George Walsh (c.1923-2001) was one of those old-school professors who wrote little but read everything. This two-lecture series on Rousseau, delivered in the late 1980s, shines a spotlight on the great intellectual outlier of the Enlightenment. While Voltaire, the Physiocrats, Locke, Smith, and Hume promoted rationalism and individual freedom, Rousseau was a harsh, if sometimes veiled, […]
The SARS2 Pandemic: Will Truth Prevail?
A Policy@McCombs Event with Scott Atlas. Scott W. Atlas, M.D. is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution. Dr. Atlas investigates the impact of government and the private sector on access, quality, pricing, and innovation in health care and is a frequent policy advisor to government and industry leaders […]
US Pandemic Policy: Failures, Successes, and Lessons
Dr. Tabarrok holds the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center and is a professor of economics at George Mason University. You can find out more about his research interests in empirical law and economics (tort reform, bounty hunters, judicial electoral systems etc.), voting theory and alternative political institutions, health economics by browsing […]
George Walsh on Protestant Fundamentalism, Lecture 1: Theology and Epistemology
George Walsh (c.1923-2001) was one of those old-school professors who wrote little but read everything. These two lectures on Protestant Fundamentalism, delivered in the late-80s, distill decades of study of Protestant Fundamentalism with great insight and humor, handling the ideas with the same seriousness that intellectual historians normally reserve for the Great Thinkers of Western […]
Science and Politics: Three Principles, Three Fables
Dorian Abbot has an undergraduate degree in physics (2004, Harvard) and a PhD in applied math (2008, Harvard). He came to the University of Chicago as a Chamberlin Fellow in 2009 and stayed on as a faculty member in 2011. Abbot uses mathematical and computational models to understand and explain fundamental problems in Earth and […]
Bryan Caplan Interviews Chris Rufo
Bryan Caplan interviews Chris Rufo on his best-selling *America’s Cultural Revolution*. In this wide-ranging interview, Rufo tackles some tough questions, including: How bad were the founders of critical theory, really? How fake is Continental philosophy? What would Rufo had done if he’d had Freire’s job in Guinea-Bissau? Are fanatics evil? And, does he really hate […]
How Higher Education Betrayed the Public Interest
Between rising student debts, a dysfunctional employment market, and a sharp leftward shift in the ideological climate on campus, America’s university system is in peril of alienating the taxpaying public that sustains its basic operations. Using the tools of economic analysis, this lecture will examine what went wrong with American higher education and how we […]
The Role of Religion in History – Lecture 2: Indian Religion
In the late 1980s, philosopher George Walsh gave this six-hour course on history’s most influential religions. With his characteristic erudition and humor, he covers so-called “primitive religion,” followed by Indian religion (Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism), Judaism and Christianity, and finally Islam. Disclaimer: Please be aware the audio quality in this episode may not meet our […]
Policy@McCombs with Alex Tabarrok
Alex Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He joins the podcast to talk to Richard Hanania about his involvement in Operation Warp Speed, a uniquely successful federal government project. Richard asks how broadly applicable its lessons are, whether or not we could do something similar for cancer, and why economists and […]
The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
Join us in person in the Crum Auditorium (in Rowling Hall 1.400) or via Zoom here Address: 300 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX 78705 Parking: You can find paid parking in the Brazos Garage, the AT&T Hotel Garage, or any other garage or street parking. Dr. Gad Saad is Professor of Marketing […]