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What does it actually mean to run a think tank, to create harmony within an office building full of idea-confident folk? Some have called the think tank a monastery, some have called it an academic social club, and some have even called it a policy incubator. What truly is it and how on earth do you lead one?

Leading a think tank is a multifaceted job, because you have your own scholarship to do too. Today, I’m excited to welcome the president of AEI, Robert Doar, to the podcast for a similarly multifaceted conversation. Doar talks to us about his work on poverty and, more recently, the Nixon impeachment, as well as his job as the president of AEI. Stay with us till the end to hear us talking about our favorite books!


Want to explore more?

• Daniel Rothschild on Liberalism and Think Tanks, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Yesim Sayin on the DC Life and Policy, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Undivide Us: Ben Klutsey on Exploring and Confronting Polarization, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Max Borders, Can We Have Welfare Without the Threat of Violence? at Econlib.
• Richard Gunderman, Joy in Economics...And Tolstoy? at Econlib.

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Even though I hope you’ve been avoiding the election news like I have (as you would the plague), admittedly, it’s hard to do. It’s like someone is blasting it outside your window at 5 AM. Or like a billboard outside your front door that you can’t help but see every time you step outside. Bummer.

Fortunately, AEI’s wonderful Yuval Levin joins us today to talk about the remedy to the plight of election season and America’s recent malaise (not to echo Jimmy Carter…): the American constitution. Now, I know, you might be rolling your eyes and thinking “Those classical liberals are at it again, always talking about the founding…” But seriously. Remembering and embracing the spirit upon which America was founded—one of intellectual and political dynamism—is key to striking the balance between life, politics, and disagreement that has felt so off-kilter recently.

Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at AEI, as well as the founder and editor of National Affairs. He recently released the book American Covenant, which we are talking about today. Join us today for a livelier, timelier version of what you learned in your 7th-grade civics class.

Want to explore more?

• How the Constitution Can Bring us Together, an EconTalk podcast with Yuval Levin.
• Yuval Levin on a Time to Build, an EconTalk podcast.
• Darren Staloff on the American Founding, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Christy Lynn Horpedahl, A Skeptic's Guide to the Perfect Commonwealth, at Speaking of Smith.
• Understanding Jefferson: Slavery, Race, and the Declaration of Independence, a Liberty Matters Forum at the Online Library of Liberty.

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Growth is essential to human life. Always has been, always will be. From the moment we are born, we grow, and we continue to throughout our lives, whether that is physically, mentally, or otherwise. Societies grow too.

But what is growth? Real growth is replicable, durable, and sustainable (and not in the sense that immediately comes to mind). Your seven-year-old doesn’t shrink back down after she grows an inch. It might happen when she’s ninety, but that’s gravity (and don’t you think she’s had a good run at this point? We should accept that it’s ok to have a growth recession every now and again). So how have intellectuals conceptualized the growth of societies, environments, and economies over time? And how should we think about growth?

The wonderful Henry C. Clark joins us on the podcast today to answer these questions and more. He is the program director of the Political Economy Project at Dartmouth College and the author of several books including the newly released The Moral Economy We Have Lost: Life Before Mass Abundance. Go check it out!


Want to explore more?

• Henry Clark on the Enlightenments, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Pierre Desrochers, From Prometheus to Arcadia: Liberals, Conservatives, the Environment, and Cultural Cognition, at Econlib.
• Robert Pindyck on Averting and Adapting to Climate Change, an EconTalk podcast.
• Sandra Peart and David Levy, Happiness and the Vanity of the Philosopher: Part1, at Econlib.
• Deirdre McCloskey and Economists' Ideas About Ideas, a Liberty Matters forum at the Online Library of Liberty.

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Some questions are hard to ask. Some questions you don’t want to ask. Some questions are hard for you to hear the answers to. Like, how do you tell someone, politely, that they eat with their mouth open? Between a rock and a hard place, you know you gotta do it. You really don’t want to, but you know you can’t stand to watch it anymore either.

Candace Smith is a wonderful teacher of etiquette and the creator of the Etiquette: For the Business of Life blog. Her philosophy on the importance of etiquette is that if the world was a little more polite, that we’d live in a much kinder world. Join us today for a conversation about how to make that change in your life and community today!

Want to explore more?

• Candace Smith, Etiquette and Adam Smith, at Speaking of Smith
• Dan Klein on Smith: Self-Command, Pride, and Vanity, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Leonidas Montes, The Importance of Self-Command, at AdamSmithWorks.
• Sarah Skwire, The Science of Dining, at the Online Library of Liberty.

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What does it mean for something to be ESG when two of those words are adjectives and one is a noun? I mean think about it. “Environmental, social, and governance” doesn’t really describe anything. It’s also a good example of cacophony. So can someone please explain what it means?

Today, luckily, Paul Mueller, senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, comes to my rescue. He explains what ESG means and how it relates to CSR (corporate social responsibility, ESG’s more comprehensible predecessor). He answers a question that’s been plaguing me forever, which is, why are free marketeers generally against these types of movements, even though they are private endeavors?

Want to explore more?

• Paul Mueller, A Short Guide to ESG, at AIER.
• Paul Mueller, ESG Puppeteers, at AIER.
• Dwight R. Lee, Corporate Social Responsibility: The Seen and the Unseen, at Econlib.
• David Henderson, ESG Feeds Inflation, Hurts Economic Growth, at Econlib.
• Read the entry on Corporate Governance in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

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What’s in a price? Good question. How can you be “enslaved” to something like a price, to something that doesn’t eat, sleep, or breathe? Good question. What does it mean to wage a war against this inanimate enslaver? Good question.

Join me today with Ryan Bourne, the R. Evan Scharf Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics at the Cato institute. Bourne paints a picture of a bloodless yet economically catastrophic war. It's one which leaves us vulnerable as the weapons of the market (dollars) diminish in our pockets (inflation) and the state of war (price controls) depletes the quality and quantity of our conquests (market interactions) until they are vastly inferior to the opposition’s (free markets).

Want to explore more?

• Russ Roberts, Where Do Prices Come From? at Econlib.
• Michael L. Davis, Price Gouging is Fine, but Humans are Better, at Econlib.
• Michael Munger on John Locke, Prices, and Hurricane Sandy, an EconTalk podcast.
• Rosolino Candela, Can Price Controls Fight Inflation? at Econlib.
• Michael Cannon on Prices and Health, a Great Antidote podcast.

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Michael Cannon is the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies and it is his third time on the podcast. He has been on The Washingtonian’s list of most influential people for four years in a row.

Today, we talk about why people think the American healthcare system is “free market” and the role of prices in determining health outcomes--- and how unfettered markets improve the lives of everyone in need of healthcare. He tells us about the ways government intervention, like patchwork, distorts and attempts to undistort prices, and how it leaves us all worse off. He leaves us with a bit of hope though, so tune in for a sunbeam of optimism in the thundering sky of our health policy landscape!

Want to explore more?

• Michael Cannon on Medicare, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Michael Cannon on Employer-Sponsored Healthcare, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Keith Smith on Free Market Healthcare, an EconTalk podcast.
  • Explore all the EconTalk episodes on healthcare. There are a lot!
• Richard McKenzie and Katherine Shelton, How Free-Market Kidney Sales Can Save Lives- and Lower the Total Cost of Kidney Transplants, at Econlib.

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Charles Noussair is the Eller Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona and the Director of the Economic Science Laboratory. He also serves as the President of the Economic Science Association. Today, we talk about experimental economics, how it complements other types of economic research, and how economic experiments are conducted. He tells us about a recent macro experiment that tests institutions for growth and welfare, such as electoral systems, political speech, and corruption. He explains the difference between extractive and inclusive economic institutions. Finally, he explains how experimental economics applies to everyone’s lives, not just to economists.

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