Episoder
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5csuEpTn69o
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Samantha Watkins interviews Dr. Matt Bateman, philosopher at GT School, co-founder of Higher Ground Education, and ARU instructor, about the school choice movement and the philosophical case for education freedom.
Among the topics covered:
What the expanding reach of school choice programs means for parental freedom;
Why parents, not the government, should invest in education;
Why the school choice movement should refocus its arguments on parental rights;
How bureaucratic accountability measures undermine school choice efforts;
Why Rand’s tax credit proposal is better than a voucher system;
The worst thing about the public school system;
Rand's influence on Bateman's approach to parenting and education.
Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand's essays "Tax Credits for Education" , "The Comprachicos", and "Art and Moral Treason".
This podcast was recorded Jun 3, 2025 and posted on June 26, 2025.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDj_LhwM0Vw
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss two major recent events: Israel’s war against Iran and the political assassinations in Minnesota.
Among the topics covered:
The Israel-Iran War
Why Israel's war against Iran is a positive development;
Why a self-interested American foreign policy must break from the legacy of 9/11;
The Minnesota assassinations
How political violence is becoming a broader cultural trend;
How political violence is a tribal phenomenon.
The podcast was recorded on June 19, 2025 and posted on June 20, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. -
Mangler du episoder?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMepGP0ehPo
Podcast Audio
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Elan Journo interviews ARI intellectuals about their upcoming talks at the Objectivist Summer Conference, taking place July 1-5 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Among the topics covered:
Audra Hilse’s talk, “Revised Blueprints: Early Versions of Part II of The Fountainhead,” which will draw on archival material to offer insights into Rand’s creative process;
David Bakker’s talk, “Newton Versus Descartes on the Exactness of Mathematics,” which will examine how their contrasting views on mathematical precision shaped the development of modern science;
Ben Bayer’s talk, “America Should Declare Independence from Altruism,” which will argue that America’s responses to 9/11 and Covid reflect a deep-rooted evasion of altruism’s moral flaws;
Don Watkins’ talk, “Enlightenment on Trial: The Real Lessons of the American and French Revolutions,” which will challenge conventional narratives about both revolutions to reframe how we understand the Enlightenment’s true legacy.
Registration is open for both in-person and virtual conference passes.
The podcast was recorded on June 9, 2025 and posted on June 11, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YchKm3DnUFo
Podcast Audio:
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss the ongoing mass protests in Los Angeles and how the Trump administration’s response also shows a disregard for the rule of law.
Among the topics covered:
The scale of the violence;
Evidence that the rioters do not care about immigrants’ individual rights;
Why the right to peaceably assemble does not imply a right to mass protest;
The bad jurisprudence that supports the alleged right to mass protest;
The lawlessness of Trump’s immigration policies;
What a proper response to Trump’s lawless immigration policy looks like.
Recommended in this podcast are The Ayn Rand Lexicon’s entry on free speech, Ghate and Bayer’s article “Ending Campus Protests Protects Free Speech,” and Bayer’s article “The Specter of Lawlessness Is Darker than You Think.”
The podcast was recorded on June 9, 2025 and posted on June 11, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A28R9JnfNro
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The ARI Bookshelf, Elan Journo, Mike Mazza, Nikos Sotirakopoulos and Robertas Bakula discuss The Technological Republic, the recent New York Times bestseller by Alexander C. Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, and Nicholas W. Zamiska, the company’s head of corporate affairs and legal counsel.
Karp and Zamiska argue that America’s future greatness hinges on a renewed commitment to national industrial policy. They claim that Silicon Valley is failing the nation by prioritizing personal ambition and consumer gratification over government-directed projects. In response, they claim to offer a new model of partnership between the U.S. government and American business.
The discussion covered:
The plausibility of the book’s arguments;
How the book is a Trojan Horse for collectivism;
How the book undermines freedom and promotes central planning;
How the book rehashes old ideas;
Why only a free society is worth defending;
The disturbing metaphysical premises behind the book’s worldview.
The video was recorded on June 2, 2025 and posted on June 5, 2025. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY3NY7gFYtw
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Tristan de Liège examine Douglas Murray’s recent critique of Joe Rogan and other influencers who share their platforms with unreliable pseudo-experts. They explain why Murray fails to clarify the standards for distinguishing expert from non-expert testimony.
Among the topics covered:
Why Douglas Murray’s challenge to Joe Rogan’s platforming of non-experts is only partly right;
The proper role of expertise;
How to properly think about expert consensus as a non-expert;
How Murray is unclear about the standards we need for assessing expertise;
Why philosophical expertise, not simply on-the-ground experience, is crucial in evaluating the ethics of an ongoing war;
Why many people distrust experts.
Recommended in this episode are Gregory Salmieri’s lecture “How to Be an Objective Consumer of Science,” Ben Bayer’s talk “Being Objective About the News.”
The podcast was recorded on May 27, 2025 and posted May 30, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/iVJOTxv-tWk
Podcast audio:
American schools have long performed dismally at providing the education children need to read well. A movement in favor of systematic phonics instruction offers hope for improvement, but while phonics is essential to teaching children to read, they need further education to become highly capable readers. This talk by Sam Weaver defines a properly aspirational goal for reading education, explores the types of knowledge and skills that go into reading, and identifies key areas beyond phonics where American schools must improve if students are to achieve a high level of literacy.
Recorded live on June 17 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. -
https://youtu.be/o615h8druDE
Podcast audio:
The creation of the atom bomb during WWII was an extraordinary achievement, dramatized in part in the movie Oppenheimer. What were the three greatest challenges in making the bomb and how does the success in overcoming those very difficult obstacles illustrate the application of objectivity? Which great scientists’ work were most essential to the success of the project? As Ayn Rand said of Apollo 11, the Manhattan Project was “an achievement of reason, of logic, of mathematics, of total dedication to the absolutism of reality.”
Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. -
https://youtu.be/VUYooprteeU
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Agustina Vergara Cid analyze how the Trump administration’s immigration policy has escalated attacks on due process, legal immigration, and the broader American system of government.
(Since the recording of this podcast, Rümeysa Öztürk has been granted bail by a federal judge and released after more than six weeks in detention.)
Among the topics covered:
How the Trump administration has ramped up mass deportations as a show of power;
The chilling, unconstitutional actions targeting legal immigration;
How Trump’s actions build on a long history of corrupt immigration laws and enforcement;
How the attack on due process aims at scaring immigrants into self-deporting;
How the unchecked abuse of executive powers threatens the American system of government.
Recommended in this podcast is the previous podcast episode on “What Would Mass Deportations Mean for Freedom in America?”
The podcast was recorded on May 7, 2025 and posted on May 14, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/RclwB5luKek
Podcast audio:
Ayn Rand denounced racism as “the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.” She also rejected as collectivist many of the measures being advocated to combat this evil, including what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On the sixtieth anniversary of that law, Dr. Greg Salmieri revisited the themes of Rand’s classic article “Racism,” relating them to present-day America.
Topics include the definitions of “race” and “racism,” how the rejection of free will incline intellectuals toward racism, how superficially opposed racist doctrines on the political left and right embolden one another, in what respects racism can be “institutional” or “systemic,” how statist policies (including provisions of the Civil Rights Act) perpetuate existing racial inequities, and why it is only by embracing capitalism that we can put racism and its legacies behind us.
Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. -
https://youtu.be/2yQWRvrbVUI
Podcast audio:
Foreign policy is both a political activity and a field of applied ethics. However, the metaphysical and epistemological premises held by theorists and practitioners shape their view of ethics. The lack of an objective view of the world has led to theories and policies that do not support, and are often harmful to, the role of a proper government. However, as Scott McDonald explains, an objective understanding of the global system can lead to a first-handed foreign policy.
Recorded live on June 14 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. -
https://youtu.be/LVNSnbdEo0o
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The ARI Bookshelf, Onkar Ghate, Tristan de Liège, and Robertas Bakula discuss Abundance, the recent best-selling book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson that has gained traction in liberal circles.
Klein and Thompson acknowledge the failings of past liberal policies and present what they call the “abundance agenda” as an alternative. The agenda emphasizes streamlined regulations alongside robust government involvement in production — an approach the authors claim will usher in a new political order.
The discussion covered:
The book’s central arguments;
How the “abundance agenda” is unphilosophical and collectivistic;
How the book’s position on environmentalism reveals its deeper philosophical problems;
How the book fails to distinguish between coercion and voluntary cooperation;
How the authors fail to check their premises about government;
Why the book’s admiration for China is troubling.
The video premiered on May 1, 2025. -
https://youtu.be/0R_RjyOJeI4
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer, Robertas Bakula, and Tristan de Liège explore how the mixed economy enables the unjust exploitation of society’s most productive individuals.
Among the topics covered:
Why, contrary to Marxist claims, businesspeople are the most exploited group in a mixed economy;
How antitrust laws enable the government and less successful companies to exploit successful companies;
How tariffs drive the material and spiritual exploitation of producers;
How farm subsidies reward stagnation at the taxpayers' expense;
How Atlas Shrugged dramatizes the exploitation of producers.
Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s books Atlas Shrugged and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, and the recent podcast episode on “The Marxists’ Exploitation Myth.”
The podcast was recorded on May 5, 2025 and posted on May 7, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/7Wjrmh8CjAk
Podcast audio:
As a historian and philosopher of biology, much of Dr. James Lennox’s research has focused on the philosophical foundations of history’s two greatest biologists: Aristotle and Charles Darwin. Historians and philosophers often portray these two giants as diametrically opposed in their approach to the study of life. But were they? In this talk, he provides a novel answer to that question — and guidance on how to engage with such questions objectively.
Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. -
https://youtu.be/sNtIs4UmXns
Podcast audio:
The most pernicious ideas are often injected into the culture by the method of “package-dealing” — the attempt to integrate the unintegratable. Expanding on previous material he has presented on this subject, Mr. Peter Schwartz offers a more advanced analysis of the mechanics of the package-deal. He addresses such questions as: Can the same word stand for both a valid concept and a package-deal? What is the role of a definition in the formation of package-deals? What is the difference between anti-concepts and package-deals? This talk focuses particularly on the telltale signs one should look for in trying to identify a package-deal.
Recorded live on June 15 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. -
https://youtu.be/S53avG169mw
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Elan Journo and Ben Bayer discuss the Trump administration’s move to restart nuclear talks with Iran by rehashing Obama’s failed deal.
Among the topics covered:
How the Trump administration’s new Iran deal essentially recycles Obama’s failed policy;
Why hopes for diplomacy with Iran evade the regime’s totalitarian nature;
Why treating a death-worshipping regime as legitimate empowers its cause;
The role of tribalism in stripping moral principles from America’s foreign policy;
How Trump’s amoralism blinds him to the threat of foreign dictatorships.
Mentioned in this podcast are “ARI’s Resources on Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East,” Journo’s book What Justice Demands, and his co-authored book with Onkar Ghate Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism.
This podcast was recorded on April 28, 2025 and posted on April 30, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/Ff78OyGNA40
Podcast audio:
This sample class by Gena Gorlin is based on the full-length ARU course of the same name. The full course explores the major schools of thought, methods of inquiry, and empirical findings taught in a typical introduction to psychology course. But it explores how to understand and evaluate these theories, methods, and findings from an Objectivist perspective. Students learn how Objectivism can help us consume and get personal value from existing work in psychology, even when it is deeply flawed philosophically. The sample class will feature a selection of topics drawn from the full ARU course.
Recorded live on June 16 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. -
https://youtu.be/oMFbMFvDJ50
Podcast audio:
In this talk, Dr. Amesh Adalja details innovative new developments in science that will enhance the lives of individuals. Topics include transplantation of pig hearts and kidneys into humans, cell-based therapies for cancer, genetically modified mosquitoes, new vaccines and vaccine technologies, AI-discovered antibiotics, CRISPR therapeutics, and more.
Recorded live on June 15 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. -
https://youtu.be/pWpAiAioZTE
Podcast audio:
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Robertas Bakula and Mike Mazza explore the themes from Mazza’s upcoming essay, which argues that freedom, not government control, is the true engine of progress in the space industry.
Among the topics covered:
How NASA’s monopoly led to decades of stagnation in space innovation;
How economic freedom has fueled the recent progress in the space industry;
Why NASA’s role as a scientific research agency lies outside the proper scope of government;
How to answer critics who claim that private space ventures are just billionaire “playgrounds”;
The importance of entrepreneurial thinking in driving progress in the space industry.
Mentioned and recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essay “Apollo 11” from her The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought, Mazza’s and Tristan de Liège’s podcast episode “Space: The New Commercial Frontier,” and Mazza’s forthcoming essay, which will appear in New Ideal.
This podcast was recorded on April 21, 2025 and posted on April 23, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/79fT9VIDkVs
Podcast audio:
As Ayn Rand wrote, “The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully—and two hundred years have not been enough for other countries to understand it.” We can see this failure of understanding in the view, advanced by many conservatives and libertarians today, that the concept of individual rights ultimately derives from or is at least consistent with the Judeo-Christian morality.
In this talk, Ben Bayer explores some highlights of the history of the concept to understand why it is essentially a secular innovation, even when thinkers who helped advance it held Christian views. He especially focuses on how Enlightenment views of human nature and knowledge helped untether “rights” discourse from its antecedents in religious thought.
Recorded live on June 17 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024. - Se mer