The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

https://youtu.be/y-WB-fhVJls Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Tristan de Liège discuss why the traditional conception of forgiveness is evil and indicate how to think of it from an Objectivist perspective. Among the topics covered: How forgiveness is conventionally understood; Why the idea of “forgive and forget” enables injustice; Why forgiving a m...

https://youtu.be/yOx0pcktQtI Podcast audio: What is at stake in the Russia/Ukraine and the Israel/Hamas conflicts? What are America’s interests in the chaotic Middle East? How do we evaluate China’s global ambitions and its claims on Taiwan? What’s the impact of foreign policy on the 2024 campaign trail? How does Objectivism help us unpack these and related issues? Panel discussion featuring Yaron...

https://youtu.be/9GjD66edA0g Join one of ARI's many online educational courses. Our new "Flex" option allows you to take these courses at your own pace, whenever you have the time, while also still retaining the benefit of having your questions answered and your assignments graded by a real instructor. Browse our catalog now: https://aru.aynrand.org/ In the age of social media everyone’s a self-pr...

https://youtu.be/a-SwX91pj2Q Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Elan Journo and Ben Bayer discuss the moral travesty of the Gaza deal and the intellectual bankruptcy it reveals in foreign policy thinking. Among the topics covered: Why the Gaza deal will not bring peace but ensure further aggression by Hamas; How the lopsided hostage release deal is a win for Hamas; H...

https://youtu.be/Oly3eYzZiTg Podcast audio: Accelerate your understanding of Objectivism today by joining one of our many online educational courses. Our new "Flex" option allows you to take these courses at your own pace, whenever you have the time, while also still retaining the benefit of having your questions answered and your assignments graded by a real instructor. Sign up now: https://aru.a...

https://youtu.be/wmo0zqU_dIQ Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Robertas Bakula discuss the latest developments of the Department of Justice’s vicious antitrust persecution of Google. Among the topics covered: How the antitrust attack on Google is driven by hatred of its productive virtues; How the DOJ's remedies for Google's alleged crime punish their...

https://youtu.be/hPO8IQvENTY Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Elan Journo interviews, Bud Brigham, a lifelong entrepreneur and the founder of multiple successful companies, most notably Atlas Energy Solutions. Mr. Brigham built his career on a vision of innovation and an uncompromising commitment to individualism, values deeply informed by Ayn Rand’s philosophy of...

https://youtu.be/fEOGBX9R05w Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Elan Journo discuss Trump’s blanket pardon of all the people involved in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Among the topics covered: How Trump’s blanket pardon lets outrageous evil off the hook; How Trump’s claims about the 2020 elections and the January 6 attack are arbitrary; How Trump...

https://youtu.be/87jSEwTQLgk Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer analyze Mark Zuckerberg's recent comments on Facebook’s policy changes and whether they truly represent a victory for free speech. Among the topics covered: How Facebook’s content moderation is not a violation of free speech; How the government’s intimidation of Facebook is a vi...

https://youtu.be/HYUiFLJ3_Yg Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Tristan de Liège and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss David Goggins’ idea that suffering is central to the pursuit of values. Among the topics covered: The popular idea that embracing suffering is essential to a successful life; David Goggins’ incredible life and character; Why life is not fundamentally abou...

https://youtu.be/duUDf-WuSVk Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss how to make one’s life purposeful, without falling for the sacrificial tropes popular in our culture. Among the topics covered: Why aiming at a challenging, effortful life should not be equated with suffering; How to evaluate Jordan Peterson’s notion that mean...

https://youtu.be/2sZU9hJLFWg Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo analyze the moral significance of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and its replacement by jihadists. Among the topics covered: Why authoritarian regimes, like Assad’s, are fundamentally weak and unstable; How the future of the Middle East is constrained by anti-freedom id...

https://youtu.be/jSUq16CPQwc Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the reaction to the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO and the hatred towards businessmen in America. Among the topics covered: Examples of the culture treating businessmen as a persecuted minority; How CEOs provide value in health care despite governme...

https://youtu.be/rqSHMPIurKM Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Brandon Lisi and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss the backstory of the newly-published “lost” Mike Wallace-Ayn Rand interview from 1960. Among the topics covered: Historical background of the “lost” interview; Rand’s role as a public intellectual during the 1960s; How Rand’s intellectual confidence shines through in the intervie...

https://youtu.be/UA8uWCfm81k Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Ben Bayer and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss Donald Trump’s promise to enact mass deportations of millions of illegal immigrants. Among the topics covered: How Trump’s plan to enact mass deportations would have massive costs; Why the Alien Enemies Act does not justify mass deportations; How the Alien Enemies Act would grant Tr...

https://youtu.be/ZNmERj5xVww Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian war in Western media. Among the topics covered: The corruption of the Western media’s reporting of the conflict; Why reporters can’t escape moral judgment; The anti-Israel bias of the media; How the conflict could be reported objectively; Ho...

https://youtu.be/vCiKkxLAFJY Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Sam Weaver and Tristan de Liège discuss Atlantic writer Derek Thompson’s idea that Americans are afflicted by a religious obsession with work that he calls “workism” and their view of the role of work in human life. Among the topics covered: Thompson’s view on work and why it's worth talking about; Why making work central to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4kQrSryOiQ Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Elan Journo, Ben Bayer, and Onkar Ghate discuss the 2024 U.S. election results. Among the topics covered: Why the Democrats and Kamala Harris didn’t deserve to win; How Harris should have dealt with the failures of the Biden administration; The American sense of life vs. the view of the elites; Why Trump didn’...

https://youtu.be/rPsgR0WCqxw Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Elan Journo and Ben Bayer discuss Ayn Rand’s radical view on abortion rights and the debates over abortion as an election issue. Among the topics covered: Why Ayn Rand defended abortion rights as a matter of individual freedom; How to understand abortion as an election issue after the Dobbs decision; How to evaluate recent D...

https://youtu.be/MLF5deQWbrc Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Aaron Smith interviews Elan Journo to discuss his critical evaluation of two popular but deeply flawed biographies of Ayn Rand: Jennifer Burns’ Goddess of the Market and Anne C. Heller’s Ayn Rand and the World She Made. Among the topics covered: The standards of objectivity that the biographies fail to meet; The authors’ dis...

https://youtu.be/wgKovwvgEs0 Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Mike Mazza and Sam Weaver discuss the enduring value of The Virtue of Selfishness, a collection of Ayn Rand’s essays on ethics, on its sixtieth anniversary. Among the topics covered: Why Ayn Rand wrote and collected the essays in The Virtue of Selfishness; How Ayn Rand’s essays address questions central to living a good life...

https://youtu.be/Lsm2sRbywwg Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss Western misconceptions around October 7 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among the topics covered: Why the war is really between Israel and Iran; How pragmatism effects the West’s inability to understand Iran; How Palestinian grievances help pragmatists evade Iran’s ideology; Why most...

https://youtu.be/IBopAUk3s4A Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal, Mike Mazza and Tristan de Liège discuss the private space industry and Ayn Rand's philosophical thoughts on the subject. Among the topics covered: How state monopolization forestalled the development of the private space industry; Why Rand saw the Apollo 11 mission as a philosophical, not a political achievement; How pull pe...

https://youtu.be/5Bpu-bAQXMs Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Robertas Bakula discuss the recent antitrust case against Google and what it reveals about the nature of antitrust law. Among the topics covered: Why Ayn Rand regarded antitrust law as immoral and un-American; What evidence the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google is based on; How antitrust law is non-objec...

https://youtu.be/pKCfFCED9XA Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Agustina Vergara Cid and Ben Bayer analyze the anti-American immigration platforms of both the Trump and Harris campaigns. Among the topics covered: The tribal and arbitrary nature of Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric; Why Republicans rely on fear-mongering to push their anti-immigration agenda; Harris’s shameful evasio...