Welcome to the Heartland’s podcasts. This week, listen to a 
discussion on how to defend freedom in our personal and economic lives. Click the links below to listen, and subscribe on iTunes so you get the latest podcasts as soon as they are produced. (Search for “Heartland Institute” in the iTunes store.)
ON EDUCATION: With wickedly funny, deeply poignant prose, Providence College Professor Anthony Esolen‘s new book dissects how current approaches to education and parenting squash children’s imaginations and cheapen childhood. Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child discusses forming a child’s mind and heart to wonder at the world around him. “Imaginative children are by nature difficult to herd,” he says. “Schools are built for a certain kind of efficiency and anonymity; they look like factories, and serve many of the same functions.” Esolen both explains why and discusses what to do about it. Listen here.
ON TECHNOLOGY: Author and consultant Larry Downes discusses the spectrum crunch, as well as Federal Communications Commission opposition to legislative efforts to alleviate it by conducting auctions. Listen here.
ON BUDGET: The San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League are trying to borrow $850 million that would be backed by taxpayers to build a stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The costs and taxpayer risks have skyrocketed beyond what local officials promised, and a group calling itself Santa Clara Plays Fair is hoping to block the deal. Listen here.
ON HEALTH CARE: Heartland’s Benjamin Domenech is interviewed by Jimmie Bise, host of the popular Delivery podcast, on health care policy, entitlement reform, and the real intentions behind Obamacare. Listen here.
ON FINANCE: C-FIRE Deputy Director R.J. Lehmann talks to Jack Nicholson, chief operating officer of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, about funding challenges the Cat Fund faces and the potential for legislative change in 2012. Listen here.
