Curtis Sliwa became famous by stepping in where the government was falling short. As the New York mayoral candidate told Reason's Jesse Walker, the Guardian Angels—the anti-crime patrols that Sliwa launched in New York City in 1979—were born because "the government completely failed us….We filled the gap."

In the years since then, Sliwa has expanded the Guardian Angels to cities around the world, launched a multidecade career in talk radio, confessed that some of his organization's early crime-fighting exploits were hoaxes, and survived a very real assassination attempt allegedly ordered by the Gotti family. Now he's aiming to be mayor, running both as a Republican and on an independent Protect Animals ballot line against the self-described socialist Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and the scandal-plagued incumbent, Eric Adams.

Sliwa's thoughts don't always follow predictable lines. On immigration, he cheers crackdowns on "the bad hombres, the drug dealers, [and] the gangbangers" but warns that "everybody should be afforded due process….You don't just pick them up, put them on Air Con, and take them to that gulag in El Salvador. That's not the American way." He shrugs at market solutions for housing—"I don't trust the developers, I don't trust the realtors"—while blasting the city for mothballing thousands of public apartments. He thinks marijuana should be legal and fast food should be more tightly regulated. He's fine with President Donald Trump sending the National Guard to police D.C., but "if he would've tried to do it in New York City, I'd say, 'Whoa.'"

Walker interviewed Sliwa twice in August for a Reason profile—once while Sliwa was campaigning on the subway and in East Harlem, and once in the Manhattan building that houses the candidate's campaign HQ. This is the second of those conversations.

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If You Don't Like Socialism or the Establishment, Curtis Sliwa Wants Your Vote

The Reason Interview goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and visionaries who are making the 21st century more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by challenging old, worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.

Today's guest is Lenore Skenazy, a journalist and activist dubbed "the world's worst mom" for letting her nine-year-old son ride the New York subway alone back in 2008. Since then, she's become a regular contributor to Reason and the co-founder, with psychologists Peter Gray and Jonathan Haidt, of Let Grow, which pushes for laws and school programs [ok? - a nonprofit can't "change laws"] to restore independence to kids.

She talks with Nick Gillespie about why kids today are more anxious and less free than they used to be, how fear and over-parenting took over American childhood, and why the free-range parenting movement is finally on the rise.

How can we make The Reason Interview better? Take our listener survey for a chance to win a $300 gift card: http://reason.com/podsurvey

0:00–Intro

1:14–Spend less time with your kids

4:57–Childhood safety myths

10:50–Parental fears of failure

17:05–Generational divides on parenting

20:18–Criminalizing childhood

26:16–Politics and parenting

29:09–Let Grow and local legislation

41:14–What do children actually want?

45:17–How Skenazy became the "World's Worst Mom"

48:12–Childhood autonomy in pop culture

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How We Criminalized Childhood

In this special live episode of The Reason Interview, Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch reflect on the shocking murder of Charlie Kirk and the broader implications it carries for American politics. They discuss how his killing fits into rising concerns about political violence and what it signals about the nation's increasingly volatile climate.

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Charlie Kirk and America's History With Political Violence

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and visionaries who are making the 21st century more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by challenging worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.

Today's guest is Joe Dolce, whose new book is Modern Psychedelics: The Handbook for Mindful Exploration.

Dolce argues that psychedelics aren't just the province of hippies or tech bros anymore. They are powerful and increasingly popular—and legal—tools for therapy, self-discovery, and play.

He talks with Gillespie about everything from the misunderstood role of ketamine in Friends star Matthew Perry's death to why ibogaine may be the only substance on Earth that can stop addiction cold, to how we went from "Just Say No!" campaigns to mail-order magic mushrooms in just a few short decades.

How can we make The Reason Interview better? Take our listener survey for a chance to win a $300 gift card: http://reason.com/podsurvey

0:00—Intro

1:25—What do psychedelics teach?

7:02—Psychedelic safety and ketamine myths

13:01—How psychedelics work and ibogaine effects

19:12—Microdosing

23:00—Psychedelics and altered states

28:10—Generational perceptions of psychedelics

30:59—Cultural acceptance of psychedelics

42:22—The future of psychedelics

48:34—Drug legalization and access

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Psychedelics Are Not Just for Hippies and Tech Bros

In this episode of The Reason Interview, Nick Gillespie is joined by Senior Editor Jacob Sullum, author of the new book Beyond Control, to discuss the evolution of gun and drug laws in America. They examine how decades of prohibitionist policies have backfired, undermining liberty and justice without delivering safety.

This was originally recorded live on September 4, 2025.

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Why Banning Drugs and Guns Never Works

Lasting 20 years, the war in Afghanistan was not only the longest conflict in American history—it was a near total failure.

Today's guest is Dan Krauss, whose documentary Bodyguard of Lies is an unflinching look at the Afghan war and the lessons the public desperately needs to learn from it. Krauss shows how officials such as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted they weren't going to be honest with the American people. He reminds us that within six months of the 9/11 attacks, the United States had essentially destroyed Al Qaeda's capacity to attack us—but instead of leaving, Washington chose two more decades of occupation, nation-building, strategic confusion, and widespread corruption. And he tells how Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama kept doubling down, how trillions of dollars and thousands of lives were wasted, and how a compliant press and Congress let it all happen.

0:00—Introduction

1:14—Donald Rumsfeld and the "bodyguard of lies"

4:59—The Afghanistan War in 2002

7:35—The shifting objectives of the war

18:20—Government corruption in Afghanistan

21:08—Vietnam parallels

29:57—Obama and the Afghanistan War

33:42—The military-industrial complex and tracking the money

36:53—Gen. David McKiernan

43:47—What lessons have Americans learned?

50:30—Did the Afghanistan War make us safer?

1:01:28—What is the message of Bodyguard of Lies?

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How the U.S. Sold Its Longest War with a Bodyguard of Lies

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie is a libertarian podcast that goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and visionaries who are defining the 21st century.

Today's guest is Lionel Shriver, the provocative writer best known for novels like We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Mandibles, and, most recently, Mania.

We talked a few days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, an event whose lasting significance she cautioned against overinterpreting. "We want tragedies to mean something," she said. "And maybe they don't." Shriver offered cutting critiques of Gen Z socialists, Tucker Carlson, Kamala Harris, and President Donald Trump, whom she said is devoid of "any firm principles."

In a New York Times op-ed a decade ago, she thanked Rand Paul for "nominally refurbishing libertarianism so that it is halfway respectable," but now says the term has become tarnished as "far right." She told me that she is one of "those sad people who occasionally still says they would like a smaller government" and isn't "interested in massive social control." Yet she seems to be growing more conservative, making dismissive comments about "the trans thing" and arguing against large-scale immigration, which is also the topic of her next novel, A Better Life, that is set to be released early next year.

This interview was recorded live at an event in New York City.

0:00—Introduction

1:44—Lionel Shriver's health battles

4:06—The danger of overinterpreting events

11:02—Weaponizing identity for conflict

19:06—Shriver's views on libertarianism

22:54—Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

27:51—Shriver's novelist inspirations

32:27—Gen Z's problematic relationship with history

41:59—Concerns about mass immigration

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Are Americans Addicted to Conflict?

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, activists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries who are making the world more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by championing free minds and free markets.

Today's guest is Ben Wizner, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He says that President Donald Trump's second term has brought an all-out assault on free speech—targeting comedians, immigrants, universities, and even law firms that take the "wrong" cases.

Gillespie and Wizner put Trump's actions in the context of past presidents and discuss whether the ACLU has strayed from the days of defending the free speech rights of American Nazis in Skokie, Illinois, Unite the Right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) in New York.

They also discuss the legacy of Edward Snowden, with whom Wizner worked, and whether government spying on citizens has gotten better since the whistleblower revealed illegal mass surveillance of Americans during the Obama administration.

0:00—Introduction

1:04—Free speech under Trump

5:33—Comparing Trump to Biden on free speech

9:42—Have Americans become more comfortable with censorship?

16:21—The Federal Communications Commission and Jimmy Kimmel

25:43—What are Trump's standards for protected speech?

28:46—ACLU cases protecting the speech of immigrants

40:12—Why the ACLU defended the NRA

45:02—Has the ACLU remained committed to its mission?

53:52—Protecting the rights of students on college campuses

55:46—Snowden and the state of mass surveillance

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Can the ACLU Serve Progressives and Conservatives?

The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, activists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries who are making the world more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by challenging worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.

Today's guest is Jeff Flake, former Arizona senator and U.S. ambassador to Turkey, and now head of the brand-new Institute of Politics at Arizona State University. Flake made national headlines in 2017 when he delivered a searing Senate floor speech announcing he would not seek reelection and declaring he would not be complicit in the "degradation of our politics" under Donald Trump and MAGA.

A lifelong conservative, Flake built his career on defending free markets, free trade, limited government, and pro-immigration policies—positions that put him at odds with a Republican Party drifting toward populism and protectionism. We talk about why he chose principle over power (and how he feels about that now), his time representing the U.S. in Turkey as Russia invaded Ukraine, his push for reforming America's broken political system, and why he believes the fever of grievance politics must—and eventually will—break.

0:00—Introduction

1:29—The state of the GOP under President Donald Trump

8:41—Did Flake's conservative principles irritate Trump?

12:14—The case for more immigration

21:27—The connection between immigration and trade

26:25—Globalism in the era of nationalism

34:26—Ambassador to Turkey

38:05—The importance of Ukraine's independence

40:51—The Trump foreign policy philosophy

44:02—Reacting to political violence

47:57—How to reform the political system

58:33—Arizona State Institute of Politics

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What Happened to the Republican Party?

The Reason Interview goes deep with the artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and policymakers who are making the world a more libertarian—or at least more interesting—place by challenging worn-out orthodoxies and ideas.

Today's guest is Jake Tapper, the host of The Lead on CNN and author of the new book, Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War.

He tells Nick Gillespie why it matters that Donald Trump is following Barack Obama's lead in trying terrorists in criminal courts rather than military tribunals, why he believes the Trump administration is unleashing an all-out offensive against journalists critical of the president, and what the legacy media got way wrong with Joe Biden and COVID.

They also discuss the future of journalism in an age of media consolidation, where Free Press upstart Bari Weiss is heading up CBS News—and possibly CNN, too.

Previous appearance:
Jake Tapper on The Hellfire Club, Donald Trump's Big Lies, and D.C.'s 'Bullshit Waterfall', May 11, 2018

0:00–Introduction

1:34–Race Against Terror

5:25–The Bush administration and the war on terror

8:39–The legality and effectiveness of torture

17:06–President Trump's approach to foreign policy

22:19–Media censorship and the FCC

29:43–CBS News, CNN, and the challenges facing legacy media

40:14–The rise of independent media

52:07–Joe Biden's decline and its impact on the Democratic Party

58:37–What is being underreported in the second Trump administration?

1:06:05–Generational shifts in political views

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Jake Tapper on Censorship, Media Failings, and Presidential Power

Founded in 1968, Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Our podcast offerings include:

The Reason Roundtable
Every Monday, the libertarian editors of the magazine of “Free Minds and Free Markets”—Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Peter Suderman—discuss and debate the week’s biggest stories and what fresh hell awaits us all.

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie
Want to know what comes next in politics, culture, and libertarian ideas? Reason’s Nick Gillespie hosts relentlessly interesting interviews with the activists, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, newsmakers, and politicians who are defining the 21st century.

The Soho Forum Debates
Reason presents a libertarian-themed debate series recorded monthly before a live audience in New York City. Moderated by former Barron's Economics Editor Gene Epstein, the Soho Forum features Nobel prize winners, radical thinkers, and other public intellectuals facing off over the future of bitcoin, veganism, sex work, illegal drugs, electric vehicles, abortion, robotics, government debt, and other controversial topics.

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