The Development Paradox | Interview: Ronald Bailey

The Development Paradox | Interview: Ronald Bailey

July 20, 2026 · 1h 7m

About this episode

Jonah Goldberg interviews Ronald Bailey about various political and social issues including gerontocracy and libertarianism.

Jonah Goldberg has been chewing over how to reduce the number of gray hairs in Congress for some time now. Unfortunately, the best that he and The Remnant team have come up with is shaving the heads of all the senior senators, which, seeming somewhat impractical, led Jonah to call in an expert. Science correspondent and longtime friend of the show Ronald Bailey joins the merry band today to set us all straight on RFK Jr., vaccines, MAHA, DOGE, libertarianism, bad analogies for government, transhumanism, gerontocracy, term limits, libertarian Shangri-La, Francis Fukuyama, institutions, economic growth, Thomas Jefferson, invention, and Benjamin Franklin.  Show Notes: —Bailey’s book - The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-first Century —Bailey’s book - Liberation Biology: The Scientific And Moral Case For The Biotech Revolution —Bailey in Reason - “Can America Get Out of the Gerontocracy Trap?” —Jonah’s book - Suicide of the West —Terrible Rest Is History podcast on Jefferson  —Michael Auslin Remnant The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of…

People in this episode

Host: Jonah Goldberg

Guest: Ronald Bailey

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Dispatch

Books & works: The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-first Century, Liberation Biology: The Scientific And Moral Case For The Biotech Revolution, Suicide of the West

More episodes of The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg podcast page.