13 Best Reason Podcasts to Listen to (2026)

Every Monday, the libertarian editors of the magazine of 'Free Minds and Free Markets'—Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Peter Suderman—discuss and debate the week's biggest stories and what fresh hell awaits us all. more

Want to know what comes next in politics, culture, and libertarian ideas? Reason's Nick Gillespie hosts relentlessly interesting interviews with the activists, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, newsmakers, and politicians who are defining the 21st century. more

Reason presents a libertarian-themed debate series recorded monthly before a live audience in New York City. Moderated by former Barron's Economics Editor Gene Epstein, the Soho Forum features Nobel prize winners, radical thinkers, and other public intellectuals facing off over the future of abortion, bitcoin, electric vehicles, government debt, illegal drugs, robotics, sex work, and other controversial topics. more

For the curious.A philosophy podcast that sometimes flirts with other disciplines, Within Reason has featured guests including Richard Dawkins, Douglas Murray, William Lane Craig, Peter Singer, Konstantin Kisin, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. more

Rationally Speaking is the bi-weekly podcast of New York City Skeptics. Join host Julia Galef and guests as they explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense, likely from unlikely, and science from pseudoscience. Any topic is fair game as long as we can bring reason to bear upon it, with both a skeptical eye and a good dose of humor!We agree with the Marquis de Condorcet, who said that in an open society we ought to devote ourselves to 'the tracking down of prejudices in the hiding places where priests, the schools, the government, and all long-established institutions had gathered and protected them.'Rationally Speaking was co-created with Massimo Pigliucci, is produced by Benny Pollak, and is recorded in the heart of New York City's Greenwich Village. more

A six-part Reason magazine podcast series about the frustrating and foolish aspects of American trade policy that make everyday items more expensive. From last year's sudden shortages of baby formula to the Jones Act and President Lyndon Johnson's infamous 'Chicken War,' host Eric Boehm sits down with industry experts and libertarian policy wonks to explore how these counterproductive rules got made and explain why they can be so difficult to undo. more

Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, or are looking for non-BS self-improvement, then we think you'll love this podcast! Each week we invite a brilliant guest to bring four important ideas to discuss for an in-depth conversation. Topics include psychology, society, behavior change, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, math, economics, self-help, mental health, and technology. We focus on ideas that can be applied right now to make your life better or to help you better understand yourself and the world, aiming to teach you the best mental tools to enhance your learning, self-improvement efforts, and decision-making. • We take on important, thorny questions like: • What's the best way to help a friend or loved one going through a difficult time? How can we make our worldviews more accurate? How can we hone the accuracy of our thinking? What are the advantages of using our 'gut' to make decisions? And when should we expect careful, analytical reflection to be more effective? Why do societies sometimes collapse? And what can we do to reduce the chance that ours collapses? Why is the world today so much worse than it could be? And what can we do to make it better? What are the good and bad parts of tradition? And are there more meaningful and ethical ways of carrying out important rituals, such as honoring the dead? How can we move beyond zero-sum, adversarial negotiations and create more positive-sum interactions? more

Interrogating current events, challenging assumptions, uncovering facts, and exposing realities that the government and the media would rather not talk about. Reason's 'Just Asking Questions' is a weekly show for honesty and open inquiry. We're skeptics of unexamined power. We don't want to be told what to think. But we do want to know which questions to start asking. Hosted by Liz Wolfe and Zach Weissmueller. Produced by John Osterhoudt. Just Asking Questions is published by the Reason Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) research and educational organization based in Los Angeles. more

A conversational podcast for aspiring rationalists.

Video journalism from Reason magazine

In this age of fake news, alternative facts and information overload, this podcast offers cognitive self-defense strategies and topics that will help you understand and master critical thinking in forming your claims beliefs and opinions. more

Freed Up is a break from the joyless churn of doomscrolling—a lighthearted libertarian podcast from Reason for people who still like to laugh. Each week, cohosts Robby Soave and Christian Britschgi riff on whatever made them laugh, cringe, or roll their eyes, from politics and media freakouts to pop culture and internet absurdities. They roast politicians, mock each other, and occasionally stumble into real debates about the issues that actually matter—like why your favorite Star Wars show is bad, whether the Holy Roman Empire gets an unfair rap, and how everything somehow became political. Freed Up is smart, unserious, and happily unhinged. more

A podcast that explains, analyzes, and evaluates philosophical issues. Buckle up for philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and philosophy of time. more