The Past Speaks

Sunday Edition, a CBC Radio 1 program hosted by Michael Enright, had two interviews yesterday that I found really interesting.

The first interview was with University of Toronto philosopher Joseph Heath, the author of Filthy Lucre: Economics for People Who Hate Capitalism. Heath’s book is quite enjoyable to read because he expertly demolishes many of the economic myths dear to the political right as well as the economic myths of the left. This book will convince you that there is plenty of economic illiteracy at both ends of the political spectrum.  Another positive feature of this book is that it is written by a non-economist who understand what the economists are saying and can translate it into plain English.

The second interview that caught my attention was with Jennifer Burns, a historian at the University of Virginia. Jennifer recently published Goddess of the Market, a new study of the influence of Ayn Rand on American conservativism.  The interview reveals that Burns is a fair-minded scholar who is willing to point out both Rand’s good points and her many flaws.

You can download the program here. I also found some neat interviews with Heath and Burns on YouTube. I’m sharing them here:

Heath

Burns