Jeff Riggenbach’s audio essays on the libertarian tradition are outstanding. I became fully aware of them only this past week and downloaded them to an iPod. My commute to my campus is an hour each way, and while I have enjoyed many lectures and interviews over the past few years – Lew’s interviews, Antiwar’s ‘radio’ show, presentations by Bob Higgs, Hans Hoppe, Ralph Raico, Murray Rothbard, FEE, Russ Roberts’ EconTalk, even Bob LeFevre – this series by Jeff has been a ‘peak experience’ for me. In interviews, I always wish that I could ask the questions, and listening to lectures is sometimes irritating when you cannot see the slides or maps.
Jeff’s essays are the absolute best because he is erudite, they’re written to be read out loud, and Jeff is the best announcer out there for this kind of stuff. He has decades of experience, a wealth of knowledge, and immense credibility with me. He will think I’m kissing up for some reason but my enthusiasm could not be more genuine. Thirty years ago, the late Jeffrey St. John and I sat in a restaurant on Capitol Hill in D.C. and conceived a radio show that would explain libertarian ideas, philosophy, and history in a scholarly but wholly accessible way. This week, as I’ve been listening to Jeff’s essays on Ayn Rand, J.R. Tolkien, Cass Sunstein, etc., I was taken back to that idea that Jeffrey and I imagined. This project of Jeff’s is, without a doubt, the closest thing to it – and, in honesty, even better. Thanks to the Mises Institute for making it available to the ‘remnant’ out here.
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There is a certain joy I associate with my schooling in the Austrian perspective. You capture that joy in your post… the eagerness to hear something new… to hear someone speaking about something from a new persepective.
I’ve never even seen your name, but I count you a kind of brother on the journey.
The thrill of understanding… once you are presented with a case that actually makes sense, from start to finish, the youthful explorer returns. Curiosity recovered.
I never knew the part of me that Plato and Keynes destroyed until authors like Hazlitt, Aristotle and Mises gave it new life.
I’ll be listening to your recommendations
Thank you!
From truth, happiness
Parrhesia
Yeah, the one about Rose Wilder Lane & Roger MacBride was very enjoyable. I had no idea she coined the term “libertarian,” and I had never even heard of Roger MacBride.
Actually, she coined the term “libertarian movement.” The term “libertarian” dates back at least to the 19th Century.
JR
I, too, can’t get enough of Mr. Riggenbach’s podcasts. They’re enjoyable and informative at the same time.
It’s interesting that Mr. Wilcke mentions the idea of a libertarian radio show, for, if I remember correctly what I read in Doherty’s Radicals for Capitalism, Mr. Riggenbach did indeed work on a libertarian radio show at one time.
Best,
Alex Peak
The show that Jeffrey St. John and I were contemplating was a more sophisticated, and far more intellectually correct, version of the regular radio program called Lifeline with Melvin Munn from Dallas. It was sponsored by H.L. Hunt, the father of the famous Hunt brothers…or at least that’s how it was presented. Today, I would not be surprised to hear that it (or any other conservative media project, print or broadcast) was actually funded by the CIA. I was naive as recently as just 30 years ago…
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