Brianne Wolf on Liberalism with Taste

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke sits down with Brianne Wolf to explore Adam Smith’s enduring relevance for liberalism, political economy, and contemporary debates about markets and democracy. Wolf discusses her book project, Beyond Rights and Price: Liberalism with Taste, and explains how thinkers including Smith, Hume, Rousseau, and Tocqueville illuminate the role of taste, judgment, sympathy, and persuasion in sustaining a liberal society. Their conversation ranges from changing student attitudes toward inequality, expertise, and democracy to Smith’s concern for the least advantaged, the relationship between the Scottish Enlightenment and the American founding, and the challenge classical liberals face in responding to critiques of capitalism. Boettke and Wolf also consider cosmopolitanism, the importance of local ties and civil society, and what the renewed attention surrounding the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations can teach us about the liberal tradition.

Dr. Brianne Wolf is Associate Professor of Political Theory and Director of the Political Economy minor at James Madison College at Michigan State University. Her current project, Beyond Rights and Price: Liberalism with Taste, explores the role of taste as a supplement to market relations and the legal framework of rights, fostering the moral possibilities of commercial society and the emotional connections between citizens that are necessary for a robust liberal politics.

**This episode was recorded on July 28, 2026**

Show Notes:

• Peter Boettke, The Struggle for a Better World (Mercatus Center, 2021)
• Carl Menger, “The Social Theories of Classical Political Economy and Modern Economic Policy”
• Bernard Yack, The Longing for Total Revolution: Philosophic Sources of Social Discontent from Rousseau to Marx and Nietzsche (University of California Press, 2022)
• Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2018)
• Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Abridged Edition (Penguin Classics, 2001)
• Martha C. Nussbaum, The Cosmopolitan Tradition: A Noble but Flawed Ideal (Harvard University Press, 2021)
• Glory M. Liu, Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism (Princeton University Press, 2022)
• James R. Otteson, Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life (Cambridge University Press, 2002)