You know, say what you mean and mean what you say and also as long as you're not doing it in a spirit of actual hate,

you know, if we believe in things like the Enlightenment and what the Enlightenment gives us and that's individualism, it's autonomy, it's political representation,

it's a certain amount of freedom, like it all depends on free speech and arguing stuff out because otherwise we're going to get

shitty versions of arguments,

shitty technology, shitty innovation.

Hello and welcome to the Brendan O'Neill show with me Brendan O'Neill.

This is a podcast in which an esteemed guest joins me to talk about the big ideas,

the bad ideas, the problems and the controversies of life in the early 21st century.

In this episode I am delighted to be joined in New York City by Nick Gillespie.

Nick is one of America's best known libertarians.

He is currently editor at large at Reason, having previously been Editor-in-Chief at Reason magazine

and Editor-in-Chief at reason dot com and Reason TV.

He's a prolific speaker and a regular on TV and he is known in some circles as the

Fonzie of Freedom, due, I think, to his famous black leather jacket.

Very young listeners might not understand that cultural reference, of course.

He is the author with Matt Welsh off The Declaration of Independence,

how Libertarian Politics can fix what's wrong with America.

And although I know Nick didn't actually write the following line, he has quoted it and I think it sums up his libertarian politics pretty well.

I want gay married couples to be able to protect their marijuana plants with guns.

Nick, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me and I will apologize for the background noise of the greatest city in the world.

Absolutely fine.

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