A wide-ranging conversation dives deep into the state of Western liberal democracies, the challenges facing Canadian society, and the interplay between faith, tradition, and contemporary public life.
This episode delivers a thought-provoking exploration into how authoritarianism manifests on both sides of the aisle, why it’s often overlooked on the left, and what might be done to foster healthier, more pluralistic discourse—especially within powerful cultural institutions.
The conversation explores the ethics of paid activism, foreign influence campaigns, the pitfalls of violent protest, and the surprising realities behind movements like #DeleteFacebook and BLM. Adam also weighs in on how money shapes political action, the fine line between advocacy and astroturfing, and why he believes true free speech is under threat. It’s an unfiltered look at protest culture, media narratives, and the future of free expression.
This one is about rethinking economics. I speak with Bart Wilson, professor of economics and law at Chapman University (California) about experimental economics and what it has to say about how societies prosper. I also pick his brains about some current affairs, such as the growth of the Canadian government, Javier Milei, Carbon Taxes and…
One of the reasons that I started Viewpoints, was that I was frustrated with the state of media in Canada. The biases, omissions and absences in coverage by journalists, and the cringeworthy and slavish adherence to groupthink narratives and talking points. Before I gave much thought to politics, I could feel that something had gone…
Yascha Mounk (a German-American political scientist and author) talks frequently about this incentive problem in media: that journalists who go along with group think and are wrong, never get penalized, while dissidents who were actually right at the time, never retroactively get their reputations back.
If you host a political podcast today, the playbook is pretty clear: pick a side, double down on its talking points, and give your audience the outrage they came for. But what if you don’t want to do that? What if your goal isn’t to score points for “your side,” but to open up space…
You don’t really notice it until you step outside of it. Canada has a pretty small Overton window — the range of political and cultural views that are considered “acceptable” in polite society. And by “polite,” I mean: what you can safely say at work, on the CBC, in a university lecture, or on a…
With the recent news of Zohran Mamdani as the Democratic pick for the mayor of New York City, there is a bit of a buzz about socialism at the moment. Which makes this episode timely, indeed. Why does socialism keep coming back, even after so many failed experiments? In this episode of Viewpoints, host Sean…
Sean Rasmussen sits down with Steven Reich, a PhD student in educational policy at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), for a frank and eye-opening conversation about the state of our schools.
