The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

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.

https://youtu.be/UaRhK2N8m6Y Podcast audio: A continuation of Dr. Harry Binswanger’s Saving Math from Plato (OCON 2023): how the Aristotelian, perception-based approach to mathematics refutes or re-interprets wrong ideas advanced by figures such as Russell and Cantor. Topics include number, infinity, limits, and the axiomatic concepts of mathematics. (The lecture assumes no knowledge of mathematics beyond beginning algebra.) Recorded live on June 16 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/qctS25KQzrs Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Sam Weaver and Ben Bayer discuss the Trump administration's decision to cut federal funding to Columbia University in response to its handling of pro-Hamas protests. They argue that government involvement in universities makes such coercion possible and threatens intellectual freedom. Among the topics covered: How to think about the pro-Hamas protests at Columbia; The nature of Trump’s actions against Columbia; How federal funding threatens intellectual freedom; How Trump’s actions violate intellectual freedom; Why Trump’s measures are uniquely destructive; How the concept of  “academic freedom” confuses the issue; How to remove force from educational institutions. Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “The Establishing of an Establishment” and “Fairness Doctrine for Education,” the article “More University Donors Should Go Galt,” and the podcast episode “DeSantis’s Push to Ideologically Transform Florida Colleges.” This podcast was recorded on April 8, 2025 and posted on April 16, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/VaNHaT-xlOU Podcast audio: The new ARI Bookshelf podcast series gives you a window into ARI’s educational programs by showcasing our faculty as they discuss books of recent interest. This episode discusses Ta-Nehisi Coates's book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Message. Panelists included Elan Journo, Greg Salmieri, Ibis Slade, and Mohamed Ali.

https://youtu.be/RKtLU6ntECU Podcast audio: “Socratic Wisdom” — knowing our own ignorance — is the ability to differentiate what we do not know from what we do. This is a key component of objectivity, vital for properly weighing and implementing the knowledge we possess and directing ongoing investigation and inquiry. In this talk, Jason Rheins discusses the nature and importance of this introspective clarity and how it is achieved. He covers practical methods and specific tips for identifying our ignorance and differentiating it from our knowledge. Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/vFaDm6eo-mk Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer examine the Trump administration’s recent tariff policy and the legal, economic, and political disruptions they create. Among the topics covered: Why tariffs are not a proper foreign policy instrument to deter the threat from China; Why all justifications for tariffs are arbitrary and collectivistic in nature; How the obsession with trade deficits reveals outright ignorance of economic principles; How legal ambiguity has enabled the executive to wield authoritarian power; How Trump’s whim-driven rule is pushing the country toward authoritarianism; The economic chaos caused by the tariffs; What hopes exist for reversing the policy. Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s articles “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business” and “The Moratorium on Brains.” The podcast was recorded on April 9, 2025 and posted on April 10, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/-c6W8JuZsVo Podcast audio: Oppression and authoritarianism have been constant themes in regimes that ruled in the name of Marxism. From the Soviet Union to Cuba and from Yugoslavia to China, individual rights were ignored and violently suppressed. Is such anti-individualism a feature or a bug in Marxism? What about Marx himself? How did he view the individual? Was he the one who planted the seed for the future orgy of anti-individualist violence that has been perpetrated in his name? Nikos Sotirakopoulos tackles these questions in this talk from OCON 2024. Recorded live on June 15 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/093vQKWPwvs Podcast audio: Objectivity is the key to avoiding misunderstandings and making one-to-one conversations productive. There are two contexts of knowledge, two value hierarchies, and two “crows” to consider to communicate effectively. In this talk from OCON 2024, Jean Moroney covers the topics: what constitutes subjective vs. objective goals for a conversation, the need to manage emotions as they arise rather than shut them down, and how doing this effectively by “holding all of the values with care” can get a conversation back on track and help you deal objectively with another person’s real or apparent irrationality. Recorded live on June 14 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/a3bgumyKdAA Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Nikos Sotirakopoulos dismantle the claim that “real socialism” has never been attempted. Among the topics covered: Why many young Americans support socialism; How Soviet leaders were driven by Marxist ideology; Why Joseph Stalin epitomized Marxist principles; Why dictatorship is the logical outcome of socialist central planning; How the definition of socialism has been watered down to evade its historical crimes; The persistent rationalizations used to defend socialism. Recommended in this podcast are The Ayn Rand Lexicon’s entry on socialism, Bayer’s essay “The Dishonesty of ‘Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried,’” and Sotirakopoulos’ upcoming ARU course “Marx and Communism.” The podcast was recorded on April 1, 2025 and posted on April 2, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/8wKAKmydUlg Podcast audio: Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s dramatic poem Faust is a monumental work of Romantic literature that presents one man’s ceaseless striving to transcend the limitations of human knowledge and experience. By exploring some of the most profound and moving passages from the poem, this talk by Nicolas Krusek provides a glimpse of Goethe’s grand-scale themes and characterizations, and demonstrate the rich rewards to be gained by joining his hero—the “good man” with the “darkling aspiration”—on his quest to discover the “highest wisdom” of life. Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.