Americans are right to be frustrated by the rising cost of housing, healthcare, childcare, energy, and everyday necessities.

Ryan Bourne of the Cato Institute joins the Let People Prosper Show to explain how zoning, regulation, subsidies, mandates, and price controls often restrict supply and make life more expensive.

We discuss a better path based on competition, production, consumer choice, and economic freedom.

Subscribe and read the show notes at vanceginn.substack.com.

July 4th has passed, but the real work of preserving liberty never ends. It is easy to celebrate independence with fireworks, flags, and family gatherings. But it is harder to understand the principles that made independence meaningful in the first place. America was not founded merely as a break from British rule. It was founded on the belief that rights are not gifts from government, power must be limited, and liberty requires institutions strong enough to restrain those who govern.
That is why I enjoyed this conversation with Dr. Daniel L. Dreisbach, a professor at American University specializing in American constitutional law and history, First Amendment law, and church-state relations. Daniel earned a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a J.D. from the University of Virginia. He has authored or edited ten books, written widely on constitutional principles, and has been recognized as American University’s Scholar/Teacher of the Year.
Our conversation focuses on one of the most important but often overlooked documents in American history: the Virginia Declaration of Rights. It came before the Constitution, influenced the Bill of Rights, and helped define the language of liberty that shaped the American experiment.


🎧 Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
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America is approaching its 250th birthday, and that should mean more than fireworks, speeches, and nostalgia. It should make us ask a harder question: Do we still understand what made the American experiment different?

The United States did not become prosperous because government officials directed the economy from Washington. It became exceptional because our institutions protected liberty, property, voluntary exchange, civil society, religious freedom, and the rule of law. Those principles gave free people room to work, build, trade, worship, raise families, and solve problems in ways no central planner could design.

That is why I enjoyed this conversation with Samuel Gregg, President of the American Institute for Economic Research. Sam is one of the leading voices connecting economics, history, political philosophy, and the moral foundations of free societies. He previously joined me on Episode 17 of the Let People Prosper Show to discuss free markets, culture, and the future of economic freedom.

​🎧 Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
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​Parents are tired of being told to sit down, be quiet, and trust the system. They saw what happened during school shutdowns. They saw what their kids were being taught. They saw learning loss, political agendas, falling standards, and too many excuses from education bureaucracies.

And parents started asking a basic question: Why should children be trapped in schools that do not serve them?

That is why I enjoyed this conversation with Dr. Corey DeAngelis, one of the nation’s leading voices for school choice and parental rights. Corey is the author of The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools and has been one of the most effective advocates for letting education dollars follow students, not systems. 

He previously joined me on the Let People Prosper Show to discuss the parent revolution and school choice. This follow-up matters because the school choice movement has not slowed down. It is accelerating.

🎧 Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

🌐 Learn more about my work at vanceginn.com

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​​Politics has become too angry, too tribal, and too disconnected from real life. Too many people are tired of being forced into red or blue boxes. They are tired of politicians treating disagreement like war. They are tired of the media, campaigns, and algorithms rewarding outrage over understanding.

That’s why I enjoyed this conversation with Dr. Lura Forcum, who writes at How to Human on Substack. 

Lura studies people, politics, and persuasion. She brings a rare mix of policy experience, consumer psychology, communications strategy, and practical wisdom about why voters think the way they do. And her message is timely: if we want better politics, we need to understand people better.

In this episode of the Let People Prosper Show, we talk about independent voters, polarization, persuasion, trust, and why America needs more human connection and less political rage.

Get show notes at vanceginn.substack.com and find out more about my work at Ginn Economic Consulting at vanceginn.com. Please subscribe and share!

​Everyone wants to know when the next recession is coming. Wall Street watches every data release. Politicians blame their opponents. The Federal Reserve tries to read the tea leaves. And too many commentators treat recessions as if they are an inevitable punishment after a long expansion. But what if much of that conventional wisdom is wrong?

In this episode of the Let People Prosper Show, I’m joined by Dr. Tyler Goodspeed, Chief Economist at ExxonMobil and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, to discuss his new book, Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What to Do about It.

Tyler brings a rare combination of economic history, macroeconomic expertise, and real-world policymaking experience. He served as Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the first Trump administration and previously served as Vice Chairman and Chief Economist for Macroeconomic Policy. We overlapped during my time at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where these debates were not academic. They shaped real decisions affecting millions of Americans. With dual PhDs in economics and history, Tyler has the long-run perspective needed to challenge the easy stories politicians tell about downturns. 

The goal should not be for the government to micromanage the economy. The goal should be to understand what actually causes downturns, avoid making them worse, and build the conditions for stronger long-run growth.

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​Some conservatives are sounding more like the left on economics.

Tariffs. Industrial policy. Government-directed investment. Picking winners and losers. These policies are increasingly being promoted as solutions to America's affordability challenges, but do they actually help families prosper?

In Episode 201 of the Let People Prosper Show, I sit down with Marc Short, Chairman of Advancing American Freedom, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence, and one of the key architects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

We discuss the future of conservative economics, why affordability has become the defining political issue, the legacy of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and whether tariffs and industrial policy help or hurt economic growth and opportunity.

In This Episode:

✅ The future of conservative economics
✅ The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and its legacy
✅ Why affordability matters politically
✅ Tariffs and trade policy
✅ Economic growth and worker prosperity
✅ The New Right versus free-market economics

If you enjoyed this conversation, please like, subscribe, and share it with others.

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In Episode 200 of the Let People Prosper Show, Vance Ginn interviews Jeramy Kitchen, president of Texas Policy Research, about the future of fiscal conservatism and liberty in Texas.

The conversation explores the growing disconnect between Texas’s reputation for freedom and the reality of rising government spending, persistent property taxes, corporate welfare, and limited transparency inside the legislative process.

Vance and Jeramy also discuss:

The importance of legislative transparency, spending restraint, school choice, regulatory overreach,
and how Texas can remain a national leader for economic freedom and prosperity.

This special 200th episode also reflects on the importance of citizen engagement and accountability in protecting the principles that made Texas successful.

Listen on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Show notes at Substack at vanceginn.substack.com. 

​In Episode 199 of the Let People Prosper Show, Vance Ginn interviews Patrick McLaughlin of the Hoover Institution about how regulation affects transportation, freight costs, and economic growth.

The discussion explores how regulatory accumulation functions as a hidden tax across the economy, raising prices for consumers while slowing productivity and investment. They also discuss freight transportation, supply chain efficiency, the response to the East Palestine derailment, and why policymakers should focus on measurable, outcome-based regulation rather than symbolic mandates.

This episode highlights why transportation and regulatory policy matter far more to everyday affordability than most people realize.

Listen on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Show notes on Substack. 

​In Episode 198 of the Let People Prosper Show, I sit down with Jack Salmon of the Mercatus Center to discuss one of the most important lessons in state policy: people respond to incentives.

Politicians often claim they can raise taxes only on “the rich” without consequences. But high earners, entrepreneurs, and capital are increasingly mobile. When states raise taxes too aggressively, they risk driving away investment, weakening their tax base, and creating deeper fiscal problems over time.

This episode covers tax migration, wealth taxes, Washington State’s new high-income tax, state competitiveness, and why spending restraint is the foundation of sustainable fiscal policy.

The better path is clear: lower and flatter taxes, disciplined spending, economic freedom, and policies that attract people rather than punish productivity.

Watch or listen to Episode 198 on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify, and get show notes at vanceginn.substack.com.