Blair:

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Blair:

Welcome to another episode of the Secular

Blair:

Foxhole podcast.

Blair:

Today we have a very interesting guest, let's

Blair:

put it that way.

Blair:

I'm going to open the show with a quote and

Blair:

then I'll introduce our guest.

Blair:

So quote, I frankly feel that you have shown

Blair:

yourself to be capable of almost any offense and very little to think that there is

Blair:

anything redeeming about your background or redeeming about you and the future.

Blair:

You have shown yourself to be totally incapable and unwilling of conducting yourself

Blair:

according to the rules of a civilized people in the community.

Blair:

And I think you have to be incarcerated as recommended by the pre sentence investigation

Blair:

for a substantial period of time for public protection.

Blair:

You are a dangerous person.

Blair:

Today's guest is Michael Lieboitz, the subject

Blair:

of that rather ominous quote.

Blair:

Michael, how are you?

Michael:

Well, I'm doing much better than I was when I heard that quote.

Michael:

That's for sure.

Blair:

I'm glad to hear that, glad to hear that.

Blair:

Now, you were obviously sentenced to prison, but the story is quite compelling, quite

Blair:

frankly.

Blair:

Can you describe your childhood and early

Blair:

adulthood, if you would?

Michael:

Sure. I was raised predominantly by my mother in a low income housing project.

Michael:

It wasn't the type of project that you'd see on television.

Michael:

There weren't shootings every day or anything like that, but it was nonetheless a low income

Michael:

housing project.

Michael:

My mother was a heroin addict, as was my

Michael:

father.

Michael:

My father was also an alcoholic and he was

Michael:

kind of in and out of my life.

Michael:

But from a young age, I was attracted to the

Michael:

troublemakers in the neighborhood.

Michael:

And I looked at my parents, the example that

Michael:

they set, that certainly wasn't good.

Michael:

And they both also instructed me to be

Michael:

violent, that if somebody messes with you, you hurt them.

Michael:

When I was six years old, for instance, a neighborhood kid had choked me, another six

Michael:

year old.

Michael:

And I went home and I had strangulation marks

Michael:

on my neck.

Michael:

And my mother told me, well, you go hit them

Michael:

with a beer bottle.

Michael:

Being six, that's what I did.

Michael:

So these type of things just got worse and worse as I got older.

Michael:

And as a young adult, even teenager, I got into drinking and smoking marijuana, doing

Michael:

taking pills and whatnot.

Michael:

I sold drugs and I always wanted to be tough.

Michael:

My father had a reputation for being tough and I wanted to be like him.

Michael:

The problem was I wasn't tough.

Michael:

I was small, skinny, and I couldn't fight.

Michael:

So what I did was I compensated by becoming extremely ruthless and resorting to weapons.

Michael:

Ultimately, I was amassing charge after charge for assaults and selling drugs.

Michael:

And I had a girlfriend and we broke up and she started dating somebody else.

Michael:

And quite frankly, I couldn't handle it.

Michael:

So I had her boyfriend stabbed while he slept.

Michael:

And I received a 27 year sentence for that to run what's called consecutive with my other

Michael:

time when I had six more years.

Michael:

So I had a total effective sentence of 33

Michael:

years when I was 21 years old.

Blair:

And that was what year? When did that happen?

Blair:

When did that occur?

Michael:

The assault took place in 1997.

Michael:

The sentencing took place in 1998.

Blair:

I see.

Blair:

So then 33 years.

Blair:

You'd just been recently released, I guess.

Michael:

Yes. I didn't actually do the whole 33 years.

Michael:

I got two what's called sentence modifications, where my sentence was reduced

Michael:

for exemplary behavior.

Michael:

And so I got five years taken total off my

Michael:

sentence, which gave me a 28 year sentence.

Michael:

And with good time, I ended up doing about 25

Michael:

years and I don't know, two or three months.

Blair:

I see.

Blair:

In your book View from a Cage, you mentioned

Blair:

your intellectual development with something called the, quote, worldwide Dream Builders

Blair:

reading list.

Blair:

Can you go into that?

Michael:

Okay. Well, when I was 18 years old, I had a car and driving down the highway 91

Michael:

north in Connecticut, the engine blew in the fast lane, and the car gave off a distinct

Michael:

smell, and it really scared the hell out of me.

Michael:

Cars are racing by and oh, my God, it was awful.

Michael:

So fast forward a couple of months, and I was driving my mother's car, and I thought I

Michael:

smelled that same odor.

Michael:

And so I panicked, and I pulled over, and this

Michael:

guy pulls over, and he's going to help me.

Michael:

He's going to take me to the gas station.

Michael:

I thought I needed some water, maybe to cool the car down.

Blair:

Okay.

Michael:

And he starts talking to me about this business he has, and he must have been 29

Michael:

or 30 at the time, and he said he's going to be retired in five years.

Michael:

And I was really intrigued by that.

Michael:

So I started talking to him, and he said,

Michael:

well, now I don't really have enough time to explain it to you, but I could pick you up

Michael:

sometime and I'll tell you about it.

Michael:

And so he did.

Michael:

So it turned out what it was, was the Amway business.

Michael:

I didn't know anything about it at the time, but most people do, sure.

Michael:

So I got involved with the Amway business, and as part of the Amway business, they have a

Michael:

teaching system that's going to show you how to improve your communication, how you deal

Michael:

with people, change your mindset to a success oriented mindset.

Michael:

And it's called the Worldwide Dream Builders Teaching System, and it consisted of books,

Michael:

tapes, lectures, that sort of thing.

Blair:

Right.

Michael:

And so I got involved in that for a little while, and then I just dropped out.

Michael:

I got sick of it and didn't want to do it any longer.

Michael:

But years later, when I ended up in prison, I thought to myself, I want something different.

Michael:

I've got to change my life.

Michael:

And I knew that part of that would be reading.

Michael:

So I was reminded of the Worldwide dream Builders reading list.

Michael:

So I contacted the guy and I said hey, would you mind sending me the books?

Michael:

I'll pay you for them.

Michael:

And he said sure.

Michael:

So I think I must have read about 70 books on that list that they had for their teaching

Michael:

system.

Michael:

And that was sort of the, I would say,

Michael:

introduction to how I started to change my thinking and change my character.

Blair:

Very cool.

Blair:

Very cool.

Blair:

Yeah.

Martin:

That's fascinating because both Darren I we are interested in this industry.

Martin:

So interesting to hear that pathway.

Michael:

It's also worth noting that as part of that reading list were two books that would

Michael:

ultimately revolutionize my thinking when it came to politics and economics.

Michael:

One of them was Milton Friedman's book Free to choose.

Michael:

And the other was Frederick Bastiat's the Law.

Blair:

Now that's interesting coming from an Amway reading list.

Michael:

Yeah, it is.

Martin:

Free market, free and enterprising.

Blair:

That's true though.

Blair:

That's true.

Blair:

They are bastions of capitalism.

Michael:

Yeah. And I just became very interested in those topics of economics,

Michael:

politics, individual rights.

Martin:

So how easy is it to read and educate yourself in prison?

Michael:

Well, back then it was easier to get books into the facility.

Michael:

You'd order them and they'd get there pretty quickly.

Michael:

But years later there was a brutal attack here in Connecticut where I live, where the guys

Michael:

who they committed a home invasion and I guess they claimed or somebody thought that the

Michael:

inspiration for that was Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood.

Blair:

Wow.

Michael:

So after that they started being far stricter on what we could get and they went

Michael:

through this they expanded the review process.

Michael:

So it started taking longer for us to get

Michael:

books and we were also more limited in what we could get.

Michael:

But it's interesting because when they put out the first approved reading list for the books

Michael:

that were going to be allowed, one of the books that was going to be allowed was In Cold

Michael:

Blood by Trudeau, the very book that started the problem to begin with.

Michael:

But perhaps even more what makes reading in prison even more difficult is just the noise

Michael:

level.

Michael:

The noise level in prison is just out of

Michael:

control and it makes it very difficult to focus and to think about what you're reading.

Michael:

Not impossible, obviously, but difficult for sure, I bet.

Blair:

So those were some of the obstacles.

Blair:

But you persevered, obviously and you expanded

Blair:

your reading.

Blair:

I noticed you heard about laissez Faire books

Blair:

and freedom from economic freedom.

Michael:

Or the Fee Foundation for Economic yes.

Blair:

Thank you.

Michael:

I actually got that information about Lazar Fair Books and Fee from the back of the

Michael:

book, The Law.

Michael:

I think it was on the back page or maybe on

Michael:

the back cover.

Blair:

I see.

Michael:

And it had the address for the foundation for Economic Education.

Michael:

So I wrote to them and I said hey, look, any information you could send me, I'd be very

Michael:

eager to see it.

Michael:

And they sent me a one year free subscription

Michael:

to their magazine, Ideas on Liberty, and inside there was the address for books.

Blair:

Okay, well, now this is an aside question.

Blair:

What is the difference or what characteristic of Milton Friedman and Bastiat?

Blair:

Are there differences, or are they the same type of advocates for capitalism?

Michael:

No, actually, Milton Friedman is what would be called a utilitarian.

Michael:

He makes the argument that in a free society, you're going to have a more prosperous

Michael:

society, more people are going to benefit, and more people are going to have a higher quality

Michael:

of life.

Michael:

And he demonstrates it very clearly in simple

Michael:

language.

Michael:

Frederick Bastillott makes an argument from an

Michael:

individual rights perspective.

Michael:

He says, it's immoral for the government to

Michael:

take property from people to tell people what they can and can't do unless those people are

Michael:

violating other people's rights.

Michael:

So in reality, of course, the two can't be

Michael:

separated.

Michael:

The two go together.

Michael:

When you have a society that protects individual rights, you end up with a society

Michael:

that flourishes the benefit of the most amount of people society.

Blair:

Yeah. Cool. Cool. So then obviously, you expand your reading list into philosophy

Blair:

and psychology.

Blair:

How did you stumble across Rand, Iron Rand?

Michael:

My first encounter with Iron Rand was I was reading a book called The Triumph of

Michael:

Liberty by Jim Powell.

Michael:

That interesting.

Michael:

I didn't get it from laser fair books.

Michael:

I actually got it from the National Review

Michael:

bookstore.

Michael:

And the book Triumph of Liberty, I think I

Michael:

want to say 64.

Michael:

It might have been 66, but it was many

Michael:

biographies of people that have advanced the cause of liberty.

Michael:

And I came across Iron Rand, and they talked about her book Atlas Shrugged.

Michael:

And I thought, wow, that's a fascinating story.

Michael:

I really like to read that.

Michael:

And lo and behold, when I got my first laissez

Michael:

fair books catalog, there was a box set where the books included were Human Action by Lubric

Michael:

van Mises.

Michael:

I think Economics and One Lesson by Henry

Michael:

Haslett.

Michael:

Discovery of Freedom by Rose Wilder lane and

Michael:

Atlas Shrug by Ayn.

Michael:

Rand.

Michael:

So I ordered that box set, and that was my first book from Ayn Rand was her masterpiece.

Blair:

You went whole hog then, right into the best.

Martin:

Yes.

Blair:

Wow, that's incredible.

Blair:

Now, was there such a thing as a prison

Blair:

library?

Michael:

Yeah, there is.

Michael:

There's a prison library.

Michael:

It's not great.

Michael:

I mean, there are some good books in there,

Michael:

and I did get some books from there.

Michael:

But at the point in my life when I was reading

Michael:

Atlas Shrug, I was just devouring books from Lazar Fair Books.

Michael:

Everything that I could think of, everything that I had money to buy, that was in that

Michael:

catalog I ordered.

Blair:

Now, obviously, you had to keep them in your room, I guess.

Blair:

How difficult was that?

Michael:

You got to give away a lot of books.

Martin:

Did you trade for other things then?

Michael:

Sure. So somebody else might have a book that I'd want.

Michael:

So I would trade I have this, you have that, and you trade books with other inmates and I

Michael:

continue to order books or just give them away once I have no more use for them.

Michael:

Because you have a limited amount of space.

Blair:

No doubt, no doubt.

Blair:

And tell us about some of your cellmates.

Blair:

I know you have one that you became fast friends with.

Michael:

Okay, I didn't actually become friends with him as cellmates.

Michael:

Cellmates in prison are a very strange dynamic because you're talking about being locked in a

Michael:

cage with a sociopath, and it's usually two sociopaths.

Michael:

I mean, maybe not by the clinical definition, but two men with very twisted thinking.

Michael:

And so arguments happen about everything.

Michael:

You've got two inconsiderate people and each

Michael:

one wants to uphold his own rights to the max while denying the other guy of his rights, and

Michael:

it's just very difficult to get along under such circumstances.

Michael:

But the cellmate that you referenced, and I want to say, yeah, 2001, he and I actually

Michael:

met, and this guy looked like he was probably in prison for computer fraud.

Michael:

So when I went to the chow hall in the morning, it was my first day at a new prison,

Michael:

and I was looking around for somebody that wouldn't be intimidating, that I could sit

Michael:

with, and this guy fit the bill.

Michael:

So I went and talked to him and he was very

Michael:

bright guy and we got to talking and he was interested in the same ideas I was in

Michael:

politics, philosophy, only he was a socialist at the time.

Michael:

So we would get into many debates but we started to read the same books and we would be

Michael:

debating socialism versus capitalism.

Michael:

And he quickly, once he saw the arguments for

Michael:

capitalism, he quickly came around and changed his mind.

Michael:

And then we were able to really have good discussions and really hone in on some

Michael:

technical points that where we might differ on, and we just debated constantly.

Michael:

We became very good friends and we were in the block together, I want to say for four years.

Michael:

And then finally he had a policy where he didn't want to live in the cell with friends

Michael:

because of the potential to ruin a friendship.

Michael:

But after a while, I just had so many bad

Michael:

cellies and I was so stressed out, I'm like, dude, you are moving in with me and that's all

Michael:

there is to it.

Michael:

And so we ended up becoming Sellies, and we

Michael:

were cellmates for eleven years, still friends.

Michael:

To this day.

Michael:

He's still in, but we're still friends.

Blair:

All right, now I have long admired this gentleman.

Blair:

Tell us how Dr. Stanton samedau influenced you.

Michael:

Well, Brent, the aforementioned cellmate, he bought a book called Inside the

Michael:

Criminal Mind, and it was by Stanton Samana, and both of us were extremely skeptical.

Michael:

I mean, we were interested in psychology and being criminals, we were interested in reading

Michael:

it, but we thought this guy couldn't possibly know what the hell he was talking about.

Michael:

But when we read the book, we were blown away.

Michael:

I mean, we agreed it was as if somebody had a

Michael:

blueprint to the way that we thought he nailed us, right from claiming to be victims of

Michael:

society and bad parenting to blaming drugs and how we treated other people as pawns and

Michael:

didn't respect the rights of other people.

Michael:

He just nailed us.

Michael:

And he said, criminals are criminals because of the way that they think.

Michael:

But importantly, he said that criminals can change the way that they think.

Michael:

And from the time Bret and I read that book, we both decided that we were going to make

Michael:

that change with Dr. Samanow as a guide and also with Ayn Rand as a guide and Dr.

Michael:

Nathaniel Brandon.

Michael:

But for the criminal aspects of our

Michael:

personality, saminow would be the main.

Blair:

Now, I know he's written several books, or at least two or three.

Michael:

Well, Inside the Criminal Mind is actually kind of an abbreviated version of a

Michael:

three volume set that he and Dr. Samuel Yokelson wrote called The Criminal

Michael:

Personality, and it was based on 15 years of research, interviewing criminals and doing

Michael:

groups with criminals and really dissecting the thinking of criminals.

Michael:

And so the three volume set is amazing, and I would recommend it to anybody.

Michael:

I would recommend Inside the Criminal Mind, too, but The Criminal Personality really

Michael:

delves deeply into how us criminals think and navigate the world.

Blair:

Now, as you're improving yourself in that environment, how were you able to cope,

Blair:

if I may ask?

Michael:

Very difficult, with a lot of difficulty.

Michael:

And, in fact, if I didn't have Brent with me, somebody to withstand the struggles, I don't

Michael:

know that I could have done it, because for one, it's very difficult for any human being

Michael:

to see everything about him or herself.

Michael:

I mean, there's things that other people see

Michael:

that we simply don't.

Michael:

And so just to have somebody that was there to

Michael:

hold me accountable on a regular basis was you know, Dr. Salmonau says an inmate in change, a

Michael:

criminal in change, cannot be allowed one lie.

Michael:

So you've got to really be strict with your

Michael:

behavior.

Michael:

And when you're doing that around a bunch of

Michael:

criminals, you get the inevitable.

Michael:

You think you're better than us.

Michael:

You're a goodie two shoes, and that stuff comes from staff, too.

Michael:

And it's not an easy thing to withstand when you're very much concerned with how other

Michael:

people are thinking and their judgments of you.

Michael:

In time, I learned not to be so concerned.

Michael:

But at first, that was a also, I mean, you got

Michael:

to understand, in prison, oftentimes bad behavior is rewarded, good behavior is

Michael:

punished.

Michael:

So the incentive structure is just set against

Michael:

change.

Michael:

So it was a very difficult process, and I'm

Michael:

just very fortunate that I had Brent with me to go through the process.

Blair:

You mentioned staff.

Blair:

I can imagine some I wouldn't know a

Blair:

percentage, but some of the staff are just as bad as some of the criminals.

Michael:

I once had a debate with an officer that I got along with, and let me just preface

Michael:

this with saying what I'm about to say.

Michael:

It says nothing about these men and women in

Michael:

their personal lives.

Michael:

I've known plenty of cos correctional officers

Michael:

that I got along with just fine.

Michael:

Very nice people.

Michael:

I just ran into one the other day at the store, and he said, I hope you're doing well.

Michael:

Shook my hand.

Michael:

But I once had a discussion with a

Michael:

correctional officer that I got along with, and he had read a book that Brent McCall and I

Michael:

wrote called down the Rabbit Hole how the Culture of Corrections Encourages Crime.

Michael:

And he told me, Leeb, he called me Leeb, he says, Lieb, come on, you're too hard on

Michael:

correctional officers.

Michael:

He says, I agree with a lot of what you said,

Michael:

but you got to admit there are some good correctional officers.

Michael:

He had been an officer for 20 years at the time.

Michael:

I told him, Name five for me, and he couldn't do it.

Michael:

He couldn't name five good correctional officers.

Michael:

And by good, I mean, look, they've got an administrative directive.

Michael:

They've got a code of conduct, a code of ethics that they're supposed to go by that

Michael:

sets the standard by which they're supposed to govern themselves.

Michael:

And if they don't govern themselves by that, they're not good correctional officers, and

Michael:

they simply don't.

Michael:

I've never met one that did.

Martin:

Michael, I get thinking of this movie.

Martin:

Shawshank Redemption Could you reflect on that

Martin:

or comment on that?

Michael:

Well, the Shawshank Redemption took place in the olden times when they didn't have

Michael:

televisions, radios, and Game Boys in their cells.

Michael:

So that experience is a bit different from mine.

Michael:

But I'll tell you this, in terms of the gossip and there being guys you go to for certain

Michael:

things, that stuff was accurate, that resonates with me.

Michael:

But a lot of the stuff was just in.

Michael:

That movie was way beyond anything that I've

Michael:

ever experienced.

Martin:

But I was thinking of his development and how he was looking into these chess pieces

Martin:

and so on and focus on the future.

Martin:

And what were you doing also with development?

Michael:

Well, I certainly was looking toward the future.

Michael:

It's a trick we play on ourselves in prison.

Michael:

No matter how much time you have, you think

Michael:

you're getting out soon and everybody, you're going to win the next appeal, you're going to

Michael:

win the habeas, you're going to get a sentence reduction somehow, and it gets you through.

Michael:

And so I was always looking to the future.

Michael:

And my main concern once I decided to change

Michael:

in my first seven years in prison, I did change for a little while, but I backslid

Michael:

quickly.

Michael:

I mean, I was sniffing heroin, smoking weed

Michael:

and gambling, doing all kinds of things.

Michael:

But once I decided to really put my foot down

Michael:

and change my life.

Michael:

I realized that if I'm ever going to have a

Michael:

decent life for myself outside of these walls, I need to fundamentally change who I am.

Michael:

So, yes, my mind was focused on the future, all the great great.

Blair:

Now, one of the things I think got your sentence reduced was that you and Brent

Blair:

created a program for inmates.

Michael:

Yes, we did, the imprisoned program.

Michael:

And it was based in large part on Dr. Stanton

Michael:

Salmonel, and it was actually in the beginning, we say this program is based on the

Michael:

writings of Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Brandon, and Dr. Stanton Salmonau.

Michael:

And it was about taking personal responsibility, building your self esteem,

Michael:

changing your values, and taking your life seriously, thinking logically, looking toward

Michael:

the long term.

Michael:

So, yeah, that helped.

Michael:

But it's interesting you brought that up, that group, because that group actually kind of led

Michael:

us to writing down The Rabbit Hole, because while we were confronting these inmates in

Michael:

this group, because it was a very confrontational group, they would often say,

Michael:

yeah, but the cos look what the cos do.

Michael:

Look what the cos do.

Michael:

And we would always tell them, it doesn't matter what they do.

Michael:

Your behavior is what matters.

Michael:

It's your life, not theirs.

Michael:

And I still believe that, don't get me wrong.

Michael:

But at the same time, if you're going to have

Michael:

a system, you're going to call it the Department of Corrections, you ought to be

Michael:

doing some correcting and not making it more difficult for programs like ours to get

Michael:

through to inmates because those inmates are always going to bring up how the correctional

Michael:

officers are behaving.

Blair:

Yeah. Now let's switch here.

Blair:

You have achieved some cause celebre locally

Blair:

here on radio.

Blair:

So to that, how did that come about?

Michael:

Well, when Brent and I wrote down The Rabbit Hole, we were trying to get publicity

Michael:

for the book, and we very naively thought all we had to do was write this book, get it to

Michael:

the local papers and TV stations, and they were all just going to run with it.

Michael:

That just didn't happen.

Michael:

Nobody cared.

Michael:

I mean, we sent this book to all over the place and no one cared.

Michael:

I don't know.

Michael:

I don't know why, but they didn't.

Michael:

We initially didn't want to get involved with politicians because we didn't want a

Michael:

politician cherry picking what we had written for his own political advantage.

Michael:

Well, that does, but one senator, a state senator in particular, lensuzio was on

Michael:

television, as he was frequently but he was making some very good points.

Michael:

So Bret and I kind of looked at each other and he said to me, we've got to get him a book.

Michael:

The next day, I called my friend Subby, whom I live with now and without whom I couldn't have

Michael:

accomplished anything really, in prison because he did so much for me.

Michael:

And I said, I want to get Len Suzio a book.

Michael:

He said, okay, let me call his assistant.

Michael:

So I said, all right, I'll call you back in 15 minutes.

Michael:

When I called him back in 15 minutes, he was on his way to the senator's office.

Michael:

Shortly thereafter, the senator came to visit me.

Michael:

Brent had been transferred.

Michael:

In the meantime, they separated us due to the

Michael:

book.

Michael:

But Len Suzio came to talk to me, and I was

Michael:

very impressed with him.

Michael:

He was a very nice guy, very sincere.

Michael:

And so he, you know, I'm going to make some connections, we're going to make some changes

Michael:

as the result of this book.

Michael:

But in a couple of months, he lost his bid for

Michael:

reelection.

Michael:

I was very disappointed, but I said, you know

Michael:

what? This guy is sincere.

Michael:

Let me write to him and tell him I'm still interested in working with him, which I did.

Michael:

And he said, look, I'm going to try to get you onto a TV show, on the news, on a radio show,

Michael:

whatever.

Michael:

And he ultimately was able to get me an

Michael:

interview with Tod Feinberg.

Michael:

Todd Feinberg hosts the most popular political

Michael:

talk show here in the state.

Michael:

So I'm thinking, OK, I'm going to go, I'm

Michael:

going to do this interview, and I'm going to get my message across the best I can.

Michael:

And that'll be I. I did the interview, and immediately after the interview, when we

Michael:

stopped recording, todd said to me, hey, how would you like to be a regular on the show?

Michael:

And of course I said, yes, I want to be a regular on the show.

Michael:

That sounds fantastic.

Michael:

All right.

Michael:

I was so excited, I had a big grin on my face.

Michael:

I went back to the cell, I laid down and I

Michael:

said, oh my God, what did I just agree to? How the hell am I going to come up with

Michael:

something to talk about every week? But I did.

Michael:

And for the next three and a half years, I guess it was while I was in prison, I stayed a

Michael:

regular guest on the show.

Michael:

And when I got out, he's had me in studio with

Michael:

him a few times.

Michael:

I've been on other talk shows here in the

Michael:

state, and I'm still a regular on Todd's guest once a week, and it's been fantastic.

Blair:

So that happened like three or four years ago when that began.

Michael:

Yeah, my first appearance on his show was April of 2019.

Martin:

So did you have a studio then?

Michael:

No, I had to call him collect.

Michael:

I had to call him collect, which the audience

Michael:

and Todd, they all kind of ate it up because you get to hear the beeps and all the stuff

Michael:

and the getting very real in.

Martin:

A.

Blair:

Now, again, I heard one of your shows when you called in and you stated that you're

Blair:

no longer a libertarian.

Blair:

How did you come to that realization?

Michael:

Okay, I hate to mince words with you, but I have to because it's important.

Michael:

What I actually said is I'm no longer going to call myself a libertarian, okay?

Michael:

Politically and philosophically, my views haven't changed at all.

Michael:

But I realize now that the net that the term libertarian catches is too big, and I don't

Michael:

want to be associated with some of the things that are said by libertarians.

Michael:

And I'll just give you an example.

Michael:

I was the spokesperson for the Libertarian

Michael:

Party of Connecticut for a brief period of time, a couple months.

Michael:

And one day I was going through my Facebook feed and the Alabama Mises Caucus, which is

Michael:

part of the Libertarian Party, had a post where they were quoting Ted Kaczynski in a

Michael:

complimentary had and they referred to him as Uncle Ted.

Michael:

And I said, I just can't be a part of a party that's going to do something like that.

Michael:

I don't want to be associated with that.

Michael:

So I got out of the party.

Michael:

I resigned my post, but I still would call myself a libertarian small L, just not part of

Michael:

the party.

Blair:

I appreciate that, Clarification.

Blair:

I appreciate that.

Michael:

But then when there was this attack from Hamas on Israel, and I saw some of the

Michael:

quotes coming from some prominent libertarians in the country basically drawing a moral

Michael:

equivalence between Israel and Hamas, I said, that's it.

Michael:

I have to distance myself from that.

Michael:

So while if you think of the term libertarian

Michael:

as describing somebody that thinks that the government simply exists to protect people's

Michael:

individual rights and that people should be free to do whatever they want so long as they

Michael:

don't prevent others from doing the same, then the term still describes me.

Michael:

I just won't use it to describe myself because I don't want to be associated with people

Michael:

defending Hamas or quoting Ted Kaczynski in a positive manner.

Blair:

Well, thank you for that.

Blair:

So now I assume you have a fairly normal life.

Blair:

What are you doing and what are your future plans?

Blair:

Do you have any other books in mind?

Michael:

Well, I wouldn't rule out writing another book, but I will say this writing a

Michael:

book is a very difficult process.

Blair:

I bet.

Michael:

And right now I'm trying to establish myself as a podcaster.

Michael:

So I do about three or four podcasts a week, and it blows me away how fortunate I've been.

Michael:

I've been able to interview some of the people whose books I was reading while I was in

Michael:

prison.

Michael:

I mean, I interviewed David Friedman.

Michael:

Milton Friedman's son.

Blair:

Right.

Michael:

So that was great.

Michael:

Tonight I'm going to be interviewing one of

Michael:

the candidates for the Libertarian Parties for the presidential nomination for the

Michael:

Libertarian Party.

Michael:

So I've been surprised.

Michael:

I just send people emails and say, Would you come on the show?

Michael:

And they do.

Blair:

Yeah, that's how I've done it.

Martin:

That's how I've done is good at that.

Martin:

And maybe we could in the green room.

Martin:

But also here also, do you have any tips to fellow podcasters.

Martin:

How to do that.

Michael:

I don't know.

Michael:

What I do is I just read a lot of articles,

Michael:

and when I come across an article that I like, I send an email out and I say, how'd you like

Michael:

to come on the show and talk about this? And maybe one in five agrees.

Michael:

But when you send it out, hundreds of emails.

Michael:

I think I've done 90 something podcasts now.

Michael:

And I've interviewed people from the Ayn rand Institute, from the Atlas Society, the

Michael:

foundation for Economic Education, mother Jones magazine.

Michael:

So it's really been a great experience for me.

Michael:

I don't have quite as many subscribers to my

Michael:

podcast as I would like.

Michael:

I think I've got 357 on YouTube, but I've only

Michael:

had the show going since March, so I'm going to stick with it and I think I can turn it

Michael:

into a success.

Blair:

Great. Sounds great.

Blair:

Now, can I guess who your candidate is?

Blair:

Is it? Michael recttenwald.

Michael:

No. I've already interviewed him, though.

Michael:

I interviewed him.

Michael:

Interestingly.

Michael:

Not about politics.

Michael:

He and I had a debate.

Michael:

He said on his Facebook feed that reason and faith that they're consistent with one

Michael:

another.

Blair:

Oh, boy.

Michael:

And I said, oh, no, they're not.

Michael:

So I got him on the show and we had a debate

Michael:

about it.

Michael:

I've also had a few exchanges with him about

Michael:

politics on Facebook and Twitter.

Michael:

But the debate we had on my podcast concerned

Michael:

Faith and okay.

Blair:

Okay.

Michael:

I'm having on mike Termat is the candidate that I'm having on.

Blair:

I don't know him at all.

Michael:

Former police officer running for the nomination.

Michael:

Okay.

Michael:

I'm having on tonight.

Blair:

Well, good luck to him, I guess.

Blair:

All right.

Blair:

Well, Michael, again, thank you for being on the Mean.

Blair:

We have been talking to Michael Liebowitz, author of View from a Cage and down the Rabbit

Blair:

Hole.

Blair:

Mike, thanks for manning the foxhole with us.

Michael:

No problem.

Michael:

And my podcast is the rational egoist.

Michael:

Yes.

Michael:

Available wherever you get your podcast.

Blair:

Shameless self promotion, no doubt.

Michael:

No problem.

Michael:

No, it's funny, a couple people have kind of

Michael:

thought they were mocking me by telling me how I'm promoting myself on Facebook, and I'm

Michael:

like, yeah.

Michael:

And.

Martin:

Then this was a great conversation.

Martin:

Nice listening to you and adding some two cent

Martin:

to the conversation.

Martin:

But we could continue another time.

Martin:

But really, as you said, promote yourself and also how you could support your work.

Martin:

And also, have you heard about this Podcasting 2.0 initiative and the Value for Value model?

Michael:

No, I have not.

Martin:

No. So then we will talk more about that.

Martin:

And Blair and I, we have to be how should we improve on asking and promote our work?

Martin:

And how you could support but in short, is that the listener decides what's the value for

Martin:

them and then accordingly send donations.

Martin:

For example, boostogram with Satushis.

Martin:

And one Satushi is like a bit of a bitcoin.

Martin:

If you take one bitcoin and divide it 100

Martin:

million times, then you get one satushi and you use a new podcast app like for example,

Martin:

podverse, Fountain, et cetera.

Martin:

And then you could send directly a donation

Martin:

and also like a digital telegram giving feedback, giving comments to the host, to the

Martin:

guests and also in a way, participate in the show.

Martin:

So that's this Podcasting 2.0 model and initiative, it really works according to the

Martin:

trader principle also.

Martin:

But it's new so it will take time before it's

Martin:

catching on, I think.

Blair:

Right.

Blair:

Michael, have you even delved into bitcoin?

Blair:

Do you know anything about it?

Michael:

Only that a lot of people try to get me to invest in it on Twitter.

Martin:

You should listen to Dave wexler we had an interview with Real Expert on yeah,

Martin:

back.

Blair:

That was a year or so ago.

Blair:

But anyhow Martin, I think that's all the

Blair:

questions I had.

Blair:

Thanks Mike, for being on the show.

Martin:

Yeah, thank you very much.

Blair:

Good luck to him.

Blair:

Hopefully in the green room.

Blair:

I have some other things I want to talk to him about, but that's a wrap.

Martin:

Yeah, it is.

Martin:

Do you ever want to add something at the end,

Martin:

Michael?

Michael:

Just thank you guys for having me on.

Michael:

I'd be happy to be back anytime.

Martin:

Great.

Martin:

Thanks a lot.

Blair:

Thank you, Mike. It.