Good Times, Bad Times

Let the waves of optimism wash over you as return-guests Ron Bailey (Reason) and Marian ...

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Let the waves of optimism wash over you as return-guests Ron Bailey (Reason) and Marian Tupy (Cato Institute) join forces as Jonah’s tour guides through the last several centuries of human progress. Listen to the first half to hear why there is actual good news about the human condition – even during a pandemic – and stick around in the second half for a satisfying helping of philosophical eggheadery on education, personal liberty, and the logic of nonviolent protest.

Show Notes:

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  1. PM

    Thanks for the Julian Simon mention. I recall buying the Ultimate Resource many years ago and discussing it with others.

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  2. Lori Meldrum

    I have for several hours now pondered exactly how thinking and reason could be separated. I am completely unclear on what Jonah was going for, as to how to apply something other than/more than reason. It is the human capacity to reason that allows analysis of information and decision making based thereon.

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    BrettH

    I’ll be ordering the book on Friday (i.e. pay day) when I purchase all of the items in my amazon cart, of which their book is now a part.

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  4. Jim Heetderks

    I normally fast-forward through the sponsorship ads but Jonah's promo for "going online" and Express VPN was a hoot and well worth listening all the way through.

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    Octávio Lima

    Loved the podcast but a few additions.

    I am getting too concerned that too many people are ceding the fact that admitting China to the community of nations and international trade was a mistake. In a podcast that talks about historical events, it seemed weird that the recent events in China were not highlighted. Tian'anmen would not have happened if not for the China opening. The trajectory of China between Deng Xiaoping and Hu Jintao shows a liberalization that was unprecedented in China. During that time we saw protests, reported in the news media, protests for things such as pollution in the big cities. More importantly, local governments used to be capable of simply walking into people's homes and telling them they had to move to a new apartment on the other side of the city that they had recently built. We also saw protests against those things. Under Hu Jintao, and even more under Xi Jinping, we saw the repression of religion, that started to spread very fast in the country, particularly Christianity in the Eastern part of the country. Religion competing with the power of the communist party. We also started to see the government going after "corruption", where the powerful started using their influence to begin regulatory capture.

    I understand Mr. Goldberg favors the English Enlightenment and the Scottish Enlightenment. But we seem to give little credit to the French Enlightenment. People like Benjamin Constant, Marquis of Condorcet, Frédéric Bastiat, Pierre de Boisguilbert, Vincent de Gournay, etc. were all very consequential to the thinking of classical liberalism.

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  6. Turtledove

    Really enjoyed Mr. Tupy. Interesting about Botswana. I lived there for 3 years about 10 years ago and it was my favorite posting overseas. Wonderful country. Should be an example to the rest of Africa. Anyone wanting to do the whole safari thing once this horrible virus is a bad memory, should definitely go to Botswana.

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    CynthiaW

    I love this discussion. I will get the book.

    Marian Tupy has a darling little accent.

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    Justin Perry-Naw Dawg Doctrine

    As a card-carrying Immunologist, I feel it necessary to clarify the Paul Ehrlich mentioned disparagingly is Paul R. Ehrlich, NOT the Nobel Prize winning Immunologist Paul Ehrlich who, by the way, is responsible for the findings that underlie important Covid-19 treatments such as convalescent serum and antibody-inducing vaccines.

    Side note, great George Church call-out. Overall a great discussion. Marian and Ron's knowledge of the statistics was breathtaking. Thought it was a great answer to a really good question at the end from Jonah. Unfortunately, if I tried to echo this to my friends in defense of American progress, I'd likely end up canceled on Twitter.

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  9. ROBERT

    Particularly awesome edition of The Remnant! Great guests. And even the ExpressVPN ad was entertaining! But thankful for your restraint!!

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    Belt

    The only problems I have with techno-optimism are the 'techno' part and the 'optimism' part.

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