Cato Event Podcast

In Iraq, U.S. soldiers often encounter ISIS fighters armed with American-made weapons. Intentionally sold to the corrupt, poorly-trained, ill-disciplined Iraqi military by previous U.S. administrations, many of these weapons have now fallen into the hands of terrorists. Far from an isolated incident, this example underscores the unintended—and often dangerous—consequences of international arms sales.The Trump administration has embraced arms sales, and at such a fever pitch that it is difficult to determine which sales will come with serious consequences that risk American lives. To help policymakers evaluate the possible downstream effects of selling weapons to specific countries, Cato scholars Trevor Thrall and Caroline Dorminey have created a comprehensive risk assessment index. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The school choice debate has largely focused on whether society should have any school choice at all. But not all choice programs are identical. And they certainly do not all produce the same outcomes for students. If school choice policies are to pass, what should they look like? Should we embrace public charter schools, private school choice options, or both? Should financing be through vouchers, tax credits, or education savings accounts? Should funding be public or private? Should the federal government be involved? What types of program regulations promote—or stifle—success? And what does the evidence say about these topics? Join a panel of experts as they tackle these critical policy questions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After three decades of constant gains, global respect for free speech has been in decline since 2004. In the recent past even Europe’s liberal democracies have contributed to the decline by adopting increasingly restrictive measures in the name of national security, the countering of hate speech, and, most recently, standing against “fake news.” Does Europe’s model of “militant democracy” offer promising lessons for embattled democracies or a dangerous abandonment of first principles? Should the United States follow the European lead or remain true to its exceptional protection for extreme and disturbing speech? Please join us for a candid and intriguing discussion of issues that have once again put freedom of speech on the agenda of developed nations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his new book, Republic in Peril, David C. Hendrickson advances a critique of American policy since the end of the Cold War. America’s outsized military spending and global commitments, he argues, undermine rather than uphold international order. They raise rather than reduce the danger of war, imperiling both American security and domestic liberty. An alternative path lies in a new internationalism in tune with the United Nations Charter and the philosophy of republican liberty embraced by America’s Founders. Please join us for a lively discussion. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join us for a special private screening of the motion picture Little Pink House. The event includes a Q&A session with Susette Kelo, the real-life plaintiff in the infamous U.S. Supreme Court case Kelo v. New London, along with the film’s director and writer, Courtney Moorehead Balaker, and producer, Ted Balaker, and Institute for Justice President Scott Bullock, who argued Kelo’s case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Little Pink House has been lauded by the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline Hollywood, and John Stossel, among others. It stars two-time Academy Award nominee Catherine Keener and Emmy nominee Jeanne Tripplehorn, and it features the original song “Home Free,” written and performed for the movie by rock legend David Crosby of Crosby, Stills & Nash.The movie showcases the true story of Susette Kelo, a small-town paramedic who buys her first home — a cottage — and paints it pink. When politicians plan to bulldoze it for a corporation, she fights back, taking her case all the way to

Free speech is under attack at colleges and universities today, with critics on and off campus challenging the value of open inquiry and freewheeling intellectual debate. Too often speakers are shouted down, professors are threatened, and classes are disrupted. Constitutional scholar Keith E. Whittington argues that universities must protect and encourage free speech because vigorous free speech is the lifeblood of the university. Without free speech, a university cannot fulfill its most basic, fundamental, and essential purposes, including to foster freedom of thought, ideological diversity, and tolerance. Examining such hot-button issues as trigger warnings, safe spaces, hate speech, disruptive protests, speaker disinvitations, the use of social media by faculty, and academic politics, Speak Freely describes the dangers of empowering campus censors to limit speech and enforce orthodoxy. It explains why free speech and civil discourse are at the heart of the university’s mission of creating and nurturin

In his new book, Directorate S, author Steve Coll explains how Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is partly responsible for the United States’ struggles in neighboring Afghanistan. Coll, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, sheds light on Pakistan’s policy of aiding, supplying, and legitimizing the Taliban, a policy President Trump has openly criticized. With an investigator’s precision, Coll also walks readers through the mistakes and misjudgments that have resulted in approximately 140,000 Afghan deaths, along with American casualties in the thousands, and war costs as high as $2 trillion. At the center of the discussion will be the tumultuous U.S.–Pakistan relationship, which continues to define the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Please join us for a lively discussion. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Congress has not overhauled America’s legal immigration system in nearly three decades. While legal immigrants overwhelmingly benefit the United States, the system is unfair to those who go through it, and its arbitrary and outdated rules undermine the economic and social benefits that legal immigrants contribute to America. With Congress now in the midst of a wide-ranging debate over which reforms to adopt, innovative approaches will be critical to pushing reform across the finish line. Join us as our speakers draw on the best aspects of immigration systems around the world to present new ideas to improve America’s system for the 21st century and beyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What principles inform the U.S. Constitution? How have they been systematically subverted? And — what can Americans do to restore the integral order of the American constitutional order?From Cato University 2018: College of Law See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Constitution was designed to protect a variety of economic liberties, including the right to earn an honest living, but the Supreme Court has subverted that constitutional design by refusing to enforce those provisions consistent with the text, history, and purpose of the Constitution.From Cato University 2018: College of Law See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Law isn’t just for lawyers, but concerns and impacts everyone. A look at how simple rules that respect and protect the liberty of individuals are the foundation of complex social orders.From Cato University 2018: College of Law See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Popular legend has it that before the Federal Radio Commission was established in 1927, the radio spectrum was in chaos, with broadcasting stations blasting powerful signals to drown out rivals. Tom Hazlett, a distinguished scholar in law and economics and former chief economist at the FCC (the commission’s successor), debunks that idea. Instead, regulators blocked competition at the behest of incumbent interests and, for nearly a century, have suppressed innovation while quashing out-of-the-mainstream viewpoints. Hazlett details how spectrum officials produced a “vast wasteland” that they publicly criticized but privately protected. The story twists and turns, as farsighted visionaries — and the march of science — rose to challenge the old regime. Over decades, reforms to liberate the radio spectrum have generated explosive progress, ushering in the “smartphone revolution,” ubiquitous social media, and the amazing wireless world that is now emerging. Still, Hazlett argues, and current FCC controversies

Over the past 25 years, more than 2,000 individuals have been exonerated in the United States after being wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit. There is good reason to believe that tens or even hundreds of thousands more languish in American prisons today.How this can happen unfolds in the riveting new book from Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington. The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist recounts the story of two Mississippi doctors—Dr. Steven Hayne, a medical examiner, and Dr. Michael West, a dentist—who built successful careers as the go-to experts for prosecutors and whose actions led many innocent defendants to land in prison. Some of the convictions then began to fall apart, including those of two innocent men who spent a combined 30 years in prison before being exonerated in 2008.Balko and Carrington reveal how Mississippi officials propelled West and Hayne to the top of the state’s criminal justice apparatus and then, through institutional failures and structural racism, empowered these t

The President has linked tariffs on aluminum and steel to the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations, although he has exempted Canada and Mexico for now. Negotiations on a new NAFTA had been looking positive, but linking the trade deal to tariffs could undermine that progress. What is the future of continental free trade? And how should a renegotiated NAFTA be different? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Representative Smith and Christopher Preble will discuss the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, including their findings from a new article they are copublishing in Strategic Studies Quarterly about BRAC, its impact on defense communities, and the future.For a number of years, the U.S. military — with support of presidents from both parties — has sought congressional authorization to rid itself of excess infrastructure. Unfortunately, Congress continues to stand in the way, often citing concerns about the effect of closures on local communities.In failing to authorize a BRAC round, however, Congress is doing more harm than good. Local communities are deprived of the support and clarity BRAC would provide, and they are denied access to property that could be put to productive use. Our military is forced to allocate resources away from training and equipping our soldiers in order to maintain unnecessary and unwanted infrastructure. Meanwhile, tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars continue t

Each year since the early 1900s, the world has recognized March 8th as International Women’s Day, an opportunity to celebrate women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements while calling for global gender equality.What is the state of global gender equality? How free are women around the world today? What role has government historically played in women’s oppression and liberation? How have market-driven innovations and the unprecedented economic growth of the last decades changed women’s lives? Are policies designed to promote gender equality working? What changes still need to happen?This International Women’s Day, please join the Cato Institute for an interactive, online-only Facebook Live discussion of women’s liberty around the world and tweet your questions using #CatoDigital. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature — tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking — which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious

On February 28, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, an important First Amendment case that could clarify voters' speech rights nationwide. Lead plaintiff Andy Cilek (executive director of the Minnesota Voters Alliance) voted in the 2010 election in a Tea Party T-shirt that said "Don't tread on me." Because Minnesota prohibits badges, buttons, or other insignia that promote a group with "recognizable political views," at polling places an election official delayed Cilek from voting and took down his name and address for potential prosecution. Cilek sued to have the law struck down. Throughout litigation, the government has embraced the sheer breadth of Minnesota's ban on political apparel. In addition to prohibiting Tea Party apparel, the ban extends to apparel featuring the logo of the Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, NRA, NAACP, and countless other organizations that might be associated with a political viewpoint. Cilek asks the Supreme Court to invalidate the law a

The infamous “Nunes memo” has landed. Produced by Congressional staff and declassified by the President, the document alleged surveillance warrants on Trump campaign officials from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) were obtained without providing the court with important information.Intelligence experts have generally been skeptical of the memo’s conclusions, but the fight over this document may do long-term damage to attempts to provide important oversight for the secretive FISC. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On February 26, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a case that has the potential to overturn a 40-year-old precedent (Abood v. Detroit Board of Education) that allows public-sector unions to charge nonmembers “agency fees.” Currently, half the states have laws that enable such fees. Mark Janus—an Illinois state employee but not a union member—objects generally to being required to pay AFSCME, as well as to these funds being used to support the union’s ongoing legal fight against the governor’s policy reforms. Janus sued the union for violating his First Amendment rights by compelling these payments. In addition to their responses to that constitutional claim, AFSCME and Illinois have argued throughout the litigation that stare decisis—the prudential doctrine regarding judicial respect for settled precedent—demands that Abood be maintained. Cato filed a brief discussing the