Hayek Program Podcast

Senator Phil Gramm and Don Boudreaux on the Triumph of Economic Freedom

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke talks with former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm and Don Boudreaux about their new book, The Triumph of Economic Freedom [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/triumph-of-economic-freedom-9798881808365/], a sweeping challenge to seven persistent myths about American capitalism. The conversation ranges from the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression to the financial crisis. Along the way, they reflect on why these myths endure, why economic freedom has done more than any other force to improve the lives of ordinary people, and why economists and educators must keep returning to history and basic economic reasoning in an age when old policy errors are constantly resurrected in new forms. Dr. Gramm [https://www.aei.org/profile/phil-gramm/] served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives and eighteen years in the U.S. Senate where he was Chairman of the Banking Committee. Gramm is a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He was Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank and is now Vice Chairman of Lone Star Funds. He taught Economics at Texas A&M University and has published numerous articles and books including The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/myth-of-american-inequality-9781538190135/] (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024), coauthored with Robert Ekelund and John Early, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2022 and winner of the 2024 Hayek Book Prize. Dr. Boudreaux [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/scholars/donald-j-boudreaux] is a Senior Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; a Professor of Economics and former economics-department chair at George Mason University; an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute; and holds the Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of numerous books, including The Essential Hayek [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/essential-hayek] (Fraser Institute, 2015) and Globalization (Greenwood Press, 2007). Show Notes: * Sven Beckert’s, Capitalism: A Global History [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/541160/capitalism-by-sven-beckert/] (Penguin Press, 2025) * Thomas Sowell’s, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles: Revised Edition [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/thomas-sowell/a-conflict-of-visions/9780465002054/?lens=basic-books] (Basic Books, 2007) * Adam Smith’s, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [https://about.libertyfund.org/books/an-inquiry-into-the-nature-and-causes-of-the-wealth-of-nations-2-volume-bundle/] (Liberty Fund, 1982) * Milton and Rose Friedman’s, Free to Choose: A Personal Statement [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/free-to-choose-milton-friedmanrose-friedman?variant=39936635502626] (Harper Collins Publishers, 1990) * Fraser Institute | Realities of Socialism [https://www.fraserinstitute.org/categories/realities-socialism] **This episode was recorded on February 25, 2026** If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts. Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/virtual-sentiments] is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today! Follow the Hayek Program [https://twitter.com/hayekprogram] on Twitter: @HayekProgram Follow the Mercatus Center [https://twitter.com/mercatus] on Twitter: @mercatus CC Music: Twisterium

David Schmidtz — 2024 Markets and Society Conference Keynote

**Content Warning** This episode includes discussions of sexual assault, which may be distressing for some listeners. Please listen with care. On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, David Schmidtz delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference on the idea of self-governance. Drawing on examples from economics, moral philosophy, and higher education, Schmidtz argues that rational choice is less about optimization and more about choosing the frameworks within which decisions become meaningful. He examines the parallels between individual and corporate self-governance, the role of mission statements as “compasses” rather than formulas, and the dangers of over-specialization in academia. Along the way, he reflects on truth-seeking, academic freedom, moral education, and the human need for purposiveness, ultimately challenging universities to cultivate enduring capacities rather than narrow skill sets. Dr. David Schmidtz [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/scholars/david-schmidtz] is Professor and Presidential Chair of Moral Science at West Virginia University’s Chambers College of Business & Economics, Distinguished Affiliated Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and Editor-in-Chief of Social Philosophy & Policy [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/social-philosophy-and-policy]. He has published numerous books, including Living Together: Inventing Moral Science [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/living-together-inventing-moral-science] (Oxford University Press, 2023), A Brief History of Liberty [https://www.wiley.com/en-us/A+Brief+History+of+Liberty-p-9781405170796] (Wiley Blackwell, 2011) coauthored with Jason Brennan, and his leading textbook Environmental Ethics What Really Matters, What Really Works [https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/environmental-ethics-9780197766835?cc=us&lang=en&] (Oxford University Press, 2024) co-edited with Dan Shahar is now in its fourth edition. **This episode was recorded October 13, 2024. If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts. Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/virtual-sentiments] is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today! Follow the Hayek Program [https://twitter.com/hayekprogram] on Twitter: @HayekProgram Follow the Mercatus Center [https://twitter.com/mercatus] on Twitter: @mercatus CC Music: Twisterium

Reconsidering FDR With David Beito

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke speaks with historian David T. Beito about his new biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt. They discuss FDR’s record on civil liberties, including government surveillance and efforts to police speech; the administration’s approach to refugees and antisemitism; and early-career episodes like the Newport Sex Scandal. The conversation also covers how progressive-era ideas shaped FDR’s political instincts, how New Deal programs like the NRA and AAA cartelized industries, and why key wartime choices, such as unconditional surrender and “rescue through victory,” may have prolonged World War II. They close with lessons for today: the dangers of malleable legal categories and the need for durable institutional guardrails against executive abuse. Dr. David T. Beito [https://www.independent.org/person/david-t-beito/] is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama. He is the author of many books, including FDR: A New Political Life [https://carusbooks.com/product/fdr] (Carus Books, 2025), The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR’s Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance [https://www.independent.org/store/book/the-new-deals-war-on-the-bill-of-rights/] (Independent Institute, 2025), and T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, and Civil Rights Pioneer [https://www.independent.org/store/book/t-r-m-howard/] (Independent Institute, 2018), coauthored with Linda Royster Beito. **This episode was recorded December 8, 2025. Show Notes: * Presidential Greatness Project [https://presidentialgreatnessproject.com/] * Thomas C. Loenard’s book, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691169590/illiberal-reformers?srsltid=AfmBOooBvzh8p9Iqsg_plOqBpnRpcA4616x8-UlqFQr78F5--9dsJDSV] (Princeton University Press, 2016) * Herbert Croly’s book, The Promise of American Life: Updated Edition [https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691160689/the-promise-of-american-life?srsltid=AfmBOooVu25h3kkUBtlsGMukZacNZD0ZSW1zpfSczR3sQRhaEL9L4ugN] (Princeton University Press, 2014) * Murray Rothbard’s book, America’s Great Depression [https://mises.org/library/book/americas-great-depression] (Mises Institute, 2000) * David Michaelis’ book, Eleanor [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Eleanor/David-Michaelis/9781439192047] (Simon & Schuster, 2021) * Daniel T. Rodgers’ book, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674002012] (Harvard University Press, 2000) * David Hackett Fischer’s book, Liberty and Freedom [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/liberty-and-freedom-9780195162530?cc=us&lang=en&] (Oxford University Press, 2004) * George Selgin’s book, False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933–1947 [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo244061292.html] (University of Chicago Press, 2025) If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts. Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/virtual-sentiments] is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today! Follow the Hayek Program [https://twitter.com/hayekprogram] on Twitter: @HayekProgram Follow the Mercatus Center [https://twitter.com/mercatus] on Twitter: @mercatus CC Music: Twisterium

Perspectives on Peace — Taboo Lines and the Process of Peace

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Chris Coyne talks with Abigail Hall and Jayme Lemke about Kenneth and Elise Boulding’s insights into what it means to build and sustain peace. Drawing on her paper “In Search of Stable Peace [https://www.marketsandsociety.org/v1i2/in-search-stable-peace],” Hall explores Kenneth Boulding’s framework for understanding peace and war, focusing on the roles of strain and strength and the shifting taboo lines that shape movement between stable and unstable peace. Lemke then turns to Elise Boulding’s vision of peace as an active, everyday practice, emphasizing the often-overlooked forms of peacebuilding embedded in ordinary social relationships and institutions. Together, the conversations emphasize peace as a process shaped by ideas, institutions, and imagination. Dr. Abigail R. Hall [https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/abigail-r-hall] is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Tampa and a Senior Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She has published numerous books, including her most recent satirical book, How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/how-run-wars-confidential-playbook-national-security-elite] co-authored with Christopher J. Coyne (2024). She holds a PhD in Economics from George Mason University and is an alum of the Mercatus PhD Fellowship. Dr. Jayme Lemke [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/scholars/jayme-lemke] is a Senior Research Fellow and a Senior Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She is co-editor of Economy, Polity, and Society [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/edited-book-series/economy-polity-and-society], an Associate Editor for the Review of Behavioral Economics, and Secretary of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics [https://www.sdaeonline.org/]. Show Notes: * The Journal of Conflict Resolution [https://www.jstor.org/journal/jconfreso] * Kenneth Boulding’s book, Stable Peace [https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292764484/] (University of Texas Press, 1978) * Robert Higgs’s book, Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government [https://www.independent.org/store/book/crisis-and-leviathan-2025-edition/] (Independent Institute, 2025) * Elise Boulding’s book, Cultures of Peace [https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/1311/cultures-of-peace/] (Syracuse University Press, 2000) * Kenneth Boulding’s book, The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society [https://press.umich.edu/Books/I/Image] (University of Michigan Press, 1956). * Elise Boulding’s book, The Underside of History: A View of Women Through Time [https://www.amazon.com/Underside-History-View-Women-Through/dp/0803947690] (SAGE Publications, 1992) * Julian Simon’s book, The Ultimate Resource 2 [https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691003818/the-ultimate-resource-2?srsltid=AfmBOopMDk4rHVsXkzADm5FkkqB-vuZacQ1VAGUaWpggiOCPet08ZWEx] (Princeton University Press, 1998) **This episode was recorded September 15, 2025 and December 29, 2025. If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts. Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/virtual-sentiments] is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today! Follow the Hayek Program [https://twitter.com/hayekprogram] on Twitter: @HayekProgram Follow the Mercatus Center [https://twitter.com/mercatus] on Twitter: @mercatus CC Music: Twisterium

Chris Coyne — 2023 Markets and Society Conference Keynote

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Chris Coyne delivers a keynote lecture at the 2023 Markets & Society conference on the foundations of peace. He contrasts “top-down” peacemaking driven by elites with “bottom-up” peacemaking that emerges from the everyday practices of ordinary people. Coyne argues that much of the social-scientific and policy conversation treats peace as a public good best supplied through state-intervention. He develops an alternative framework—pax hominem—that treats peace as an emergent, learned, and constantly renewed process. Drawing on mainline political economy and the work of Kenneth Boulding, Coyne shows how peaceful cooperation depends on local knowledge, social norms, and institutions that help people navigate conflict without violence across families, communities, and markets. Together, these insights point toward a research and policy agenda focused less on imposing order and more on creating space for self-governance and the bottom-up cultivation of peace. Dr. Christopher J. Coyne [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/scholars/christopher-coyne] is Associate Director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center and Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He has published numerous books, including How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/how-run-wars-confidential-playbook-national-security-elite] (Independent Institute, 2024), In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/search-monsters-destroy-folly-american-empire-and-paths-peace] (Independent Institute, 2022), and Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/doing-bad-doing-good-why-humanitarian-action-fails] (Stanford University Press, 2013). **This episode was recorded October 20, 2024. Show Notes: * Kenneth Boulding’s book, Stable Peace [https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292764484/] (University of Texas Press, 1978) * Elise Boulding’s book, Cultures of Peace [https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/1311/cultures-of-peace/](Syracuse University Press, 2000) * James C. Scott’s book, Seeing Like a State [https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300078152/seeing-like-a-state/] (Yale University Press, 1999) * Caroline Elkin’s book, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/45877/legacy-of-violence-by-caroline-elkins/] (Penguin Random House, 2023) * James M. Buchanan’s Nobel Prize Lecture [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1986/buchanan/lecture/] * Elinor Ostrom et. al’s paper, “Covenants with and without a Sword: Self-Governance Is Possible [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/covenants-with-and-without-a-sword-selfgovernance-is-possible/2191864CCB589D4B3528090CB596C254]” (APSR, 2013) * Virgil storr et. al’s book, Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster: Lessons in Local Entrepreneurship [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/community-revival-wake-disaster-lessons-local-entrepreneurship] (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) * Mikayla Novak’s book, Freedom in Contention: Social Movements and Liberal Political Economy [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/freedom-contention-social-movements-and-liberal-political-economy] (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021) * Virgil Storr and Ginny Choi’s book, Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals? [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/research/books/do-markets-corrupt-our-morals] (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts. Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments [https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/virtual-sentiments] is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today! Follow the Hayek Program [https://twitter.com/hayekprogram] on Twitter: @HayekProgram Follow the Mercatus Center [https://twitter.com/mercatus] on Twitter: @mercatus CC Music: Twisterium