this week’s of reason round tableeditors Matt Welch, Katherine Mang-Ward, Nick Gillespie and Peter Suderman discuss the poor policy decisions that worsened L.A.’s wildfire crisis and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s third Facebook post. A look back at the party’s announcement to abolish fact-checking. .
01:54—Los Angeles wildfires and failed policies
28:06—Weekly Listener Questions
37:36—Zuckerberg announces eliminating third-party fact-checking
47:06—Cultural Recommendations of the Week
Mentioned in this podcast:
“California’s Great Fires Are Primarily the Result of Bad Government Policy” by J.D. Tusiel
“Looting is bad. So is curfew” by Jack Nicatoro
“What’s Wrong with Civilian Firefighters?” by Liz Wolfe
“Los Angeles’ planning laws pushed people and homes into fire hazard areas” by Jack Nicastro
“Fires Incinerated the Facade of California’s Governing Capacity” by Matt Welch
“Hell Out West” by Liz Wolfe
“Failed States” by Liz Wolfe
“Burning Los Angeles” by Nick Gillespie
“California’s regulations make it impossible for insurance companies to accurately estimate wildfire risk, and insurers are fleeing the state” (Ronald Bailey)
”Why does bureaucracy and bureaucracy exist in the first place?“Written by Nick Gillespie”
“Zack Found His Backbone” by Liz Wolfe
“Mark Zuckerberg Was Right to Fire Facebook’s Fraudulent Fact Checker” by Robbie Soave
“Facebook’s new free speech policy signals business is back to business” by JD Tucille
“Emergency Meeting of the Fact-Checking Corps of Doom” by Robbie Soave
“Stop Talking About Free Speech, Start Defending It” By Nick Gillespie
“Why Facebook is ‘Welcoming’ Regulations,” by Todd Kleinin, Nick Gillespie, Jim Epstein
“Mark Zuckerberg: ‘I believe governments and regulators need a more active role'” by Nick Gillespie
“TikTok got hit by the Supreme Court” by Robbie Soave
“Trump dodged my question about the federal debt” by Nick Gillespie
“The IVF decision should be made by parents, not the government” by Ronald Bailey
“Breeder Backlash: The ‘Feminist’ War on Reproductive Technology” by Wendy McElroy
”brutalist A great American movie.” Peter Suderman
event:
reason Speakeasy: Brian Caplan and David BeerJanuary 21, 2025
Please send any questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handles and the correct pronunciation of your name.
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Audio production: Ian Kaiser
Assistant Production: Hunt Beatty
Music: “Angeline” brother steve
- Video editor: Ian Kaiser
- producer: hunt beatty