In this episode of Liberty & Reason, we examine the debate over school choice, including public-school transfers, charter and magnet schools, private-school scholarships, education savings accounts, homeschooling, online education, and microschools.

In This Episode:

• What school choice actually means
• Why ZIP codes can limit educational opportunity
• Public, charter, private, religious, and homeschool options
• Education savings accounts and school vouchers
• Whether school choice defunds public schools
• Competition, transparency, and financial accountability
• Access for rural and lower-income families
• Supporting students with disabilities
• Religious liberty and Carson v. Makin
• How school choice can create opportunities for teachers
• What responsible school-choice policies should include
• Why parents should have the final say

Share your thoughts in the comments. Please like, subscribe, and share this episode with someone who cares about education, parental rights, and America’s future.

Sources and further reading:

• U.S. Department of Education — Education Choice
• National Center for Education Statistics — Public Charter School Enrollment
• National Center for Education Statistics — Private School Enrollment
• Education Commission of the States — Private School Choice Policies
• Education Commission of the States — Education Savings Account Program Design
• U.S. Supreme Court — Carson v. Makin

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This week on Liberty & Reason, we count down five major stories from a consequential week in American politics, foreign policy, economics, and criminal justice.

In This Episode:

• White House ballroom construction dispute
• National debt reaches $40 trillion
• Women rally behind Lindsay Clancy
• U.S.–Canada trade war escalates
• Iran negotiations and the Strait of Hormuz crisis
• Winners of the week
• Losers of the week
• Stories to watch this next week

Sources

• Reuters: Supreme Court allows ballroom work to continue temporarily
• AP: National debt reaches $40 trillion and Iran-war casualty update
• AP: Women rally in support of Lindsay Clancy
• WBUR: Hundreds gather outside the Clancy trial
• AP: U.S.–Canada trade war deepens
• Reuters: Iran talks stall and Hormuz remains closed
• Reuters: Trump’s commercial-space memorandum
• Reuters: FTC considers personalized-pricing disclosures
• Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City: Jackson Hole symposium
• BEA: Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index

Share your thoughts in the comments. Please like, subscribe, and share this episode with someone who cares about education, parental rights, and America’s future.

Support Our Sponsor:

A special thank you to Strong Coffee Company for supporting Liberty & Reason. If you're looking for premium coffee, use promo code FREEMIND to receive 15% off your order.

Your support of our sponsors helps make this show possible.

Donate or Become a Member on Patreon:

Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/libertyreasonpodcast

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Liberty & Reason is available on major podcast platforms, YouTube, and Rumble.

“Everyone deserves a living wage” sounds simple—but what happens when government tries to determine what that wage should be?

In this episode of Liberty & Reason, we break down the economics behind living-wage mandates and ask a basic question: Who ultimately pays when labor costs rise?

We discuss why a living wage isn't one universal number. MIT's Living Wage Calculator varies its estimates by geography and family type because housing, food, childcare, healthcare, transportation, taxes, and other expenses differ dramatically from household to household.

We also examine how higher mandated wages can affect workers, businesses, and consumers through higher earnings, lower profits, price increases, changes in hiring, reduced employment opportunities, or other adjustments. CBO's analysis finds an important tradeoff: higher minimum wages can increase earnings for many low-wage workers and reduce poverty while potentially reducing employment for others.

Finally, we look beyond wage mandates and discuss alternatives for improving living standards—including productivity, vocational training, apprenticeships, entrepreneurship, competition for workers, and reducing major expenses such as housing.

The goal shouldn't simply be raising the bottom rung of the economic ladder. It should be giving people more opportunities to climb it.

Sources:

• MIT Living Wage Calculator — Methodology

• Congressional Budget Office — Minimum Wage Effects

• CBO — Minimum Wage Interactive Analysis

Support Our Sponsor:

A special thank you to Cozy Earth for supporting Liberty & Reason. If you're looking for premium bamboo bed sheets and pajamas, use promo code FREEMIND to receive 21% OFF your order.

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Liberty & Reason — Ideas. Principles. Reality.

Christine examines how the media covered COVID under Presidents Trump and Biden—and whether both administrations received the same scrutiny.

Did Trump call COVID a hoax or tell Americans to inject bleach? Did Biden inherit no vaccine-distribution plan? Did vaccination guarantee that people wouldn’t catch COVID, be hospitalized, or die?

This episode also revisits Operation Warp Speed, changing mask guidance, the “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” the lab-leak theory, COVID death-toll coverage, and the labeling of legitimate debate as misinformation.

Sources:

• Trump’s April 2020 COVID briefing
• China entry restrictions
• GAO: Operation Warp Speed
• Biden’s July 2021 town hall
• CDC: Vaccine effectiveness and waning protection
• CDC: Mask and respirator effectiveness
• ODNI: COVID-19 origins assessment

This episode analyzes media coverage and public policy. It is not medical advice.

Support Our Sponsor:

A special thank you to Cozy Earth for supporting Liberty & Reason. If you're looking for premium bamboo bed sheets and pajamas, use promo code FREEMIND to receive 21% OFF your order.

Your support of our sponsors helps make this show possible.

Donate or Become a Member on Patreon:

Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/libertyreasonpodcast

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Liberty & Reason — Faith. Freedom. The Constitution.

In this week’s Liberty & Reason Weekly Wrap-Up, Christine breaks down the five biggest stories from August 9–15, 2026—and explains how they could affect your freedom, finances, and the direction of the country.

In This Episode:

• The Economy
• Iran conflict and Strait of Hormuz
• Midterm elections
• Change in childhood vaccination recommendations
• Todd Blanche sworn in as new US Attorney General
• Week's top winners and losers
• Stories to watch for the upcoming week

Who were your biggest winners and losers of the week? Which story will matter most by Election Day? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Sources:

• Reuters: Iran, gasoline prices and the Strait of Hormuz

• Reuters: Tanker attacks and disrupted Hormuz traffic

• Associated Press: USS Abraham Lincoln deployment

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: July Producer Price Index

• Reuters: July inflation and interest-rate expectations

• Reuters: Wisconsin and Minnesota primary results

• Reuters: Major lessons from the August 11 primaries

• White House: Childhood-vaccine executive order

• Reuters: Todd Blanche and the proposed compensation fund

• Federal Reserve: August 2026 calendar

Support our Sponsor:

A special thank you to Cozy Earth for supporting Liberty & Reason. If you're looking for premium bamboo bed sheets and pajamas, use promo code FREEMIND to receive 21% OFF your order.

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Liberty & Reason — Faith. Freedom. The Constitution.

=In this special Faith & Reason episode of Liberty & Reason, we're counting down the Top 10 Gospel Songs as voted on by listeners. From timeless hymns like “Amazing Grace” and “The Old Rugged Cross” to country-gospel favorites, we look at the stories, faith, and artists behind songs that have inspired generations.

We'll also reveal six personal honorable mentions that didn't make the Top 10 but are songs that hit me in the feels—including music from Vince Gill, Carrie Underwood, MercyMe, Elvis Presley & Lisa Marie Presley, Brad Paisley & Dolly Parton, and more.

Did your favorite make the list? Let me know your favorite gospel song in the comments!

🎵 Listen to the songs:

NOTE: Due to limits on description length, I wasn't able to link to all the performances mention in the episode.

"Just As I Am" - Alan Jackson: https://youtu.be/yFB-mxSt9Cc?si=WWD2d1dGq2cNfc1w

"Because He Lives" - Alan Jackson: https://youtu.be/pv-ibJHsgy8?si=ALWQ0eoa-SDZp6J6

"Farther Along" - Elvis Presley: https://youtu.be/rTldftwp9XI?si=wXmT5QZUzF7RmVOc

"Peace in the Valley" - Elvis Presley: https://youtu.be/EKHVtJcG3Is?si=PA9Xh_lpUv0_dmZR

"Why Me Lord?" - Elvis Presley (1974): https://youtu.be/SV6ICc7YXAA?si=6CB6U4GpnP8kW7E9

"Take My Hand Precious Lord" - Elvis Presley: https://youtu.be/d58bZ4kSPDs?si=txGxd_cJrtXvPa23

"In the Garden" - Alan Jackson (Live): https://youtu.be/hhIGIfsLxVk?si=zrLEOq7uu7Gp8pmz

"Old Rugged Cross" - Alan Jackson (Live): https://youtu.be/-JS9P8d2iOc?si=whGRTPHBKBjXXJ2q

Amazing Grace - Alan Jackson: Alan Jackson - Amazing Grace (Official Music Video)

How Great Thou Art - Carrie Under & Vince Gill: https://youtu.be/MHusNDxUHNA?si=jXA4ij-6cAbi3YEM

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Choose Liberty. Think for Yourself.

Can Donald Trump run for president again in 2028? And even if there were a legal path, should he?

In this episode of Liberty & Reason’s Government 101, we break down the constitutional debate surrounding a possible third Trump term.

The 22nd Amendment says that no person may be elected president more than twice. Since Trump was elected in 2016 and again in 2024, a conventional third election would conflict with the amendment’s clear two-election limit.

But the wording creates some interesting constitutional questions. The amendment says “elected” rather than declaring that a twice-elected president can never serve again. Congress’s Constitution Annotated notes unresolved questions involving a former two-term president potentially returning through the vice presidency or presidential succession.

In This Episode:

• Why the original Constitution didn't impose presidential term limits

• George Washington's two-term tradition

• Franklin D. Roosevelt's four presidential victories

• Why the 22nd Amendment was adopted

• What the word “elected” actually means

• The proposed vice-president and Speaker succession theories

• How the 12th Amendment complicates those theories

• The case for and against allowing Trump to run again

• Whether voters should ultimately decide

• What would be required to change or repeal the 22nd Amendment

We also look beyond the legal arguments and discuss whether Republicans should move toward a new generation of leadership in 2028.

I share my own position: although I don't regret voting for Trump three times, I don't believe he should run again. His age, the constitutional two-term limit, electability concerns, and the need for new leadership all factor into my reasoning.

The Constitution can be changed, but Article V intentionally sets a high bar: amendments require broad national agreement, including ratification by three-fourths of the states.

Question for listeners: Should America keep the two-term presidential limit, expand it to three terms, or let voters elect a president as many times as they want?

Sources:

• U.S. Constitution — 22nd Amendment

• Constitution Annotated — 22nd Amendment & Presidential Term Limits

• U.S. Constitution — 12th Amendment

• Constitution Annotated — Article V Amendment Process

Support Our Sponsor:

A special thank you to Cozy Earth for supporting Liberty & Reason. If you're looking for premium bamboo bed sheets and pajamas, use promo code FREEMIND to receive 21% OFF your order.

Your support of our sponsors helps make this show possible.

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Liberty & Reason — Faith. Freedom. The Constitution.

In Part 2 of this two-part Deep Dive, we continue examining the documented history of race and racism within the Democratic Party from the early 1900s through modern American politics. We explore Woodrow Wilson's administration, the Dixiecrat movement, the Civil Rights era, political realignment, and how both major parties evolved over the second half of the twentieth century.

This episode also examines several modern political debates, including changing voter coalitions, the concept of the "soft bigotry of low expectations," and the role of the Southern Poverty Law Center in discussions about extremism.

In This Episode:

• Woodrow Wilson and segregation in the federal government
• The Birth of a Nation and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan
• The Dixiecrat movement and the 1948 election
• The Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965
• The debate over political realignment
• Modern political coalitions
• The "soft bigotry of low expectations"
• The Southern Poverty Law Center

Sources & Further Reading:

Primary Sources

• Executive Order 9981 (1948)
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Southern Manifesto (1956)

Government & Educational Resources

• Library of Congress
• National Archives and Records Administration
• U.S. Senate Historical Office
• U.S. House Office of the Historian
• National Park Service
• Miller Center, University of Virginia

Recommended Books

• Eric Foner — The Second Founding
• Taylor Branch — Parting the Waters
• David Levering Lewis — W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race
• Robert A. Caro — The Years of Lyndon Johnson
• Michael J. Klarman — From Jim Crow to Civil Rights

Additional Reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Smithsonian Institution
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Support Our Sponsor:

A special thank you to Cozy Earth for supporting Liberty & Reason. If you're looking for premium bamboo bed sheets and pajamas, use promo code FREEMIND to receive 21% OFF your order.

Your support of our sponsors helps make this show possible.

Donate or Become a Member on Patreon:

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Disclaimer:

This episode is intended as a historical discussion based on primary sources and historical scholarship. Where historians disagree, we encourage listeners to examine the evidence, explore multiple perspectives, and draw their own informed conclusions.

If you enjoyed this series, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who enjoys American history and thoughtful discussion.