The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY3NY7gFYtw Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Tristan de Liège examine Douglas Murray’s recent critique of Joe Rogan and other influencers who share their platforms with unreliable pseudo-experts. They explain why Murray fails to clarify the standards for distinguishing expert from non-expert testimony. Among the topics covered: Why Douglas Murray’s challenge to Joe Rogan’s platforming of non-experts is only partly right; The proper role of expertise; How to properly think about expert consensus as a non-expert; How Murray is unclear about the standards we need for assessing expertise; Why philosophical expertise, not simply on-the-ground experience, is crucial in evaluating the ethics of an ongoing war; Why many people distrust experts. Recommended in this episode are Gregory Salmieri’s lecture “How to Be an Objective Consumer of Science,” Ben Bayer’s talk “Being Objective About the News.” The podcast was recorded on May 27, 2025 and posted May 30, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/iVJOTxv-tWk Podcast audio: American schools have long performed dismally at providing the education children need to read well. A movement in favor of systematic phonics instruction offers hope for improvement, but while phonics is essential to teaching children to read, they need further education to become highly capable readers. This talk by Sam Weaver defines a properly aspirational goal for reading education, explores the types of knowledge and skills that go into reading, and identifies key areas beyond phonics where American schools must improve if students are to achieve a high level of literacy. Recorded live on June 17 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/o615h8druDE Podcast audio: The creation of the atom bomb during WWII was an extraordinary achievement, dramatized in part in the movie Oppenheimer. What were the three greatest challenges in making the bomb and how does the success in overcoming those very difficult obstacles illustrate the application of objectivity? Which great scientists’ work were most essential to the success of the project? As Ayn Rand said of Apollo 11, the Manhattan Project was “an achievement of reason, of logic, of mathematics, of total dedication to the absolutism of reality.” Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/VUYooprteeU Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Agustina Vergara Cid analyze how the Trump administration’s immigration policy has escalated attacks on due process, legal immigration, and the broader American system of government. (Since the recording of this podcast, Rümeysa Öztürk has been granted bail by a federal judge and released after more than six weeks in detention.) Among the topics covered: How the Trump administration has ramped up mass deportations as a show of power; The chilling, unconstitutional actions targeting legal immigration; How Trump’s actions build on a long history of corrupt immigration laws and enforcement; How the attack on due process aims at scaring immigrants into self-deporting; How the unchecked abuse of executive powers threatens the American system of government. Recommended in this podcast is the previous podcast episode on “What Would Mass Deportations Mean for Freedom in America?” The podcast was recorded on May 7, 2025 and posted on May 14, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/RclwB5luKek Podcast audio: Ayn Rand denounced racism as “the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.” She also rejected as collectivist many of the measures being advocated to combat this evil, including what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On the sixtieth anniversary of that law, Dr. Greg Salmieri revisited the themes of Rand’s classic article “Racism,” relating them to present-day America. Topics include the definitions of “race” and “racism,” how the rejection of free will incline intellectuals toward racism, how superficially opposed racist doctrines on the political left and right embolden one another, in what respects racism can be “institutional” or “systemic,” how statist policies (including provisions of the Civil Rights Act) perpetuate existing racial inequities, and why it is only by embracing capitalism that we can put racism and its legacies behind us. Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/2yQWRvrbVUI Podcast audio: Foreign policy is both a political activity and a field of applied ethics. However, the metaphysical and epistemological premises held by theorists and practitioners shape their view of ethics. The lack of an objective view of the world has led to theories and policies that do not support, and are often harmful to, the role of a proper government. However, as Scott McDonald explains, an objective understanding of the global system can lead to a first-handed foreign policy. Recorded live on June 14 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/LVNSnbdEo0o Podcast audio: In this episode of The ARI Bookshelf, Onkar Ghate, Tristan de Liège, and Robertas Bakula discuss Abundance, the recent best-selling book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson that has gained traction in liberal circles. Klein and Thompson acknowledge the failings of past liberal policies and present what they call the “abundance agenda” as an alternative. The agenda emphasizes streamlined regulations alongside robust government involvement in production — an approach the authors claim will usher in a new political order. The discussion covered: The book’s central arguments; How the “abundance agenda” is unphilosophical and collectivistic; How the book’s position on environmentalism reveals its deeper philosophical problems; How the book fails to distinguish between coercion and voluntary cooperation; How the authors fail to check their premises about government; Why the book’s admiration for China is troubling. The video premiered on May 1, 2025.

https://youtu.be/0R_RjyOJeI4 Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer, Robertas Bakula, and Tristan de Liège explore how the mixed economy enables the unjust exploitation of society’s most productive individuals. Among the topics covered: Why, contrary to Marxist claims, businesspeople are the most exploited group in a mixed economy; How antitrust laws enable the government and less successful companies to exploit successful companies; How tariffs drive the material and spiritual exploitation of producers; How farm subsidies reward stagnation at the taxpayers' expense; How Atlas Shrugged dramatizes the exploitation of producers. Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s books Atlas Shrugged and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, and the recent podcast episode on “The Marxists’ Exploitation Myth.” The podcast was recorded on May 5, 2025 and posted on May 7, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/7Wjrmh8CjAk Podcast audio: As a historian and philosopher of biology, much of Dr. James Lennox’s research has focused on the philosophical foundations of history’s two greatest biologists: Aristotle and Charles Darwin. Historians and philosophers often portray these two giants as diametrically opposed in their approach to the study of life. But were they? In this talk, he provides a novel answer to that question — and guidance on how to engage with such questions objectively. Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/sNtIs4UmXns Podcast audio: The most pernicious ideas are often injected into the culture by the method of “package-dealing” — the attempt to integrate the unintegratable. Expanding on previous material he has presented on this subject, Mr. Peter Schwartz offers a more advanced analysis of the mechanics of the package-deal. He addresses such questions as: Can the same word stand for both a valid concept and a package-deal? What is the role of a definition in the formation of package-deals? What is the difference between anti-concepts and package-deals? This talk focuses particularly on the telltale signs one should look for in trying to identify a package-deal. Recorded live on June 15 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.