The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

In this episode, Ben Bayer reads aloud his article, “Effective Altruism's Faith-Based Sacrifice for the Future.” In that essay, he examines "longtermist" philosophy and its relation to "effective altruism." Bayer notices that "the more we learn about the causes the effective altruist leadership has embraced, the more we should question the moral foundation of the movement." The moral foundation of the movement, and the real source of its absurdities, is altruism. Bayer's article was originally published in New Ideal, the Ayn Rand Institute’s journal, on March 22, 2023.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the libertarian support for Putin and other authoritarian regimes. They explore the libertarian movement's decades-long sympathy for evil regimes, its anti-state, anti-American foreign policy, and how the movement's rejection of morality has led to sanctioning tyrants. Among the topics covered: Recent libertarian defenses of authoritarian regimes; How these libertarians are primarily anti-state, not pro-liberty; Murray Rothbard as the spokesman of the libertarian movement's anti-state, anti-American foreign policy; Rothbard's positive view of dictatorships as flowing from his rejection of morality; Altruism — not imperialism — as the cause of the US engaging in self-sacrificial wars; How the "big tent" approach to liberty explains the prevalence of the worst ideas within libertarianism; How Objectivism can appeal to the best people within libertarianism. Recommended in this podcast is Peter Schwartz’s essay “Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty” in Ayn Rand’s The Voice of Reason. The podcast was recorded on April 28, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. https://youtu.be/vAp-aQCxg1E Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Elan Journo discuss Ayn Rand’s philosophic analysis and critique of “liberals.” They explain what makes Rand’s evaluation of “liberalism” different from that of “conservatives,” why she thought “liberals” began concealing their collectivist goals, and how today’s “liberals” are different from (and worse than) those of Rand’s time. Among the topics covered: Ayn Rand’s analysis of “liberalism” as distinctive; Problems with the term “liberal” and how “liberalism” changed in the twentieth century; Rand’s critique as stemming from individualism, not anti-communism; Why Rand saw active-minded “liberals” as an audience worth reaching; How Rand saw the contrast between Objectivism, "liberalism," and "conservatism"; Why Rand viewed President Kennedy as steering the country toward fascism; Ways Kennedy's policies fostered government control and the erosion of freedom; Why Rand thought “liberals” kept their ideological motives hidden; How the New Left openly embraced the collectivism the Old Left whitewashed; Whether “liberals” today are different from those of Rand’s time; Why concern for truth should be what motivates political thought and action. Recommended in this podcast are Journo’s “Ayn Rand’s Devastating Critique of ‘Liberals’” and Rand’s “The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Our Age,” “The New Fascism: Rule by Consensus,” “The Wreckage of Consensus,” “Conservatism: An Obituary,” and “The Left: Old and New.” The podcast was recorded on April 19, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. https://youtu.be/uQuprxoqZ64 Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Agustina Vergara Cid and Nikos Sotirakopoulos challenge Robert Reich’s unjust crusade against billionaires. Agustina and Nikos unpack the pernicious motivations behind the attacks against successful billionaire producers and give an impassioned moral defense of their right to the wealth they have created. Among the topics covered: How widespread the attacks on the rich are in Western society; How the ‘wage-theft’ argument is based on a false, Marxist view of wealth; How attacks on billionaires conflate economic with political power; How wealth is a creation of the individual, not of exploitation or ‘society’; The anti-profit mentality is driven by hatred of successful producers; Why morally defending billionaires and their wealth is an act of justice. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion is Ayn Rand’s lecture “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business,” available on ARI Campus and as an essay in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, and Agustina Vergara Cid’s op-ed in the Orange Country Register “Why I admire the GOATs of the business world.” The podcast was recorded on April 14, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ_WIeM8NZs Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer, Ziemowit Gowin, Harry Binswanger, Shoshana Milgram, and Don Watkins discuss new course offerings at the Ayn Rand University (ARU). Among the topics covered: The goals of the Ayn Rand University and how students can benefit from it; Shoshana Milgram’s course Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment: Investigating the Mind of a Murderer; How ARU courses facilitate in-depth study of Objectivism through feedback and interaction; Harry Binswanger’s new courses on Objectivist Logic and Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology; The best ARU courses for those new to Objectivism; How ARU helps to train new intellectuals; How ARU coaches help students to personalize the program and apply it to their lives; New courses on Philosophy, Work, and Business and Persuasion Mastery; Wrap up: ARU logistics, testimonials, and application information. Mentioned in the discussion are the website for applying to ARU and new reading groups focused on Ayn Rand’s non-fiction, and Ayn Rand’s essay “For The New Intellectual.” This episode was recorded on April 5, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch previous episodes here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PayhoZ6SSk Podcast audio:

In this episode, we read aloud “Why Nationalism Is Hostile to America,” an article written by Yaron Brook and Elan Journo. In that essay, they examine the true nature and consequences of the rise of nationalism in America, especially the so-called national conservatism. Brook and Journo argue that the principles and ideas of the advocates of national conservatism are ultimately anti-American, as they reject the founding principles of America: the individual rights. The article was originally published in New Ideal in two parts: on February 1 and February 8, 2023.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss the heckling and public shaming of Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan by Stanford Law School (SLS) students and the school’s associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at a Federalist Society (FedSoc) event. Ghate and Journo delve into the viral video of the event, Stanford’s letter apologizing to the judge, and the philosophic implications of both. Among the topics covered: How the “heckling incident” at SLS provides a window on DEI ideology on campuses; How the Stanford associate dean’s remarks at the event represent the way DEI ideology functions as a religious orthodoxy; How DEI ideology treats subjective feelings of harm as though they were objective rights violations; Why DEI ideology is incompatible with the requirements of university education; How Stanford’s apology letter defends free speech and apologizes to the judge; How the apology letter shows that DEI orthodoxy is incompatible with viewpoint diversity; SLS’s plan to hold sessions presenting the current laws on free speech while welcoming dissenting perspectives on those laws; How to evaluate the judge’s conduct within the context of this controversy. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion are the video of the incident and the subsequent letter from the dean of the SLS. The podcast was recorded on March 31, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. https://youtu.be/OJzFS3RmM80 Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Mike Mazza respond to several common and plausible philosophic objections to Objectivism that were sent in by viewers. Among the topics covered: Why it is valuable to explore objections to any philosophy, especially one’s own; Why Objectivism does not fall foul of a supposed is/ought gap in its argument for self-interest;What Ayn Rand says we can learn about the foundations of morality by comparing human beings to other organisms; How to deal with scientific claims that seem to conflict with philosophic ideas; Why modern brain science cannot disprove the existence of free will;The merits and shortcomings of raising questions about the compatibility of free will with modern brain science;Why Objectivism takes free will to be a self-evident primary that cannot be disproven by science; Why accepting the importance of science and rationality entails implicitly assuming free will; Why the choice to live, which sits at the foundation of the Objectivist ethics, is not a groundless choice and does not make the Objectivist ethics arbitrary or subjective;How objections to the choice to live arise; Why the choice to live is grounded in reality and thus not arbitrary; Why the method of raising counterexamples, commonly used in analytic philosophy, often neglects the need to keep firmly in mind the facts one is trying to conceptualize;The sort of counterexamples to Rand’s ethical argument raised by Michael Huemer; Why counterexamples of this kind often fail to grapple with the real meaning of the generalizations they’re meant to refute. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion are the New Ideal Live episode “Objectivism Q&A—July 2022,” “Life-Based Teleology and the Foundations of Ethics” by Harry Binswanger, “Why Champions of Science and Reason Need Free Will” by Ben Bayer, “Seize the Reins of Your Mind: The Objectivist Theory of Free Will” by Onkar Ghate, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff, and “Reasoning About Ends” by Darryl Wright. To learn more about our Ayn Rand Non-Fiction Reading Groups, click here. To learn more about Ayn Rand University, click here. This episode was recorded on March 23, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl_qFquVyvU&t=2402s Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss the immigration debate from a philosophical perspective. They address questions such as whether foreigners have a right to immigrate to America, whether immigration or its curtailment violates the rights of American citizens, and what role government has in relation to immigration. Among the topics covered: Whether immigrants have a right to move to America; The argument that immigration violates American citizens’ rights; What is motivating the objection that immigrants allegedly take jobs from Americans or lower their standard of living; What is the proper role of government in relation to immigration policy; Whether failure to enforce immigration laws undermines the rule of law; Illegal immigration as a response to unjust laws; Why immigrants seeking a better life shouldn’t be smeared as “illegals”; Why the objection that immigration is destroying American culture is invalid; Ideological screening as a major threat to intellectual freedom; Ayn Rand’s views on immigration as flowing from her view of self-interest; What immigration would look like in a free society. Recommended in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s writings on individual rights, her statements on immigration (found in Robert Mayhew’s Ayn Rand Answers), ARI’s statement on “The Immigration Debate,” and Harry Binswanger’s “The Case for Open Borders.” The podcast was recorded on March 17, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. https://youtu.be/FRaiBJWYt-Y Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss two landmark cases before the Supreme Court of the United States on the legality of using race in college admissions. They explain how collectivist thinking and state involvement in higher education have created policies that are fundamentally at odds with America’s history of individualism. Among the topics covered: How the court cases reveal a pernicious reliance on race in college admissions; Ayn Rand’s opposition to quotas and affirmative action; How previous rulings left the value of “diversity” unchallenged; Why the role of diversity in education doesn’t justify race-based admissions; The baseless claim of diversity as a “compelling state interest”; Justice Sotomayor’s shocking claim that there is de jure racial segregation; The crucial difference between private and government-mandated racial standards; The arbitrariness of legal racial categories; Why rhetoric about racial “representation” still amounts to racial quotas; Why current admissions policies are racist, not a remedy to racism. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion are Ayn Rand’s essay “Moral Inflation” in The Ayn Rand Letter (March–April 1974), her essay “Racism,”  her Q&A on affirmative action at the 1978 Ford Hall Forum, reprinted in Ayn Rand Answers (p. 105), and her essay “Representation without Authorization,” reprinted in The Voice of Reason. The podcast was recorded on March 10, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Auzpbgb0A Podcast audio: