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The Human Progress Podcast

HumanProgress.org

Hosted by Marian L. Tupy and Chelsea Follett

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  • 24 episodes
  • monthly
  • Avg 58 min
  • English

Episodes 24

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  • Tuesday · 59 min

    Agency and the Making of History | Martin Seligman | Ep. 86

    Why do some civilizations flourish while others stagnate? Martin Seligman, a psychologist, author, and founder of the modern positive psychology movement, suggests that the answer may lie not just in institutions or technology, but in what people believe they can achieve. In his latest book, Agency: The Psychological History of Human Progress, Seligman argues that agency, the belief in our ability to shape the future, has been a powerful driver of innovation and human progress. In this episode of The Human Progress Podcast, our research fellow Adam Omary and Cato Institute senior fellow Johan Norberg speak with Seligman about the historical role of human agency, its relationship to freedom and optimism, the psychology of learned helplessness, why pessimism can undermine progress, and whether artificial intelligence will strengthen or weaken our ability to shape the future.

  • September 30 · 47 min

    The Mental Health Paradox | Jonathan Alpert | Ep. 85

    Americans have never been more aware of mental health. Therapy is more accessible, psychiatric diagnoses are more common, and the language of trauma and self-care has entered everyday life. Yet by many measures, mental health in America appears to be worsening. In his new book, Therapy Nation: How America Got Hooked on Therapy and Why It’s Left Us More Anxious and Divided, psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert argues that the mental health profession may be partly responsible for that paradox. In this episode of The Human Progress Podcast, our research fellow Adam Omary speaks with Alpert about psychiatric overdiagnosis, the rise of therapy culture, the benefits and dangers of mental health labels, why therapy can sometimes backfire, and how a stronger sense of personal agency can help people become happier and more resilient.

  • September 11 · 51 min

    Growth vs. Redistribution in the Fight Against Poverty | Kevin Corinth | Ep. 84

    The United States has spent decades trying to reduce poverty through an expanding social safety net. But how much of the country’s progress against poverty is thanks to that redistribution, and how much has come from economic growth?In a recent paper, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Kevin Corinth and economist Richard Burkhauser examine nearly a century of American poverty trends. They find that poverty was already falling rapidly before the War on Poverty began, when government transfers played a much smaller role and rising market incomes drove much of the improvement.In this episode of The Human Progress Podcast, our research fellow Chelsea Follett speaks with Corinth about how we measure poverty, the relative roles of economic growth and redistribution in reducing it, the trade-offs created by the social safety net, the lessons of 1990s welfare reform, and why economic growth remains essential to lifting people out of poverty.

  • August 18 · 1 hr 10 min

    How Markets Make Us Better People | Walker Wright | Ep. 83

    Our research fellow Chelsea Follett speaks with Walker Wright about the moral character of markets, the relationship between economic freedom and good behavior, the effects of commerce on prejudice and violence, and why buying and selling from one another may help make us better people.

  • July 31 · 1 hr

    Progress and the Price System | Brian Albrecht | Ep. 82

    Our editor Marian Tupy speaks with economist Brian Albrecht about the role of prices in modern prosperity. They discuss why price controls fail, whether scarcity can ever truly disappear, the difference between large companies and monopolies, price discrimination, and the underappreciated ways in which competitive markets enrich our lives. Dr. Brian C. Albrecht is the chief economist at the International Center for Law & Economics and author of the Economic Forces newsletter.

  • July 10 · 55 min

    The Myth of American Decline | Michael Strain | Ep. 81

    Our managing editor Chelsea Follett speaks with economist Michael Strain about the myth of American decline and the dangers of populism. They discuss the rise of populism on the left and right, the evidence that American living standards have improved, why inequality does not explain today’s political discontent, and how policies built on a false diagnosis of national failure could undermine the prosperity and opportunity they promise to restore.

  • June 12 · 35 min

    Rethinking the Gilded Age | Brian Domitrovic | Ep. 80

    The Gilded Age has become one of the most common analogies for our own time, invoked as shorthand for economic inequality and political corruption. But that comparison misses much of what made the period extraordinary. After the Civil War, the United States experienced an incredible period of economic growth that completely transformed American life and landscapes. In this episode of The Human Progress Podcast, economic historian Brian Domitrovic joins our managing editor Chelsea Follett to discuss why the conventional story of the Gilded Age is incomplete, how industrialization made ordinary Americans better off, and what we can learn from the triumphs of the Gilded Age.

  • May 26 · 54 min

    The System That Feeds Us | Jan Dutkiewicz | Ep. 79

    The industrial food system is often treated as a symbol of everything people distrust about modernity: too processed, too corporate, too artificial, and too detached from land and labor. That critique obscures one of the greatest achievements in human history: modern food production has made food cheaper, safer, more abundant, and more varied than ever before. In this episode of The Human Progress Podcast, Adam Omary speaks with political scientist Jan Dutkiewicz about his new book Feed the People: Why Industrial Food Is Good and How We Can Make It Even Better. They discuss the great achievements of the industrial food system, the panic over processed foods, nostalgia for preindustrial agriculture, and how to make food healthier and more sustainable without giving up the system that feeds us.

  • April 24 · 58 min

    America's Turn Against Markets | Samuel Gregg | Ep. 77

    Samuel Gregg joins Chelsea Follett to discuss the rise of a more interventionist economic consensus and the case for markets in modern America. Check out his book, The Next American Economy: Nation, State, and Markets in an Uncertain World.

  • February 27 · 1 hr 12 min

    Discontent in the Age of Plenty | Brink Lindsey | Ep. 75

    Our editor Marian Tupy speaks with writer and policy scholar Brink Lindsey about his new book The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing. They discuss why material abundance produces dissatisfaction, the decline of marriage and community, bureaucratic stagnation, and the cultural and institutional innovations needed to produce mass satisfaction without scarcity.

  • February 10 · 1 hr 10 min

    Environmentalism Without Degrowth | Zion Lights | Ep. 74

    Environmentalists often claim that solving climate change requires scarcity: less energy, less consumption, and less economic growth. Zion Lights, a former radical environmentalist, now argues the opposite—that energy abundance is necessary for both thriving human societies and environmental protection. Her latest book, Energy Is Life, tells the story of her journey from Extinction Rebellion activist to outspoken advocate for nuclear power. In this episode of The Human Progress Podcast, Zion Lights joins Chelsea Follett to discuss how modern environmentalism became fixated on scarcity, how nuclear power became so misunderstood, and why energy is essential to human wellbeing.

  • January 9 · 1 hr 17 min

    The Misdiagnosis of American Mental Health | Chris Ferguson | Ep. 72

    Psychologist Chris Ferguson joins Adam Omary to discuss American mental health, cognitive biases, and the dangers of narrative overreach. Buy his book, Catastrophe!: How Psychology Explains Why Good People Make Bad Situations Worse.Read his article on loneliness.

  • Sep 26, 2025 · 43 min

    Authoritarian Threats to Campus Free Speech | Sarah McLaughlin | Ep. 67

    Sarah McLaughlin joins Chelsea Follett to discuss the rising influence of foreign authoritarian governments on college campuses. Check out her book, Authoritarians in the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech. Please note that we recorded this interview before Kirk’s murder, so he is not mentioned, though we believe that event makes conversations like this one even more relevant.

Showing 1–20 of 24 episodes