Freedom Podcast: Ideas that Matter
Freedom: Ideas that Matter
005: The Liberty Movement's Radicals and Reactionaries (w/ Matt Zwolinski)
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005: The Liberty Movement's Radicals and Reactionaries (w/ Matt Zwolinski)

Philosopher Matt Zwolinski joins the show to discuss libertarianism, its complex and often fractious evolution, and the tensions between its radicals and reactionaries.

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There’s an old joke that if you ask two libertarians their opinions about something, you’ll get three different answers. The liberty movement has always had its disagreements—and infighting—but is there a core idea common to all libertarians? Something that defines libertarianism?

In the new book, The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism, Matt Zwolinksi and John Tomasi set out their own answer, and use it to trace the history of the libertarian movement.

Zwolinski, a philosophy professor at the University of San Diego, joins us today to talk about libertarianism, its complex and often fractious evolution, and the tension within the liberty movement between radicals and reactionaries.


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Freedom Podcast: Ideas that Matter
Freedom: Ideas that Matter
A show about ideas that matter. Hosted by Trevor Burrus and Aaron Ross Powell.