The Libertarian Christian Podcast

Join the Libertarian Christian Institute as each week they explore, debate, and analyze the issues that are directly relevant to the intersection of Christianity and liberty. Always thoughtful, frequently controversial, and never boring (trust us), it is our hope and prayer that The Libertarian Christian Podcast serve as a valuable resource to the Church for years to come. If you'd like to reach out to us and ask a question or submit some feedback, you can reach us at podcast@libertarianchristians.com, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and of course, our website, libertarianchristians.com.

  1. Oct 16

    The Eastern Orthodox Contributions to Liberty You've Never Heard About, with Dylan Pahman

    Eastern Christianity is rarely associated with classical liberalism — but should it be? In this conversation with Dr. Dylan Pahman, author of The Kingdom of God and the Common Good and co‑editor of The Christian Roots of American Liberty, we explore the overlooked intellectual resources within the Eastern Orthodox tradition that support freedom, rule of law, spontaneous order, private property, and even free markets. From sobornost (conciliar togetherness) to sophia (wisdom) to the liturgical worldview that shapes Orthodox social ethics, Dr. Pahman uncovers historical examples, forgotten thinkers, and surprising theological insights that challenge the stereotype of Eastern Orthodoxy as inherently statist or “caesaropapist.” If you’ve ever wondered whether Orthodoxy has its own path to liberty — or how Eastern Christian thought can enrich the broader Christian conversation on freedom — this episode is for you. Links: - The Kingdom of God and the Common Good by Dylan Pahman - The Christian Roots of American Liberty by Dylan Pahman and John C. Pinheiro - https://cabasilasinstitute.org/ - https://x.com/DylanPahman Chapters:0:00 Intro0:22 Orthodox Liberty Roots1:06 What This Book Is3:59 East, West, And Liberty7:22 Frank And Spontaneous Order13:05 Three Orthodox Contributions21:41 Sabornost And Social Order23:04 Trade, Fathers, And Providence26:30 Monks, Property, And Commerce31:14 Kabasilis And Monastic Freedom34:16 Usury And Medieval Critiques43:04 Basil On Wealth48:33 Misreadings Of Caesaro-Papism56:36 Orthodoxy Under Revolution1:00:03 Orthodoxy And Islam1:04:38 Christian Roots Of Liberty Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI! Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs ★ Support this podcast ★

    The Eastern Orthodox Contributions to Liberty You've Never Heard About, with Dylan Pahman
  2. Oct 9

    Grim Old Days, with Chelsea Follett

    Life before the Industrial Revolution was not simpler, slower, or more humane. It was short, violent, filthy, and saturated with grief, and almost nobody alive today can picture it accurately. That gap is not harmless. It shapes how people respond to economic growth, to AI, and to every technology that promises to change how we live. Chelsea Follett, research fellow at the Cato Institute and the mind behind HumanProgress.org, returns to the show with a new book, The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past. The argument is blunt: we have not only solved many of the problems our ancestors faced, we have erased the memory of them. Nostalgia fills the vacuum, and nostalgia is a terrible guide to policy. What follows takes the romantic version of the past apart and argues that gratitude for what we have is the first step toward keeping it. Chapters:0:22 Introduction to the Grim Old Days1:56 Why Progress Matters5:40 Why We Romanticize the Past8:45 Harsh Realities of Family Life13:54 Child Labor and Daily Work16:24 Violence and Social Progress20:55 Defining the Pre-Industrial Era25:12 Fragile Paths to Progress29:06 Sources and Historical Skepticism32:13 The Darkest Anecdotes34:07 Child Loss and Modern Medicine38:27 Debunking Medieval Myths40:46 Why the Past Still Matters Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI! Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs ★ Support this podcast ★

    Grim Old Days, with Chelsea Follett
  3. Oct 2

    The State of Religious Liberty, with Paul D. Mueller

    State religious liberty laws are the part of this fight almost nobody watches. Supreme Court cases get the headlines. The statutes that decide whether a baker, a nurse, a foster parent, or a congregation ever ends up in court at all sit quietly in fifty state codes, and most Christians have no idea what their own state has on the books. Paul Mueller, senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, co-authors Religious Liberty in the States, an annual index now in its fifth year. It scores every state on roughly fifty discrete protections grouped into twenty weighted safeguard categories. Not aspirational protections. Not vibes about whether a state feels Christian. What is actually enacted. The rankings scramble most assumptions people bring to the map, and they make three things clear: legislation beats litigation, the red and blue shorthand fails here, and the libertarian objection to religious exemptions deserves an answer. Chapters:0:22 Guest Intro and Background5:48 How the Index Works13:33 Libertarian Tensions in Law23:19 Why State Protections Matter28:16 Reading the State Rankings37:12 Why Most States Lag40:06 Measuring Real-World Impact44:52 Getting the Report Heard47:53 Closing Thoughts and Podcast Plug Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI! Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs ★ Support this podcast ★

    The State of Religious Liberty, with Paul D. Mueller
  4. Sep 18

    Why the Free Market Works, with John Lott

    Ask why the free market works and most popular economics hands you a clever story about how it doesn't. Insurance companies are greedy. Real estate agents run a racket. Used car buyers are being fleeced. The stories sell books, and they rarely survive a phone call to the people being accused. John Lott has spent a career making those phone calls. Economist, former chief economist at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, author of More Guns, Less Crime, he wrote Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories That Don't as a direct answer to the Freakonomics school of counterintuitive economics. The claim is not that markets are magic. It is that when a pattern holds for decades among people with their own money on the line, the odds favor a reason over a mistake. What follows is the method and the evidence: how to tell a finding that holds from one that merely sounds good, why the most famous claim in Freakonomics runs backward, and what actually explains the growth of government. Chapters:0:22 Intro and Freedomnomics Overview3:35 Guns Research by Accident8:40 Debating the Gun Evidence17:30 Carry Laws and Crime Patterns23:04 Freakonomics and Hidden Assumptions31:51 Abortion, Family Change, and Crime35:57 Challenging LoJack and Incentives41:55 Real Estate, Cars, and Markets49:13 Why Government Grew53:30 Divorce, Voting, and Liberalism57:41 Where to Find More Research Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI! Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs ★ Support this podcast ★

    Why the Free Market Works, with John Lott
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About

Join the Libertarian Christian Institute as each week they explore, debate, and analyze the issues that are directly relevant to the intersection of Christianity and liberty. Always thoughtful, frequently controversial, and never boring (trust us), it is our hope and prayer that The Libertarian Christian Podcast serve as a valuable resource to the Church for years to come. If you'd like to reach out to us and ask a question or submit some feedback, you can reach us at podcast@libertarianchristians.com, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and of course, our website, libertarianchristians.com.

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