Nick Gillespie is the host of the Reason Interview and an editor at large at Reason. Nick is one of the most interesting libertarian thinkers in America, and has been described by the New York Times as being to libertarianism “what Lou Reed is to rock ‘n’ roll, the quintessence of its outlaw spirit”
Important Links:
- [Nick’s Substack](https://substack.com/profile/582055-nick-gillespie)
- [Nick’s Twitter](https://twitter.com/nickgillespie?s=21&t=UksOB4xRlZEEcoRQg6OcOQ)
- [Nick’s Podcast](https://reason.com/podcasts/the-reason-interview-with-nick-gillespie/)
- [Reason](https://reason.com)
Show Notes:
00:00 - Start
00:38 - Intro & Disclaimer
03:25 - Is libertarianism dead?
16:34 - Saying what you think
18:46 - The case for rational optimism
21:15 - Labels and empathy
24:17 - President Nixon, the Great Reshuffle, Bitcoin
34:56 - Bureaucracy and responsiveness
42:37 - The rapidly changing world
58:23 - Prohibition and legalisation
01:03:27 - Why America does not have enough immigration
01:18:26 - The enfranchising power of social media
01:27:08 - Obscenity and moral panics
01:31:23 - Empathy with the dispossessed
- And MUCH more!
Books Mentioned:
- The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America; by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
- The Rational Optimist; by Matt Ridley
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
- The Population Bomb; by Paul Ehrlich
- The Beginning of Infinity; by David Deutsch
- Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy; by Joseph Schumpeter
- The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
- One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson
- The War on Alcohol; by Liza McGirr
- Immigration and Freedom; by Chandran Kukathas
- The Illuminatus! Trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
- What It Means to be a Libertarian: a Personal Interpretation; by Charles Murray
- Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society; by Tipper Gore
- Ulysses; by James Joyce
- The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
- Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine; by Derren Brown
