Kris Borer

the geroscience hypothesis

The older you become, the more likely you are to get a variety of diseases: atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, etc. Part of the reason is that your cells and organs don’t work as well at advanced age. Your cells have more genetic damage, so they become cancers more frequently. At the same time, your immune system kills cancerous cells more slowly. These and similar mechanisms lead to a higher frequency of diseases in late-life, many of which are incurable.

a chart showing death rates for different diseases by age — Age is the biggest risk factor for most chronic disease.

What gives room for hope is the idea that the age-related diseases observed in older populations are the consequence of a relatively small set of underlying mechanisms. For example, if arterial plaques lead to both heart attacks and strokes, then we could address both problems by targeting plaques directly. In fact, it will be faster and easier to target these age-related changes to prevent disease, rather than trying to develop individual therapies age-related conditions after they occur.

free PDF of the Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism

Today would have been Murray Rothbard‘s 97th birthday. It also happens to be the three year anniversary of the Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. To celebrate, I’m releasing a free PDF version of the book.

Discernable

Matt Wong invited me for an engaging, hour-long interview on Discernable. We covered a wide variety of topics including anarcho-capitalism, when to be afraid of technology, and what Michael Malice is like off camera. If you make it to the end, Matt asks me for the best argument against libertarianism and, admittedly, there is a strong one.

Anarcho Capitalism: not what you think it is with Kris Borer

Libertarian Scholars Conference 2022

I was invited to speak at the Libertarian Scholars Conference this year and gave a short presentation on The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. Here is the video:

Afterwards, Walter Block suggested that instead of describing actions as ethical or unethical, I should describe actions as being legal or illegal under a libertarian system of law. I received similar feedback from others as well.

The Libertarian Christian Podcast

Doug Stewart and Norman Horn invited me onto their podcast for an enjoyable discussion about libertarianism and The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. Click below to visit to the show page:

Thanks to Jacob Lovell for making the introduction!

the Cantus Firmus podcast

Cody Cook invited me to be on his podcast Cantus Firmus this week and we had a fun conversation about anarcho-capitalism, ethics, and agorism.

You can visit the show page below to see show notes and links to other episodes.

PODCAST: Living a Good Life Without the State: The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism w/ author Kristopher Borer

The Bob Murphy Show

Bob Murphy had me on his show this week, which was a real treat. We had a great discussion about why libertarian ethics cannot be defined with physics, what an anarcho-capitalist society might look like, and spent some time arguing semantics — in a good way. You can watch the interview below:

Thanks to Jacob Lovell for making it happen!

sales data

Before I finished writing The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism, I wondered how many copies I should expect to sell. I didn’t find much data to help me level-set, so I thought it might be useful to others if I published my own data. The upshot is that I sold about 1,000 copies in the first year, but a large percentage of that can be attributed to a single podcast appearance.

I released the book on March 2nd, 2020 in two formats: ebook and paperback. I only sold 2 copies in the first month, and I imagine that both were to friends or family who saw my email announcement. I released a hardcover version in April and an audio book version in May. Then in June sales peaked at 230 copies sold. That spike was thanks to Tom Woods, who invited me to be a guest on his podcast.

Another piece of information that was hard to find was how much incremental sales you should expect by releasing different formats. For example, is it worth the cost and effort of creating an audio book?

one-star reviews

I waited a year before reading any online reviews of The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. My goal was to collect the feedback all at once so I could use it to improve the book and release an update.

Let’s see what people thought:

I spent a lot of time thinking about the title for the book. The first working title was Liberty and Capital. If only I had spoken to Mel, it could have been The Anti-Vax of Political Ideologies.

working with Michael Malice

In an earlier post I mentioned a number of people who helped create the Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. Conspicuously absent was Michael Malice, who mentored me through the writing and publishing process. He is getting his own post because I thought people would enjoy a little more detail about what it was like working with him.

Dr. Howard Grattan had it right when he described Malice as a modern-day Murray Rothbard. Not for academic work, but for the humor, irreverence, and pure joy that he brings to the libertarian movement. The analogy is also apt because, like Rothbard, Malice builds bridges both inside the movement and with people outside of it.