The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
Recent Episodes
The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who are making the world a more libertarian—or at least a more interesting—place.
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Today's guest is the science writer Matt Ridley, author of best-selling books such as The Red Queen, The Rational Optimist, and, with Alina Chan, Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19. At a live event filmed in New York City, Ridley tells Nick Gillespie that political and cultural elites had already turned science, our best tool for understanding and improving the world, into a centralized, hyperpoliticized priesthood even before COVID.
He walks through the collapse of public trust in 2020 as experts flipped on masks and transmission, declared Black Lives Matter protests safe but religious services dangerous, and insisted on certainty where none existed. Ridley also explains how the lab leak hypothesis went from being a forbidden conspiracy theory to the most plausible explanation for the pandemic.
He shares his thoughts on why climate alarmism is finally waning, the future of innovation in an age of overregulation, why he's bullish on the future of nuclear power and AI, and how America can spark a new technological renaissance—even when leaders seem determined to smother dissent.
0:00—Introduction
1:59—Bill Gates' climate change reversal
6:15—How COVID diminished public trust
14:27—Centralization and confirmation bias
17:53—Vaccine skepticism
21:29—Sex and evolutionary theory
29:47—Politicization of science
31:34—COVID lab leak theory
37:50—Human progress
46:10—The role of storytelling
Previous appearances:
"Matt Ridley: Why Did Anthony Fauci et al. Suppress the Lab Leak Theory?"
"Matt Ridley: The Coronavirus Pandemic Shows 'That There's No Monopoly on Wisdom'"
"Matt Ridley on How Fossil Fuels Are Greening the Planet"
"Matt Ridley on Ideas Having Sex, Free Trade, and Apocalyptic Science With Reason's Kennedy"
Upcoming Reason Events
Reason Versus debate: Big Tech Does More Good Than Harm on December 10
- Producer: Paul Alexander
- Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser
The post Why Science Lost Its Way appeared first on Reason.com.
The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie goes deep on the thinkers, doers, and artists who are making the 21st century a more libertarian—or at least more interesting place—by challenging outmoded ideas and orthodoxies.
Today's guest is Ken Burns, the filmmaker who has massively reshaped national conversations about everything from the Civil War to baseball to jazz to immigration to national parks with epic documentary series that have aired on public television.
His latest work is The American Revolution, a 12-hour series about the nation's founding that he codirected with Sarah Botstein and David P. Schmidt. As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year, the American Revolution foregrounds the bloodiness of the war for independence from the British and the high levels of disunity among the colonists before and after the conflict, themes especially noteworthy in a society that is increasingly concerned about political violence and polarization. The series can also be seen as a rebuke to recent, overtly ideological attempts to recast the American experiment as morally irredeemable from its origins (The 1619 Project) or as a Disneyfied morality tale (The 1776 Project).
Burns talks with Gillespie about the role of truth in documentaries and why we should embrace contradictions in historical storytelling. They also debate whether PBS, defunded earlier this year by the Trump administration, should continue to receive tax dollars.
0:00—The American Revolution was a global war
7:52—Slavery in the Revolution and competing narratives
21:48—The logic of the Declaration of Independence
29:14—The impact of Native Americans
32:41—Why the Revolution leaves Burns feeling optimistic
39:09—The importance of New York in the Revolution
46:15—Funding for public broadcasting
53:16—What's next for Ken Burns?
56:26—Why understanding history is important for unity
Previous appearances:
"Filmmaker Ken Burns on Prohibition, Drug Laws and Unintended Consequences," October 1, 2011
"Ken Burns on PBS Funding, Being a 'Yellow-Dog Democrat,' and Missing Walter Cronkite," October 1, 2011
"The Vietnam War Is the Key to Understanding Today's America: Q&A with Filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick," September 13, 2017
"How Closed Borders Helped Facilitate the Holocaust," September 15, 2022
Upcoming Reason Events
Reason Versus debate: Big Tech Does More Good Than Harm, December 10
- Producer: Paul Alexander
- Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser
The post What We Get Wrong About the American Revolution appeared first on Reason.com.
The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, activists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries who are making the world a more libertarian—or at least more interesting—place by championing free minds and free markets.
Today's guest is Katie Herzog, co-host of the popular Blocked & Reported podcast and author of the paradigm-shattering new book Drink Your Way Sober. Katie writes about her and other people's experiences with The Sinclair Method—a medication-assisted approach to alcoholism where you use one drug to counter problematic use of another. Her story—and the cutting-edge research and treatment she reports on—upends just about everything we think we know about drug use, recovery, and autonomy.
She talks with Nick Gillespie about naltrexone, the drug that helped her retrain her brain, why Alcoholics Anonymous works for some people but not for others, and how modern medicine is finally catching up to the idea that we should treat adults like adults when it comes to what we put in our bodies.
They also get into the insane cancel culture politics that gave rise to her and Jesse Singal launching the Blocked & Reported podcast in 2020, whether we've passed peak woke, and if conservatives are now simply presiding over their own version of cancel culture.
Previous appearance: Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal on Left-Wing Cancel Culture, June 17, 2020.
0:00—Introduction
1:34—What is the Sinclair Method?
6:59—Herzog's experience with alcoholism
15:50—Sexuality, self-identity, and self-loathing
22:22—Recognizing addiction and the myths of willpower
27:43—Alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous
35:03—Herzog on differences in weed and alcohol use
38:44—Beta-blockers for overcoming anxiety
43:51—Transgenderism in media and cancel culture
58:29—Tolerance vs. agreement
- Producer: Paul Alexander
- Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser
The post There's More Than One Way To Get Sober appeared first on Reason.com.
Nick Gillespie speaks with Dr. Wolf von Laer of Students for Liberty, and Sean Themea of Young Americans for Liberty about how campus activism may change after the murder of Charlie Kirk. They discuss how the tragedy has affected their organizations, what it means for the future of student organizing, and how libertarian ideas about free expression and individual rights fit in today's campus climates.
- Producer: Paul Alexander
- Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser
The post Campus Activism in the Wake of Charlie Kirk's Murder appeared first on Reason.com.
The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries who are making the world a more libertarian—or at least a more interesting—place by challenging worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.
Today's guests are Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jon Shenk and former Navy SEAL Marcus Capone. Shenk is co-director, with Bonni Cohen, of the new Netflix documentary In Waves and War, which follows three former Navy SEALs as they use psychedelic-assisted therapy to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries related to their service.
Capone is one of the three main figures in the film. He first used the ultra-powerful substances ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT in 2017 and is the co-founder with his wife Amber of VETS, a nonprofit that helps veterans access psychedelic therapies. He's also CEO of TARA Mind, a company seeking to expand the use of psychedelic-assisted mental health therapies for all Americans. He is featured in the 2023 Reason documentary Welcome to the Psychedelic Renaissance.
They talk with Gillespie about why so many veterans and everyday Americans could benefit from psychedelic therapy and discuss the challenges of depicting both the grim realities of war and the otherworldly experiences of tripping on ibogaine, which some call the "Mount Everest of psychedelics." They also discuss why the Trump administration and an unlikely bipartisan group of legislators may well help usher in an era of legalized psychedelics.
0:00—Introduction
1:40—The reality of war
10:34—Documenting war for film
21:05—The psychological toll of the Afghanistan War
31:23—Health care for veterans and ibogaine treatment
36:14—Amber Capone and the importance of veteran spouses
40:15—The psychedelic experience of ibogaine
44:16—Stanford University study on ibogaine
51:49—Visualizing the psychedelic experience
55:37—Legislative progress for psychedelic-assisted therapy
1:05:52—The work of VETS and TARA Mind
- Producer: Paul Alexander
- Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser
The post Veterans Are Suffering Because of Government Red Tape appeared first on Reason.com.