The John Stossel Interviews

Ep. 45 Hayek’s Warning We Ignored: Government Planning Doesn’t Fix Economies

Politicians say they can “fix” the economy.But economists Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises pointed out how government “fixes" lead to bigger problems.Hayek and Mises predicted the fall of the Soviet Union. They warned that centrally planned economies fail.But today, socialism is popular again. New York and Seattle have elected socialist mayors.Many politicians still believe that government can manage the economy—an idea popularized by economist John Maynard Keynes.Keynes was revered. Politicians love his arguments.But Hayek and Mises warned that government intervention leads to inflation, instability, and boom-bust cycles.They were right.In this podcast, Ryan McMaken of the Mises Institute explains why we should read Hayek and Mises today.

Ep. 44 Uncomfortable Topics with Heather Mac Donald: Race, Skills Gap, Disparate Impact & the Role of Women

“I'm going to speak the truth here, and this is not pleasant for people to hear.” In my podcast with author Heather Mac Donald, she says uncomfortable things about race, crime, feminism and more.For example, she says, “The reality of our world today is not white privilege. It's black privilege.” She says many jobs and colleges today unfairly favor black candidates with fewer skills. “Harvard until recently had about 16% blacks in its freshman class,” says Mac Donald, “If it admitted based on academic merit, there would be less than 1%.” She’s been repeatedly called “‘racist’ for saying things like that. “Am I a racist for bringing this up? I am not!” responds Mac Donald, “The facts are the facts … They have been completely kept out of the public eye to keep this systemic lie of racism going on.” In this podcast, more facts you won’t hear covered by mainstream media.

Ep. 43 Jo Jorgensen: What if We Had a Libertarian President?

During the last 5 years our government has imposed lockdowns, caused inflation, increased the deficit, started trade wars, and now a real war.It makes me wonder; how would things have been different if we had a libertarian President?Well, here’s my discussion with 2020’s libertarian Presidential candidate, Jo Jorgensen.We originally spoke 5 years ago, but our conversation covers issues that are still important today.

Ep 42. Andrew Yang: On UBI, Defunding Police, Cancel Culture, Entrepreneurship

I don’t bother interviewing most politicians. But former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is interesting.Unlike most politicians, he has experience as an entrepreneur, he criticizes politicians for their "magical thinking," and he even left his party (the Democrats) to start the "Forward Party."I spoke to him in 2021, soon after its launch. We discuss if a third party could ever succeed, where politicians' magical thinking has failed, entrepreneurship, and I push back on his vision for universal basic income (basically free money).

Ep. 41 Johan Norberg: Lessons From Ancient Athens, Rome, the Renaissance & Other Golden Ages

Are we witnessing the fall of the American empire? Are we doomed to fall, like Ancient Athens, Ancient Rome and others?No. But if we don’t learn the lessons of history, we could be. To avoid collapse, historian Johan Norberg argues we especially need to learn from the rise and fall of past golden ages—like Ancient Athens, Ancient Rome, China’s Song Dynasty, the Italian Renaissance, and more.“What sets these golden ages apart," he explains, "is that they managed to ... give more people more freedoms.” Like freedom to trade. That helped many golden ages prosper.In this podcast, we also discuss what led to their decline. I was surprised to learn that many problems we face today (like inflation and unsustainable entitlement spending) also destroyed societies more than a thousand years ago. “But that doesn't mean that we're doomed,” says Norberg. “There are so many instances where societies faced terrible situations … but bounced back … So there is still time. We can still save this golden age.”