At the 90th Percentile of Ayn Rand Appreciation

Alex Epstein (X, Substack) is a philosopher, energy expert, and the author of two New York Times bestselling books: Fossil Future and The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.

Alex and I met a few years ago through our mutual friend Bryan Caplan. A couple of months ago we were talking and he asked me how much Ayn Rand I had read. I mentioned that I’d gone through Atlas Shrugged when I was in my teens or early twenties, and by chance had picked up The Romantic Manifesto not that long before we spoke. One thing led to another, and the last few months I’ve been going through all of her published books. I’ve also read the Anne Heller biography, which the Ayn Rand Institute hates but Bryan and I both found captivating.

Alex lives in Los Angeles, so we decided to meet for a podcast to discuss her ideas and work. In this conversation, I fear that I come across as not that big of a Rand fan, though that is only in comparison to Alex. As I say during the discussion, I’m probably at the 90th percentile of Ayn Rand appreciators and he’s at the 99th percentile.

To me, her greatest contributions were providing a moral foundation for capitalism and a framework for self-help. I believe if you adopt Ayn Rand’s philosophy, you will both be happier and have generally correct political and moral views.

We get into the question of whether Rand is anti-natalist, or even anti-family. I think kids are conspicuous by their absence in her works, and family relations are usually portrayed negatively. Alex provides a different perspective. We also go into Rand’s personal life, what if anything it tells us about her philosophy, and which novels we like more or less. I’m personally partial to We the Living, while Alex likes The Fountainhead the best.

There are a few spoilers here regarding Atlas Shrugged, but none for her other fiction books.

I’ll be writing more about Rand and her ideas in the coming weeks.

For those who want to start reading her work, or perhaps reconnect with it, the Ayn Rand Institute allows students to get one of her books for free.

Most if not all of her published essays can be found online. Below are a handful that we mentioned throughout this conversation.

“Racism” (1963)

“What Is Capitalism?” (1965)

“Of Living Death,” (1968) on the Catholic Church’s views on contraception and sex (text, Rand speech)

“Philosophy: Who Needs It?” (1974) (text, audio of speech at West Point)

Update: Subsequent to this discussion, I published two articles on Ayn Rand’s life and work. See part one and part two.

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