The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

Podcast audio: This talk by Robertas Bakula was recorded live on July 2nd in Boston, MA as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference and is available on the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMJR3ja3s5s Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Tristan de Liège and Gregory Salmieri discuss friendship as a moral and philosophical value and explore the relationship between friendship, egoism, and altruism. Topics include: Friendship in Rand’s fiction; Visibility in friendship; Egoism and Friendship;    Valuing Friendship; Altruism...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuyhO8xssYY Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Tristan de Liège, Mike Mazza, Gregory Salmieri and Ben Bayer discuss Kevin Mitchell’s book, Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will. Topics include: The locus of free will; Moral responsibility; The relevance of quantum mechanics; Determinism; Aristotle; Randomness and indeterminacy;...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-L271Y9HPA Podcast audio: In this Ayn Rand Institute Podcast episode, Mike Mazza and Samantha Watkins analyze objections to new embryo screening technology. Orchid’s new technology Moral status of embryos Genetic tradeoffs The “Eugenics” smear Views toward the disabled Losing our humanity Resources: Ayn Rand’s essay, “The Anti-Industrial Revolution” in The Return o...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zg_ANzngT0 Podcast audio: The American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was met with intense public debate about the proper course of U.S. foreign policy. The Objectivist philosophy offers a distinctive framework for thinking about such issues. In his 2025 OCON talk, “Principles of a Proper Foreign Policy,” Peter Schwartz, an Objectivist intellectual and former...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi8sRxe21qo Podcast audio: In this Ayn Rand Institute Podcast episode, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss the recent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Overall evaluation of the deal; Evading Hamas’s evil goals; The injustice of the deal; Altruism enables the injustice; Enemies of freedom must be defeated. This podcast was recorded on October 15, 2025...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZCJXTdch2E Podcast audio: In this episode of ARI Bookshelf, Sam Weaver, Ben Bayer, Nikos Sotirakopoulos and Ibis Slade critically examine America’s Cultural Revolution by Christopher Rufo and The Identity Trap by Yascha Mounk. Among the topics covered: Nature of “woke” ideology; “Domino” view of ideological influence; Influence of right-wing ideas; Rufo’s authorita...

This talk by Steven Warden was recorded live on July 3rd in Boston, MA as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference and is available on the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V6c-9O3UHk Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Tristan de Liège and Ben Bayer discuss the widespread claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Among the topics covered: Decoupling from the confusion of “international law” Validating the concept of “genocide”; The invalid collectivist elements of the concept; The absurd UN defin...

The Post-Liberal Right threatens to roll back American liberty.

The Enlightenment, not Christianity, is the key to the West.

The recognition of a Palestinian state betrays good and rewards evil.

Intimidating broadcasters with the “public interest” standard is a worse abridgement of free speech than censorship.

Business leaders need to stand up for themselves before it's too late.

Distinguishing speech from force is essential to eradicating violence in America.

Rising authoritarian currents in America make truth and reason more urgent than ever.

Forcing business to bow to non-objective laws violates America’s individualist ideals.

In a newly uncovered recording, Ayn Rand explains why Atlas Shrugged is not a prophecy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6vA9ensrzw Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Nikos Sotirakopoulos critique a recent Wall Street Journal article that tries to explain Zohran Mamdani’s rise and the persistence of socialism in American politics. Among the topics covered: Why socialism is not an innate impulse or the product of ignorance of history; Why i...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkOadbwUP5s Podcast audio: America is a country that prizes freedom and the rule of law. Yet every day, we hear news of ICE raids on construction sites, Venezuelans shipped to foreign prisons without hearings, and sports tattoos treated as proof of criminality. As Agustina Vergara Cid warns in “Immigration Enforcement and the Betrayal of Due Process,” Americans have...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wig7ja6GLlU Podcast audio In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Elan Journo, Nikos Sotirakopoulos, and Tristan De Liège explore how altruism clouds moral clarity about the Israel-Hamas war, undermining Israel’s righteous cause and whitewashing Hamas’ evil.  Among the topics covered: How the media coverage of the war has become egregiously deferential to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwT-unSQu_8 Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Samantha Watkins and Ben Bayer tackle the common criticism that Ayn Rand is "anti-family" and analyze its philosophical roots. They examine claims that Rand's novels omit discussions of having children and explore what her actual views on parenting reveal about living a rational, selfish l...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky3VGO4AI-g Podcast audio: In this episode of The ARI Bookshelf, Tristan de Liège, Ben Bayer, Don Watkins, and Robertas Bakula discuss What Went Wrong with Capitalism by Ruchir Sharma. The book examines the history of government bailouts, Federal Reserve policy, and the growing reach of the regulatory state. Contrary to popular belief, Sharma argues, government inte...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm7PICSLkhc Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Agustina Vergara Cid take a wide-ranging look at abortion bans since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, examining their destructive effects on the lives and freedoms of women and medical professionals. Among the topics covered: Ayn Rand’s distinctive defense of abortion rights;...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33MpmtvMKs0 Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Marek Michulka and Onkar Ghate examine the Trump administration's actions against CBS — including a billion-dollar lawsuit and FCC investigation — and argue that the FCC’s regulatory power is incompatible with free speech.  Among the topics covered: How Trump's actions against CBS are targ...