Ep. 335 How I Became a Libertarian
The Tom Woods Show
Tom Woods
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 February 2015
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I wasn’t always a libertarian. I began as a moderate Republican. I eventually became vice president of the Harvard College Republicans. But something pulled me away from conventional opinion and toward the persuasive and compelling heterodoxy of Austro-libertarianism. Here’s my story. Hope you enjoy it!
Host of This Event
Video of This Event
Woods Books Mentioned
We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now, eds. Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Murray Polner
Rollback, by Thomas E. Woods Jr.
Videos Mentioned
Tom Woods Speech at Nullify Now, Los Angeles
Thomas Thwaites: How I Built a Toaster — From Scratch
Special Offers
If you enjoy the Tom Woods Show, my new book — Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion — is for you. Check it out! And get a free copy of the audiobook version, with me reading it, at TomWoodsAudio.com.
And get my FREE eBook, 14 Hard Questions for Libertarians — Answered!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In a world of Democrats, there will be time for them to make profits. |
| 0:05.1 | Now's not that time. |
| 0:06.4 | And Republicans. |
| 0:07.9 | I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system. |
| 0:12.2 | You need a voice of liberty. |
| 0:15.1 | Look no further. |
| 0:16.7 | You've found it. |
| 0:18.4 | Tom Woods. |
| 0:21.1 | Beware, citizen. |
| 0:22.9 | You are now departing from the world of allowable opinion. |
| 0:26.9 | The Tom Woods Show. |
| 0:33.7 | Welcome to the Tom Woods Show, episode 335. It's storytelling time today. I'm going to tell you my story of how I became a libertarian. How did I get to where I am now in terms of my ideas? Where did I get them from? How did I come to accept them? What kind of bizarre things happened to me along the way? All of that and more is packed into this presentation today. But before I get to that, let me just let you guys know, right now as I record this for you, it's February 6th, 2015, and we finally nailed down the precise deal with my Florida Atlantic University event. That's going to be taking place February 25th. I'll get all the logistical details up in the coming days. But save the date, please. If you are in the area, I would be very grateful if you came out and I'll try and make it enjoyable for you. |
| 1:36.9 | But February 25th is the date, and February 26th, the next day at noontime, I expect to be speaking at the law school as well. |
| 1:40.5 | So two events packed into those two days. |
| 1:43.0 | I've got some other events coming up that I mentioned. I've finally put a couple of them up on the |
| 1:45.3 | events page, tomwoods.com slash events. But in the coming weeks and months, I will be in Texas, |
| 1:53.3 | Florida, Alabama, Washington, D.C., and Ohio, as well as, let's's see what countries am i going to |
| 2:01.8 | ireland in may |
| 2:03.5 | canada in april |
| 2:05.2 | and quite possibly brazil |
| 2:07.5 | in |
| 2:08.2 | april two i think we are putting the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tom Woods, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Tom Woods and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

