Reason Foundation
21) Ralph Nader on How Progressives and Libertarians Are Taking on Corrupt Democrats and Republicans
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
Consumer activist and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader talks with Reason magazine's Nick Gillespie on a wide range of topics, including what he sees as a new libertarian-progressive attack on crony capitalism, whether GM cars were ever any good, and why the Democrats still wrongly insist that he cost Al Gore the 2000 presidential election.
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
Author and blogger Glenn Reynolds discusses why Americans are spending more for a college education and how students are responding to increasing tuition costs. The discussion also includes Reynolds' take on school choice, the state of the blogosphere, and whether or not both political parties are necessary.
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
After former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's identity became known, Ladar Levison shut down Lavabit, an encrypted email provider that Snowden used, posting the following message on the company website: "I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit." Levison was prohibited from discussing any details of the case until...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
Revenge porn is defined as the dissemination of sexually explicit images of an ex-lover without their permission. It can often be emotionally devastating and have lasting effects on a person's reputation and employability. That's exactly what Nicole Coon, a 25-year-old Virginia nursing student, experienced last November when she found a sexually explicit video of herself on the Internet. Coon had filmed and sent the video to her boyfriend of 8 years;...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
The United Farm Workers, which once boasted more than 50,000 dues-paying members, now claims fewer than 5,000. Yet with unionization in the industry on the decline, real wages have steadily increased. This documentary short follows the story of workers at Gerawan Farms, who have begun to protest-not against their employer, but against the union that claims to represent them and wants to take a percentage of their wages. The workers think their story...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
Feminist and social justice blogs popularized the concept of the "trigger warning," with writers encouraging each other to label posts that might trigger flashbacks to sexual assault or domestic abuse. As the popularity, and scope, of the trigger warning idea grew, some bloggers began listing potential triggers, ranging from rape and violence and suicide to snakes and needles and even "small holes." This video looks at one college student's quest...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
American Cancer Society professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Thomas Stossel fights an uphill battle against mainstream media. The challenge? To convince the public that financial conflict of interest laws hurt the practice of medicine, like the unintended consequences from the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Stossel gives public lectures, speaks before Congress, and writes opinion articles, hoping to persuade the public that a solution...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
William Binney worked for the National Security Agency (NSA) for 30 years before quitting in 2001 from his high-placed post as technical leader for intelligence. In 2002, long before the revelations of Edward Snowden rocked the world, Binney and several former colleagues went to Congress and the Department of Defense, asking that the NSA be investigated. Their concerns fell on deaf ears. He tells his story in this 50-minute interview. A Reason TV...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
The Oakland Domain Awareness Center (DAC) began as a project to surveil the city's port, but the mandate soon expanded with a $10.9 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security to expand surveillance to the entire city, with plans to run CCTV cameras, license plate scanners, and public databases into the center. The DAC represents just one of 73 DHS-funded fusion centers across the country, but it was the first with the ambition to run both...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
America is dropping like a stone in rankings of freedom. As power accumulates in one person, expect that to continue, says George Mason University law professor and author Frank Buckley. In this interview, Buckley discusses his book, The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America. He explains that the evolution of the U.S. presidency into "something like an elective monarch" is not what the framers of the Constitution intended....
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
There's nothing as dangerous as perfect safety, says Megan McArdle, author of the new book, The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well is the Key to Success. In this interview, McArdle says failure is inevitable, but how we handle our failures and whether we learn from them go a long way in shaping individuals, institutions, and entire societies. Drawing on personal anecdotes, current events, literature, and cutting-edge research, McArdle dissects our...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
It's kind of shocking to realize the person known as the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, didn't think the pursuit of wealth was a very good idea, says economist Russ Roberts. In this interview, Roberts discusses his new book, How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness. Topics include Smith's relevance in both economic and moral arenas, the hubris of contemporary economists and the politicians who...
34) Freedom of the Press Foundation's Trevor Timm on Bringing the First Amendment Into the 21st Century
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), discusses what he refers to as the need to "bring the First Amendment into the 21st century" by employing greater levels of encryption to thwart government spies. Several high-profile journalists and media figures sit on the board of FPF, including journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, Pentagon papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, actor John Cusack, and, most recently,...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
In this interview, FreedomWorks president and bestselling author Matt Kibbe discusses the future of Libertarianism, necessary government spending cuts, and what it means to be young in America today. A former Capitol Hill staffer and author of the new book "Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto", Kibbe says there's increasingly common ground between Libertarians and Progressives in the Democratic Party on issues such...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
The culture of prosperity deadens us, wrote Pope Francis in December's widely discussed papal exhortation, Joy of Gospel. "We end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people's pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else's responsibility and not our own." The proprietor of HumanProgress.org, a website that aggregates and updates ongoing improvements in global living standards,...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
There's a chronic organ shortage in the United States, with demand wildly outstripping supply despite every attempt to increase the number of donors. The disturbing result, says bioethicist Sigrid Fry-Revere in this interview, is that "20 to 30 people die every day" while waiting for a new kidney. The Kidney Sellers: A Journey of Discovery in Iran is Fry-Revere's riveting account of a market for organs that she says works far better than what exists...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
While Washington State is still adjusting to many changes since legalizing recreational marijuana-from growing space size to the number of licenses to give out-one of the biggest changes may be Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) employees going to work in the private sector. One of those former agents is Patrick Moen, a former supervisory special agent with the DEA, who now works as compliance director and senior counsel at Privateer Holdings, a private...
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
Hawaii is at the center of the fight over genetically modified organisms (GMOs)-and the food people are eating all over the United States. Because of Hawaii's favorable climate, plant breeders and food companies do huge amounts of research and seed development there, including modifying and transforming crops via biotechnology. Local and international activists say that the crops are potentially harmful and can contaminate the rest of Hawaii's agriculture,...
40) C-SPAN Founder Brian Lamb on C-SPAN's History and His Fight to Get Cameras into the Supreme Court
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb discusses the network he started and his fight to get cameras into the Supreme Court. Founded on March 19, 1979, C-SPAN first aired proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives. Over the next 35 years, C-SPAN would expand its offerings to include coverage of the Senate, a wide variety of interview programs and live events, Book TV, radio broadcasts, and much more. American politics and media would never be the same. Despite...