The Great Antidote

10 Episodes
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By: Juliette Sellgren

Adam Smith said, "Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition." So join us for interviews with the leading experts on today's biggest issues to learn more about economics, policy, and much more.

Brad Wilcox on Get Married
Today at 11:00 AM

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The most common statistic cited regarding marriage and relationships in the United States is that the 50% of all marriages end in divorce. Another one that is gaining traction is that more Americans than ever before will end up unmarried and alone. 

Nobody likes these statistics. 

How did we get from the 60s, hairdos and stay at home moms, to a 50% divorce rate and a high probability of dying alone? Should we care? How do we balance the benefits of modernity – women in the workplace, higher incomes, more interesting jobs – with t...


Cara Rogers Stevens on Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
02/07/2025

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Thomas Jefferson was a complicated figure. Essential to the start of our country and the university I attend, he is impossible to ignore. Yet, he held slaves, and at the same time said “all men are created equal.” What’s up with that?!

Yet, we need to be able to talk about him. We also need to be able to acknowledge the contributions he has made to the world, while also acknowledging the flaws in his character and behavior. His legacy is complicated, and he was a complicated person. We all are. S...


Douglas Irwin on Talking about Trade and Commerce
01/31/2025

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Trade is all the rage these days. Or, at least, raging about trade is. Today, we unpack what trade and free trade are, and how to talk about it. We also address the abundance of lawyers in trade policy. 

Douglas Irwin is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College and the author of several books including Clashing Over Commerce and Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade.


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Douglas Irwin, International Trade Agreements, in the Concise Encyclopedia of EconomicsSamuel Gregg o...


Anna Claire Flowers on F. A. Hayek and Social Structures
01/24/2025

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 Today, I am excited to host Anna Claire Flowers to discuss F. A. Hayek and the mesocosmos. The mesocosmos is a fancy way to describe all the social groupings on the spectrum between the extremes of individualism and society. Think families, neighborhoods, farmers markets, firms, and universities. 

We talk about the importance of characterizing this missing middle piece of social organization and how it can resolve issues than a single individual or government can. She characterizes some of the important aspects of these associations for us. We talk about the family's ro...


Eric Leeper on Volcker, Friedman, and the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level
01/17/2025

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Welcome back! Happy New Year! Glad to be back! Come one, come all!

Eric Leeper is the Paul Goodloe McIntire Professor in Economics at the University of Virginia. He also is a visiting scholar at the Mercatus Center at GMU. Today, we talk about inflation. He explains to us how inflation theory has evolved and how we forgot about the relationship between the fiscal and monetary sides of the economy.

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John Cochrane on Monetary versus Fiscal Policy, A Great Antidote podcast.Leonidas...


David Beito on Rose Lane Says: Thoughts on Race, Liberty, and Equality
11/22/2024

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Not often do we find people who make the case for how race, liberty, and equality belong together. Even less often do we find them making arguments in the height of racially and economically troubled times. And EVEN LESS do we find audio clips of them doing so. 

These people are inspiring. They stand up against the currents of the time to speak their minds, for the benefit of everyone. In doing so, they garner respect and build coalitions across ideological lines, because they have to. We can learn from them a...


Sarah Skwire on Adam Smith and Grief
11/15/2024

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Adam Smith was a man who read the Stoics. He liked them, too, talking them up in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, particularly in the section on grief. 

Then he lost two of his closest relations (old timey, right?), David Hume and his mother. These world-shaking events caused him to reevaluate what he said about grief in TMS and change our interpretation of his commentary on grief.

So what did he say about grief before, and how did the actual experience of grief change his mind? How does grief w...


David Henderson on the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics
11/08/2024

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This year’s Nobel Prize winners in economics are Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson, who wrote on the importance of inclusive institutions to economic growth. But what on earth are ‘inclusive institutions’ and how do they differ from exclusive ones?

Inclusive institutions are norms, either written or unwritten, about things like property rights, democracy, and the rule of law. But what other institutions are important to economic growth, if there are others?

Some of this year’s winners endorse a strong antitrust regime. How do you reconcile the impo...


Samuel Gregg on National Security and Industrial Policy
11/01/2024

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Picture a policy conversation, perhaps in Washington, about national security. Who’s sitting around the table? It might be the President, national security advisors, military personnel, or generals, but not economists. And yet, national security is often used as a reason to intervene into the economy. 

At the mention of national security, it seems economists often shut their mouths and run away (or hide under a rock, or something). But why? How should economists think about and engage with concerns about national security? 

Today, the wonderful Sam Gregg joins us t...


Tawni Hunt Ferrarini on Teaching Hayek
10/25/2024

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How do you teach about a man who does not fit neatly into a box? Hayek is one such man, and today, we tackle the difficult task of putting him in a box. We conclude that we cannot put someone like F. A. Hayek into boxes such as “economist” or “philosopher” or “political theorist”, because he did it all. How and when do you teach the ideas of a man who did it all? 

I’m excited to welcome Tawni Hunt Ferrarini to the podcast today to talk to us about teaching Hayek...