Ep. 101: Bryan Caplan: Pro Market & Pro Business, the Real Ethics of Entrepreneurship

Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University and the author of several books, including Open Borders - The Science and Ethics of Immigration, The Case Against Education and the Myth of the Rational Voter.

Niklas sits down with Bryan to talk about his new books and why markets often work better than we give them credit for. They dig into how governments block progress in the name of safety, why antitrust usually backfires, and how “free” public services wipe out space for affordable alternatives. Bryan makes a compelling new case for free markets - even free market advocates have often been overly critical of business, and he comes up with a novel concept: there are things that sound good and bad, and things that are good and bad. Politics is promoting things that sound good but are bad - markets are promoting things that sound bad but are good.

They also cover:

* the Microsoft antitrust case and its real cost

* why poor countries suffer from too little big business

* entrepreneurship as real-world experimentation

A conversation for anyone building around regulation or trying to understand how progress really happens.

More about GUEST’S work:

* Bryan’s Wiki

* Bryan’s X

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* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

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Niklas sits down with biomedical researcher and libertarian author Mary Ruwart (Death by Regulation) to dissect how decades of FDA rules derailed innovation, extended timelines from 4 to 14 years, and quietly reshaped the entire pharma industry, from discovery to delivery.

Together, they unpack:

* The pivotal moments: 1962’s Kefeuver-Harris amendments and 1992’s PDUFA and how they changed the game

* Why the system now favors chronic medication over simpler or even one-shot cures

* How off-label use and underground networks (like HIV buyers clubs) filled the gaps left by regulation

* What the rollback of “Chevron Deference” means and why this may be the biggest opening in decades

* How “statistical significance” became a misleading gold standard

* Why founders still building in the U.S. need to understand the incentives behind drug lag, suppression of short-term treatments, and the quiet cartelization of Big Pharma

* What it means to build around, beyond or outside the FDA: from Montana to Próspera

More about Mary’s work:

* Mary’s X

* Wiki

* Amazon Books

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

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Cremieux went from arguing against the death penalty as a teenager to becoming one of the most influential voices dissecting science online. Now with 250k+ followers on X, he’s known for exposing p-hacking, outcome switching, and selection effects that skew research.

In this conversation with Niklas, here’s what they actually talk about: why effect sizes in journals rarely match FDA data, how gene therapy’s real bottleneck is delivery not targets, and why siRNA is the most underrated modality in biotech right now.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* The heuristics he uses to spot bad research at a glance

* Why published effect sizes are often 2–3x inflated compared to FDA data

* Selection effects that quietly shape everything from education outcomes to clinical trials

* The real bottleneck in gene therapy (delivery, not targets) and why germline bans hold back obvious wins

* How pragmatic trials and IRB reform could finally fix a broken system

* Why measles might come back and the case for vaccine mandates for kids

* The truth about longevity research: most “breakthroughs” just stop early deaths, not extend the right tail

* China’s clinical trial engine vs the slow US system

* The modality he thinks is most underpriced today: siRNA

For builders in science who care more about getting it right than playing along.

More about GUEST’S work:

* Cremieux’s X

Explore Infinita City:

* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times

* Visit Infinita City

* Join the Builders’ Hub on Telegram

* Follow Infinita City on X