Is income inequality really worse than ever, or are influential statistics overstating the problem? In this episode of Independent Conversations, Graham H. Walker sits down with economist Phillip W. Magness to examine the research behind America’s inequality debate, including Thomas Piketty’s famous “U-curve,” disputed calculations of how much the wealthy pay in taxes and the case for California’s proposed billionaire wealth tax. Together, they ask a basic but consequential question: before the government tries to fix an inequality crisis, how certain should we be that the data actually shows one?

Does acoustic gunshot detection actually make cities safer, or does it send police chasing false alarms while draining resources from proven public safety work? In this episode of Independent Conversations, Graham H. Walker sits down with Jonathan Hofer and Brian Hofer to examine ShotSpotter-style technology, accuracy claims, false positives, AI hype, surveillance bias and why cities from San Diego to Chicago have walked away from the promise of “smart” policing.

Is birthright citizenship really guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, or has America misread the fine print of one of its most important clauses? In this episode of Independent Conversations, Graham H. Walker is joined by Richard A. Epstein, Ilya Somin and Williamson M. Evers for a sharp discussion on citizenship, constitutional language, naturalization law, voting rights, borders and the moral accident of where a person is born.

What happens when courts shape elections? And, is redistricting ever actually fair? In this episode of Independent Conversations, we attempt to answer these questions as Graham H. Walker sits down with Williamson M. Evers and Phillip W. Magness for a discussion on the fallout of Louisiana v. Callais. Together, they examine the distinction between racial and partisan gerrymandering, the legacy of the Voting Rights Act, the risks of court-imposed districting standards, and the deeper question of what representation should mean in a diverse democracy.

You know Adam Smith and Milton Friedman—but what about the economists whose ideas quietly kept the free market running? These overlooked thinkers shaped modern economic life, yet rarely receive the recognition they deserve. "Unsung Heroes of the Market: The 24 Underrated Economists You Need to Know," edited by Robert M. Whaples, shines a spotlight on these remarkable minds—from Julian Simon, who overturned doomsday thinking about natural resources by seeing human ingenuity as the ultimate resource to Thomas Sowell, whose cultural insights often fly under the radar. Written by leading scholars of liberty and economic policy, this collection invites readers to discover or rediscover the economists whose ideas laid the groundwork for today’s free society.

With California electricity demand growing exponentially, why is the state holding so tenaciously to its ban on new nuclear power plants? Why has California closed itself off from the largest source of carbon-free power generation in the United States? On this episode of Independent Conversations, we talk with energy researcher and author, Paige Lambermont, who answers these questions, and more, in connection with her recently published California Golden Fleece Report.

When U.S. and Israeli bombs fall on Iran, and Iranian bombs then strike American regional bases and even ritzy hotels in Dubai, it sure looks like war. Did the President have the authority for this war under the Constitution? Defenders of Trump’s power say it’ll be worth a little constitutional slippage if things turn out well. Is a happy ending likely? Ivan Eland, Williamson Evers, and Graham Walker address these questions and more on this episode of Independent Conversations.

Could society manage if we didn’t have a government forcing us to do things? Would everything descend into chaos? Or are there resources in our human nature that enable us to adjust ourselves lawfully to one another, even when state enforcement is not looming in the background? In this episode of Independent Conversations, Prof. Aeon Skoble makes the case for no government …and makes that case better than you might expect.