Words & Numbers
Words & Numbers
Free the People
Episode 484: Geezer Presidents
47 minutes Posted Dec 25, 2025 at 12:00 pm.
Introduction and Overview
What Counts as a Victimless Crime?
Insurance, Risk, and Who Really Pays
Drugs, Prostitution, and True Victimless Crimes
Regulatory Crimes vs Real Human Harm
Software Piracy and Intellectual Property
Waymo, Power Outages, and Self-Driving Failures
Foolishness of the Week: Academic Monocultures in Academia
Personal Stories of Academic Censorship
Main Topic: Should Presidents Have an Age Limit?
Biden, Trump, and Cognitive Decline
Living Longer, Dementia, and Modern Leadership Risks
Age Limits in Other Professions
The Age of Past Presidents When Initially Elected
Which Presidents Would Have Survived a Term Age Limit?
The 25th Amendment and Why It Rarely Works
Incentives, Power, and Presidential Succession
Closing Thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Show notes
In this episode, we examine what actually counts as a victimless crime and why the term is so often misused, using examples ranging from seatbelt and helmet laws to drugs, prostitution, and software piracy. We discuss how insurance markets price risk more effectively than regulation, and why many so-called crimes are really paperwork violations with no direct victims. We also look at the limits of automation through recent failures in self-driving technology, and highlight the Foolishness of the Week involving ideological monocultures in academia and the incentives that sustain them. The conversation then turns to the main topic of whether there should be an age limit for the presidency, weighing cognitive decline, longevity, institutional incentives, and why existing safeguards like the 25th Amendment rarely function as intended.
43:53 Closing Thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices