Episodios

  • The Forgotten Polish Republican: Wawrzyniec Goślicki and the Rights of a Free Commonwealth

    The Forgotten Polish Republican: Wawrzyniec Goślicki and the Rights of a Free Commonwealth
    Dec 9 2025
    In the late sixteenth century, Wawrzyniec Goślicki authored De Optimo Senatore (The Accomplished Senator), a bold argument for a politics grounded in natural law, civic virtue, and the constitutional liberties of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Joined by Walker Haskins, our editor for intellectual history, Paul Meany, covers Goślicki’s career as a bishop, diplomat, and political theorist. They discuss Goślicki’s vision of checks on executive power and his rejection of arbitrary rule.

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    52 m
  • A Quiet Rebel: José Castellanos

    A Quiet Rebel: José Castellanos
    Nov 11 2025
    This episode explores the often-overlooked classical liberal tradition of civil disobedience through the remarkable story of José Castellanos Contreras, a Salvadoran diplomat who, during World War II, defied orders and international law to save over thousands Jewish people from Nazi death camps. His story, forgotten for decades, embodies the liberal conviction that moral law supersedes state authority.

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    15 m
  • Japan's Ignored Anarchist: Andō Shōeki

    Japan's Ignored Anarchist: Andō Shōeki
    Oct 14 2025
    This episode explores the thought of Andō Shōeki, a Japanese philosopher who denounced feudal hierarchies, Confucian dogma, and the samurai class. Shōeki’s vision of a natural, egalitarian society based on voluntary cooperation challenges the notion that anarchist or libertarian thought is uniquely Western. His work is an early critique of state power, anticipating later theories by figures like Franz Oppenheimer.

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    15 m
  • Benjamin Franklin: A Versatile Genius, with Guest Mark Skousen

    Benjamin Franklin: A Versatile Genius, with Guest Mark Skousen
    Sep 9 2025
    In this episode, economist and historian Mark Skousen joins us to discuss his latest book, The Greatest American: Benjamin Franklin, The World's Most Versatile Genius. Skousen highlights Franklin’s remarkable range of life experiences from scientist and inventor to statesman, printer, and philosopher—showing why Franklin has long been considered by historians to be the most modern of the Founding Fathers. Skousen reflects on Franklin’s lessons on liberty, enterprise, and the pursuit of a flourishing life.

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    40 m
  • Joseph Hiam Levy: A Forgotten Radical for Liberty, with guest Matt Zwolinski

    Joseph Hiam Levy: A Forgotten Radical for Liberty, with guest Matt Zwolinski
    Aug 12 2025

    J.H. Levy was a prominent but now largely forgotten voice in the individualist intellectual circles of Victorian Britain, known for his passionate defense of self-ownership and voluntary social cooperation. Matt Zwolinski introduces listeners to Levy’s life, intellectual context, and the principles that drove his activism in organizations like the Personal Rights Association.


    This episode is also available to watch on Youtube.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    28 m
  • Liberty With an Asterisk: Black Americans In the Revolution Era

    Liberty With an Asterisk: Black Americans In the Revolution Era
    Jul 3 2025
    In this podcast, we revisit the lives of Elizabeth Freeman, Lemuel Haynes, and James Forten, three Black Americans who lived through the contradictions of the Revolutionary era and helped expand its ideals. These three did not passively await emancipation but seized the rhetoric of liberty and used it to reshape law, religion, and civil society. Their stories illuminate the untold Black contribution to the founding vision of the American Republic.

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    21 m
  • The Father of Abolitionism: John Rankin (With Caleb Franz)

    The Father of Abolitionism: John Rankin (With Caleb Franz)
    Jun 19 2025
    An episode interviewing Caleb Franz covering the life of the abolitionist minister John Rankin. From his hilltop home in Ripley, Ohio, Rankin established a safe haven for enslaved people crossing the Ohio River. Over the course of his life, he became one of the most active conductors on the Underground Railroad, helping hundreds of enslaved people escape to freedom. Rankin was a powerful voice for individual liberty. His Letters on American Slavery, published in the 1820s, were among the earliest and most forceful arguments for the immediate abolition of slavery.

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    50 m
  • How Self-Interest Built Societies: Bernard Mandeville

    How Self-Interest Built Societies: Bernard Mandeville
    May 13 2025
    This episode explores the provocative work of Bernard Mandeville, who argued that everything from commerce to civilization itself emerged not from altruism, but from self-interest, vanity, and competition. In his poetic satire and philosophical essays, Mandeville laid the groundwork for understanding society as an evolving system shaped by passions, not perfection.

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    16 m