The Independent Institute is a public policy think tank that appeared repeatedly as a source of guests on The Bob Zadek Show. In episode after episode, host Bob Zadek introduced his interviewee by naming an affiliation with the Institute, and in at least one broadcast a guest described the organization directly.
Description by guests and host
In the September 2022 episode on automated license plate readers, guest Jonathan Hofer told Zadek that the Independent Institute is a public policy think tank located in Oakland, California, that its website is independent.org, and that its mission is to advance free people and free markets The Mass Surveillance nobody is talking about (2022). Zadek, for his part, described the Institute as having a large family of scholars and experts who publish regularly under its name The Mass Surveillance nobody is talking about (2022).
An earlier episode offered a fuller characterization from the host. Introducing Ivan Eland in June 2014, Zadek called the Independent Institute a very active group of scholars who study domestic and foreign affairs, said it has a somewhat, perhaps substantial libertarian perspective, and credited it with providing an enormous wealth of objective information United Iraq Falls: Ivan Eland on Partitioning for Peace (2014).
Affiliates who appeared on the show
The excerpts identify four Institute-affiliated guests across four episodes spanning 2014 to 2022.
Burton Abrams appeared in March 2014 to discuss his book The Terrible 10: A Century of Economic Folly. Zadek introduced him as a research fellow at the Independent Institute in the Bay Area and as director of its Government Cost Calculator, and noted that Abrams teaches economics at the University of Delaware Worst Ten Economic Mistakes of the 20th Century (2014). Abrams described the calculator, hosted at mygovcost.org, as a tool that lets users calculate their likely tax liabilities given expected lifetime income and the benefits they might receive, and said most people come out losing. He credited predecessors at the Institute with the hard work of building the calculator and said it could be improved over time, since a lot of redistribution goes on in covert ways Worst Ten Economic Mistakes of the 20th Century (2014).
Ivan Eland appeared in June 2014 to discuss Iraq. Zadek introduced him as a senior fellow and director at the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute, a graduate of Iowa State University with an MBA in applied economics and a PhD in public policy from George Washington University, formerly director of defense policy studies at Cato, and the author of Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq United Iraq Falls: Ivan Eland on Partitioning for Peace (2014).
Lawrence J. McQuillan appeared in a March 2020 episode on homelessness and housing policy in California. The excerpt labels him a senior fellow and director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation at the Independent Institute Homelessness & Housing Policy in the Golden State (2020).
Jonathan Hofer appeared in two September 2022 episodes on automated license plate readers. Zadek introduced him as a research associate at the Independent Institute based in Oakland, California, who has studied privacy law, local law governance, and the impact of emerging technologies on civil liberties The Mass Surveillance nobody is talking about (2022). Hofer directed listeners to his author profile on independent.org for commentary and blog posts A PSA on ALPRs (2022).
Subjects affiliates addressed
The Institute’s guests on the show ranged across economics, foreign policy, housing, and surveillance.
Abrams’s episode concerned what Zadek framed as the ten worst economic mistakes of the 20th century, including Prohibition, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and the structure of Social Security and Medicare, along with the conflict between Tesla Motors and state-protected auto dealerships Worst Ten Economic Mistakes of the 20th Century (2014). Zadek used the hour to press the theme of wealth redistribution, which he described as the government deciding that somebody or a group of people deserve your money or property more than you do Worst Ten Economic Mistakes of the 20th Century (2014).
Eland’s episode concerned United States intervention in the Middle East, the failures of the Iraq War, and the concept of partitioning Iraq for long-term stability. Zadek opened by asking why the country is involved in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Northern Africa, Libya, Israel and Lebanon, and said that asking Americans or students of foreign policy yields either blank stares or very different, often incoherent reasons United Iraq Falls: Ivan Eland on Partitioning for Peace (2014).
McQuillan’s episode addressed the root causes of California’s housing crisis, focusing on government-induced supply restrictions, and explored how zoning, building codes, and the California Environmental Quality Act have stifled development, with market-based alternatives such as private homeowner associations Homelessness & Housing Policy in the Golden State (2020).
Hofer’s two episodes addressed automated license plate readers. He told Zadek that in terms of numbers the most prolific tool of mass surveillance today is automated license plate readers, that they had only been around a few years, and that they were quickly spreading across the United States The Mass Surveillance nobody is talking about (2022). In the second episode, Zadek described the technology as one that adds teeth to the idea that police departments know where you are and where you have been A PSA on ALPRs (2022).
Across episodes
The excerpts show no development in how the Institute itself is treated: it is named as an affiliation in 2014, 2020, and 2022, and the only substantive description of it comes from Zadek in the Eland episode and from Hofer in the surveillance episodes. What changes across the excerpts is the subject matter — economics with Abrams, foreign policy with Eland, housing with McQuillan, and surveillance with Hofer — not the characterization of the organization. The two 2022 Hofer episodes are near-duplicates of one another, with the same guest, the same subject, and the same closing exchange about the Institute.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state when the Independent Institute was founded, who funds it, how it is governed, or what its full publishing output consists of. They do not establish the Institute’s formal position on any of the policy questions its guests discussed, since the arguments in each episode are attributed to the individual guest. The excerpts also do not say whether the Institute’s scholars appeared on the show at other times, or how the affiliation was arranged.
Guests and episodes
6 appearances by 4 guests, 2014–2022.
- Ivan Eland (Independent Institute) — United Iraq Falls: Ivan Eland on Partitioning for Peace (2014) — US intervention in the Middle East and Iraq.; The Return of Big Spending Republicans? (2017) — National debt as a threat to national security.
- Jonathan Hofer (Independent Institute) — The Mass Surveillance nobody is talking about (2022) — Automated License Plate Readers and Privacy Rights.; A PSA on ALPRs (2022) — Automated License Plate Readers and Surveillance Privacy.
- Lawrence J. McQuillan (Independent Institute) — Homelessness & Housing Policy in the Golden State (2020) — California housing crisis and government supply restrictions.
- Williamson M. Evers (Independent Institute Senior Fellow) — California’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum vs. Trump’s Patriotic Education (2020) — California K-12 Ethnic Studies and Critical Race Theory.