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.