Free To Choose® Network is a global media 501(c)(3) nonprofit that brought you Milton Friedman’s original 1980 10-part television series, Free To Choose.
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Freedom. Innovation. Order. Henrik Ekelund traveled to three nations to find the forces behind lasting prosperity.
Why Nations Prosper is now streaming on YouTube and airing on public television.
Watch the full film: freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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Who is responsible for the life you build?
In this Perspectives Matter conversation with host Dennis McCuistion, Daniel T. Richards explains the core ideas of Objectivism. It holds that each person has an individual mind and must act on their own ideas, and that your own life is your highest moral purpose. He argues that most of the choices that matter, from career and marriage to whether to have children, are within your control. He says those choices are worth making with joy.
Watch the full interview here: piped.video/watch?v=XS5m63zm…
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A Nobel Prize for a fancy math formula on vector autoregression techniques. It matters in academia, but cue the snoring. Phil and Lou talk about how the Nobel Prize in economics went from honoring great communicators to rewarding math only specialists can follow. As for the winners who decided the prize made them experts on everything? Phil has some names.
All new episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness. happyhourecon.org/episodes/n…
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You can’t have it both ways. Milton Friedman pointed out a contradiction that plenty of people hold without noticing. They oppose monopolistic restrictions in a profession. They also oppose unlicensed practice. Friedman’s answer: you have to choose. Licensure gives monopoly power to someone, either government or the organized profession. You can’t eliminate the monopoly while keeping the thing that creates it.
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Why Nations Prosper, A Personal Exploration by Henrik Ekelund, is out now on YouTube and public television.
The one-hour documentary shows what happens when a nation frees its people to create. Across the Netherlands, Vietnam, Botswana, and Chile, Ekelund uncovers how Freedom, Order, and Innovation built lasting prosperity, and why Americans cannot take those forces for granted.
Watch the full film on YouTube or find it on your local public television station. piped.video/watch?v=aVvNIIBl…
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The Impossible Burger was everywhere. Then it became a ghost haunting the grocery aisle. Lou and Phil hold a brief memorial for the plant-based meat boom and explain why hype is no match for taste buds.
Stay for dessert with the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/h…
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Why is licensure so essential?
Milton Friedman’s answer: take it away, and an organized profession would still have lots of power to do good, but no power to do harm.
Licensure decides who gets admitted to practice. Whoever shapes the rules for admission holds the key to controlling the entire field.
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Bob Chitester would have turned 89 today.
In the late 1970s, he brought Milton and Rose Friedman a proposal: a 10-episode television series about free markets. His wager was simple. People will watch a program about economics if it tells a good story.
Free To Choose proved him right. As executive producer, Bob brought Friedman's ideas into millions of living rooms, and he founded Free To Choose Network to carry that work forward. He spent the rest of his life making the case that freedom is worth understanding and worth explaining well.
That work continues in every program we make today.
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Conspicuous consumption, meet conspicuous production. Phil tells Lou why grocery stores make room for vegan products when roughly 1 in 100 Americans is vegan. The payoff isn’t in sales. It’s in the image of social responsibility.
Come back for seconds with the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/h…
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How do you take the measure of a man who has shaped our thinking on politics and economics for over 50 years? By his influence, or by his words? Jason Riley, Larry Elder, and Steven Pinker on Thomas Sowell.
Watch the full documentary, Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World. piped.video/watch?v=WK4M9iJr…
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Three nations. Five continents. One question: Why do some nations prosper while others struggle?
Why Nations Prosper premieres this Sunday, November 1, on public television and YouTube. freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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What can Star Wars teach us about accepting change?
In this clip from a 2025 episode of Perspectives Matter, host Dennis McCuistion talks with Geeky Stoics creator Stephen Kent about why philosophy should give us practical rules for living, not word games. Kent explains how the Stoic idea that change is inevitable reached him not through Marcus Aurelius but through Anakin Skywalker’s mother in Star Wars: Episode I and Gandalf’s advice to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. He argues that stories like these carry ancient wisdom to audiences who might never open a philosophy book.
Watch the full interview here: piped.video/watch?v=XS5m63zm…
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Lou Perez just discovered Phil Magness’ kryptonite: cashews and mushrooms. Phil’s allergy takes veganism off the table, and it opens up a bigger conversation about why no two people order the same thing for dinner. What ends up on a plate is personal preference, and a free market makes room for all of it, from the ubiquitous hamburger to the most niche diet out there.
Save a seat for the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/h…
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Milton Friedman argued that government licensure of physicians does more than set standards. When only government-licensed individuals can practice medicine, whoever controls that licensing procedure gains monopoly power. Reducing and eliminating that monopoly power was the reason he called for ending licensure altogether.
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The 100 new steel jobs get counted. The jobs that disappear because steel got more expensive never do. Lou and Phil on the economic activity that tariffs quietly erase.
Start a tab with this week's full episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/a…
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Think about the last time you bought a shirt. You probably didn’t inspect the stitching or test the fabric. You trusted the store, because the store has a strong incentive to sell good shirts.
Milton Friedman uses this everyday example to make a point about medicine. People who go to the Mayo Clinic aren’t vetting each physician themselves. They trust the clinic, which has every reason to choose able, well-trained doctors.
Friedman’s argument is that without licensure and its restrictions on entry, we would have seen much more of this kind of group practice, and a much more effective way of selecting for quality in medicine.
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How can you tell a real conspiracy from a paranoid one?
Skeptic magazine founding publisher Michael Shermer, author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational talks with Perspectives Matter host Dennis McCuistion about "paranoid and realistic" conspiracy theories. Shermer explains the difference between realistic conspiracy theories, which tend to be specific and targeted, and paranoid ones that imagine a small secret group running the world. He offers a simple test for telling them apart, and explains why most grand conspiracies eventually come to light.
Watch the full interview here: piped.video/watch?v=17jn_7iY…
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Recorded in 2025, Julie Whelan, global head of occupier thought leadership at CBRE; Ben Wigert, Ph.D., director of research and strategy for workplace management at Gallup; and Andra Ghent, Ph.D., professor of finance at the University of Utah, join host Dr. Yoram Solomon to weigh the costs and benefits of bringing employees back to the office. The panel considers how remote and hybrid work affect productivity, mentorship, and fairness, why flexibility has become an expectation many workers won’t give up, and how managers and office spaces must adapt to make in-person work worth the commute.
Listen now: blog.freetochoosenetwork.org…
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America’s steel industry is the baby that never grew up. In 1789, a Pennsylvania congressman asked the very first Congress to shield his state’s young iron industry from British competition. Phil tells Lou how that one amendment kicked off American protectionism, and why a couple of centuries later, Washington is still protecting the same industry.
Cheers to the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/a…
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"Thomas Sowell is that rarest of species, an honest intellectual."
- Jason Riley
From our 2021 documentary, Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World. piped.video/watch?v=WK4M9iJr…
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Chile’s democracy thrives on participation, with citizens who engage and representative institutions that answer to them. Henrik Ekelund explores why nations that give their people a voice achieve lasting prosperity. Today, Chile grows stronger by opening itself to global markets.
Why Nations Prosper premieres November 1 on public television and YouTube. freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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Why do smart people believe weird things?
Perspectives Matter host Dennis McCuistion talks with Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational. Shermer explains that most of our beliefs, from religion to politics, come from reasons that have little to do with weighing evidence, and that intelligent people are especially good at building arguments for them after the fact. He also points out that believing in conspiracies isn’t always irrational, since real ones like Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and Archduke Franz Ferdinand did happen.
Watch the full interview here: piped.video/watch?v=17jn_7iY…
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Steel is back, baby! Except, as Phil points out, it never actually left. Lou and Phil talk about America’s appetite for steel, why the country has long imported more than it makes, and why the usual suspect in the political story isn’t the real one.
Raise a glass to a new episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/a…
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What happens when the drivers of prosperity are followed or forgotten?
Find out November 1. Watch Why Nations Prosper on public television and YouTube. freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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Botswana chose good governance and rule of law. Its people got opportunity. Lebo of Chobe Game Lodge embodies that spirit: a belief that anyone with the will to think and work can create a better life. Discover her story and the forces behind national prosperity in Why Nations Prosper.
Premiering November 1 on public television and YouTube. Watch the trailer: freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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What is the proper role of government in medical care? Milton Friedman answered the same way he would for any other field.
First, enforce laws against fraud and deception, so consumers are protected from being misled.
Second, help people in dire distress. Some people, he noted, may face major medical bills in an emergency that they simply cannot bear. That is no different in principle from a family that loses its home to a flood or hurricane.
His conclusion follows directly: “Insofar as the government has programs to assist people in dire distress, it ought to include people in dire medical distress.”
A limited role, applied consistently.
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What can an ordinary pencil teach us about the economy?
From a recent Perspectives Matter interview, host Dennis McCuistion and Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) president Diogo Costa discuss the lessons of Leonard Read’s “I, Pencil” essay. Costa walks through the essay’s central argument: that no single person knows how to make a pencil, yet people around the world each contribute a piece, from the truck driver hauling cedar logs to the worker extracting rubber. He connects that idea to FEE’s Economic Marvels series, which traces the human cooperation behind products we often take for granted.
Watch the full interview: piped.video/watch?v=AZUvPNpu…
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The student debt warnings are all over every social feed, and the borrowing keeps climbing anyway. @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness make the case that taking the government out of the middle would bring back the price signals that show students and colleges what a degree is really worth.
Keep the tab open for the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with Lou and Phil, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/m…
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We tend to treat a professional license as proof of quality. Milton Friedman questioned that assumption.
His first point: a license reflects a moment in time. Someone licensed thirty years ago may no longer be competent today, yet the license remains.
His second point: licensure isn’t the only safeguard. Anyone who misrepresents their training can be sued for fraud. Practitioners would still need to demonstrate their capabilities.
And his third point may be the most interesting. Without the assumption that a license settles the question, people would be more inclined to examine an individual’s qualifications for themselves.
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Thomas Sowell didn’t start out as a free-market economist. He was a Marxist. What changed his thinking wasn’t a book or a debate. It was a summer job as a government intern in economics. Seeing how government actually operated from the inside turned him around.
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Politicians sell student loans as an investment in the next generation. Now the public is starting to check the receipt. Lou and Phil ask what taxpayers actually get back when a degree in self-discovery costs the same to borrow for as one that pays off.
Order another round with the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Listen here: happyhourecon.org/episodes/m…
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What does a stable dollar look like to someone who grew up without one?
Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) President Diogo Costa tells host Dennis McCuistion about life in Brazil during hyperinflation in the 1990s, when a store employee relabeled prices every day and families bought a month of groceries the moment a paycheck arrived. Costa contrasts that experience with his arrival in America, where prices held steady, and explains how reading Ludwig von Mises as a law student turned a childhood instinct into a lifelong commitment to economics.
Watch the full interview here: piped.video/watch?v=AZUvPNpu…
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The student loan boom started as a recession strategy. After the 2008 financial crisis, Washington opened up federal student lending in 2009 to keep young people out of a struggling job market. It piled up degrees with nowhere to go and created a constituency that, more than a decade later, wants its debt forgiven.
Make it a double with the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Listen now: happyhourecon.org/episodes/m…
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In Botswana, local ownership is changing the game. Desert and Delta Safaris belongs to the only locally owned tourism company listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange, giving locals a stake in their country’s growth while drawing foreign investment in. When people can own a share of their economy, prosperity reaches everyone.
Why Nations Prosper arrives November 1 on public television and YouTube.
Watch the trailer now. freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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Milton Friedman started with a simple question: is there any role for government in medical care? His answer: the same role it has in every other field, and no more. Public health aside, he saw nothing special about medicine that called for different treatment.
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Can technology solve our problems?
In this clip from Perspectives Matter, recorded at Adam Smith Week at the College of Charleston, host Dennis McCuistion talks with author Matt Ridley about why innovation, not retreat or austerity, has solved humanity’s biggest problems, from vaccines to clean water. Ridley points to Boyan Slat, whose nonprofit is intercepting huge amounts of plastic before it reaches the oceans, and explains why some environmentalists object to his work even as it succeeds.
Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel: piped.video/watch?v=OttUifMa…
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Forced labor doesn’t emerge by accident. Lou and Phil explain why slavery persists wherever the rule of law is weak or absent, and why the further a society moves from private property and voluntary exchange, the more likely it is to return.
Stream the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/t…
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What’s in a name?
Milton Friedman argued that “national health insurance” was a misnomer from start to finish. Nothing national about it, since it’s for individuals. Nothing healthy about it, since he believed it would make medical care worse. And nothing insurance about it, since it’s simply a government payout.
Call it what it is, he said: socialized medicine.
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Recorded in 2025, Neal McCluskey, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom and author of The Fractured Schoolhouse: Reexamining Education for a Free, Equal, and Harmonious Society, joins host Vince Poscente to examine the fight over banned books in America's schools. Their conversation traces the history and legal landscape of book censorship, looks at why today's challenges center on race, gender identity, and sexuality, and asks whether any single school system can satisfy families with diverse values and needs.
Listen now: blog.freetochoosenetwork.org…
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Thomas Sowell was once a Marxist. Asked what changed his mind, he needed just one word: facts.
From our documentary, Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World. Watch it on YouTube: piped.video/watch?v=WK4M9iJr…
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Zero tolerance for corruption. A government that works for the people. Botswana built its prosperity on these principles, and its citizens reaped the rewards.
Why Nations Prosper premieres November 1 on public television and YouTube.
Watch the trailer: freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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What does a society lose when people are denied the freedom to choose their own work and the chance to innovate? @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness point to escaped slaves who arrived in the North with nothing and built successful enterprises, a real-world measure of the talent slavery held back.
Hear the full episode of Happy Hour Econ with Lou and Phil on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/t…
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If your town doesn't need to make everything it uses, why should your country?
Perspectives Matter host Dennis McCuistion asks author Matt Ridley, whether trade between nations works the same way as trade between neighbors. Ridley says it does, using the example of Britain buying combine harvesters it doesn't make by selling goods it does. He then explains David Ricardo's idea of comparative advantage: even if one country is better at producing everything, both sides still gain when each focuses on what it does best and trades for the rest.
Watch the full interview here: piped.video/watch?v=OttUifMa…
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Clear rules. Fair enforcement. Real growth.
In Botswana, Henrik Ekelund explains how the rule of law and strong property rights give people the confidence to build for the future.
Why Nations Prosper comes to public television and YouTube on November 1.
See the trailer: freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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Any statistic that makes the antebellum South look wealthy starts by treating enslaved people as property.
On paper, a plantation owner holding a thousand people looked rich. Counted as people, those thousand were living in extreme poverty with no control over their own work, and the South's per capita wealth shifts dramatically.
@LouPerez and @PhilWMagness on why a true accounting of slavery tells a very different economic story.
The full episode of Happy Hour Econ is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/t…
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Would you want to live to 200?
In this conversation for Perspectives Matter, host Dennis McCuistion speaks with biologist and science writer Matt Ridley about the limits of human longevity. Ridley explains why so few people live past 110, why the very old tend to die of a quiet decline rather than cancer or heart disease, and why he doubts that limit can be changed late in life. He also makes the case that a 200-year lifespan would mean starting over completely, with a new education and a second career.
Watch the full interview: piped.video/watch?v=MAPM5-YK…
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Why do medical costs rise? Milton Friedman argues that hospitals and physicians may be inefficient and greedy, but they always have been. The bigger driver is consumers pressing for expanded services and more variety.
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Milton Friedman didn't mince words: he called the FDA an unmitigated disaster.
Yes, it has stopped some bad drugs. But it has also stopped very good drugs from coming on the market. It has made new drugs enormously more expensive to discover and develop. And it has driven medical research out of the country.
In Friedman's view, the harm far outweighs the good.
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Why do some nations prosper while others stay poor?
Adam Smith asked that question 250 years ago, and it matters just as much today, as growth slows, regulation expands, and young families struggle to afford a home. Why Nations Prosper follows three nations and one entrepreneur across five continents to find out. Along the way, the documentary examines how markets, the rule of law, and individual freedom work together to create sustained economic growth, and why those gains have to be protected.
Why Nations Prosper premieres November 1 on public television and YouTube. freetochoosenetwork.org/prog…
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Critics of capitalism rarely stop to define it. @LouPerez and @PhilWMagness do. Private property and voluntary exchange are the starting points, but the system also depends on people owning their own work, with the freedom to trade what they produce, leave a job, and try something new.
Last call for this week's full episode of Happy Hour Econ with Lou and Phil, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. happyhourecon.org/episodes/s…
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Thomas Sowell trained as an economist, but his work reaches well beyond economics. As Larry Elder notes, he is also a sociologist and a photographer, and he has written books about virtually every culture that has ever existed.
Jason Riley has studied Sowell's life and work for more than two decades. Walter Williams points to one of Sowell's central ideas: general principles apply to everybody.
"Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World" explores the man and his ideas. Watch the full documentary on YouTube: piped.video/watch?v=WK4M9iJr…
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