During the last 5 years our government has imposed lockdowns, caused inflation, increased the deficit, started trade wars, and now a real war.

It makes me wonder; how would things have been different if we had a libertarian President?

Well, here’s my discussion with 2020’s libertarian Presidential candidate, Jo Jorgensen.

We originally spoke 5 years ago, but our conversation covers issues that are still important today.

I don’t bother interviewing most politicians. But former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is interesting.

Unlike most politicians, he has experience as an entrepreneur, he criticizes politicians for their "magical thinking," and he even left his party (the Democrats) to start the "Forward Party."

I spoke to him in 2021, soon after its launch.

We discuss if a third party could ever succeed, where politicians' magical thinking has failed, entrepreneurship, and I push back on his vision for universal basic income (basically free money).

Are we witnessing the fall of the American empire? Are we doomed to fall, like Ancient Athens, Ancient Rome and others?

No. But if we don’t learn the lessons of history, we could be.

To avoid collapse, historian Johan Norberg argues we especially need to learn from the rise and fall of past golden ages—like Ancient Athens, Ancient Rome, China’s Song Dynasty, the Italian Renaissance, and more.

“What sets these golden ages apart," he explains, "is that they managed to ... give more people more freedoms.” Like freedom to trade. That helped many golden ages prosper.

In this podcast, we also discuss what led to their decline.

I was surprised to learn that many problems we face today (like inflation and unsustainable entitlement spending) also destroyed societies more than a thousand years ago.

“But that doesn't mean that we're doomed,” says Norberg. “There are so many instances where societies faced terrible situations … but bounced back … So there is still time. We can still save this golden age.”