The Reason Foundation is a libertarian organization identified in The Bob Zadek Show excerpts chiefly through its publishing arm, Reason magazine, and through the policy analysts and scholars who appear on the program as guests. Bob Zadek describes Reason as “the must-read publication” and characterizes the magazine as the publication of the Reason Foundation, whose tagline he gives as “Free Minds and Free Markets” The Capitol Riot in Context (2021). The Foundation’s name recurs across episodes spanning 2011 to 2022, generally as the affiliation attached to a guest or the sponsor of a study rather than as the subject of discussion in its own right.
The Foundation as publisher and affiliation
Zadek introduces Nick Gillespie as editor-at-large for Reason magazine, which he calls the flagship publication of the Reason Foundation The Capitol Riot in Context (2021). In a 2019 episode, guest host Charlie Dice introduces Mark Joffe as a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation and describes him as a commentator on public sector financial sustainability Not Enough Bricks (2019). Guy Bentley is identified at the close of a 2022 episode as the Director of Consumer Freedom Research at the Reason Foundation, with an email address at reason.org FDA’s New Rules Against Smoking (2022). Baylen Linnekin is described as a senior fellow at the Reason Foundation and as the author of Biting the Hands that Feed Us: How Fewer, Smarter Laws Would Make Our Food System More Sustainable Food (Waste) Freedom (2022). In a 2011 episode, Adrian Moore is introduced as Vice President of Policy at the Reason Foundation Fire All Government Workers (2011).
The Foundation also appears as a sponsor of events. Zadek recalls attending an informal dinner, which he believes was sponsored by the Reason Foundation, in Napa or Sonoma County, where Gary Johnson spoke and where Zadek first met him Straight Talk with Gary Johnson (2011). Zadek describes the prospect of an evening with “another 50 or 60 libertarians, especially Reason Foundation libertarians,” as always a delight.
Policy work discussed by affiliated guests
Guests affiliated with the Foundation bring its research into the program’s policy discussions. Adrian Moore appears to discuss privatization, with the episode summary citing the model of Sandy Springs, Georgia, and the argument that competition and market forces provide better services at lower costs than government monopolies Fire All Government Workers (2011). Mark Joffe, described as having written an article syndicated in the Mercury News and the East Bay Times about high-speed rail, is booked to discuss the financial and environmental accounting of California’s high-speed rail project as a cautionary tale for national climate proposals Not Enough Bricks (2019).
Guy Bentley, in a discussion of FDA regulation, argues that e-cigarette regulation should be changed so that it is easier for companies to obtain authorization to sell products, and that the FDA should actively tell the public that e-cigarettes are safer than combustible cigarettes. He states that only 2% of people in America think e-cigarettes are much less harmful than combustible cigarettes, calling that a misinformation disaster, and recommends informing people about relative risks and letting them make their own decisions FDA’s New Rules Against Smoking (2022).
Baylen Linnekin, plugging a study he says he is wrapping up for the Reason Foundation, describes three kinds of food laws around the country: cottage food laws, food freedom laws, and micro-enterprise home kitchen operations laws. He states that cottage food laws exist in all 50 states, that New Jersey just became the 50th state to have one, that Wyoming was the first state with a food freedom law, and that California adopted a micro-enterprise home kitchen operations law, with Utah having just passed one Food (Waste) Freedom (2022).
Reason magazine and the Foundation in the show’s framing
Zadek treats Reason as a personal reading habit and recommends it to listeners. He tells Elizabeth Nolan Brown that he follows the magazine’s Twitter feed and blog and attended an editors’ roundtable, calling it a wonderful, light and breezy way to start the day Elizabeth Nolan Brown on the War on Sex Workers (2019). In that episode’s close, Zadek asks Brown to tell listeners how to follow Reason magazine and the Reason Foundation; Brown directs listeners to reason.com, the Twitter account @Reason, and notes they can subscribe or read it for free online. Brown also identifies herself as writing at Reason and points listeners to her own Twitter account and to a group she runs called Feminists for Liberty.
Zadek’s introduction of Gillespie frames the Foundation’s magazine as a resource for reasoned analysis in a chaotic news week, describing the program’s aim as providing “literally and figuratively the voice of reason” The Capitol Riot in Context (2021). Gillespie, for his part, discusses the January 6th Capitol riot in the context of a multi-decade erosion of trust in American institutions, including the presidency, the Supreme Court and Congress, and argues that what happened at the Capitol is indefensible and that Donald Trump and those involved need to be held to account.
Across episodes
The excerpts show the Reason Foundation recurring across episodes from 2011 to 2022, but they do not present a developing argument about the organization itself. What changes is the guest and the policy domain: Adrian Moore on privatization in 2011, Mark Joffe on high-speed rail in 2019, Elizabeth Nolan Brown on sex-work law and Nick Gillespie on the Capitol riot in 2019 and 2021, Guy Bentley on vaping regulation in 2022, and Baylen Linnekin on food law in 2022. Each guest speaks to a different subject, and no excerpt shows one guest responding to another’s treatment of the Foundation or its work.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state when the Reason Foundation was founded, where it is based, how it is funded, or how it is governed. They do not describe its relationship to Reason magazine beyond identifying the magazine as its publication, nor do they give the Foundation’s stated principles beyond the magazine tagline Zadek quotes. No excerpt names a Reason Foundation study, report or publication by title, with the exception of Linnekin’s description of a study he says he is wrapping up, which he does not name.