Tom Woods Show, Archive 1: Recent Episodes
Tom Woods
What a pleasure to be joined once again by David Stockman! I strongly urge you to visit his blog and check out his latest book, The Great Deformation
Everyone's talking about income inequality, and I thought this article by Robert Higgs -- "Nineteen Neglected Consequences of Income Redistribution" -- was worth an episode's worth of commentary.
Nick Giambruno, senior editor of InternationalMan.com, a Doug Casey publication, joined me to discuss international diversification, and why it isn't just for investments or for the rich.
In the course of today's episode I mentioned a number of books I consider indispensable. Here are a few of them:
The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul. This is a good one for beginners. It has a good track record as a proselytizing device. It's what I recommend you give to someone who has indicated some interest in our ideas.
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer. Don’t let the dull title fool you. This book is comprehensive, original, exciting, and very convincing. It is a relentless assault, by a philosopher, on the standard arguments for government. Not one of them is left standing.
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. This book blew me away when I first read it. Its title makes it sound dull. It is one of the most intellectually exciting books I have ever read.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution. Even if you don't care about the Constitution, or if you're a Spoonerite, or whatever, this is an excellent example of a book that is (1) packed with information, and (2) leaves the standard narrative in shreds.
Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? Possibly Thomas Sowell's most underrated book. I hear people talk about several of his other titles all the time, but I never hear this one mentioned. This one is 140 pages long, with big print. It contains more information and more devastating analysis than most books three times that length.
Tom talks to Jeff Berwick about history, education, homeschooling, how to win people over, and more. Check our Jeff's show, Anarchast, at Anarchast.com.
Jay Richards, co-author of The Hobbit Party: The Vision of Freedom that Tolkien Got, and the West Forgot, talks Tolkien and liberty.
Tom talks to Gary Chartier about his book Anarchy and Legal Order: Law and Politics for a Stateless Society (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Tom discusses the libertarian/conservative divide, plus politics, self-publishing, podcasting, and more as a guest on Matt Lewis and the News.
Randall Holcombe discusses his most recent book, Advanced Introduction to Austrian Economics. Plus, Tom offers a surprise giveaway.
Judge Andrew Napolitano returns to the show to discuss his new book, released just today: Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Assault on Civil Liberties.
Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project on Government Oversight and author of The Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security, corrects fashionable myths about military funding. Check out his article "The War Against Austerity."
Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress discusses his new book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.
Independent investigative journalist Ben Swann returns to the show to discuss some key stories he's working on.
Murray Polner, co-author with Tom of We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now, talks war and foreign policy.
Jim Grant, Ron Paul's choice for Fed chairman, discusses his new book The Forgotten Depression -- 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself.
Michael Malice returns to the show to make an unusual claim: libertarians should welcome a Hillary presidency. Tom responds.
Burt Folsom, author of FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, talks about issues on the home front that are rarely discussed.
Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center joins Tom to review ballot initiatives on behalf of nullification and the Tenth Amendment from yesterday's election.
Tom shares a great discussion from the Robert Wenzel Show. Check out EconomicPolicyJournal.com and TargetLiberty.com.
Linda Rottenberg, author of Crazy Is a Compliment: The Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags, talks about the urgency -- and possibility -- of becoming entrepreneurial.
David Beito, co-author of Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power, discusses a forgotten figure of the civil-rights era.
Jim Tobin of Taxpayers United of America recalls the Chicago Tax Strike of 1977, chronicled by Murray Rothbard, and discusses his 400 other successful battles against tax increases.
Tom DiLorenzo, whose books include The Real Lincoln and How Capitalism Saved America, overturns the standard narrative of antitrust and monopoly.
Tom explains why belief in God is in fact eminently rational. (He recommends the book The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism.)
Tom shares a talk he delivered at -- of all places -- the University of Colorado at Boulder, on the real causes of the housing bubble and crash. Check out Meltdown, Tom's New York Times bestseller on that subject, featuring a foreword by Ron Paul.
Economist and libertarian theorist Bob Murphy joins Tom to discuss disease, quarantines, and liberty.
Jeff Herbener describes the separation of money and state. Check out tomwoods.com/money and "How to Return to Gold," referred to in the episode.
Tom talks to John Lee Dumas, host of the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast and creator of Podcasters' Paradise, an outstanding resource for would-be podcasters and existing podcasters, and of which Tom himself is a member. (Disclaimer: the link to Podcasters' Paradise is an affiliate link, which means I earn a commission if you join. I am recommending it because I am myself a member and have seen its tremendous benefits firsthand, and I think you will find it valuable as well.)
Tom is interviewed by Jeff Deist, Mises Institute president and former chief of staff to Ron Paul.
Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint and The Primal Connection, among other books, talks diet, exercise, overall health -- and entrepreneurship.
Carla Gericke of the Free State Project discusses her courtroom vindication after an unjust arrest in 2010, and also talks about growing up in South Africa.
Tom discusses themes from his new book, Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion. Get the Kindle version as a supporting listener of the show, and click here for the free audiobook version!
David Friedman, whose book The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism, is now available in a third edition, takes on some of the hard libertarian questions.
Dan McCarthy of The American Conservative magazine joins Tom to discuss what the political terms Left and Right really mean.
Kirkpatrick Sale, director of the Middlebury Institute and author of Human Scale, among many other books, talks left, right, freedom, and secession.
Michael Scheuer, former director of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, explains why U.S. foreign policy plays into the hands of ISIS. Check our Scheuer's books, among them Imperial Hubris and Osama bin Laden.
Amity Shlaes, author of (among other books) the New York Times bestsellers The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression and Coolidge, discusses the life and policies of President Calvin Coolidge.
Tom talks to Jeff Herbener, who's just completed a course for LibertyClassroom.com subjecting a popular college economics textbook to a systematic Austrian critique. You can get this course at LibertyClassroom.com or as a Silver, Gold, or Platinum supporter of the Tom Woods Show!
Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Manhattan Institute's Economics21 discusses the economics of the fast-food protests and the minimum wage, as well as who was really behind all the demonstrations.
Emmy nominee David Angelo joins Tom to discuss his hilarious, and free-market, eEconomics YouTube series. Check out the videos on Financial Regulation and Trickle-Down Economics.
Documentary filmmaker Colin Gunn discusses his outstanding new documentary Wait Till It's Free.
Economist Robert Murphy returns to the show to answer listener questions. Check out Bob's book The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal. See also the Friedman/Murphy debate.
Larry Reed, president of the iconic Foundation for Economic Education, recalls some libertarian history and discusses the challenges ahead.
Professor Mateusz Machaj returns to the show to discuss Polish life under communism, how the transition came about, and what happened next.
Tom joins Ron Paul at Voices of Liberty to discuss critics of libertarianism, as well as why a noninterventionist foreign policy is the wisest course.
Tom discusses child labor, working-hours legislation, the minimum wage, and how to tell your kids their textbooks are screwy.
Mateusz Machaj of the University of Wrocław dismantles the fashionable "Taylor Rule" for guiding Fed policy.
Scott Horton explains why the campaign against ISIS is counterproductive and makes no sense.
Redmond Weissenberger of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada talks health care, government spending, political correctness, and more.
Carlos Miller, creator of PhotographyIsNotACrime.com and author of The Citizen Journalist's Photography Handbook, talks about documenting police abuse.
Michael Huemer, a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, explains the fallacies of the Hobbesian argument for government and discusses the problems of democracy.
Tom discusses the life of Murray Rothbard with Lew Rockwell, founder and chairman of the Mises Institute and publisher of LewRockwell.com.Check out Lew's guide "Read Rothbard" and his latest book, Against the State: An Anarcho-Capitalist Manifesto.
Eric Peters of EricPetersAutos.com talks electric cars, government regulations, and how to get the best deal on a new car.
Linda Raeder, author of John Stuart Mill and the Religion of Humanity, discusses the iconic Mill's little-known religious project.
Tom does another listener Q&A episode, discussing economics, the "perpetual union" of the Articles of Confederation, and his experiences in graduate school.
James Tooley, author of The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves, defies the conventional wisdom about education, the poor, and the state.
Deirdre McCloskey, the author most recently of The Bourgeois Virtues and Bourgeois Dignity, explains how the West got rich.
Michael Malice, author of Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il, talks about totalitarianism in its hard and soft forms.
Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future, gives practical advice, not empty platitudes, about working for yourself and becoming successful.
Tom answers some listener questions, and talks about Real Dissent, his forthcoming book. (The pre-order page for the paperback edition will be available soon.)
"Austrian economics is the indispensable anchor of the liberty movement," says Tom in this episode.
Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center discusses his new handbook Off Now: How Your State Can Help Support the 4th Amendment.
Gunnlaugur Jonsson, executive producer of the off-Broadway musical Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter, talks about its sound money themes.
Will Grigg describes and analyzes the shooting of Michael Brown and other recent events in Ferguson, Missouri.
Professor Henry Roediger, co-author of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, discusses what works and what doesn't work when it comes to remembering what you learn.
Stephan Kinsella, director of the Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom and author of Against Intellectual Property, makes the libertarian case against patents.
Robert Wenzel, editor and publisher of EcononmicPolicyJournal.com, discusses the housing market, the BRICs, and the economy at large.
Chris Rossini of EcononmicPolicyJournal.com and author of Set Money Free: What Every American Needs to Know About the Federal Reserve, talks about the whys and hows of opposing the Fed.
Norm Singleton, legislative director for Congressman Paul, wraps up Ron Paul week by giving us a glimpse of life in the former congressman's office.
Ron Paul returns to the program to discuss Iraq, medicine, the value (or otherwise) of political action, and more. Check out his new venture, Voices of Liberty!
Steve Bierfeldt, former executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa (during the Ron Paul years), talks about saving money, budgeting, and how to travel for next to nothing. Check out Steve's Live Smart Not Hard site.
Paul-Martin Foss, Ron Paul's legislative assistant on monetary policy and executive director of the Carl Menger Center for the Study of Money and Banking, talks about the Fed and his experiences in Ron's office.
Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity discusses ISIS, Iraq, airstrikes, and nonintervention.
Jeff Taylor of Dordt College, and author of Politics on a Human Scale, discusses his experiences as a Ron Paul delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2012.
Anthony Gregory of the Independent Institute reminds us, in the age of Obama, how terrible the president's predecessor was.
Jay Shafer of Four Lights Houses and author of The Small House Book discusses the "tiny house" movement.
Charles Murray discusses his new book A Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life.
Charles Calomiris, a professor at Columbia Business School, joins Tom to discuss his new book Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit.
Hunt Tooley, author of The Western Front: Battle Ground and Home Front in the First World War, on the lasting consequences of World War I.
Robert Higgs, economist and economic historian and author of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episods in the Growth of American Government, looks at the domestic consequences of World War I.
David Henderson of Stanford University's Hoover Institution makes the case for a foreign policy of nonintervention. Read his speech "An Economist's Case for a Noninterventionist Foreign Policy."
Richard Gamble, author of The War for Righteousness: Progressive Christianity, the Great War, and the Rise of the Messianic Nation, talks about religion as a factor in World War I. And read Richard's article "Was World War I the Last Crusade?"
Hunt Tooley, author of The Western Front: Battle Ground and Home Front in the First World War, discusses the factors that combined to produce World War I.
Tom DiLorenzo discusses his book Organized Crime: The Unvarnished Truth About Government.
Joseph Salerno, director of the graduate program in economics at Pace University, academic vice president of the Mises Institute, and author of Money: Sound and Unsound, joins Tom to cover a wide variety of Austrian ground.
John Papola of EconStories.tv on his multimedia approach to spreading Austrian economics and liberty.
Judge Jim Gray talks about how his professional experience turned him against the drug war.
Ralph Nader joins Tom to discuss his new book Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State.
Philip Hamburger of Columbia Law School discusses his new book, Is Administrative Law Unlawful?
Jason Jewell discusses the libertarian case he makes in an edited volume called Christian Faith and Social Justice: Five Views.