I was interviewed by The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart for his Weekly Show podcast. Scroll down to watch the YouTube, Spotify, etc. versions.
It is fun, serious, wide-ranging conversation about both Trump, Musk, DOGE, etc. and longer-term questions about capitalism, socialism, and questions of material and moral progress. Jon self-identifies as ‘libertarian-curious,’ which is a growing sensiblity among many people I know on both the left and the right. And for good reason: If the past 10 years (or 50!) have proven anything, it’s that the two major political parties (Democratic and Republican) and the two main ideological positions (liberal, conservative) are worn-out ways of viewing the world and enacting policies. Whatever remains of post-World War II or post-Cold War coalitions is clearly exhausted and we’ve yet to even face the reckoning of old-age entitlements that will come due in the early 2030s. What will replace the doddering political, economic, and cultural institutions isn’t clear yet, but there’s no question much of our daily lives needs a rebuild. So it’s good to see people like Jon Stewart engaging with new ways of thinking about things.
Jon’s introduction was quite flattering:
I'm excited to talk to you today. You know, there's so much that's going on. And we talk about Democrats and liberals and Republicans and conservatives and DOGE and MAGA. I wanted to get…the libertarian view….I know that's not monolithic in any way, but I thought there's no better person to get that from than our guest today. So let's get to that right now. Ladies and gentlemen, we are very pleased in this moment to have with us Nick Gillespie, editor at large of Reason magazine, host of The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie podcast. Nick, the OG in my mind of kind of grounded libertarian thought is is in my mind, I think of Nick Gillespie….
Here are the topics we cover, per YouTube’s chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
0:21 - The Story Behind Jon's 'Owwy' On His Finger
2:23 - Introducing Guest Nick Gillespie
6:21 - Nick Defines His Libertarian Views
12:37 - Nick on the Banning of DDT
16:06 - Personal Liberty vs Free Markets
24:12 - Controversy of Snap Benefits & Government Subsidies
28:11 - Republican View of Libertarianism & Poverty
29:41 - Trump is Like Bob Dylan?
31:31 - Federal Government Spending Too Much
33:10 - Jon & Nick Debate Extractive Nature of Capitalism
40:57 - Pros & Cons of Government Involvement in Major Economic Crises
50:40 - Nick & Jon's Final Points on Libertarianism & Capitalism
52:58 - Is the Trump Administration & DOGE Libertarian Friendly?
55:05 - Wokeness vs Censorship
58:11 - Trump's Threats to Jail People & Free Speech Infringement
1:00:58 - Reframing the Argument For DEI Economically
1:03:10 - Pros & Cons of Elon Musk's DOGE Audit
1:10:21 - Closing Thoughts
1:17:07 - Breaking Down the Discussion
Apple:
Spotify:
Links to other players/versions here.
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That was a really good conversation. Although I still think Stewart should apologize for ambushing Andrew Sullivan when he had that bad woke show
My favorite part was when the Stewart Babes came in at the end