Alex sits down with Holly Doan to discuss Accountability Journalism and the role that non-mainstream journalistic media has in the current Canadian political landscape. They discuss the decline of traditional newsrooms, subsidies for Canadian media companies and the lack of transparency that has led us to a climate where the press is struggling to keep up with the times.

References

Blacklock’s website:

https://www.blacklocks.ca/

The Hub article on government subsidies for traditional Canadian media outlets:

https://thehub.ca/2025/05/05/the-names-of-media-outlets-receiving-government-mandated-funding-released-only-days-after-election/

Carney’s CBC funding announcement:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-carney-cbc-funding-1.7501902

Holly on X:

https://x.com/hollyanndoan

Thanks to Our Patrons

Thanks to our patrons, including Kris Rondolo, Amy Willis, and Christopher McDonald. To support The Curious Task, visit: https://patreon.com/curioustask

In this episode, Alex speaks with Aris Trantidis about his book Clientelism and why it matters for anyone concerned with democracy, public choice, and the modern state. Trantidis explains clientelism as a system of political exchange in which politicians trade targeted favours, contracts, regulation, and other private benefits for support, campaign resources, and loyalty - arguing that this dynamic is not a "bug" but a structural feature of politics that can distort markets and democracy.

References

1. Clientelism — Aris Trantidis https://www.cambridge.org/ca/universitypress/subjects/economics/economics-general-interest/clientelism?format=PB
2. The Calculus of Consent - James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock https://a.co/d/0fslxBBZ
3. The Logic of Collective Action - Mancur Olson https://a.co/d/06w0x507
4. The Selectorate Theory and International Politics - Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Randolph M Siverson https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62239/chapter-abstract/550747911?redirectedFrom=fulltext
5. The Myth of the Rational Voter - Bryan Caplan https://a.co/d/0cufjmjt

Thanks to Our Patrons

Thanks to our patrons, including Kris Rondolo, Amy Willis, and Christopher McDonald. To support The Curious Task, visit: https://patreon.com/curioustask

In this episode from 2020, Alex Aragona speaks with Dan Griswold as he explores the benefits of open markets and free trade, and whether you can "win" a trade war.

References

1. “Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization” by Daniel Griswold

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Mad-About-Trade-America-Globalization/dp/193530819X

2. “Section 232 Investigation on the Effect of Imports of Steel on U.S. National Security” by U.S Department of Commerce

Link: https://www.commerce.gov/issues/trade-enforcement/section-232-steel

3. “China Section 301-Tariff Actions and Exclusions Process” by Office of the United States Trade Representative

Link: https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/enforcement/section-301-investigations/tariff-actions

4. “Only Congress can end the China trade war quagmire” by Daniel Griswold

Link: https://www.mercatus.org/economic-insights/expert-commentary/only-congress-can-end-china-trade-war-quagmire

5. “The Coronavirus Should Not Prompt Us to Rethink Globalization” by Daniel Griswold

Link: https://www.discoursemagazine.com/p/the-coronavirus-should-not-prompt-us-to-rethink-globalization

6. “Daniel Griswold: Curbing globalization would compound coronavirus damage” by Daniel Griswold

Link: https://www.twincities.com/2020/03/13/daniel-griswold-curbing-globalization-would-compound-coronavirus-damage/

7. “Daniel Griswold on US Demographic Decline and the Case for Expanding Immigration” by Daniel Griswold

Link: https://www.mercatus.org/macro-musings/daniel-griswold-us-demographic-decline-and-case-expanding-immigration

8. “Clashing Over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy” by Douglas Irwin

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Clashing-over-Commerce-History-Policy/dp/022639896X

9. “Death by China: Confronting the Dragon - A Global Call to Action” by Peter Navarro and Greg Autry

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Death-China-Confronting-Dragon-paperback/dp/0134319036

10. “United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement” by Office of the United States Trade Representative

Link: https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/united-states-mexico-canada-agreement

In this episode from 2022, Alex speaks with Thomas Bunting about politics, democracy, social progress and more as they relate to baseball and athletics more broadly.

In this episode from 2024, Alex speaks with Bryce Tingle about corporations, how these unique legal entities are governed, how changes we have made to corporate governance has discouraged companies from joining Canada’s public markets, and how the decline in our public market is hurting Canadians. 



Episode Notes:

1. Bryce’s article “Returning Markets To The Centre Of Corporate Law”

https://jcl.law.uiowa.edu/sites/jcl.law.uiowa.edu/files/2023-09/Tingle_Final.pdf

2. Bryce’s profile at UofCalgary

https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/bryce-tingle

3. Jensen and Meckley’s “The Theory Of The Firm”

https://www.sfu.ca/~wainwrig/Econ400/jensen-meckling.pdf

4. Introduction to Douglass North’s theory of Institutions:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40803-016-0028-8

5. Summary of Montesquieu’s “Doux Commerce”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doux_commerce

6. Mill on Trade As a Social Act:

https://www.utilitarianism.com/ol/five.html

7. The Voltaire quote referenced regarding the London Stock Exchange:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7351337-go-into-the-london-stock-exchange-a-more-respectable

In this episode from 2023, Alex speaks with Nigel Ashford about the prospects for a freer world and how the memory of history, the hope of younger persons, and the teaching of ideas can shape the future of classical liberalism.

Further Reading: https://libertarianism.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/socin003.pdf

Chapter 2 of this book: https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Blundell-interactive.pdf https://fee.org/articles/the-tide-in-the-affairs-of-men/ https://cdn.mises.org/Intellectuals%20and%20Socialism_4.pdf https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/why-do-intellectuals-oppose-capitalism http://wordlist.narod.ru/Government-Failure.pdf

In this episode, Alex speaks with Nick Cowen about why an “examined education” is better than an unexamined one. Drawing on his paper, Nick argues that exams are valuable not just as external assessments but as opportunities for students to test themselves, build confidence, develop resilience, and discover what they actually know rather than what they merely think they know.

References

1. “An Examined Education” — Nick Cowen https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6261178
2. The Theory of Moral Sentiments — Adam Smith https://a.co/d/0iSQvp4l
3. “Why I Am Not a Conservative” — F. A. Hayek https://press.uchicago.edu/books/excerpt/2011/hayek_constitution.html
4. Graduate premium in the UK and debates over higher education quality https://theskillsagenda.substack.com/p/a-declining-graduate-premium

Thanks to Our Patrons

Thanks to our patrons, including Kris Rondolo, Amy Willis, and Christopher McDonald. To support The Curious Task, visit: https://patreon.com/curioustask

In this episode from 2023, Alex speaks with Stefanie Haeffele about her book Living Better Together, which explores the work of Elinor Ostrom and Viviana Zelizer.

Episode Notes:

"Living Better Together" by Stefanie Haeffele and Virgil Henry Storr:

https://a.co/d/hJNCxw6

Viviana Zelizer's homepage at Princeton:

https://sociology.princeton.edu/people/viviana-zelizer

Elinor Ostrom's bio and short autobiography on the Nobel website:

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/ostrom/facts/

Nonneutrality of Money in a Social Perspective by Julia Włodarczyk

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274184545_Nonneutrality_of_Money_in_a_Social_Perspective

Zelizer's "Circuits of Commerce"

https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520241367.003.0009

Ostrom's "Governing The Commons"

https://a.co/d/gcUDVWq

Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy by Viviana A. Zelizer

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691139364/economic-lives

"Testing Circuits of Commerce in the Distant Past: Archaeological Understandings of Social Relationships and Economic Lives" by: Crystal A. Dozier

https://www.springerprofessional.de/testing-circuits-of-commerce-in-the-distant-past-archaeological-/23930708