, through magazines and books, think-tank panels, conferences and seminars. We are the grownups now, and we owe it to the next generation to provide a model of how to be serious about ultimate questions.

Approximately 27 minutes. Shot and edited by Dan Hayes, Meredith Bragg, and Josh Swain.

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For a 4.45 minute interview with Adam Bellow, go here.

Matt Ridley on His New Book, The Rational Optimist, & Why "Ideas Having Sex" is a Very Great Thing Indeed

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:00:00 EDT

Best-selling science writer Matt Ridley's latest book is The Rational Optimist, which explains why the author is upbeat on the prospects of a planet and a civilization that seems to lurch from one pending political, economic, or environmental catastrophe to another.

Doomsayers have it all wrong, writes Ridley, who argues that prosperity and innovation have outraced even the visions of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill.

The phrase diminishing returns is such a cliché that few people give it much thought. Picking out the pecans from a bowl of salted nuts gives diminishing returns: The pieces of pecan in the bowl get rarer and smaller. The fingers keep finding almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, or even—God forbid—Brazil nuts. Gradually the bowl, like a moribund gold mine, ceases to yield decent returns of pecan.
Now imagine a bowl of nuts that has the opposite character. The more pecans you take, the larger and more numerous they grow. That is the human experience for the last 100,000 years. The global nut bowl has yielded ever more pecans.

Reason's own science correspondent Ronald Bailey talked with Ridley recently in Washington, D.C. They discuss Ridley's book, his hopes for the future, and the policies that can improve - or undermine - the prospects for our future.

Past Reason articles by, about, and featuring Matt Ridley.

If you like what you see, then sign up for Reason's first-ever cruise in February 2011, which features Ridley, Bailey, Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Jacob Sullum, and other guest speakers for a week of relaxation and conversation. For details go here.

Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg, who also edited the segment.

Approximately 10 minutes.

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The Rise of America's Surveillance State: Q&A with "Watchers" author Shane Harris

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:00:00 EDT

In his new book The Watchers: The Rise of the America's Surveillance State , Washington, D.C., reporter Shane Harris chronicles 25 years of the intelligence community's efforts to "connect the dots" on terrorist threats in the United States.

Harris explains why we should have caught the Christmas Day bomber, how one promising electronic surveillance system was wiped out due to privacy concerns, and what it's like to be a spy in the age of Google.

In his day job, Harris covers electronic surveillance, intelligence, and counterterrorism for National Journal.

Reason Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward interviewed Harris in February 2010. Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg; edited by Bragg.

Approx. 10 minutes. Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel for automatic notifications when new material goes live.

Libertarianism from A to Z With Jeffrey Miron

Mon, 03 May 2010 07:00:00 EDT

Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron is probably best known for his influential 2005 study The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition, which laid out in plain detail the high costs and low benefits of keeping pot illegal. During the financial crisis, Miron was one of the most eloquent and insistent voices opposing government bailouts at all levels.

Now Miron has produced Libertarianism From A to Z, an encyclopedic look at everything from abortion to zoos from an angle consistent with classical liberal thought and insights. Miron's book, which covers tough issues such as civil rights legislation, immigration policy, and much more, is simultaneously provocative and engaging.

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie spoke with Miron in Reason's DC HQ; shot by Merdith Bragg and Dan Hayes; edited by Hayes.

Approximately 10 minutes. Scroll down for downloadable versions. Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel for automatic notification when new material goes live.

How iPad Technology and iPhone Apps Expand Liberty

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 07:00:00 EDT

Got a pothole? There's an app for that. Need a medical marijuana dispensary? There's an app for that, too.

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Matt Harrison and Justin Hartfield of the Prometheus Institute to discuss how new technology can expand liberty. Harrison and Hartfield are the creators of the Do-it-Yourself Democracy iPhone application, which allows users to expose government waste, organize protests, or simply hector officials into finally fixing a long-neglected pothole.

Hartfield is also the creator of WeedMaps.com, a site and iPhone app that locates medical marijuana dispensaries and allows users to interact with other medical marijuana patients.

Other topics include: Revamping classic libertarian books with iPad technology and how Steve Jobs manages to be both an uber-capitalist and a progressive hero.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Alex Manning, Hawk Jensen, and Paul Detrick. Edited by Paul Detrick. Music: "Get What You Want?" by Beight (Magnatune Records).

Just under 10 minutes. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.

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John Avlon: "How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America"

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:29:00 EST

"Politics is the last place where we're supposed to be satisfied between Brand A and Brand B," says John Avlon, author of the engaging new book Wingnuts: How The Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America.

Hyper-partisans and rhetorical extremists on the left and the right—characters such as Reps. Alan Grayson and Michele Bachmann, commentators such as Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck—are not simply polarizing the debate, argues Avlon, who is a regular presence on CNN and a columnist for The Daily Beast.

Far more importantly (and destructively), they are obscuring the fact that the U.S. electorate is, in the main, proto-libertarian. Independents are the fastest-growing group of voters, says Avlon and, "They tend to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal to libertarian." Avlon is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrism Can Change American Politics.

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Avlon in Reason's D.C. offices. Filmed by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg; edited by Bragg. Approximately 10 minutes.

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And come back to Reason.tv March 15 through March 19 for the debut of Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey: How to fix the "Mistake on The Lake" and other once-great American cities, an original six-part documentary series.

Stalking Jefferson's Moose and Taking Notes on the State of Cyberspace

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:00:00 EDT

Reason contributor David Post teaches cyberlaw at Temple University and blogs at the Volokh Conspiracy. Long recognized as one of the most original thinkers about the Internet and digital culture, he is the author of the widely acclaimed new book In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace.

Post recently sat down with Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie to talk about the cutting edge in intellectual property, constitutional history, what the Internet tells us about the economic crisis, and much more.

Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg and edited by Roger Richards. Approximately nine minutes.

For an audio podcast, go here.

Dan Pallotta: Making Charity Pay

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EDT

As the creator of memorable and successful charity events such as the California AIDSRide, in which participants biked 575-miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles over seven days, and the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, in which participants covered 55 miles over several days, Dan Pallotta has long been recognized as a trailblazer in philanthropic circles. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for various causes and brought huge amounts of publicity to any number of issues.

In his groundbreaking new book, Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential , Pallotta makes the case that the nonprofit sector needs to be deregulated so that it can directly harness the energy of capitalism and the profit motive in pursuit of philanthropy.

Approximately nine minutes, this interview was conducted by Reason Foundation President David Nott and filmed and edited by Alex Manning.

For audio podcast, go here.

For more information on Pallotta, visit his website.