Mercatus Center at George Mason University
233 episodes listed below
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The Hayek Program Podcast includes audio from lectures, interviews, and discussions of scholars and visitors from the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The F. A. Hayek Program is devoted to the promotion of teaching and research on the institutional arrangements that are suitable for the support of free and prosperous societies. Implicit in this statement is the presumption that those arrangements are to some extent open to conscious selection, as well as the appreciation that the type of arrangements that are selected within a society...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Hayek Program Podcast makes political arguments more legible by tracing them back to assumptions about institutions, incentives, knowledge, and human choice.
Hayek Program Podcast turns political argument into patient conversations about the assumptions beneath policy. Chris Coyne and Nathan Goodman lead guest discussions on war, peace, border enforcement, and fertility, while a lecture on life after graduation extends the focus to…
Global defense policy meets a very local question: do you trust the people running it?
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp challenge to Roosevelt's greatness, grounded in one troubling Navy case and a larger argument about his legacy.
This review treats FDR's legacy as a direct challenge to the usual ranking of presidential greatness, and it works best when it narrows in on the Navy investigation into same-sex relationships.
A careful case for studying how peace is built, maintained, and lived.
Abigail Hall and Chris Coyne treat peace as something people have to make, not just hope for. The discussion moves cleanly from Kenneth Boulding's idea of stable peace to Elise Boulding's focus on peaceful relationships in daily life, and it keeps that thread intact without…
A careful look at the Johns Hopkins Center for Economy and Society and its new moral and political economy major.
The discussion tracks the Johns Hopkins Center for Economy and Society and its new major in moral and political economy, presented as a Hewlett Foundation-backed effort from the Beyond Neoliberalism initiative.
Border militarization is framed through policy, power, human cost, and resistance.
Timothy J. Dunn brings real historical depth to a discussion of U.S.-Mexico border policy, and Nathan Goodman gives the conversation enough room to breathe.
A measured lecture on scholarly work, liberalism, and why ideas last when they stay social and adaptable.
This episode treats scholarly life as a practice shaped by vocation, community, and discipline, not just individual drive. It moves from liberalism into the philosophy and sociology of science, then into the habits that help ideas circulate, and the result feels calm without…
A clear case for how trust, cooperation, and institutions shape market participation and economic opportunity.
Dr. Nava Ashraf's keynote treats trust, cooperation, and institutions as hard economic forces, not background noise. In Zambia, it compares how women and men learn trades, judge risk, and build commercial ties, then threads those patterns through survey responses, trust-game…
A methodical discussion of visibility, surveillance, and LGBTQ+ issues.
Jordan Lofthouse and Zane Austin Willard handle political economy and LGBTQ+ issues with uncommon discipline, treating culture, surveillance, and legal and political discourse as linked rather than separate lanes.
A careful look at how property rights, trust, and legal reform shape development.
The episode addresses women's land and resource rights in sub-Sahara Africa and connects that topic to property rights systems and development.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
Philosopher Barry Lam turns reported stories — gig algorithms, AI music, vampires — into philosophical inquiry.
Economist Glenn Loury interviews one guest at a time on race, religion, and geopolitics.
Peter Boghossian applies street epistemology to guests debating free speech, immigration, and belief.
Vox's narrative reporting on factory farming, pandemic risk, and its Good Robot AI safety series.
Shruti Rajagopalan and Chris Coyne use Kenneth Boulding’s 1978 Stable Peace framework to separate conflict from violence and to compare stable peace, unstable peace, unstable violence, and stable violence.
Amy Crockett discusses her paper “Addressing Peace in Undergraduate Economics Textbooks” and says the project began with Kenneth Boulding’s claim that Ford would never burn down General Motors.
Tomasz Ajenski discusses his documentary Notes on the Margin, a film about Karl Menger as both founder of the Austrian school and a figure shaped by Nowy Sącz, Maniowy, Kraków, Vienna, and Prague.
Nathan Goodman talks with Ben Powell about immigration.
Jessica Kargis speaks with Carol Boudreau in the Hayek Program Podcast’s Women in Policy series about women’s land and resource rights in sub-Saharan Africa.
Pete Boettke places Kenneth E.
Nathan Goodman speaks with Abigail Hall, an associate professor of economics at the University of Tampa and a senior affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center, about immigration policy, border enforcement, and the boomerang effect from Tyranny Comes Home.
Chris Coyne speaks with Michael Romero about a paper he co-authored with Virgil Storr, Markets as a Peace Lab, as part of a broader special issue on Kenneth Balding.
Nathan Goodman speaks with Jacob T.
David Schmitz uses the Hayek Program Podcast keynote to argue that self-governance depends on self-imposed limits, not just world-imposed constraints, with examples from lodging, casino gambling, and buying a house.
Katherine Pakaluk, Director of Political Economy and Associate Professor at Catholic University of America, discusses her book Hannah's Children and the phrase “birth dearth.” She says the expected number of births per woman fell from about eight around 1800 to about two by 2000, a level she says does not replace a population.
Mario Small’s Hayek Program Podcast keynote connects payday lending, neighborhood geography, and racial inequality through a set of studies using 19 large U.S.
An introduction to a keynote lecture by political theorist Chandran Kukathas on liberalism and immigration.
An interview with Phil Graham and Don Boudreau about their new book debunking myths of economic freedom.
David Beito joins the Hayek Program Podcast to talk about his new book on Franklin Roosevelt.
Chris Coyne interviews Abigail Hall about her paper on Kenneth Boulding's 'Stable Peace,' exploring concepts like negative vs.
The conversation centers on the Johns Hopkins Center for Economy and Society and the new major in moral and political economy.
Hayek Program Podcast presents Nina Bandelj’s 2023 Markets and Society Conference keynote on the “social life of money for children,” with Bandelj arguing that parents now save, spend, invest, and borrow for kids in ways shaped by finance, culture, and inequality.
Timothy Dunn, a professor of sociology at Salisbury University, joins Nathan Goodman.
How Foucault's theory of power can strengthen liberalism's critique of social control
Stephanie Hafley interviews economist Abigail Hall about her research on U.S.
The speaker reflects on how scholarship moves forward and what a scholar ought to think about next.
Nava Ashraf's keynote opens with a conference introduction and quickly moves into how trust and cooperation shape market participation.
Jordan Lofthouse introduces Zane Austin Willard and sets the conversation around interdisciplinary scholarship and political economy as a way to study LGBTQ+ issues.
Kwame Anthony Appiah uses the Hayek Program Podcast keynote to connect war spoils, cultural property, and museum restitution through examples from the Iliad, the Quran, Benin, and Asante.
An interview with Gianna Menica-Bessio, a professor of history of economic thought, discussing her work and academic background.
An academic lecture introducing Peter Boettke and his work in Austrian economics and political economy.
An academic interview discussing a chapter on anarcho-pacifism from the perspective of Christianity and modern economics, honoring Robert Higgs' work.
An interview with Professor Chris Coyne about his new satirical book 'How to Run Wars'.
A discussion on the interaction between agency and structure in social sciences, emphasizing Austrian economics.
An interview with Dr.
A promotional announcement followed by an interview with Professor Ben Powell on Election Day.
An interview with economist Don Boudreaux on the intellectual history of monopoly and antitrust policy in the United States.