“Defining Ideas” is an online publication of the Hoover Institution. Across the excerpts it appears as a venue where guests of the Bob Zadek Show publish commentary, and as a property the host recommends to listeners.
Richard Epstein and Defining Ideas
In a 2018 episode on sexual harassment law, Bob Zadek introduced Richard Epstein as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a professor of law at New York University Law School, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago, noting that Epstein hosts The Libertarian, a Hoover Institution podcast, and often publishes the blog Defining Ideas An Intellectual Discussion of Sexual Harassment with Richard Epstein (2018).
In a 2020 episode on the administrative state, Zadek again directed the audience to Epstein’s podcast and told listeners to read Epstein’s column “Defining Ideas” at Hoover The Dubious Morality of the Modern Administrative State (2020).
In a 2022 episode on California’s pork regulations, Zadek described Epstein as a Hoover Senior Fellow and host of the Defining Ideas podcast California’s Food Fight (2022).
David Henderson and Defining Ideas
In a 2019 episode, David Henderson, identified as a professor emeritus who taught at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and blogs at EconLog, described his affiliation with the Hoover Institution and an online publication it has called Defining Ideas. Henderson said he writes a piece fortnightly, every two weeks, for it, and that this started in December. He told listeners they could always look up Defining Ideas at Hoover, and said that after getting off the call and having breakfast he would start working on his article that would appear that week. He also said that when the Nobel Prize comes out, usually almost always now on Columbus Day, he writes the piece typically that morning that gets published the next day on who won it and why, and that the Wall Street Journal is the place that day and some couple times during the year besides that david_henderson_on_trumponomics__deficits__and_immig.
Across episodes
Three episodes touch on Defining Ideas: the 2018 Epstein interview, the 2019 Henderson interview, and the 2020 Epstein interview, with a fourth, the 2022 Epstein interview, referring to a Defining Ideas podcast. The excerpts show no development in how the publication is described; each reference is incidental to the episode’s main subject.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state when Defining Ideas was founded, who edits it, what its editorial stance is, or what any specific article in it argued. They do not describe its relationship to the Hoover Institution beyond identifying it as a Hoover publication or podcast. They do not say whether the blog and the podcast are the same entity or separate ones.