The Libertarian Institute - All Podcasts

The Strait of Hormuz is where slogans go to die. Today we take a hard look at the claim that the United States “controls” the strait because mines were cleared and surveillance is perfect, then we test that claim against something more revealing: the reported message relayed through Pakistan offering to lift sanctions if Iran reopens shipping. If Washington has control, why negotiate for access? I walk through the incentives, the contradictions, and what leverage actually looks like when global oil flows, insurance risk, and regional escalation are all tied together.

We also dig into Iran...

John ad I continue reading and commentary on Ordinary Men

“Economic D-Day against Iran” makes for great TV, but it only matters if the US can actually enforce it. Kyle sits down with Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and the writer behind Sonar21, to pressure-test the Trump administration’s new sanctions push, “Operation Economic Outcast,” and the claims that it will isolate Tehran, choke off military funding, and reopen business as usual in the Gulf.

We dig into what’s happening around the Strait of Hormuz, why official narratives can clash with independent shipping tracker data, and how visibility, radar, and maritime traffic shape energy marke...

“Economic war” sounds like a tidy solution until you look at what it actually does and what it rarely accomplishes. We sit down with Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski to pressure-test the latest U.S. messaging on Iran, from claims that sanctions will prevent a nuclear program forever to louder promises that Tehran’s government can be collapsed through blockade and financial pressure. We don’t treat this as abstract theory. We dig into how sanctions function in practice, why they often fail to produce regime change, and how they can still escalate conflict while pretending to be restraint.

A US senator gets a basic Taiwan and South China Sea question and freezes, defaulting to “I support the military.” That clip sets the tone for a hard look at how casually America treats foreign policy competence while Congress keeps voting on war funding, alliances, and the next escalation. We talk through why Taiwan policy, freedom of navigation, and China deterrence are not optional knowledge for people shaping US national security.

Then we dig into the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz, where the difference between “we control it” and “we can move some oil tonigh...

The fastest way to lose a war is to start one without an end state, and that’s the thread we pull from start to finish with Jim Webb. We get specific about what “no strategy” looks like in the real world: no clear objective, no believable measure of success, and no honest accounting for what happens when the other side attacks the thing that actually powers U.S. force projection, logistics. When the plan is blurry, every headline becomes the plan, and that’s how major powers stumble into disasters.

We also dig into the repo...

The centerpiece of this episode is DHP Episode 253: Academia is a Racket, which CJ produced back in late-February 2023, only about 6 months after he walked away from academia, after spending 22 years of his life in it (6 as a student & 16 as a teacher.)

In this episode, CJ mostly avoided the lowest-hanging & widely understood defects of academia in recent decades — ie, the rise to hegemony of once-fringe (even in academia) “Woke” ideology, & the exorbitant costs to the students of getting a college “education.”

Instead, drawing from his 22 years inside academia, he mostly focuses on structural (in the true sense of t...

Gas prices don’t rise in a vacuum. They rise when chokepoints tighten, reserves drain, and officials pretend the pain will stay contained. We sit down with Larry Johnson of Sonar21 to pressure-test the story you’re being sold about the war with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and why “it’s only $4 a gallon” can quickly turn into a very different reality when global oil supply, diesel, and aviation fuel get squeezed.



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Scott interviews Arta Moeini of The Institute for Peace & Diplomacy about several articles he’s written recently digging into the true risk of Trump’s decision to kill Iran’s supreme leader and launch this regional war in the Middle East.

Discussed on the show:



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Scott brings Tim Shorrock back on the show to dig into the latest developments between Trump and the leaders of both South Korea and North Korea. They discuss the specifics and the broader historical context behind these latest moves.

Discussed on the show:

Tim Shorrock is the author of Spies For Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing and a regular contributor to The Nation and the Korea Center for Investigative Reporting. Follow him on Twitter @TimothyS and subscribe to his Substack. 

A US aircraft carrier packed with 5,000 sailors is not supposed to become a story about empty shelves, broken plumbing, and desperate messages to families. We start there because the USS Abraham Lincoln reports don’t just raise moral alarms, they raise a strategic one: if extended deployments are pushing crews to the edge, what does […]

This episode is a segment from the big Patreon Supporters-Only Bonus DHP episode CJ is currently working on, “Wooden Walls on the Water,” which will be a multi-hour deep-dive into virtually everything we know about Greek navies (especially the Athenian navy, about which we know the most) in the 5th century BC, including – but […]

Hybrid warfare Is a can of worms, a fascinating conjoining of kinetic and non-kinetic means of achieving victory or stale between warring nations. This first episode tries to lay the ground work of what it is and in the next two episodes we will examine an historical and a contemporary example of hybrid warfare in […]

A president who craves praise is easy to steer, and Charles Goyette argues that’s exactly the danger facing US foreign policy right now. I’m joined by the New York Times best-selling author and Libertarian Institute writer to unpack his “mousetrapped” thesis: how Benjamin Netanyahu can use flattery, timing, and intelligence claims to nudge Donald Trump […]

Trump says the war is going great and the “bully of the Middle East” is no longer in charge. We’re not buying slogans, so we pull the thread on what “going great” is supposed to mean when U.S. munitions stockpiles are thinning, regional bases are taking hits, and the Strait of Hormuz still looks anything […]

Download Audio. Ron Paul joins the show to talk about Iran, the economy, Flock cameras and the prospects for liberty in the years ahead. Discussed on the show: The Ron Paul Institute Former congressman and American hero Ron Paul is the host of the Ron Paul Liberty Report and director of the Ron Paul […]

Download Audio. Dave DeCamp returns to the show to run through the latest foreign policy news. He and Scott discuss Israel’s ongoing, ceasefire-violating strikes in Gaza, the risks of another escalation between the US and Iran, the regional dynamic of the war, the risk of a nuclear strike on Iran and Washington’s never-ending air […]

A threat is not a strategy, and it definitely is not a negotiating position. We sit down with Ambassador Chas Freeman to unpack why talk of “decapitation,” demands for compensation, and shifting US red lines do not move Iran toward a deal, they push everything toward attrition and escalation. Freeman argues credibility is the real […]

The fastest way to understand a crisis is to stop arguing about talking points and look at what is physically happening. Today we do exactly that with Larry Johnson as LtCol. Karen Kwiatkowski fills in for Kyle, starting with the Strait of Hormuz and the hard question behind every headline: is it actually open, and […]

“Golden age” is an easy line to sell. Living through the consequences of a war of choice is harder. We’re joined by Col. Lawrence Wilkerson for a blunt look at where the United States stands as the Iran conflict drags on, and why the economy, the military, and public trust can’t be separated when policy […]

If you’ve ever watched an AI tool answer a complicated question with total confidence, you’ve felt the power problem hiding in plain sight. We sit down with journalist Nick Cleveland-Stout of Responsible Statecraft and Drop Site News to trace how Israeli influence operations are pushing narratives about Gaza directly into the systems people now use […]

A progressive primary upset turns into something much bigger when you follow the money and the message. We’re rolling solo and starting with what last night’s results suggest about where U.S. politics is heading: foreign policy is no longer a side issue. When wars drag on, when Israel and Iran dominate headlines, and when voters […]

“We don’t want regime change… but the regime has to change.” That line tells you almost everything about how Washington talks itself into bigger wars, and why the US Iran conflict keeps drifting from one stated goal to the next. We sit down with Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski to sort out what’s real, what’s posturing, […]

A viral interview raises an uncomfortable question: what does it mean when a high-profile US political influencer sits down with a commander tied to the Azov movement and the “clean up the optics” answer is basically no? We take that clip seriously, not as clickbait, but as a window into how the Ukraine war is […]

Download Audio. Joe Kent joins the show again to discuss the risk of a major terrorist attack against Americans. He and Scott go through all the major Islamist groups around right now and weigh who poses the biggest risks of carrying out blowback terrorism. Discussed on the show: “The Islamic State in ‘Khorasan’: How […]

Download Audio. Scott brings Robert Pape back on the show. They discuss the difficult situation Trump is in as he tries to find a face-saving way out of his war with Iran. But first, Scott and Pape look back at Pape’s career and previous conflicts like Iraq War I and Bosnia to assess how […]

Download Audio. Journalist Lindsey Snell returns to the show to talk about Syria. She first recounts her experience getting kidnapped by the Jihadists who now control the country. Scott and Snell then debunk all the propaganda we’re being fed about Jolani and the rest of his “moderate” rebels who now, with Western backing, are […]

Missiles in the air, oil markets on edge, and a White House that still can’t answer the simplest question: what’s the plan? We start with reporting from foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on US forces having only minutes to intercept incoming Iranian ballistic missiles, then I lay out why “shock” at Iranian retaliation doesn’t make sense […]

J and I discuss the Iran war, the collapsing economy, economic hardship, true grievance, and some UFC.

The story most people miss about a widening Middle East war isn’t just who fires the next missile, it’s who can absorb the retaliation after they do. I’m solo today, moving fast through the latest escalations and then slowing down where it matters: the strategic constraints that make “hit them harder” sound simple while turning […]

Here it is, FINALLY — the third installment of ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest’ series, about the Athenian expedition to Sicily during the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC. Enjoy! Join CJ as he discusses: The Syracusan reaction to news of a huge, inbound Athenian expeditionary force, including the wise advice of Hermocrates (that […]

Download Audio. Glenn Greenwald joins the show to discuss the recent victories of several anti-establishment left-wing candidates in Democratic primaries and the shifts in American politics more broadly. Discussed on the show: “Robert Kagan: Sometimes US intervention is worth blowback” (Responsible Statecraft) Glenn Greenwald is an American journalist, author, and former lawyer. Subscribe to […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews economist Robert Murphy about inflation, the Austrian school of economics, the Federal Reserve and the state of the economy today. Discussed on the show: The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin  Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New […]

John and I read and discuss chp 1-3 of Ordinary Men

Download Audio. Scott interviews Jeff Deist about the significance of Ron Paul, who Deist used to work for, as well as Murray Rothbard. They then discuss the challenges and opportunities that the movement both men helped create and lead faces going forward. Discussed on the show: The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in […]

Ukraine can look stable on a map while collapsing through its supply lines and that’s where we start. Zelensky claims his relationship with Donald Trump has “absolutely changed” after a private meeting, but we stress-test that optimism against a tougher metric: what the United States is actually providing in money, weapons, and air defense right […]

A nuclear power deal can sound like paperwork until the fine print turns into a proliferation crisis. We sit down with Jon Hoffman of the Cato Institute to unpack the reported US Saudi nuclear agreement and the real meaning of a “Section 123 agreement” under the Atomic Energy Act. The headline question is simple and […]

A single line in a must-pass defense bill can change U.S. foreign policy for years, and most people will never hear about it until it is too late. We dig into Section 219 of the NDAA and why critics say it moves beyond “supporting Israel” into something far more permanent: structural military integration that could […]

Download Audio. Matt Williams returns to the show to discuss where things stand in Ukraine and with Trump’s war with Iran. Discussed on the show: Williams’ YouTube Channel Matt is an Australian Army veteran, independent journalist, and content creator. He served in the Australian Infantry with the 7th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment from 2014-2021 […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews Patrick Pillow about several articles he’s written about recent and ongoing color revolutions emanating from the various agencies and NGOs that Washington uses to overthrow governments it doesn’t like. Discussed on the show: “The Making of Albania’s Flamingo Revolution” (Libertarian Institute) “Musk v. USAID: The Complicated Legacy of America’s Aid […]