RealClear Radio Hour: The Nanny State Down Under and the Robot Revolution

In this week’s episode, Topher Field discusses lifestyle regulation madness Down Under and Katherine Mangu-Ward ushers in the robot revolution.

Opening the show is Topher Field, Australian commentator and filmmaker, who shares how the mythical frontier society transformed into the world’s biggest nanny state. Topher analyzes the effects of bureaucratization and overregulation of every aspect of life—from the gun buyback program and lockout laws failing to stop violence to the inadequacies of government health care, compensation for taxi cartels displaced by ride sharing apps, and food police scaremongering. He holds out hope for a coming revolution led by the rebellious Aussie youth, aware of the dangers of government overreach.

Closing the show is Katherine Mangu-Ward, Editor in Chief of Reason magazine. Katherine makes a compelling case for embracing technological futurism, detailing how we’ve already incorporated artificial intelligence into huge swaths of daily life. She argues that the “nostalgianomics” of this presidential campaign is largely a response to the political risk of the gig economy and innate resistance to technological change and reminds us that with better tools, the state of humanity is continually improving. She gives hope that private sector growth is outpacing government efforts to control that growth. 

You can hear the discussion by listening to the full show as-aired on iTunes, or you can check out the podcasts hosted on YouTube and SoundCloud. Make sure to check back next week for another episode of RealClear Radio Hour.

Don’t forget to like RealClear Radio Hour on Facebook here and follow us on Twitter here.