Kibbe On Liberty

Matt Kibbe is joined by Hannah Frankman, founder of Rebel Educator, to discuss the country's growing move toward education alternatives. Following massive school closures during the pandemic, many parents have discovered the failures of the government school system. Zoom classes exposed both what children were learning and how they were learning it, and neither turned out to very sensible in a world of increasing access to education resources. Frankman talks about her experience as a lifelong homeschooler and an education entrepreneur working with families seeking a new way to think about schooling. She argues that as bad as the COVID lockdowns were, they accelerated the move away from government schools by more than a decade, as many of the fears and misconceptions surrounding child-led education begin to fall away.

Matt Kibbe talks to Jennifer Sey, former brand president of Levi’s, about how she was pushed out of the company over her views on COVID lockdowns. In this off-the-cuff conversation, Sey is bursting at the seams to explain how she legged it from the jeans giant rather than button her lip, as it became increasingly clear that some political leaders were in the pocket of Big Pharma, telling pants-on-fire lies to the public, and implementing policies that were apparently made up on the fly. Not wanting to feel hemmed in, she buckled down and wrote a book, “Levi’s Unbuttoned,” about her experiences, in which she stitches up those who wanted to silence her and others like her.

Matt Kibbe is joined by the R Street Institute’s Adam Thierer and Wayne Brough to discuss the state of free speech on the internet. With Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, we are in the middle of a national debate about the tension between censorship and free expression online. On the Right, many people are calling for government to rein in what they perceive as the excesses of Big Tech companies, while the Left wants the government to crack down on speech they deem dangerous. Both approaches make the same mistake of giving politicians authority over what we are allowed to say and hear. And with recent revelations about government agents leaning on social media companies to censor speech, it’s clear that when it comes to the online conversation, there’s no such thing as a purely private company.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Jack Hunter, co-founder of Based Politics, to discuss the results of the midterm elections, what we can learn from a lukewarm performance from Republicans, and the state of conservatism in the United States. One clear takeaway is that those Republicans who took a clear stand on liberty issues did better than their less principled counterparts. Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ron DeSantis won their races because voters recognized leaders who are willing to stand up against the tide of authoritarianism coming from Washington. In other cases, generic Republican candidates simply failed to capitalize on Americans’ widespread feelings of dissatisfaction, with a lack of inspiring candidates or a convincing case for how they would govern more responsibly.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to discuss the results of the recent midterm election. Many people were expecting Democrats to take a beating after COVID lockdowns, a weak economy, and record inflation, but for the most part, this didn’t happen. There are several explanations for this, including a number of lackluster Republican candidates and failure to sufficiently convince voters that Republicans would govern more responsibly. After all, many of the problems Americans now face started under a Republican president. If Republicans want to win in the future, they need to stand for something tangible. This is why Ron DeSantis had a good night, while moderate Republicans like Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker struggled. There’s also a conversation to be had about the role of Donald Trump in the GOP’s future, after many of his endorsements appeared to do more harm than good.

Matt Kibbe talks with economist Per Bylund about his new book, “How to Think About the Economy: A Primer.” Bylund explains what the economy actually is and how it works in terms that are easy for anyone to understand. Economics is not, as many believe, the study of money or finance, but a way of understanding human decision-making given the constraints of scarce resources. Per also explains the basics of the Austrian School of Economics, which differs in several important ways from the Chicago School and the Keynesian School, which are generally more popular with politicians and policymakers. How to Think About the Economy: A Primer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1610167554/

Matt Kibbe sits down with Will Ruger, president of the American Institute for Economic Research, to discuss the theory of foreign policy realism and how we can apply it to international conflicts like the war in Ukraine. Contrary to what critics claim, realists are not isolationists. They recognize a role for the American military on the world stage. But at the same time, they think that involvement should be restrained and always focused on America’s clear national security interests. By contrast, the neoconservative approach imagines that the United States has a duty to order the world as the U.S. government sees fit, engaging in nation-building and taking sides in every conflict around the globe.

Matt Kibbe is joined by comedic magician Doc Dixon to talk about what it was like being an entertainer during the years when live performances were mostly prohibited. As a libertarian, Dixon saw the dangers of lockdowns earlier than most — dangers not only to his ability to earn a living but to the mental health of a nation deprived of human interaction. From there, the discussion swings through a variety of topics, including the business of magic, the healing power of comedy, drug legalization, and the Ron Paul revolution.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Marian Tupy, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of “Superabundance,” to talk about the ways in which the standard of living has dramatically increased over the years. It has become fashionable to assert that things are getting worse, wages have stagnated, and prosperity is a thing of the past, but in reality the opposite is true. If you look at the numbers, as Tupy does in his book, it’s indisputable that we’ve made amazing progress as a species, and yet many refuse to recognize it. The reason is that utopian thinking leads to comparing the present not to the past, but to an unrealizable ideal that exists only in the imagination. When you make this comparison, you are bound to be disappointed. A more realistic approach shows that this resentment is misplaced and that in fact we should be grateful for all the wealth and prosperity we now enjoy.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Robert Alt, CEO of the Buckeye Institute, and Eric Flannery, owner of the Big Board, to celebrate the filing of their constitutional challenge against the District of Columbia. After Eric announced that his restaurant would not discriminate against the unvaccinated, the city pulled his liquor license and ultimately shut him down completely. Nine months later, after Eric was forced to burn through his life savings, the Big Board is open and the outstanding fines have been dismissed. But Eric and Robert are fighting on in defense of the fundamentally American principles at stake. Their new legal challenge argues that the D.C. government did not have the authority to issue a string of emergency orders that resulted in the Big Board’s shutdown and that these actions, by seeking to evade congressional review and judicial scrutiny, violated the U.S. Constitution and the Home Rule Act of 1973. Watch Free the People's documentary coverage of this story: Shut Down Indefinitely | Part 1: https:/

Matt Kibbe sits down with Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, to discuss the bottom-up revolution sweeping the States, driven by fed-up parents demanding better choices and accountability from failing government schools. While Arizona’s reforms are the new gold standard, and West Virginia is making progress in offering school choice to more students, parents should demand more, especially from Republicans. With students still recovering from COVID lockdowns and long-term school closures, the last thing children need is politics getting in the way of parental rights and much needed reforms.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Carol Roth, author of “The War on Small Business,” to discuss the many ways in which government policy favors huge corporations and makes life hard for the independent business owner. For all the talk about small business being the backbone of the American economy, it would be hard to design a set of policies more hostile to small businesses. Considering everything from COVID lockdowns, to Wall Street bailouts, to Obamacare, to the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, it’s clear that the rich and powerful have a seat at the table that is denied to the rest of us, and that translates into a playing field that is anything but level. The War on Small Business: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063081415

Matt Kibbe is joined by Stanford University epidemiologists Jay Bhattacharya and John Ioannidis to discuss the interaction between science and health policy. The COVID-19 response was one-sided and dictated from the top down, which not only led to many disastrous policies, but also undermined the public trust in science and medicine as institutions. In the future, what is needed is a more humble approach to policymaking that admits its own ignorance and allows the public more opportunities to participate in the decision-making process.

Matt Kibbe talks with Gene Epstein, director of the Soho Forum, about the economy, inflation, and whether or not the United States is set to experience a severe recession. Kibbe argues that between lockdowns, rampant spending, and an unwillingness of the Biden administration to take its foot off the gas, we could be in the midst of a perfect storm for economic downturn. Epstein, on the other hand, thinks that the economy is more resilient than that — based on the rapid recovery we saw after lockdowns were lifted. While we can certainly expect some degree of economic hardship in the near future, how severe it will be is still very much an open question.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Jenin Younes, litigation counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, to discuss the lawsuit filed by two attorneys general against the federal government over online censorship. There is a mounting body of evidence that the Biden administration pressured social media companies into removing certain content, and the suit alleges that this is a clear violation of the First Amendment. If major platforms like Twitter and Facebook are acting as an arm of the federal government under threat of punishment if they disobey, the basic principle of freedom of speech and of the press is severely compromised, replaced by a regime of aggressive censorship and propaganda.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Lou Perez, comedian and author of “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore,” to talk about the future of comedy in a world where taking offense has risen to the level of a competitive sport. As comedians abandon college campuses and risk having their social media presence destroyed by saying something controversial, comedy has become the vanguard for free expression and the war against censorship. Without jesters to poke fun at the powerful and cloak important truths in humor, society becomes a stagnant, humorless morass that tends ever closer towards authoritarianism. That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637582455

Matt Kibbe sits down with Heather Wilson and Jacob Wells, co-founders of GiveSendGo, a crowdfunding website that doesn’t discriminate based on differences in ideology. After several high-profile cases where crowdfunders have blocked campaigns for the Canadian truckers or businesses refusing to comply with vaccine mandates, people are looking for an alternative solution to support companies that are willing to stand up for their values. As cancel culture and deplatforming are interfering even with people’s ability to make charitable contributions to support freedom, competition and entrepreneurship are more important than ever in providing an escape from the woke mob.

Matt Kibbe sits down with economist David Friedman, one of the original advocates for a stateless society, where all services are provided by markets rather than government. He called this system anarcho-capitalism, and in the nearly fifty years since the publication of his seminal book “The Machinery of Freedom,” his ideas have become extremely influential among the libertarian movement. Friedman discusses his philosophy of a free society and the ways in which he tries to persuade skeptics that his system would be preferable to the one we have now, or to similarly revolutionary proposals by socialists.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Kyle Mann, editor in chief of the Babylon Bee, to talk about the ways in which laughter can cut through the constant anxiety that news outlets and political partisans demand we feel at all times. The evidence that this works comes from the overt hostility displayed to the Babylon Bee’s innocent satire by fact-checkers and social media platforms. The mere act of bringing people together through humor has become a threat to the endless divisions that keep us fighting among ourselves.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of health policy at Stanford University, to talk about the continued hesitancy of the mainstream media and government scientists to acknowledge the immense harm caused by COVID lockdowns. As one of the authors of the “Great Barrington Declaration,” Dr. Bhattacharya has been subjected to a relentless smear campaign designed to discredit him, yet the evidence is clear to anyone willing to look: Not only did lockdowns throw millions into poverty, but they were made possible by the extremely dangerous gain-of-function research that allowed the virus to spread in the first place. The hostility toward lockdown skeptics is largely an attempt by those responsible for COVID to cover their tracks and shift the blame to others.