State legislators are considering the elimination of the personal income tax in the upcoming Spring session. These discussions have sparked a conversation about taxation and why it is essential to a government's functioning.   Opponents to abolishing the income tax claim that West Virginia would lose 43% of the state budget after the bill's passage;…

Bradley Foster is the newest member of our team at the Cardinal Institute - joining us as our Community Engagement Associate. Similar to many mountaineers, his family has ties to mining, but instead of coal, Bradley’s family mined iron in Minnesota. Garrett invited Bradley onto the podcast today to share his experiences growing up in…

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one;…

Joshua & Jared Crenshaw are brothers from Massachusetts who moved to Louisville, Kentucky to found the Pegasus Institute, a free market, state policy think tank. In this episode, Garrett speaks with them about their experience moving from the Bay State to the Bluegrass State, cultural misunderstandings about Kentucky, the New South, and a variety of…

Some things in life simply require a second serving. Ice cream, Netflix episodes, and French fries all aren’t the same without just a little bit more. Unfortunately, our gluttonous state government has gone in for seconds- on an expensive and complex technology contract. As reported by Metro News, Governor Justice signed a contract that will…

Anthony Hennen is a native of southeastern Ohio and the Managing Editor at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. In 2018, he joined with several other friends and Ohio university alumni to found the independent journalism website, Expatalachians. Anthony joins Garrett on today’s episode to discuss the future of regional journalism, cultural diversity…

Though hard to believe, West Virginia has some interesting history when it comes to paradigm-shifting deregulatory acts. 40 years ago, on October 14, 1980, the Staggers Rail Act was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter – freeing up the freight market from onerous regulation. Representing West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, Harley Staggers was a…

Adam Kissel has made a career of helping others and advocating for liberty. He supported civic literacy with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, fundamental rights at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and philanthropy at the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) and The Philanthropy Roundtable (TPR). He has even spent time as the deputy assistant secretary…

Earlier this week, as I was scrolling through news articles looking for what to highlight in our weekly newsletter, I came across a very interesting piece detailing how the sons of a single father in upstate New York were about to be “exited” from their NY school district because they had been doing their distance…

Have you ever been curious about the intersection between free-market policy and urban issues? Do you wonder if rural America and urban America have anything in common? Today, we dive deep into the Jagged Heart of Appalachia as Garrett interviews Scott Beyer, the founder of Market Urbanism Report. He shares with us how he became…