In this podcast Russell Roberts, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and EconTalk host, discusses, with Daron Acemoglu of MIT and author (with James Robinson) of Why Nations Fail, the ideas in the book: why some nations fail and others succeed, why some nations grow over time and sustain that growth and others grow and then stagnate. Acemoglu draws on an exceptionally rich set of examples over space and time to argue that differences in institutions—political governance and the inclusiveness of the political and economic system—explain the differences in economic success across nations and over time.

A passage in [Lincoln's speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, in 1838] was particularly prescient, even for Lincoln, and warrants revisiting in this day of presidential proclamations and executive czars owing allegiance only to the president...

George Will talks about his new book, The Conservative Sensibility, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Will argues for a conservative vision that embraces the dynamic nature of life. Topics discussed include the current political landscape, the American founding, James Madison's vision of government vs. Woodrow Wilson's, Friedrich Hayek, and of course, a little baseball.

On Sunday, Dec. 1 at 10 p.m. EST on the Fox News Channel, the result of almost two decades investigating the greatest mystery in American history will be distilled into one hour (minus commercials). The program, "Fox Nation Presents: The Real Search for James R. Hoffa," documents my long quest to try to uncover the answers to Hoffa's murder when he disappeared in Detroit on July 30, 1975.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Professor Emeritus William J. Perry has long been educating people about the threat of nuclear disaster. His latest effort is a free online course that includes some of the world’s foremost nuclear experts.

Admiral Stockdale looks back at his ten years in Vietnam. Ranging in subject from methods of communication in prison to military ethics to the principles of leadership, the thirty-four selections contained in this volume are a unique record of what their author calls a "melting experience," a pressure-packed existence that forces one to grow.

The Hoover Institution hosts The United States, China, and Taiwan—A Strategy to Prevent War on Thursday, April 15 from 9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. PT. Robert Blackwill and Philip Zelikow introduce their recent report on the growing danger of war between China and the United States over Taiwan and propose a new US strategy to prevent it. Following their presentation, Hoover Institution fellows General James Mattis (ret.) and Admiral James Ellis (ret.) will offer remarks.

We’re both fans of Ramesh Ponnuru. But we think he’s wrong in a recent post here on the Corner. There he argues that we are advocating an un-originalist position for the Free Exercise Clause: requiring the government accommodate religious dissenters from laws, except under certain conditions. He contends that our position is the one ushered in by the Supreme Court in 1963 in Sherbert v. Verner, which was replaced by Justice Scalia’s views for the court in 1990’s Smith. And Ramesh muses that Scalia was probably right.

Economist and author Don Boudreaux of George Mason University discusses the life and work of the economist James Buchanan with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Buchanan received the Nobel Prize in 1986 for his work creating and developing public choice--the field which applies the tools of economics to politicians and political behavior. After discussing the importance of public choice, Boudreaux and Roberts focus on two contrarian articles of Buchanan's where he argues for the importance of markets and life as processes rather than problems to be solved analytically.