The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

The international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been extraordinary. Rarely have so many nations united so quickly to impose such heavy economic and diplomatic sanctions on Russia. Even Switzerland, a byword for studied neutrality, saw fit to levy sanctions on Putin’s regime. Millions of Ukrainians who fled their homes have been welcomed as refugees in Europe. The sympathy for them, and for those who remain under Russian bombardment, has been widespread (with American schoolchildren mailing small toys, crayons, and stuffed animals to comfort Ukrainian kids displaced from their homes). From across the globe, military aid to Ukraine has poured in. Underlying this reaction is an unspoken, in many cases impressionistic, recognition that Russia is the aggressor. But one prominent intellectual, Professor John Mearsheimer, argues that we’ve got it all wrong. In this episode, we read aloud Elan Journo's article, “Why John Mearsheimer Gets Ukraine Wrong.” In that essay, he argues that Mearsheimer's "realist" take on Russian invasion on Ukraine is an object lesson in the destructiveness of amoralism. Journo’s article was originally published in New Ideal on September 14, 2022. Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss the midterm elections and offer a philosophical analysis of the state of American politics. Among the topics covered: The value of analyzing the midterms from a long-term, philosophical perspective;Why the results in Georgia are an encouraging sign about the mindset of independent voters;The absence of long-term policy visions on key issues such as pandemic preparedness, inflation, and foreign policy;How today’s intellectual vacuum represents a degeneration compared to 1980s, 1990s and 2000s;The fact that today’s politicians don’t feel the need to even attempt to formulate policies;How the increasingly short-term, concrete-bound and tribal nature of American politics affects citizens’ ability to regard government officials as their representatives;How American politics became so intellectually empty;How religionists and democratic socialists are related to the anti-intellectual trend;Why voters generally have better views than many of today’s candidates;The importance of supporting better candidates when they come along. Mentioned in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s lecture “The Age of Mediocrity,” Ben Bayer’s book Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct, and Onkar Ghate’s article “One Small Step for Dictatorship.” This episode was recorded on November 10, 2022. 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://youtu.be/9vb1UYM7LFo Podcast audio:

What makes China tick? What animates the ruling Communist Party? What does Xi Jinping’s third term as “paramount” leader portend? Elan Journo interviews Scott McDonald, a scholar of Chinese political thought.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the recent attacks conducted by the Just Stop Oil activists and offer a moral and political evaluation of both the group itself and people supporting them. Among the topics covered: How the media justification of the soup attack on a Vincent van Gogh painting encourages further attacks; How to morally assess the protests conducted by the Just Stop Oil activists, especially in light of their harmful consequences; Why we should worry that these protests might become more violent; Why the wealthy fund and sanction Climate Emergency Fund, thereby indirectly supporting Just Stop Oil; How violent environmental groups are the logical endpoint of the environmental movement; Why Just Stop Oil and other similar violent groups cannot view themselves as heirs of the civil rights movement. Mentioned in this podcast is Ayn Rand’s essay “The Sanction of the Victims” from her book The Voice of Reason. The podcast was recorded on November 2, 2022. 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/jIeRQb_G2-o Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the attacks on "neoliberalism," an alleged ideology that critics blame for many of today’s political, social and economic problems. They analyze the critics’ central claims and explain why the very concept of “neoliberalism” clouds, rather than clarifies, our thinking about our political landscape. Among the topics covered: The critics of “neoliberalism” and what they claim;How “neoliberalism” was coined to designate a departure from laissez-faire capitalism;Ayn Rand’s distinctive approach to questionable concepts like “neoliberalism”;How many of the charges against "neoliberalism" resemble conspiracy fantasies;How the critics of “neoliberalism” grossly misrepresent the extent of our economic freedoms;Why the UK's slight shift towards freer markets met with such backlash;How altruism biases people against the achievements of the free market;How a mixed economy unjustly benefits those with political pull. Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and Don Watkins and Yaron Brook’s Equal Is Unfair. The podcast was recorded on October 27, 2022. 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/OMpFNRatJPw Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer, Mike Mazza and Sam Weaver address questions about free will submitted by the podcast’s audience. Among the topics covered: Ayn Rand’s view of free will as the choice “to think or not”;The importance of this view for the rest of Objectivist philosophy.How does metaphysical libertarianism differ from the Objectivist view of free will?How it contrasts with compatibilist attempts to reconcile free will and determinism;How Objectivism is a significant improvement on mainstream metaphysical libertarianism;Why free will is not magical but causal.What are some misunderstandings of the meaning of “free will”?Why free will doesn’t mean the unlimited power to choose anything or create oneself out of nothing;False views of free will adopted by compatibilists and determinists;Whether animals have free will;Do some people have more free will than others?Why free will is not the same as attention;The difference between having free will at all and the ability to exercise it at different times.How is free will different from rationality?Why free will is presupposed by the ability to be self-consciously rational.How much control do we have over our emotional states?What is the Objectivist response to Calvinist predestinationism?Why free will is antithetical to religious worldviews. Mentioned in the discussion are the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on “Free Will,” Leonard Peikoff’s book Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, Onkar Ghate’s talk “Seize the Reins of Your Mind,” and Onkar Ghate’s chapter “A Being of Self-Made Soul” in A Companion to Ayn Rand, and Harry Binswanger’s book How We Know.   This episode was recorded on October 21, 2022. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch previous episodes here. If you’d like to ask a question to be answered on a future episode, please send an email to newideal@aynrand.org with “Podcast question” in the subject header. https://youtu.be/RDR0YtdJWes Podcast audio:

Enrollment in college English departments is declining, with literature concentrations experiencing a particularly precipitous drop in student interest. This may sound like no great loss. Increasingly, American teenagers view timeless works of literature as hopelessly boring and their study of them as yielding no cash value. Even if this trend does not tell the full story behind the decline in college literature studies, it is surely part of the picture. Why would students pay to study a subject that strikes them as dull and unprofitable? In this episode, Sam Weaver reads aloud his article, “What Students Need to Find Literature Fascinating.” In that essay, he argues that a focus on story can make great literature as exciting to teenagers as popular films. Weaver’s article was originally published in New Ideal on August 17, 2022. Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss Liberalism and Its Discontents, a recent book by the well-known political scientist Francis Fukuyama. They analyze the book’s main claims and argumentation, and evaluate Fukuyama’s defense of liberalism. Among the topics covered: Fukuyama and his famous “end of history” thesis;Recent attacks on liberalism as the context of Liberalism and Its Discontents;Different meanings of the term “liberalism” in the U.S., Europe, and Fukuyama’s book;How Fukuyama’s failure to argue from a principled philosophical framework renders his defense of liberalism unconvincing;Ayn Rand’s argument that an ideal society is capitalist;What’s wrong with Fukuyama’s claims that the core of liberalism is something he calls “individual autonomy,” and that this has been taken too far;Why Fukuyama’s defense of liberalism is uninspiring and harmful;How Fukuyama’s rejection of principles leads to thinking in terms of central planning;How Fukuyama’s approach takes the mixed economy for granted;Rand’s view that those who hold compromising stances lose when challenged by more idealistic opposition. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion are Ayn Rand’s essays “Conservatism: An Obituary” and “The Anatomy of Compromise” from her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. The podcast was recorded on October 13, 2022. 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/RXLNNarmO3U Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the recent protests against the authoritarian regimes of Iran and Russia. They analyze the common causes that animate these public demonstrations and offer a philosophical perspective on why they effectively undermine the moral legitimacy of these dictatorships. Among the topics covered: Why we should care about protests in dictatorships;How Iran’s mandatory veiling laws coerce its citizens and triggered the latest protests;The recent revival of Russian anti-war demonstrations triggered by Putin’s military draft;Why the protests are an existential threat to the Russian and Iranian regimes' moral credibility;Ayn Rand’s explanation of why the best people choose to withdraw their moral sanction from tyrants;What, if anything, the U.S. should do to support the protests;What Westerners can learn about how to respond to the Iranian regime from journalist Masih Alinejad’s uncompromising stand;Why most Western leaders lack the moral authority to criticize dictators. The podcast was recorded on October 5, 2022. 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/rIIU2_pSACE Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer, Don Watkins, and Mike Mazza discuss Oxford philosophy professor William MacAskill’s new book, What We Owe the Future. The book advocates “Longtermism,” which calls for treating the well-being of people in the indefinite future as equal in value to presently existing people. Bayer, Watkins, and Mazza offer an egoistic perspective on the value of the future and critique MacAskill’s call to sacrifice for future generations. Among the topics covered: To what extent it is rational to value the future;What makes progress possible;Analyzing some concrete longtermist policy proposals;Major philosophical problems with the longtermist perspective;Longtermism’s roots in the effective altruism movement;How longtermism reveals the bankruptcy of the humanities. The podcast was recorded on September 30, 2022. 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=qmmurQN_BgM Podcast audio: