Persuading for Liberty

The introduction of Hazlitt House

Siddharth Gundapaneni, my SFL “little” (despite the height disparity) and head of Ostrom House, myself, and Ethan Yang, my SFL “big” (again, despite the height difference) and head of Bastiat House. I had the distinct privilege of participating in SFL’s Top Leadership Retreat from June 8-12 in Altonah, Utah, where this photo was taken.

After a long hiatus from posting here, I am actually returning to maintain the Inquisitive Individualist—seriously, I mean it this time!

My spring quarter proved busier than I expected, but it was my best term yet: I learned a ton in Econ 24, Development Economics, and Econ 65, Topics in Industrial Organization; became proficient with Stata, Python, reduced form analysis, and a competent—though still novice—econometrician; passed my advanced formal logic class; wrote scripts about anime for FEEOnline (still can’t believe I get paid to do that); contributed a bunch of pieces to the Dartmouth Review; cultivated friendships with a handful of professors whose mentorship I value dearly; and, perhaps most importantly, enjoyed quality time with my ‘23 friends who have now graduated and moved into their bright futures.

Oh, and I was tapped to lead the pre-professional journalism and content creation group for Students For Liberty North America: Hazlitt House.

After resigning from my position as Regional Coordinator due to burnout and anxiety, I feel honored to be entrusted with leadership once again. I will be a more effective leader, manager, and mentor than I was in the past. This time around, I’m leading people to do what I spend most of time doing already: attempting—(hopefully) successfully every now and then—to persuade people to embrace the cause of Liberty with sound philosophy, persuasive rhetoric, and powerful storytelling.

The first members of Hazlitt House are getting their own Substacks started this week and I will be recommending their channels here. Check them out!

This summer, most of my substantive political, philosophical, and economic writing will be found at the National Review, where I am an editorial intern this summer, and the Foundation for Economic Education’s YouTube channel, for which I continue to write Shorts scripts. Nevertheless, I have assigned my house members the task of daily writing on Substack and I mean to lead from the front; I will be posting shorter, more casual content here that is still germane to the liberty movement, to one degree or another…

You’ll just have to keep tuning in to see!

In Liberty, Sincerity, and Gratitude,

Jack Nicastro

Hazlitt House Coordinator, SFL