Ep 408 | The Radical Life of Thomas Sowell | Guest: Clifton Duncan

We all know that prices are going up and life is becoming more expensive, and while politicians run on affordability and promise to change things, the problem only keeps getting worse. There's a reason for this, and it's not capitalist greed. Matt Kibbe sits down with J.P. Cortez, executive director of the Sound Money Defense League, to explain that inflation is the consequence of the government's insistence on waging endless wars. Governments can't tax or borrow enough to spend trillions in the Middle East, so instead they just print more money, enriching military contractors while the average worker watches his savings disappear before his eyes. The only way to bring back real affordability is to put a stop to needless foreign conflicts once and for all.

Thomas Sowell is one of the most important economists of the 20th century, but because he refuses to bend the knee to the left-wing establishment, he has largely been ignored and ostracized by the profession and the media. That's why actor Clifton's Duncan's new one-man show celebrating the life and work of Thomas Sowell is such a valuable addition to the culture, popularizing Sowell among a new generation and adding to his already immense legacy. Matt Kibbe sits down with Duncan to discuss his process, his inspiration for the show, and what it was like delving into the mind of one of the nation's greatest intellectuals.

As the November elections approach, the one issue Americans continue to care about more than any other is affordability. Instead of taking these concerns seriously, Republicans are taking potshots at young people for buying $20 burritos. The Democratic Socialists, on the other hand, are at least pretending to care about the cost of living, setting themselves up for big electoral victories next month. Matt Kibbe is joined by Young Voices commentator Maggie Anders to explain why socialist promises to bring prices down and wages up are not to be believed and why the policies of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and his friends will only make life harder for working Americans.

The mass school closings as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns gave many parents a window into just how badly government schools were failing their children, and when they tried to do anything about it, they were demonized as "domestic terrorists." Matt Kibbe is joined by Paul Martino, education activist and subject of the PBS docuseries "Bucks County, USA" to discuss how parents are able to have a substantial impact on school board elections by demanding transparency and accountability from the institutions that are supposed to put children first, but which more often cater to the interests of teachers' unions and administrator salaries.

As the November elections approach, the GOP is going to have to reckon with the protracted war that continues to drag on in Iran, in defiance of the president’s “no new wars” campaign promise. Matt Kibbe is joined by Joe Kent, former counterterrorism adviser to the Trump administration, to discuss the state of the Iranian conflict, the resulting high gas prices that Americans are expected to endure, and the increasing discomfort younger voters have with Israel’s connection to American foreign policy.

How do we teach people about the importance of personal freedom? Politicians give stump speeches; think tanks write white papers, but do any of these methods really reach people? Matt Kibbe sits down with Daniel O'Connell, who goes by the stage name Free, to discuss using storytelling, pop culture, and even game shows to promote libertarian ideas. Free is the host of "Are You Smarter Than a Politician?" This game pushes guests to think about civics, ethics, and political science in a way that is all too uncommon among the political class or in schools and universities.

When the Trump administration decided to take down Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) over his opposition to deficit spending, war, and protecting Jeffrey Epstein's clients, many Americans were outraged that one of the only constitutional conservatives in Congress could be unseated by a dishonest smear campaign and an empty suit like his primary opponent, Ed Gallrein. Because Kentucky's 4th district is deep red, Gallrein believes that he can walk into the seat while barely even campaigning. However, the Libertarian Party has other ideas. Matt Kibbe sits down with Jeremy Todd, the Libertarian candidate for Massie's soon-to-be-vacant seat, to discuss how his platform and values are similar to those of Thomas Massie, while being distinct from the rest of the Republican Party.

One of the things we learned from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s primary election loss in Kentucky’s 4th District was that older Americans are consuming a fundamentally different stream of information than the rest of us. Legacy media outlets like Fox News are essentially bought and paid for and will push any kind of propaganda that their overlords demand of them, presenting viewers with a fundamentally distorted vision of reality. Fortunately, the old media will probably not be around for much longer. Matt Kibbe sits down with comedian and commentator Bobby Sauce to discuss why new media, podcasts, Substack, and independent creators are taking the mantle from the old networks by offering audiences something they’re not used to seeing: authenticity and integrity.

For decades, California has been pouring government money into the homelessness problem, insisting that the issue can be solved by simply giving people free housing. Today, the situation is worse than ever, because the housing-first approach neglects the full picture of what causes someone to become homeless in the first place, which is often related to drug addiction or mental illness. Matt Kibbe speaks with Mary Theroux, CEO of the Independent Institute, about the film “Building Home,” a collaborative effort between her organization and Free the People, which uses one man’s story of redemption to highlight the policy failures of cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, while proposing an alternative approach that actually works. Watch the full "Building Home" documentary here: https://freethepeople.org/films/building-home/

For the 400th episode of “Kibbe on Liberty,” Matt Kibbe takes a look back at the history of the show, which had its humble beginnings a decade ago. Those earliest videos were largely focused on debunking the folksy populism of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), pointing out that his socialist ideology is rooted in a brutal history that rests on countless piles of corpses. Today though, it seems like it’s déjà vu, as the Democratic Socialists of America are winning elections by appealing to a new generation frustrated by the failures of the political elites.