Today’s podcast is titled “The Controversy Over Affirmative Action.” Recorded in 1997, Dennis McCuistion, former Clinical Professor of Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas, Dalton Cross Professor of Law at University of Texas at Austin Lino Graglia, and former University of California Regent, businessman and activist Ward Connerly discuss the state of race-based preferences in education and employment. Listen now, and don’t forget to subscribe to get updates for the Free To Choose Media Podcast.
Did Government Intervention and a World War End the Great Depression?
In our last post, we explored how the Great Depression didn’t happen because capitalism failed, but because government intervention in monetary markets created distortions that made a necessary correction catastrophic. But the story doesn’t end with the 1929 crash. What followed reveals an even more important lesson about how government solutions can turn a temporary downturn into a decade-long disaster. Most of us learned in school that Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs softened the Depression’s worst effects, and that World War II’s massive government spending finally ended the economic nightmare. It’s a comforting narrative that positions the government as the …
Steven Bartlett on the Real Game Entrepreneurs Play
Every entrepreneur starts with the same delusion: success is about having great ideas and working hard. Steven Bartlett certainly did. At 18, dropping out of university after a single lecture to start his first company, he believed the game was about him—his vision, his effort, his brilliance. Ten years and countless mistakes later, the founder of Social Chain and host of “Diary of a CEO” discovered he’d been playing the wrong game entirely. “First-time founders have a hidden bias,” Bartlett explains in a recent interview you can watch below. “They think the game is about them.” But after building a …
Episode 254 – Has Affirmative Action Outlived Its Usefulness? (Podcast)
Today’s podcast is titled “Has Affirmative Action Outlived Its Usefulness?” Recorded in 1995, Dennis McCuistion, former Clinical Professor of Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas, nationally syndicated columnist and professor of economics Walter Williams, president of the University of Texas at Dallas and former president of Howard University Dr. Franklyn Jenifer, plus other guests, discuss whether affirmative action has outlived its usefulness and what should replace it. Listen now, and don’t forget to subscribe to get updates for the Free To Choose Media Podcast.
Did Capitalism Cause the Great Depression?
Unfettered capitalism. That’s usually how the story goes. Greedy speculators run wild, markets spin out of control, and eventually the whole system collapses under the weight of its own excess. Then the government steps in heroically to clean up capitalism’s inevitable mess. It’s a tidy narrative that fits our intuitions about boom-and-bust cycles. But what if the real story is far more complicated? What if the Great Depression happened not because markets were too free, but because well-intentioned government policies created a web of distortions that made the eventual crash both inevitable and far worse than it needed to be? …
Episode 253 – Should America Build a Missile Defense System? (Podcast)
Today’s podcast is titled “Should America Build a Missile Defense System?” Recorded in 2001, Dennis McCuistion, former Clinical Professor of Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas, U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Director of Defense Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, Ivan Eland, Deputy Director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, Stephen Young, and former Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and Chairman of High Frontier, Henry F. Cooper discuss whether the United States should build a national missile defense system. Listen now, and …
Natural Monopolies: Why Big Business Isn’t Forever
“We need to break up Big Tech!” “These corporations are too powerful!” If you’ve followed political discourse over the past few years, you’ve heard variations of these complaints countless times. The underlying assumption is always the same: once a business gets big enough, it becomes permanently entrenched, immune to competition, and capable of exploiting consumers indefinitely. But what if this assumption is completely wrong? What if the natural tendency in free markets isn’t toward permanent monopolies but toward constant change, disruption, and renewal? What if the businesses that seem invincible today are actually more vulnerable than they appear? Let’s start …
Episode 252 – The War on Drugs: A 1990s Debate on Prohibition versus Legalization (Podcast)
Today’s podcast is titled “The War on Drugs: A 1990s Debate on Prohibition versus Legalization” Recorded in 1995, Dennis McCuistion, former Clinical Professor of Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas hosts a discussion about the war on drugs with former Cato Institute executive vice president David Boaz, former dean of National College of Criminal Defense Emmett Colvin, FBI special agent Buck Revell, and DEA special agent Phil Jordan. Listen now, and don’t forget to subscribe to get updates for the Free To Choose Media Podcast.
The Harmon Brothers on Turning Disaster Into Opportunity
When Disney, Warner Bros., and Fox sued Neil and Jeff Harmon for $120 million over their content-filtering service, VidAngel, most entrepreneurs would have seen it as the end. The brothers saw it as a beginning. In a revealing conversation with Mike Rowe, which you can watch below, the Harmon Brothers share how a devastating legal battle became the foundation for Angel Studios—a revolutionary entertainment company that’s disrupting Hollywood by putting audiences in control. The story begins on an Idaho potato farm where nine siblings learned entrepreneurship out of necessity. Selling potatoes door-to-door to pay for private school taught the Harmons …
Episode 251 – Liberal, Objectivist, Conservative: Divergent Voices in America (Podcast)
Today’s podcast is titled “Liberal, Objectivist, Conservative: Divergent Voices in America” Recorded in 1998, Dennis McCuistion, former Clinical Professor of Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas hosts a discussion about three distinct ideological frameworks with CPAE professional speaker and author Phil Wexler, philosopher and author Leonard Peikoff, and Chair and CEO of the Eagle Forum Phyllis Schlafly. Listen now, and don’t forget to subscribe to get updates for the Free To Choose Media Podcast.