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Speaking of Smith Archives

Great Antidote Deep Dive: Peter Van Doren on Energy Independence

Juliette Sellgren and Peter Van Doren

One of the broadest Great Antidote podcasts to date: long-standing tensions between foreign policy experts and economics experts; challenges with expansion and adoption of wind and solar technologies;  lessons from the Fukushima nuclear disaster and so much more. Sellgren and Van Doren invite you think deeper and broader about energy markets near and far. 

Peter Van Doren on Energy Independence

Peter Van Doren with Juliette Sellgren

Dear Adam Smith: Besieged Bookworm


"Who's right? My mom or me?" asks a Besieged Bookworm whose mom wants to control her reading. Adam Smith shares his advice on reading things that might make you uneasy or sad. 

Great Antidote Deep Dive: Daniel Klein on Adam Smith's Justice

Juliette Sellgren and Daniel Klein

Adam Smith (and guest Daniel Klein) help Great Antidote host Juliette Sellgren think through her obligations to her friends, neighbors, people distant from her, and lawn chairs. 

Daniel Klein on Adam Smith's Justice

Daniel Klein with Juliette Sellgren

Adam Smith and Owning It with The Mystery of the Invisible Hand

Lauren Heller for AdamSmithWorks

How can teachers introduce their students to Adam Smith's insights with less eye rolling and more engaged learning? Lauren Heller suggests using a little mystery, The Mystery of the Invisible Hand by Marshall Jevons, that is. 

Great Antidote Deep Dive: Walter Olson on Election Fraud

Juliette Sellgren and Walter Olson

The peaceful transfer of governmental power is an important American tradition. Real and imagined threats to that idea put Americans in danger. 

Father's Day Advice from Adam Smith

Shannon Chamberlain for AdamSmithWorks

"[C]ultivating indifference to ourselves and those closest to us causes us not only to fail in our domestic roles in a way that displeases the spectator, but also to lose the ability to feel for the more distant strangers we might come into contact with as travel and technology shrink the world."

Walter Olson on Election Fraud

Walter Olson with Juliette Sellgren



In the past and still today, many people claim that 2016, 2018, and 2020 elections were marred by illegal votes and voter suppression. Juliette Sellgren and Walter Olson address the myths and realities of US election fraud.

What Adam Smith Ate: Cheese

Renee Wilmeth for AdamSmithWorks

Adam Smith wrote “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” He could have added the cheesemonger, too...

Adam Smith and the Economic Concept of Repugnance

Walter Castro and Julio J. Elías for AdamSmithWorks

Some kinds of transactions are repugnant in some times and places and not in others. In Smith, there is an empiricist and practical morality, which could change.

Great Antidote Deep Dive: Thomas Hoenig on Inflation and the Federal Reserve

Juliette Sellgren with Thomas Hoenig

Beginning in 2010, Thomas Hoenig voted "No" so often on the Federal Open Market Committee that he became known as "Mr. No." Why did Hoenig refuse to support expansive Federal Reserve purchasing? Sellgren invites Hoenig to talk about his past experiences and how it helps us think about our present.