Brian Micklethwait speaks to Sam Bowman, the Research Manager at the Adam Smith Institute (responsible for the blog and for overseeing the ASI’s briefing papers, think pieces and reports) and also our Education Network Executive Director, here at the Cobden Centre.
Brian explores Mr Bowman’s personal road towards Austrianism, his work for the Cobden Centre expanding the knowledge of Austrian Ecomomics via the various reading circles and educational events that he organises and runs, and his ideas for the future expansion of this network.
In a fascinating and interesting interview, Brian and Sam also debate the conflict between statism and libertarianism in the media; the cultural milieu of Britain, where an organisation like the Bank of England — which is as statist as the NHS — can be so easily held up as a symbol of capitalism by its enemies; and many other similar topics, such as the recent financial developments in Ireland and the recent political developments in the Middle East.
Subscribe to our podcast here:
Great interview. Mr. Bowman is quite right (in my opinion) to aspire to an educational role. Change will only come when enough citizens are educated and aware of the alternative Austrian point of view. I believe great strides have been made in this, especially since the ongoing crisis began. There hasn’t been this much pressure on the central bank systems since President Andrew Jackson shut it down during his time in office!
A small note: The audio quality of this podcast wasn’t as good as previous ones. I just wanted to ensure you were aware, if you weren’t already.
Thanks for your dedication
Hi Tyler,
I’m glad you like the interview. As to the quality, Brian and I split our work into two parts. I do the ‘studio’ work, which involves a cunning combination of a MacBook, Skype and Skype Out, Audio Hijack Pro, a Snowball microphone, a pop filter, and the superb Garageband software. Whereas my partner Brian does our ‘on the road’ work, which involves the use of Zoom H2 Handy recorder. My ‘studio’ work is much easier to do technically, especially as this involves static and easily controllable equipment. I have a Zoom H2 myself, but I haven’t figured out how to make it work yet. Brian’s work is therefore much more challenging technically, hence the differences in quality. This will probably continue, until perhaps we receive a large donation from someone to help us pay for much more ‘professional’ and ‘easy-to-use’ on-the-road equipment. If you know someone who would like to send us such a donation (a couple of thousand pounds ought to do the trick), then please let us know! :-)
In the meantime, I hope you continue to enjoy Brian’s superb interviews as much as I do. As someone myself who grew up listening to Radio 4 mediumwave and longwave and the old Radio Moscow shortwave and longwave broadcasts (and no, there’s was really not much difference between the 1970s Radio 4 and the old Radio Moscow, except the state-owned factory statistics on the state-owned Radio 4 were often less believable), I actually like that soothing slightly ‘retro’ sound that comes from using the Zoom H2 (which is apparently the best small sound recorder on the market).
Rgds,
AndyD
Brian’s become really a very good interviewer, hasn’t he? He reminds me of Bryan Magee.
I liked Sam’s line: “Right now, the Austrians have the element of surprise” – very true.