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Hayek Program Podcast

Hayek Program Podcast

Mercatus Center at George Mason University 235 Episodes Sep 2, 2026

The Hayek Program Podcast features audio from lectures, interviews, and discussions by scholars and visitors of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The program focuses on teaching and research about institutional arrangements that support free and prosperous societies. It explores how societal choices of institutional arrangements can influence economic, political, and moral outcomes.

Episodes

The Hayekian Triangle: James Buchanan and the Challenge of Self-Government
The Hayekian Triangle: James Buchanan and the Challenge of Self-Government Sep 2, 2026 100:11 On the second episode of The Hayekian Triangle, Virgil Storr, Peter Boettke, and Chris Coyne examine James Buchanan’s views on human nature and self-government. They place Buchanan’s essays “Natural and Artifactual Man” and “Afraid to Be Free” in conversation, exploring the tension between human beings’ capacity for self-creation and their desire for protection from uncertainty and responsibility.
Brianne Wolf on Liberalism with Taste
Brianne Wolf on Liberalism with Taste Aug 19, 2026 67:22 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke sits down with Brianne Wolf to explore Adam Smith’s enduring relevance for liberalism, political economy, and contemporary debates about markets and democracy. Wolf discusses her forthcoming book, Beyond Rights and Price: Liberalism with Taste, and explains how thinkers including Smith, Hume, Rousseau, and Tocqueville illuminate the role
Sympathy, Justice, and the Impartial Spectator with Kristen Collins
Sympathy, Justice, and the Impartial Spectator with Kristen Collins Aug 5, 2026 66:54 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke sits down with Kristen Collins for a wide-ranging conversation on Adam Smith's moral philosophy and its intersection with theories of justice, sympathy, and political power. The conversation moves through the relationship between sympathy, moral imagination, and the origins of our sense of justice, drawing on Michelle Schwarze's work on s
Don Boudreaux on The Wealth of Nations at 250
Don Boudreaux on The Wealth of Nations at 250 Jul 22, 2026 51:19 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke sits down with Don Boudreaux to mark the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Boudreaux reflects on his many years teaching a graduate seminar on Smith at George Mason University, the layers of insight he continues to discover on each re-read, and why so few professional economi
Paul Dragos Aligica — 2024 Markets and Society Conference Keynote
Paul Dragos Aligica — 2024 Markets and Society Conference Keynote Jul 8, 2026 67:48 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Paul Dragos Aligica delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference on resilience as a research frontier in mainline political economy. He traces how resilience has been largely absent from comparative economic systems scholarship, only to explode as a topic in the last decade, mostly imported from ecology and complexity theory
Bobbi Herzberg — 2025 Markets and Society Conference Keynote
Bobbi Herzberg — 2025 Markets and Society Conference Keynote Jun 24, 2026 23:38 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Bobbi Herzberg delivers a keynote lecture at the 2025 Markets & Society conference on Vincent Ostrom’s understanding of democracy and self-governance. Reflecting on Ostrom’s life, scholarship, and enduring influence, Herzberg explores four central themes in his work: the emergence of social order through shared beliefs and norms, the capacity of in
Emily Chamlee-Wright — 2025 Markets and Society Conference Keynote
Emily Chamlee-Wright — 2025 Markets and Society Conference Keynote Jun 10, 2026 39:45 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Emily Chamlee-Wright delivers a keynote lecture at the 2025 Markets & Society conference on the precarious state of liberalism and the cultural foundations necessary to sustain a free society. Drawing on the cultural economy framework she developed with Virgil Storr, Chamlee-Wright argues that liberalism faces not only overt constitutional threats
The Hayekian Triangle: The Wealth of Nations at 250
The Hayekian Triangle: The Wealth of Nations at 250 May 27, 2026 92:03 Welcome to our new series, The Hayekian Triangle. This series will feature a range of conversations between our hosts: Virgil Storr, Chris Coyne, and Peter Boettke. On this episode, the three sit down to mark the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations — and to ask a deceptively simple question: why are we still reading a book written a quarter-millennium ago?From the invisible han
Liya Palagashvili on the Startup Mindset: How to Build a Career in Economics
Liya Palagashvili on the Startup Mindset: How to Build a Career in Economics May 13, 2026 55:57 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke and Liya Palagashvili reflect on her journey from undergraduate student organizer to public intellectual, policy analyst, and Director of the Labor Policy Project. They discuss how Liya has approached her career with a startup mindset — exploring her work on the gig economy and portable benefits to create more dynamic and resilient labor
Violent Saviors: A Conversation With Bill Easterly
Violent Saviors: A Conversation With Bill Easterly Apr 29, 2026 58:27 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke talks with Bill Easterly about his new book, Violent Saviors: The West’s Conquest of the Rest. Drawing on figures such as Adam Smith, P.T. Bauer, and Amartya Sen, Easterly argues that material progress alone cannot justify the denial of human dignity and consent. The conversation explores the idea of the “benevolent autocrat” and examines
Chandran Kukathas — 2023 Markets and Society Conference Keynote
Chandran Kukathas — 2023 Markets and Society Conference Keynote Apr 15, 2026 42:49 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Chandran Kukathas delivers a keynote lecture at the 2023 Markets & Society conference arguing that an open society is best understood as a regime of toleration—one that can never be perfectly realized because every regime ultimately relies on power. He explores why toleration cannot be neatly limited by moral theory, why appeals to justice often be
Senator Phil Gramm and Don Boudreaux on the Triumph of Economic Freedom
Senator Phil Gramm and Don Boudreaux on the Triumph of Economic Freedom Apr 1, 2026 57:04 On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke talks with former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm and Don Boudreaux about their new book, The Triumph of Economic Freedom, a sweeping challenge to seven persistent myths about American capitalism. The conversation ranges from the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression to the financial crisis. Along the way, they reflect on why these myths

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