Episodes
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O0HkJbbj4E
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss the protests on university campuses against Israel’s war of self-defense and what they say about the state of our culture.
Among the topics covered:
Why the anti-Israeli campus protests are rightly labelled as being pro-Hamas;
How there is a double standard in the public’s response to mass protests in general;
How the anti-Israeli protests are motivated by altruism and hatred of Israel’s success;
Why the campus protests are a crisis of education rather than of free speech;
How the mass occupation of public spaces violate our rights.
Mentioned in this podcast is Ayn Rand’s 1968 radio talk “The Student “Rebellion” at Columbia University.”
The podcast was recorded on April 24, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/FjsC7I-Qa4A
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Mike Mazza and Aaron Smith discuss Mazza’s recently published article about why academic philosophers tend to get Rand’s ideas wrong so frequently and the parochialism involved in many of their critiques.
Among the topics covered:
What Mazza aimed to explain in this article;
Why responding to academic critics is important;
What it means for philosophers to engage in parochialism;
How the methods of academic philosophers are poorly suited to understanding Rand;
The inductive structure of Rand’s arguments;
The multiple factors behind philosophers’ dismissal of Rand’s ideas;
Why the parochialism issue is particularly important to identify;
Why historians of philosophy tend not to make the mistake of parochialism;
How even Objectivists can be parochial and what they should do to avoid it.
Mentioned in this podcast are the New Ideal articles “Why Can’t Professional Philosophers Get Rand Right?” by Mazza and “Why Massimo Pigliucci Gets Ayn Rand Wrong” by Smith, plus the book A Companion to Ayn Rand edited by Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri (specifically Chapter 1, “An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand”). The podcast was recorded on April 18, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
Missing episodes?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Lm2YpZvyI
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo offers initial commentary on Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel.
Among the topics covered:
How Iran’s attack on Israel is a consequence of its Islamic and imperial nature;
How America’s failure to recognise and confront Iran’s nature emboldens it;
Why America and Israel are morally justified in replacing Iran’s evil regime.
Mentioned in this podcast are Elan Journo’s book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo’s edited collection of essays Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: from George W. Bush to Barrack Obama and Beyond, and Leonard Peikoff’s article “’End States Who Sponsor Terrorism’.”
The podcast was recorded on April 13, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeuU6AbIDOo
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo give a preview of ARI’s 2024 presidential election coverage and comment on some of the major political issues at stake in the election.
Among the topics covered:
How ARI uses Objectivism to analyze elections and the wider political culture;
What the Trump phenomenon says about the state of our political culture;
The unprincipled nature of the political responses to recent domestic and foreign crises;
Symptoms of growing political tribalism, such as people’s increasing willingness to protest;
How bipartisan attacks on tech companies reveal a deeper turn against producers.
Mentioned in this podcast is Onkar Ghate’s New Ideal article “One Small Step for Dictatorship."
The podcast was recorded on April 11, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/UmxjJI50gss
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo analyze Argentinian President Javier Milei’s interview at AynRandCon in Buenos Aires.
Among the topics covered:
How the event fell short of ARI’s goal of illuminating points of agreement and disagreement with Milei;
How to evaluate Milei as a President, considering his strange statements about abortion and mysticism;
The contradiction between Milei’s ostensible rejection of collectivism and his administration's position on a military draft;
How Milei’s motivation for anarchism is easier to excuse than that of other libertarians;
Milei’s troubling rhetoric targeting journalists and dismissal of criticism;
What is right and wrong about Milei’s defense of producers;
Ayn Rand’s possible influence on Milei’s thinking about the nihilistic motivation of socialism.
The podcast was recorded on April 8, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
Note: The original version of this podcast (which still appears on some platforms) relayed statements of facts about some of Milei's personal beliefs and positions that were not born out by the facts. These have been cut from the YouTube version. We regret the error. Also, Milei's position on the draft is not necessarily the same as that discussed by his ministers. -
https://youtu.be/Xh0xF5hACkw
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Sam Weaver and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the recent California ethnic studies mandate. They evaluate the ideological nature of the curriculum and its assault on knowledge, the philosophical ideas that made it possible, and why it must be opposed intellectually.
Among the topics covered:
How ethnic studies emerged from an activist assault on the idea of objective truth;
Evidence that the proposed curriculum is non-objective;
How lessons on "narratives" encourage prejudice among students;
The egalitarian roots of the curriculum and its elevation of the primitive over science;
Why the government monopoly on education causes violations of intellectual freedom.
Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “Global Balkanization,” “The Age of Envy,” and “Fairness Doctrine for Education,” as well as the previous podcast episode “Political Battles Over Education.”
The podcast was recorded on April 4, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/L3RBJNhglek
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Elan Journo discuss the recent United Nations “ceasefire” resolution. They argue it is yet another example of the West’s moral reluctance to condemn evil regimes and to provide a principled defense of Israel’s right to self-defense.
Among the topics covered:
The fact that Hamas seeks to destroy Israel because it is a bastion of civilization;
Why the UN resolution is a pro-Hamas document;
How the UN’s policy of moral neutrality enables evil regimes;
Why the United States is morally complicit in whitewashing Hamas;
Trump and Biden’s unprincipled support for Israel;
Why defeating Hamas requires the ideological deprogramming of the Palestinian population.
Mentioned in this podcast are Journo’s book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Agustina Vergara Cid’s essay “Ayn Rand’s Radical View of the United Nations,” and Bayer’s “We Ignore the Unconditional Right to Self-Defense at Our Peril.”
The podcast was recorded on March 26, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/UPHqvTkKFcA
Podcast audio:
In this special episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss the recent announcement of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Apple and analyze the injustice of criminalizing a company for giving customers an experience they want.
Among the topics covered:
Why the DOJ’s antitrust case against Apple is significant to all American business;
How Apple is targeted because of its business success, not its failures;
How antitrust is destructive by design and how it stifled Microsoft;
Ayn Rand’s analysis of antitrust as the “rule of unreason”;
Why you should call your legislator if you support businesses like Apple.
Mentioned in this podcast are Onkar Ghate’s essay “Drop the Antitrust Case Against Microsoft” and the New Ideal Live episode “Recent Antitrust Attacks on "Big Tech,” Ayn Rand’s lecture “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business” (also available in essay form in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal) and her essay “Antitrust: The Rule of Unreason,” which can be found in The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought.
The podcast was recorded on March 22, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/07j7MQNdJhQ
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss the state of the immigration debate between Democrats and Republicans. They show how both parties appeal to fear and collectivism in their opposition to immigration, and explain why a proper solution to the border crisis requires policies that favor free economic migration.
Among the topics covered:
How both Democrats and Republicans are hostile to immigration;
How the rights of American citizens are infringed by the immigration system;
How Americans, individually, welcome immigrants despite political fearmongering;
Biden's unserious focus on tougher security over free economic migration;
Why a concern with individual criminals entering the country is not an argument for restricting legal immigration;
The calculated dishonesty of Senator Katie Britt's response to Biden’s State of the Union Address;
Why Americans should work hard to protect their own thinking from tribalism.
The podcast was recorded on March 21, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTvoxqlq9x4
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Nikos Sotirakopoulos examine President Biden’s State of the Union address and what it reveals about the goals of today’s political leadership. They discuss the anti-mind premise driving both political tribes and how it leads to statist policies that destroy wealth and create economic hardship.
Among the topics covered:
Understanding the values of the current political leadership;
Biden’s antipathy to the mind’s role in economic value creation;
How contempt for the mind restricts and destroys the pharmaceutical industry;
“Shrinkflation” as a distraction from the damage caused by anti-profit state policies;
Statist policy effects on supply and demand as the cause of rising prices;
How to think about “junk” fees and what underlies attacks on them;
The true objective of Biden’s “Strike Force” as rule by fear and force;
The anti-producer and anti-consumer motivations of Biden’s “Strike Force”;
Why Republicans’ only response is to change the subject to the border crisis.
Mentioned in this podcast are the interview “Understanding the Roots of the New Inflation: With Rob Tarr,” Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer’s New Ideal Live episode “The Pure Hatred of the New Antitrust,” and Ayn Rand’s lecture “Egalitarianism and Inflation.”
The podcast was recorded on March 13, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://youtu.be/oV-deDzZNH8?si=MbfQzzp1Qa6D4tLC
Podcast audio:
In this special episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer responds to a PragerU video which argues that moral wisdom requires a “fear of God.” Bayer argues that a fear of God undercuts moral wisdom and is driven by a fear of the intellectual independence that moral wisdom requires.
Among the topics covered:
The proposal that a fear of God provides the basis for an objective morality;
How the fear of God makes objective moral guidance impossible;
Why being motivated by fear undercuts our love of moral wisdom and virtue;
How faith is driven by a fear of the independence that moral wisdom requires.
Mentioned in this podcast is Onkar Ghate’s article “Finding Morality and Happiness Without God.”
The podcast was recorded on March 5, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here
Image credit: Michael MLPG/Shutterstock.com. -
https://youtu.be/s4xpmys7ejo
Podcast audio:
In this special episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo comments on Zack Snyder’s recent conversation with Joe Rogan about his admiration for Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and why his film adaptation was rejected by Netflix. Journo discusses why so many creators like Snyder find Rand’s novels so compelling yet she is still considered “taboo,” the philosophical motives behind the hostility towards Rand, and the immense value readers can get from her heroes.
Among the topics covered:
Snyder's account of how the entertainment industry sees Rand as taboo;
Why The Fountainhead resonates so much with active-minded audiences;
What Snyder gets wrong about The Fountainhead’s origin story;
Why intellectuals regard Rand as taboo;
How Rand's heroes challenge our culture's deepest philosophical assumptions;
The value readers can gain from Rand’s works.
Recommended in this podcast are the previous New Ideal Live episodes “The Dramatic Story Behind The Fountainhead Movie” and “What Jonah Goldberg’s Rejection of Ayn Rand Reveals,” and Journo’s articles “When Tribal Journalists Try to ‘Cancel’ Ayn Rand,” and “Ayn Rand’s Devastating Critique of ‘Liberals.’”
The podcast was recorded on March 8, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=SYvTdaE9zfIPodcast audio:In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Ziemowit Gowin discuss how the Biden administration’s altruistic foreign policy undermines Israel’s war of self-defense against Hamas.Among the topics covered:How America’s inconsistent support of Israel subverts its war of self-defense;How the morality of altruism leads people to unjustly blame Israel for the fallout of Hamas’ attack;Why the altruistic decision to airdrop aid into Gaza amounts to enabling the enemy;Why calls for an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire are delusional and immoral;Why attempts at a “two-state solution” are among the causes of the current conflict;Why the conflict will continue if Israel does not decisively defeat Hamas.Mentioned in this podcast are three books: Winning the Unwinnable War (edited by Journo), Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism (edited by Journo and Onkar Ghate), and What Justice Demands (written by Journo). For more of ARI’s resources on America’s middle eastern foreign policy, go to https://bit.ly/arimideastresources.The podcast was recorded on March 6, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTntTkvIr3g
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss the philosophical and legal implications of the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) should be considered children.
Among the topics covered:
The facts and reasoning behind the Alabama Supreme Court case;
How the court’s decision is a logical result of anti-abortion reasoning;
Why conception or human DNA is insufficient for individual rights;
Why it would be inconsistent to make a legal exception for embryos;
Whether this case is a violation of the separation of Church and State;
The negative consequences of this case on reproductive rights.
Mentioned in the episode are the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on abortion, Ben Bayer’s book Why the Right to Abortion is Sacrosanct, and Ben Bayer’s essay “Science Without Philosophy Can’t Resolve Abortion Debate.”
This episode was broadcast live on February 28, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJvI1XA7Bt8
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Mike Mazza and Ziemowit Gowin discuss Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Vladimir Putin, and Carlson’s attempt to undercut America by whitewashing life in Russia.
Among the topics covered:
Mainstream media’s reaction to Carlson’s interview;
How interviewing dictators gives them an undeserved sense of moral legitimacy;
How the interview only repeated Putin’s stale propaganda;
Why it’s absurd to think that the only way to be informed about events in Russia and Ukraine is to interview a dictator;
That Carlson’s motive is to discredit America by whitewashing life in Russia;
Carlson’s shocking equivocation of governments that murder journalists and political opponents with free nations using deadly force in self-defence;
The conservative rejection of abstract principles;
The descent of the new generation of conservative influencers into religion and authoritarianism.
Mentioned in the episode are “One Small Step Toward Dictatorship” by Onkar Ghate and “Putin’s War Embodies National Conservatism’s Ideology” by Ben Bayer and Elan Journo.
This episode was broadcast live on February 22, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the problem of tribalism in our political culture. Exploring issues such as the Israel-Hamas war and the debates over immigration and abortion, they show how both the left and right are guilty of an anti-conceptual mentality that has degraded our political discourse.
Among the topics covered:
How tribalism has made today's political atmosphere toxic;
The left's tribal support for Palestine;
How the tribal mentality is motivated by opposition to a common enemy, not shared principles;
The right's tribal fearmongering on immigration;
How tribalism has infiltrated the issue of abortion on both sides;
How attacks on reason fuel today's groupthink;
What ARI does to take a principled philosophical stance on political issues.
Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “Global Balkanization” and “The Missing Link,” Bayer’s talk “Tribalism in Today’s Political Culture,” and Sotirakopoulos’ book Identity Politics and Tribalism: The New Culture Wars.
The podcast was recorded on February 14, 2024. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
https://youtu.be/WK6FBGNk4Ck
Podcast audio: -
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss the cultural significance of two seemingly unrelated events: the bipartisan congressional hearings on online child safety and the conservative backlash to Taylor Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce. They argue that the attacks on Mark Zuckerberg and on Swift's successful businesses reveal a tribal mentality that hates the good for being the good.
Among the topics covered:
The true purpose of the online child safety hearing;
The Senate Committee’s shameful intimidation of Zuckerberg;
How Section 230 is used to hold tech companies liable for users' criminal behavior;
Why the senators' threats to control businesses are anti-law and anti-American;
How Republicans use anti-intellectual tactics to pass authoritarian controls;
How the hatred against Taylor Swift is driven by the same anti-success mentality;
The tribal misogyny aimed at Swift;
Why conspiracy fantasies seek political pandering, not the truth;
How Ayn Rand’s “Age of Envy” can help combat today’s tribal trends.
Mentioned in this podcast are Rand’s essays “The Age of Envy” (found in The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution) and “Selfishness Without a Self.”
The podcast was recorded on February 7, 2024. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
https://youtu.be/5xrACXUAv3g
Podcast audio: -
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer interviews Harry Binswanger about Ayn Rand’s philosophical approach to life and the invaluable lessons we can learn from the way she lived.
Among the topics covered:
How Rand integrated philosophy into her life;
How Rand used philosophy to understand herself and others;
What it was like to work with Rand on philosophical projects;
How philosophy empowered Rand to continue learning throughout her life;
What surprising conclusions Rand came to through her philosophy;
How Rand helped Binswanger develop as a philosopher.
Mentioned in this episode are "100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand" by Scott McConnell and "Ayn Rand's Philosophic Achievement (Part 1)" by Harry Binswanger.
This episode was recorded on February 2, 2024. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWiQXkI0Nwc
Podcast audio: -
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Mike Mazza and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss and debunk as baseless three commonly heard myths about Ayn Rand: that she demonized the poor, that she uncritically praised the rich, and that she died penniless and hypocritically accepted Social Security at the end of her life.
Among the topics covered:
Why the claim that Rand hated the poor has no plausibility;
Rand’s focus on ambition and productive ability;
Why Rand didn’t praise being rich as such;
Rand’s praise for true wealth creation, including the creation of knowledge;
Why the claim that Ayn Rand died penniless defies all evidence;
Whether it was hypocritical for Rand to accept Social Security payments;
Why accepting government benefits can count as restitution;
Why the false charge of hypocrisy reveals an underlying rejection of idealism.
Mentioned in this episode and relevant to the discussion is Onkar Ghate’s article “What Gave Ayn Rand the Moral Right to Collect Social Security?”
The podcast was recorded on January 24, 2024. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
https://www.youtube.com/live/l_YB67QbOkk?si=FcS4XEx1P15UbJWJ
Podcast audio: -
In this special episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo interviews Coleman Hughes on his new book The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America. They discuss Hughes’ case for colorblindness, his critique of the “anti-racist” movement, and his views about why we need to abandon race as a meaningful category. Hughes also comments on Ayn Rand's individualist analysis of racism.
Among the topics covered:
How the ideal of colorblindness disappeared from American intellectual life;
How the concept of colorblindness has been misunderstood;
How the “anti-racist” movement perverted the concept of "racism";
The meaning of the attempts to suppress Hughes’ TED talk;
Hughes’ evaluation of Ayn Rand’s individualist critique of racism;
How to think about racism today;
Pinning down the vague notion of “systemic racism”;
How universities push a perverted conception of diversity;
How the “anti-racist” movement craves power, not justice;
Why race says nothing about a person's identity.
Mentioned in this podcast is Ayn Rand’s essay “Racism.”
The podcast was recorded on January 23, 2024. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
https://youtu.be/_d0Xp0NhxC8
Podcast audio: - Show more
