Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature — tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking — which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDAoEyrvf8Y

http://www.cato.org/people/george-selgin http://www.cato.org/monetary George A. Selgin is professor of economics at the University of Georgia. He is an expert on banking, monetary policy, and macroeconomics. He is author of Bank Deregulation and Monetary Order, Good Money: Birmingham Button makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, Less Than Zero: The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy, and The Theory of Free Banking: Money Supply under Competitive Note Issue. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPJUUfAmqRY

The Trump Administration plans for paid family leave have changed over time, but all of the proposals have serious flaws. To listen to more Cato Daily Podcasts, please subscribe: https://www.cato.org/podcast ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYApXacK5pQ

July 31, 2020 A Terrible, Terrible Quarter for GDP Featuring Jeremy Horpedahl and Caleb O. Brown How bad was the last quarter? What are the prospects for a reasonably quick recovery? Jeremy Horpedahl of the University of Central Arkansas comments. You can support the Cato Daily Podcast and the Cato Institute by becoming a Podcast Sponsor. Learn more: https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-daily-podcast/terrible-terrible-quarter-gdp ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDms2iypqbM