Most people think about taxation as a bite out of their paychecks, an extra expense at the grocery store, and a massive hassle around April 15 every year. All this is correct as far as it goes, but what we too often fail to appreciate are the massive ways in which tax policy shapes our lives and our decision-making. Matt Kibbe sits down with Scott Hodge, president emeritus of the Tax Foundation and author of the book “Taxocracy,” to discuss how taxation is used for social engineering by a government that wants to control and restrict your available choices. This concept is not limited to the so-called “sin taxes” on items like alcohol and tobacco but includes tax incentives for behavior deemed desirable by politicians and bureaucrats, such as buying a home or having children. Hodge argues that the use of tax policy to shape citizens’ behavior is fundamentally opposed to free will and the idea that we are the authors of our own destinies.

The quickest way for mothers to become politically activated is when their kids are threatened. This week, Matt Kibbe sits down with Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, to discuss the many ways in which the federal government is failing and neglecting America’s children. As a member of her local school board, Justice saw firsthand that teachers’ unions and school administrators consistently prioritized their own needs above those of the children. Then, during COVID lockdowns, the widespread school closures represented a callous disregard for the well-being of kids. At the same time, parents were waking up to school curricula filled with critical theory and gender ideology propaganda. In response to their activism, concerned parents were smeared and demonized by the federal government, labeled domestic terrorists for the crime of taking an interest in their children’s education. Moms for Liberty is holding its annual summit this week in Washington, D.C., with tickets still available for those wishing to get involved.

Merry olde England isn’t so merry these days, as its police force has been busy arresting citizens for posting “offensive” opinions on social media. One police commissioner even threatened to extradite Elon Musk, along with other Americans, for disregarding the United Kingdom’s anti-hate-speech laws. The American Bill of Rights drew many of its provisions straight from the tradition of English common law, which now seems so distant from the country’s censorious policies. Matt Kibbe is joined by Daniel Hannan, a Conservative Party member of the House of Lords, to find out what’s going on with our neighbors across the pond. Hannan argues that these speech regulations are a return to the prosecution of blasphemy that was once common, only with modern social justice tenets substituted for religious ones.

Every election cycle, it seems like our choices get not only worse but more limited. The two-party system consistently delivers poor candidates who resemble each other more than they differ. The reason for this is that there’s no competition. Matt Kibbe sits down with Christina Tobin, founder of Free & Equal, to discuss how we can change that. As things stand, it is practically impossible for independent and third-party candidates to get any traction, because the Democrats and Republicans control the process for obtaining ballot access and appearing in debates. After the success of independent candidate Ross Perot in the 1990s, the two parties locked down the debate process, continually increasing the requirements to qualify in order to shut out competitors. Free & Equal’s mission is to win back ballot access and debate exposure for candidates who seek to challenge the uniparty duopoly.

At 2024’s FreedomFest, Matt Kibbe catches up with John Mackey, the serial entrepreneur who founded Whole Foods and is now launching the new wellness company Love.Life. Mackey wants to empower individuals to take control of their own health in a way that is increasingly difficult in the American health care system. Despite these challenges, Mackey remains a long-term optimist about the future of liberty, pointing to the decentralized wisdom that spontaneously emerges from creative people working and cooperating to solve big problems. It’s easy to be gloomy about the country’s direction given the events of the last few years, but as long as there are entrepreneurs like Mackey building new systems, there is plenty of reason for hope.

At this year’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Matt Kibbe sits down with English comedian Andrew Doyle to talk about how comedy, and indeed art as a whole, has been impacted by woke identity politics and critical theory. Doyle is pushing back against a claim that a comedian’s race or gender is more important than whether he or she can be funny. He’s also firmly committed to mocking those with absurd ideas, and that includes activists who want to police speech and silence dissent. The unique advantage of comedy is that it can hold a mirror up to the society and expose the ridiculous and the hypocritical.

Modern pundits are fond of dismissing America’s Founders as backward slave owners with outdated ideas about government, but they were actually prescient about many of the issues that define today’s political landscape. At the FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas, Matt Kibbe sits down with libertarian influencer Josie Glabach, professionally known as the Redheaded Libertarian, to explore the truth about American history, her personal journey to libertarianism, and the ongoing lunacy of American politics in the 21st century.

In light of recent events, it is incumbent on all champions of freedom to denounce violence in all its forms. Reasonable people can agree that the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, were a tragedy that should never have happened. But this acknowledgement shouldn’t prevent us from seeking the truth about what really happened that day. Matt Kibbe is joined by independent journalist and BlazeTV contributor Steve Baker, who was at the Capitol on January 6 and captured most of that day on film. Among the many things that still require explanation is why the Capitol Police did not provide more security for the event and why certain members of the force have been caught lying in front of Congress.

When truth is treason in the empire of lies, sometimes it takes a court jester to say what everyone else is thinking. Matt Kibbe catches up with actor and comedian Rob Scheider at 2024’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas, to talk about how the formerly apolitical comic felt compelled to come out as a warrior for freedom purely by virtue of the fact that no one else would. Schneider is a reluctant intellectual, who would rather be making movies than talking politics, but he also believes that there comes a time when silence is a betrayal. In the wake of totalitarian COVID lockdowns, censorship, endless wars, and an increasingly corrupt political process, comedians may just be the ones who wake us all up.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are reevaluating their relationship with the health care industry and the government bureaucrats who control it. Matt Kibbe sits down with Dr. Mark Richards, author of “Nobody Wants You Healthy,” to delve into the perverse incentives that drive Big Pharma into profiting off a country of the chronically ill, rather than actually promoting healthy living. From mandatory vaccines with unproven safety records to the media’s eagerness to silence medical dissenters, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we can’t rely on our institutions to tell us the truth about what’s really making us sick. To find out more or purchase a copy of "Nobody Wants You Healthy" for yourself, visit: https://www.nobodywantsyouhealthy.com.

In this second half of our retrospective look at one of "Kibbe on Liberty's" most frequent and entertaining guests, Matt Kibbe talks to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) about a wide range of topics, including food freedom, the surveillance state, foreign policy, and how the congressman became the most hated man in Washington. This special "best of" edition of "Kibbe on Liberty" also features clips from Massie's appearances with former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard and Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, as well as the remote interviews recorded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Be sure to check out Sassy with Massie (Part 1), if you missed it!

Making war is one of the things that government does best, but sometimes even the deep-state elites need a little help figuring out how to invade other countries, kill their people, and plunder their resources, all while propping up American defense contractors and keeping the voting public complacent. Thankfully, a handy how-to manual for all your global domination needs has just hit the shelves. Matt Kibbe sits down with authors Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall to discuss their new satirical book, "How to Run Wars," which uses humor to shine a light on the bellicose evils of the perpetual war machine and those who seek to profit from it.

Apart from being one of the fiercest defenders of liberty in Congress, Rep. Thomas Massie is also one of the most frequent and engaging guests on Kibbe on Liberty. In this special two-part episode, we’re going back through the years to showcase some of Massie’s best conversations with Matt Kibbe. From his sustainable, off the grid farm in Kentucky and his background as an MIT-trained engineer, to his willingness to incur the ire of his colleagues for standing on principle and fearlessly opposing COVID lockdowns, the congressman represents a rare bright spot of hope in the otherwise dismal land of Washington, DC, where the shadows lie.

It’s long been established that cats are libertarian individualists with a distaste for big government, but it turns they may have done more to preserve American lives and freedom than even they realize. Matt Kibbe speaks to Anthony Bellotti, president and founder of the White Coat Waste Project, about how an investigation into feline animal abuse in government labs led to a surprising discovery about the origins of the COVID-19 virus. It turns out that U.S. tax dollars were being funneled to a lab in Wuhan, China, to conduct dangerous gain-of-function research on bat viruses, one of which escaped, causing a worldwide pandemic. Without Bellotti’s vigilance and compassion for animals, we might never have learned the truth about Anthony Fauci’s lies and deceptions.  Free the People’s original docuseries, The Coverup, is available now on BlazeTV. Matt Kibbe is uncovering the truth behind the origins of Covid-19. Watch now: https://www.faucicoverup.com/

There was a time when the Democratic Party marketed itself as a home for the anti-war Left, with protesters routinely showing up at Republican events to condemn American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, with the election of Barack Obama, those voices fell silent, and since then, both major political parties have demanded more wars, more drone strikes, and more military spending. Tulsi Gabbard, author of “For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind,” rose to national prominence as a veteran and presidential candidate bold enough to stand up to the war machine, and for her efforts she was demonized as a traitor and a Russian asset. In this conversation with Matt Kibbe, Gabbard explains why she parted ways with her old party and what Americans can do to take back their power over the political elite who are supposed to work for them. You can order Tulsi Gabbard's new book here: https://www.tulsigabbard.com

In the debate about cancel culture, it’s become cliché to claim that the powers that be won’t permit certain types of entertainment anymore. Matt Kibbe and Matt Battaglia challenge this conception in a conversation with comics writer Joseph Keatinge, co-founder and chief creative officer at Vast Vision Publishing. Keatinge talks about the freedom and flexibility that comes from cutting loose the corporate bureaucracy and taking control of your own art. Through independent publishing, creators don’t have to answer to moral guardians or timid HR departments. This means that they can focus on telling compelling stories, not checking boxes or enforcing quotas.

At the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, Matt Kibbe sits down with Maine state Senator Eric Brakey, who talks about his legislative accomplishments and his transition into the role of executive director of the Free State Project. Brakey explains that state governments are in the best position to be leaders on building mainstream support for new and seemingly radical ideas. Just as Democrat-led states have shifted the Overton window on certain progressive policies, states like New Hampshire and Maine are positioned to demonstrate that liberty-oriented laws can not only pass but can work to improve the lives of American citizens.

At this year’s New Hampshire Liberty Forum, Matt Kibbe sat down with Derek Proulx, the New Hampshire state chair of Bring Our Troops Home, to talk about his involvement in the Defend the Guard movement. Defend the Guard is an initiative to prevent the federal government from misusing the National Guard for military adventurism abroad without a proper declaration of war by Congress, as the Constitution requires. As a former member of the National Guard, Proulx and his fellow veterans have a unique and valuable perspective on military involvement, which could teach a lot to war-hungry politicians who have lived lives sheltered from military conflict.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s job is in trouble, as many Republicans in Congress are dissatisfied with his lack of leadership and willingness to cozy up to the Democratic opposition. Matt Kibbe is joined by Rep. Thomas Massie, who explains why he’s calling for the speaker to be replaced and outlines what he calls “the three betrayals of Mike Johnson.” First, Johnson abandoned the regular order budgeting process in favor of a massive omnibus bill. Second, he reauthorized warrantless surveillance of Americans by the FISA courts, and third, he is ushering through a military spending package that would send American taxpayer dollars to fund the wars in Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine. To top it all off, Democratic leaders in the House are openly admitting that they want to keep Johnson in power, which speaks volumes about how firm his conservative bona fides really are.

Sprouting from a graduate student’s thought experiment in 2001, over the last 20 years, the Free State Project has made a significant impact on the state of New Hampshire by gathering like-minded, liberty-loving folk who share a passion for freedom and independence. At this year’s New Hampshire Liberty Forum, Matt Kibbe sits down with Carla Gericke, president emeritus of the Free State Project, to discuss the history of the project, where it is today, and where it’s going in the future. In addition to making substantial legislative changes in the state, the Free Staters are also attracting the attention of major figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, indicating that the real gains for liberty are yet to come.