Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Acton Line podcast: The moral hazard of student debt; Unraveling Islam
Acton Line podcast: The moral hazard of student debt; Unraveling Islam
Jan 28, 2026 8:06 AM

On this episode of Acton Line, Caroline Roberts speaks with Andrew Kloster, deputy director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University, about the student debt crisis. Kloster claims that the student debt crisis is the greatest moral hazard of our Nation and explains how he sees the crisis panning out in the future. On the second segment, Acton’s director of research, Samuel Gregg, sits down with Mustafa Akyol, senior research fellow at the Cato Institute, to address the topics of Islam and Freedom. Reformist trends in Islam reinterpret religious law by referring to the moral teachings at its core resulting in an intellectual battle going on in the Muslim world, where some believers condemn freedom as a Western invention while others praise it as Allah’s blessing. Is patible with ideas of individual freedom?

Check out additional resources for this podcast:

Read “Student Loans: Perhaps our Nation’s greatest moral hazard problem,” by Andrew Kloster

Student debt and moral hazard: To forgive or not to forgive?

Warren’s Free College Time Machine

Here’s why millions of millennials are not homeowners

Warren’s College-Loan Plan Is a Subsidy for the Comfortable Class

“Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty”

“The Creeping Liberalism in American Islam”

Video: Mustafa Akyol on the prospects for liberty in the Islamic world

New to the Acton Line podcast? Subscribe here! We also mend starting with these episodes:

Mourning the Notre-Dame cathedral inferno; Rev. Robert Sirico on education

F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom; The media vs. ‘Unplanned’

Rev. Robert A. Sirico on the reality of socialism; Interview with a Venezuelan dissident

Do you have feedback for the Acton Line podcast team? We want to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]. Lastly, if you like what you heard on today’s episode, please leave a review and rating on iTunes.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
The suffering of Cardinal Zen
This article is written by Moris Polanco, originally published by Instituto Fe y Libertad and republished with permission. The elderly cardinal Zen Ze-kiun, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, said in his blog on February 5, 2018, “The brothers and sisters of mainland China are not afraid of being reduced to poverty, of being put into prison, of shedding their blood. Their greatest suffering is to see themselves betrayed by ‘family.’” He’s right. For a moment let’s put ourselves in the...
Listen: The Christian case for capitalism
The Institute of Economic Affairs explores the ethical argument for a free economy – and why Christians are not making it. In the latest episode of its podcast, an Anglican priest and a Catholic scholar discuss that question, as well as Archbishop Justin Welby’s homily against Amazon, Jesus’ supposed condemnation of wealth, and why clergy tend to support government intervention into the economy. Fr. Marcus Walker, Rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church (COE) in London, speaks with Religion & Liberty Transatlantic...
Radio Free Acton: The debasement of human rights; Econ quiz on USMCA
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, John Couretas, Director of Communications at Acton, speaks with Aaron Rhodes, a human rights activist based out of Hamburg, Germany, about Aaron’s new book “The Debasement of Human Rights.” Where does the notion of human e from and how can we better defend it? Then Caroline Roberts, Producer of Radio Free Acton, talks to Stephen Smith, Professor of Economics at Hope College, about the new North American trade agreement, the USMCA. They discuss...
From ideology to imagination: How Russell Kirk brought me back to conservatism
This is the third in a series celebrating the work of Russell Kirk in honor of his 100th birthday this October. Read more from the serieshere. As a young college student entering the fray of campus debates, I became enthralled with a particular variety of libertarian thought. Though once a conservative, I began to pack my brain with the likes of Bastiat, Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard. I grew confident in my opinions about policy and was proud of the ideological...
Why Columbus is more important than you realize
There is likely no public secular holiday more controversial than Columbus Day. Since the observance first began to be celebrated in the nineteenth century it has been opposed by a diverse rage of groups, from the Ku Klux Klan to the American Indian Movement to the National Council of Churches. The Italian navigator tends to provoke strong reactions throughout the Western Hemisphere, and every year we renew our debates about whether he was a bold and brave explorer or a...
Watch Samuel Gregg’s 10 minute defense of religion and freedom
Let me take a moment to brag about my colleagueSamuel Gregg, the Director of Research here at the Acton Institute. Almost every week we post an article or video by Gregg here on the PowerBlog, and yes, that’s partiallybecause he’s one of us. But we’d be promoting his work even if he wasn’t a part of Acton for the simple reason that Gregg is one of the most articulate defenders of ordered liberty in the world. Don’t just take my...
Are you more rational than the market?
Note: This is post #96 in a weekly video series on basic economics. The stock market is prone to certain anomalies. There’s the Monday Effect (where stocks fall more on Mondays), the January Effect (which says that stocks surge higher in that month), and the Momentum Effect (where past stock performance predicts future performance, at least a bit). Can’t a savvy investor take advantage of these anomalies to “beat” the market? Probably not. “Despite its flaws, the market is still...
D.C. restaurants fight back: When workers oppose a higher minimum wage
Last June, Washington, D.C. residents voted to pass Initiative 77, a ballot measure that raised the minimum wage for all restaurant workers, including those making tips. Driven by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROCUnited), the policy was meant to ensure that “that no one has to experience the financial es with being forced to live off tips.” Yet many of the very workers who the law sought to rescue or protectdidn’t want it in the first place, and fought vociferously to...
What does Amazon’s minimum wage have to do with the Church?
In a recent article for The American Spectator, Rev. Ben Johnson, senior editor at the Acton Institute, addresses some of the problems that arise for the Church as a result of Amazon’s recent wage raises. According to Johnson, “Amazon recently announced that it is raising the wage of its lowest-paid U.S. workers to $15 an hour, and above the proposed ‘real living wage’ in the UK.” es in addition to Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos’ “plans to lobby Congress to raise...
Force fathers to stay at home? A warning from Europe
It was a curious sight to see a Wall Street Journal op-ed call for social engineering to change the way families choose to raise newborn babies. It was more curious yet to see right-leaning Catholics endorse the notion “in the name of conservative family values.” This is especially true, as Europe shows the manifest failures and harmful effects of their chosen policy. Joanne Lipman opened the debate with her op-ed titled, “Want Equality? Make New Dads Stay Home.” She highlighted...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved