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Stephen Cox on Libertarian Literature and Prisons as Failed Planned Societies

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:00:00 EDT

Stephen Cox sat down with Reason.tv to talk about libertarian literature and why prisons are the best example of a failure in planning societies.

Cox is a professor of literature at the University of California, San Diego, as well as the editor-in-chief of Liberty magazine, which can be read at libertyunbound.com . He is also the author of The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America and The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison.

Topics include: Isabel Paterson; American Prisons; Liberty magazine in detail; and promoting individual freedom.

Shot by Zach Weissmuller and Paul Feine; Edited by Paul Detrick.

Approximately 9:30 minutes.

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What We Saw at the Stewart-Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EDT

Reason.tv was on hand for the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at the National Mall in Washington on Saturday, October 30, 2010.

The crowd was huge, the weather fine, the signs memorable, and the people...well, let's just say they were there too. Some were apolitical and just out for a fun day, some were big fans of Comedy Central's best-known personalities, some were inadvertent dadaists, and more than a few defined sanity strictly in terms of heartily agreeing with themselves.

Approximately 6 minutes long. Shot and edited by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg, with assistance from Josh Swain. Interviews by Michael C. Moynihan and Nick Gillespie. With help from June Arunga.

For Reason.tv coverage of other recent DC rallies (inlcuding Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally, the 9/12 Freedom Works Rally, and One Nation Working Together Rally), go here.

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Joel Kotkin: Why America Will Still Lead the World in 2050

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EDT

What will America be like in 40 years, after it adds another 100 million people? With so much bipartisan handwringing about everything from illegal immigration to environmental degradation, it seems like many are expecting America to collapse before 2050. Enter urban historian Joel Kotkin, who offers a rare and optimistic take on America's future.

Kotkin is the Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and the author of the new book, The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050. Topics include: immigration, suburbia, job creation, why America's demographic trajectory gives it an advantage over its peers.

Interview by Ted Balaker, shot by Paul Detrick and Zach Weissmueller, and edited by Alex Manning.

Approximately 9.35 minutes long.

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John Mackey's Conscious Capitalism: Abridged Version

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT

When he started his first organic food store in Austin, Texas in 1978, Whole Foods Market CEO and co-founder John Mackey had no idea that he would eventually usher in not just a revolution in how we shop but what we buy. If you dig being able to buy dozens of types of once-exotic apples, or cheese, or wine, or soaps, or countless other items, you can thank Mackey in part for helping to create cathedrals of commerce that have vastly enriched our day-to-day lives and vastly expanded our palates. (Full disclosure: Mackey has contributed to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website.)

In August, Mackey became one of the most controversial businessmen in America when he penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal outlining his company's free-market-oriented health care system and offering eight concrete reforms that would reduce costs and improve access. Noting that health care is not "a right" as that term is properly understood, Mackey forcefully argued that increasing government intervention into health care is precisely the wrong thing to do: "The last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment."

The response from the left to Mackey's op-ed was swift: Advocates of single-payer health care, union activists, and others called for protests at and boycotts of Whole Foods, despite the fact that the company provides affordable and well-regarded coverage to its employees.

As a cutting-edge entrepreneur who is comfortable quoting astrological signs and Ludwig von Mises, who practices veganism and sells some of the best meat in America, and who chases profits and is an outspoken advocate of charitable giving, Mackey confounds conventional political categories. As an advocate of what he calls "conscious capitalism," Mackey is that rarest of businessman: an articulate and passionate defender of free enterprise and free individuals.

In late September, Mackey sat down with Reason's Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie to talk about health care reform, corporate social responsibility (on which Mackey has written for Reason), why government interventions rarely achieve their goals, and how Mackey came to his unstinting belief in free markets.

Approximately five minutes. Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

This is an abridged version of an hour-long conversation with Mackey. For the full interview and downloadable versions, go here or click below.

Dan Pallotta: Making Charity Pay

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EDT

As the creator of memorable and successful charity events such as the California AIDSRide, in which participants biked 575-miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles over seven days, and the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, in which participants covered 55 miles over several days, Dan Pallotta has long been recognized as a trailblazer in philanthropic circles. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for various causes and brought huge amounts of publicity to any number of issues.

In his groundbreaking new book, Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential , Pallotta makes the case that the nonprofit sector needs to be deregulated so that it can directly harness the energy of capitalism and the profit motive in pursuit of philanthropy.

Approximately nine minutes, this interview was conducted by Reason Foundation President David Nott and filmed and edited by Alex Manning.

For audio podcast, go here.

For more information on Pallotta, visit his website.