Podcasts
The Great Antidote: Extra: Brad Wilcox on Get Married
According to Brad Wilcox, Americans — particularly university students — have lost the simple truth that friendships and family relationships add more to one’s sense of meaning than one’s education or work does. Wilcox and Great Antidote host Juliette Sellgren talk about how this truth has been lost to the progressive narrative of expressive individualism, careerism, and hedonism.
You can listen to the podcast here: Brad Wilcox on Get Married
Cultural values like expressive individualism, careerism, and hedonism encourage young people to find meaning in themselves, their work, and the pleasurable experiences in life rather than relationships such as marriage. In light of these values, marriage becomes less appealing.
You can listen to the podcast here: Brad Wilcox on Get Married
Cultural values like expressive individualism, careerism, and hedonism encourage young people to find meaning in themselves, their work, and the pleasurable experiences in life rather than relationships such as marriage. In light of these values, marriage becomes less appealing.
Yet, Wilcox points out that this anti-marriage narrative ignores that deep meaning and fulfillment in life come from the hard things. He likens fulfillment in life to hiking to the top of a mountain versus driving to it. The destination is the same, but the view loses much of its satisfactory value if you drive there. You only truly appreciate the beauty of it after striving for it. So, fulfillment in life comes from sacrifice for and commitment to someone.
The anti-marriage narrative also assumes the superiority of single life. Rather than considering the many economical and emotional benefits of marriage, the cultural elites prioritize the individual as the best way of life. They embrace cohabitation as a low commitment middle ground and support all family forms as equally successful. Marriage becomes an unnecessary entrapment for men and women with nothing to be gained.
In Wilcox’s book, Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization, Wilcox examines this false narrative and highlights the lack of evidence for their claims. He encourages young people to defy the elite’s story and give as much attention to dating and finding a spouse as they give their future careers, to build families, and find significance in commitment to another.
1.) How is commitment to an education or work different from commitment to another person? Why might one be more fulfilling than another?
2.) How can we change the anti-marriage narrative to one that reveals the truth about marriage’s benefits?
3.) Studies show that stable relationships between two committed married people is a better environment for kids. Why might having children in marriage be better for the child and the parent?
Want more?
- Nico Perrino on Individual Rights and Free Expression, a Great Antidote podcast
- Henry C. Clark on Growth, a Great Antidote podcast
- Bob Ewing on Narratives and Counterintuitive Ideas, a Great Antidote podcast
- The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier and Better Off Financially, by Linda Waite & Margaret Gallagher
-
The Two Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Starting Falling Behind by Melissa S. Kearney
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The Great Antidote: It’s Not Goodbye, It’s See You in September with Amy Willis
In this special episode of The Great Antidote, Amy Willis of Liberty Fund takes the mic to interview Juliette Sellgren, the voice behind the show. Together, they reflect on the evolution of the podcast—from its early days to the hundreds of guests it has featured—and how Juliette herself has grown in the process.
The Great Antidote: The Limits of Liberty: Buchanan’s Case for Constitutional Rules with Edward Lopez
What happens when people stop trusting rules—and start rewriting them?
In this episode, we are joined by economist Edward Lopez about the life and legacy of James M. Buchanan, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of public choice economics. We begin by unpacking Buchanan’s biography and intellectual roots: what shaped his worldview, who influenced his thinking, and why his work remains foundational to understanding government, rules, and freedom.
The Great Antidote: Targeted Incentives: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Persists with Peter Calcagno
Remember the Amazon HQ2 frenzy? When nearly every U.S. state competed to become Amazon’s next home, offering billions in tax breaks and incentives? I do — I grew up right next door to Crystal City, Virginia, the site Amazon ultimately chose.
In this episode, I talk with economist Peter Calcagno about targeted economic incentives—the controversial policy tool that fueled the Amazon HQ2 bidding war and countless other corporate deals.
The Great Antidote: What Monkeys Teach Us About Economics with Bart Wilson
What if modern economics has overlooked what truly makes us human?
In this episode, Bart Wilson joins us to explore humanomics—an approach to economics that reintroduces meaning, culture, and moral judgment into how we understand economic behavior.
