Download Episode. Ethan Siegel joins Scott to discuss the science behind the temperature of thermonuclear explosions. Scott is putting together a new book that argues for the abolition of nuclear weapons called Hotter Than The Sun. He wanted to talk with an expert who can actually explain how the bombs are able to reach temperatures that far exceed the center of the Sun. Siegel wrote an article on that exact topic a few years ago, so he’s the perfect person to answer that question. At the end, they also talk about some of the things to avoid if you find yourself in the aftermath of a...
science
The Lab Leak Hypothesis, Evolution, Innovation, & Rational Optimism. Matt Ridley & Keith Knight
https://youtu.be/DPEP1TGyqqQ The cumulative acceleration of knowledge by specialists that allows us each to consume more and more different things by each producing fewer and fewer, is I submit, the central story of humanity. - Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p. 46 Matt Ridley's books have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards. His books include The Red Queen, The Origins of Virtue, Genome, Nature via Nurture, Francis Crick, The Rational Optimist, The Evolution of Everything, and How Innovation Works. He writes a weekly column in The...
4/29/22 Jordan Smith on Melissa Lucio and the Pitfalls of Capital Punishment
Download Episode. Scott is joined by investigative journalist Jordan Smith to discuss Melissa Lucio, a Texas woman awaiting execution. Smith walks us through Lucio’s case where the tragic death of her child was immediately assumed by police and prosecutors to be foul play. Smith’s reporting has uncovered the ways Lucio was misled and manipulated into falsely incriminating herself only hours after losing her child. Lucio narrowly avoided execution last week, but she still has a long fight ahead of her to avoid being killed by the State of Texas. Smith explains where things stand for...
4/22/22 Ryan McMaken on Capitalism and Peace
Download Episode. Scott talks with Ryan McMaken about free markets and free trade. They begin with a discussion about the role of the Mises Institute in the push for sound money. Scott then asks McMaken about the nuances of debating capitalism vs. socialism while living under a mixed economy. They then discuss the changing role of the United States in the world. McMaken does believe a “rules-based international order” existed after the fall of the USSR. But that the U.S. destroyed it by invading Iraq in 2003. McMaken argues that the best path forward is a commitment to the classical...
The Anti-Subjectivist Manifesto: The Case for Consent
Preface “It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.” - Socrates, Apology The nature of the manifesto is to inform others. To profess some great insight, motivation, or cause, in a manner that is both poignant and powerful. Our goal with this piece is to do just that, for an ethical theory known as “Anti-Subjectivism”, a theory that not only offers a normative framework for determining the “rightness” or “wrongness” of a given set of actions, but also a meta-ethical logic...
Science Deniers Refuse to Admit the Failure of Lockdowns
As hard as it is to believe, the Chinese regime is still employing a “zero covid” strategy and claims it can eradicate covid entirely through lockdowns and vaccinations. China’s draconian, nightmarish, near-total lockdown policy—which is notably still “necessary” in spite of widespread vaccination—has recently been revived in Shanghai, where residents are now struggling to find food. But the regime has only doubled down on the policy, with Chinese president Xi Jinping declaring that “persistence is victory.” This approach has no basis in any actual science, however, and contradicts...
The Evil of Economic Regulation
In the Yucatan, we stayed at several all-inclusive resorts. These resorts were a good fit for my family: When you’re travelling in a Third World country with four kids during a pandemic, you want a convenient supply of abundant and tasty food – and enough variety to please each and every picky eater. (Me included). Since portions were smallish, we routinely ordered 12-15 dinners for dinner, all at zero marginal cost. At least in Mexican resorts, tips are appreciated but not expected. Economically speaking, there’s a straightforward win-win case for these Mexican resorts: Not only do...
Another Failed Prediction From the Global Warming Alarmists
In 2009, the BBC ran a reporting piece on the Arctic featuring the esteemed polar scientist Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University. The Catlin Arctic Survey, a project set out to answer vital scientific questions about sea ice in the Arctic, had just returned with its findings. Its central purpose had been to gather evidence on how long a warming planet could sustain an all-year ice cover at its northern pole: How long did the Arctic ice cover have left? The results, said Wadhams, who has studied the Arctic since the 1970s, were terrifying. The survey supported the “new consensus view that...
Joe Biden Is Killing America’s Energy Sector
One of the saddest quotes from the Vietnam War came from journalist Peter Arnett, who wrote in a dispatch in 1968 about an American attack on a Vietcong-held village: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” As often happens with such quotes, they take on a second and even third life. Today, the Biden administration seeks to destroy the American economy ostensibly to save America from the dreaded climate change. No one advocating the so-called Green New Deal (GND) has put it quite like that. In fact, its advocates claim that not only will the GND give us better weather, but...
North Korea Tests First ICBM Since 2017
North Korea has tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time in five years. While Western governments and media have claimed the move violated a missile test moratorium, Pyongyang announced an end to that policy more than two years ago. North Korea confirmed Thursday’s test in a statement, saying the missile was a new variant of its Hwasong-17 ICBM and that the launch was meant to prepare for “confrontation” with “US imperialists.” According to Japanese officials, the missile flew for 71 minutes, a distance of 680 miles and reached a maximum altitude of more...
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