In this episode from 2024, Alex speaks with Bryce Tingle about corporations, how these unique legal entities are governed, how changes we have made to corporate governance has discouraged companies from joining Canada’s public markets, and how the decline in our public market is hurting Canadians. 



Episode Notes:

1. Bryce’s article “Returning Markets To The Centre Of Corporate Law”

https://jcl.law.uiowa.edu/sites/jcl.law.uiowa.edu/files/2023-09/Tingle_Final.pdf

2. Bryce’s profile at UofCalgary

https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/bryce-tingle

3. Jensen and Meckley’s “The Theory Of The Firm”

https://www.sfu.ca/~wainwrig/Econ400/jensen-meckling.pdf

4. Introduction to Douglass North’s theory of Institutions:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40803-016-0028-8

5. Summary of Montesquieu’s “Doux Commerce”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doux_commerce

6. Mill on Trade As a Social Act:

https://www.utilitarianism.com/ol/five.html

7. The Voltaire quote referenced regarding the London Stock Exchange:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7351337-go-into-the-london-stock-exchange-a-more-respectable

In this episode from 2023, Alex speaks with Nigel Ashford about the prospects for a freer world and how the memory of history, the hope of younger persons, and the teaching of ideas can shape the future of classical liberalism.

Further Reading: https://libertarianism.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/socin003.pdf

Chapter 2 of this book: https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Blundell-interactive.pdf https://fee.org/articles/the-tide-in-the-affairs-of-men/ https://cdn.mises.org/Intellectuals%20and%20Socialism_4.pdf https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/why-do-intellectuals-oppose-capitalism http://wordlist.narod.ru/Government-Failure.pdf

In this episode, Alex speaks with Nick Cowan about why an “examined education” is better than an unexamined one. Drawing on his paper, Nick argues that exams are valuable not just as external assessments but as opportunities for students to test themselves, build confidence, develop resilience, and discover what they actually know rather than what they merely think they know.

References

1. “An Examined Education” — Nick Cowan https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6261178
2. The Theory of Moral Sentiments — Adam Smith https://a.co/d/0iSQvp4l
3. “Why I Am Not a Conservative” — F. A. Hayek https://press.uchicago.edu/books/excerpt/2011/hayek_constitution.html
4. Graduate premium in the UK and debates over higher education quality https://theskillsagenda.substack.com/p/a-declining-graduate-premium

Thanks to Our Patrons

Thanks to our patrons, including Kris Rondolo, Amy Willis, and Christopher McDonald. To support The Curious Task, visit: https://patreon.com/curioustask

In this episode from 2023, Alex speaks with Stefanie Haeffele about her book Living Better Together, which explores the work of Elinor Ostrom and Viviana Zelizer.

Episode Notes:

"Living Better Together" by Stefanie Haeffele and Virgil Henry Storr:

https://a.co/d/hJNCxw6

Viviana Zelizer's homepage at Princeton:

https://sociology.princeton.edu/people/viviana-zelizer

Elinor Ostrom's bio and short autobiography on the Nobel website:

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/ostrom/facts/

Nonneutrality of Money in a Social Perspective by Julia Włodarczyk

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274184545_Nonneutrality_of_Money_in_a_Social_Perspective

Zelizer's "Circuits of Commerce"

https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520241367.003.0009

Ostrom's "Governing The Commons"

https://a.co/d/gcUDVWq

Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy by Viviana A. Zelizer

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691139364/economic-lives

"Testing Circuits of Commerce in the Distant Past: Archaeological Understandings of Social Relationships and Economic Lives" by: Crystal A. Dozier

https://www.springerprofessional.de/testing-circuits-of-commerce-in-the-distant-past-archaeological-/23930708

In part two of this episode from 2022, Alex speaks again with philosopher Eric Mack about "Anarchy, State and Utopia", this time touching on some of the challenges to Nozick's theory and Eric's own personal connection to Robert Nozick during his life.

References

1. Part 1 of Eric Mack’s The Curious Task Episode on “Why Read Anarchy, State, and Utopia?”

Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-145-eric-mack-why-read-anarchy-state-and-utopia/

2. Eric Mack’s Previous Episode “Why Not Socialism?” on the Curious Task Podcast

Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-7-eric-mack-%e2%80%94-why-not-socialism/

3. “Anarchy, State, and Utopia” by Robert Nozick

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Anarchy-State-Utopia-Robert-Nozick/dp/0465051006

4. “Who Would Choose Socialism” by Robert Nozick

Link: https://reason.com/1978/05/01/who-would-chose-socialism/

In this episode from 2022, Alex speaks with Philosopher Eric Mack about Robert Nozick's "Anarchy State and Utopia" and how the book shaped the conversation around natural rights theory, philosophical libertarianism, and the study of political utopias for decades to come.

References

1. Eric Mack’s Previous Episode “Why Not Socialism?” on the Curious Task Podcast

Link: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-7-eric-mack-%e2%80%94-why-not-socialism/

2. “Anarchy, State, and Utopia” by Robert Nozick

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Anarchy-State-Utopia-Robert-Nozick/dp/0465051006

3. “Robert Nozick” by Britannica

Link: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Nozick

4. “Murray Rothbard” by Mises Institute

Link: https://mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard

5. “A Theory of Justice” by John Rawls

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Theory-Justice-Revised-John-Rawls/dp/0674000781

In this conversation from 2024, Alex speaks with Eric Schliesser about the growing declarations of the end of liberalism and what this means for the socio-political future in general.

Episode Notes:

1. Eric Schliesser’s page at the University of Amsterdam https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/s/c/e.s.schliesser/e.s.schliesser.html#Publications
2. Kevin Vallier’s episode of this podcast discussing religious anti-liberalism: https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/197-kevin-vallier-what-are-the-new-religious-threats-to-liberalism/
3. Adrian Vermeulen’s publications https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/adrian-vermeule/
4. Tom Pink’s page at King’s College London: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pink
5. Yoram Hazony’s book on conservatism: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pink
6. Jacob Levy on borders and liberalism: https://www.niskanencenter.org/law-and-border/

In this episode, Matt speaks with Reem Ibrahim about whether Brexit can be considered a success six years after the UK left the European Union. They examine the classical-liberal case for Brexit (focused on sovereignty, deregulation, and free trade) and contrast it with a post-Brexit reality in which many EU-era regulations, trade barriers, and interventionist policies remain. While the most catastrophic “Project Fear” predictions did not come true, Ibrahim argues that Brexit’s promised freedoms have largely gone unused, leaving its long-term success still unresolved.

References

Brexit Referendum (2016) — https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results

Project Fear — https://ukandeu.ac.uk/why-take-back-control-trumped-project-fear/

Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)’s Analysis of Brexit’s impact on trade — https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Perspectives_5_Has-Brexit-really-harmed-UK-trade__web-1.pdf

Brexit: The Movie — https://www.youtube.com/c/brexitthemovie

UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement — https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/relations-united-kingdom/eu-uk-trade-and-cooperation-agreement_en

CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) — https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-uk-and-the-comprehensive-and-progressive-agreement-for-trans-pacific-partnershipcptpp

Working Time Directive — https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies-and-activities/rights-work/labour-law/working-conditions/working-time-directive_en

Thanks to Our Patrons

Thanks to our patrons, including Kris Rondolo, Amy Willis, and Christopher McDonald.

To support The Curious Task, visit: https://patreon.com/curioustask