The Economic Madness of Malthusianism | Stephen Barrows | Ep. 37

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.