Caplan and Candor
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When a thinker publicly changes his mind on major questions, neutral observers normally interpret it as a sign of courage and maturity. Almost no one enjoys admitting they were wrong — and “I changed my mind” is tantamount to “I was wrong.” On reflection, however, this favorable interpretation is premature . Yes, changing your mind because you discover surprising new evidence or arguments is…
A guest post by Jason Brennan
This was a very fun, unconventional podcast. Enjoy! P.S. Capla-Con 2026 is August 15-16. Please RSVP here. Also, I’m looking for another 1-2 players for August 14 at 10 AM-6 PM for my all-new role-playing game, Test Optional . Please email me if you’re interested.
A conversation with Kristian Niemietz
Materially, Americans are far better off than they were during the Cold War. But even thinkers who acknowledge this truism often fondly reminisce about the long-lost Golden Age of American optimism that supposedly spanned the second half of the 20th century. This reminiscing always puzzles me, because I vividly remember the second half of the second half of the 20th century. Except for a brief…
I’m adding a Berkeley meet-up to this week’s festivities. Time: Wednesday, July 22, 8 PM Location: Steve’s Korean BBQ, 2521 Durant Ave F, Berkeley, CA 94704 All are welcome. Please RSVP in the comments.
Los Angeles, Capla-Con, Cincinnati, Laramie
My conversation with Phil Magness
Update: Per your suspicions, the sender admits to using AI in his composition. Here’s what he told me when I inquired (reprinted, again, with permission): Professor Caplan, Fair question. I am a very real person, but I did use an AI tool to polish my drafts. I'm an attorney by day and this framework is a solo hobby of mine. Because I don't have a research staff and was drafting these in my spare…
What’s the best thing about wokeness? Simple: Holding people in the past to universal moral standards. History is packed with mass murder, slavery, and other atrocities, often committed by famous beloved figures like Columbus and the American Founding Fathers . When confronted with these harsh realities, most thinkers try to weasel out with a variation on, “It was a very different time.” The woke,…
My conversation with Bob Lawson
August 15-16
Richard Hanania, whose Kakistocracy released today, recently shared “Sixteen Fun Facts About Me,” so I thought I’d do the same. Maybe I’ll start a trend. I have many hundreds of vivid, detailed memories about my childhood, starting from around the age of 3. The earliest memory: Pleading with my mom to let me skip preschool. “Why?” she asked. “Because of the mean kids!” I whimpered. She still made…
Today at 4:30 PM ET, I’m doing a Substack Live event with Robert Lawson on this week’s posts on Nazism, socialism, and economic freedom . Bob is a co-founder of the Fraser’s Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World index , a fountain of knowledge, and a joy to know. Subscribers will get a link around 4:29 PM, and we’ll strive to save time for your live questions! P.S. If there are serious sound…
Nazism, Socialism, and the Philosophy of History
After getting ChatGPT to score Nazi Germany’s economic freedom , I prompted it to ponder the bigger issues. While the current version of ChatGPT is less ideological than it was in 2022, almost everyone admits that it leans left. Here is ChatGPT’s summary of research on the ideological leanings of ChatGPT : ChatGPT’s default political output is best described as center-left to left-libertarian /…
How socialist was Germany under National Socialism? I first started pondering Nazi economic policy during the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Since the end of World War II, mainstream culture had energetically covered Nazi crimes, but largely gave the Soviet bloc a pass. Yet in the late 80s and early 90s, a long list of long-forgotten Soviet crimes loudly entered the Western conversation: Lenin’s…
I’ve finished my visiting professorship at the world-famous, ultra-controversial University of Austin (UATX) , where I taught courses in Immigration and Housing, Education and the Family, and Introduction to Political Science. I came to campus every school day, and spent many hours socializing with the students. Here are my main thoughts on the experience. The students at UATX are academically…
During my For a New Liberty Book Club , noted Austrian economist and Rothbard fan Bob Murphy invited me to have an in-depth conversation on this famed “libertarian manifesto.” Last week, we did it. Enjoy!
Here’s the full video from my recent immigration debate at UATX with Garett Jones. Coleman Hughes moderates. (A great guy, and not only did we finally meet in person for dinner; he also came to UATX karaoke!) Here are more debate details from the UATX Substack . I’ve got multiple post-debate commentary essays in my queue, so for now I’ll just say that the overall debate quality was at the 60th…
