The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Keith Lockitch and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss Fossil Future, a powerful new book on energy and climate change written by former Ayn Rand Institute fellow Alex Epstein. The book argues that to achieve a better world, we need to expand our use of fossil fuel energy, not decrease it. Among the topics covered: Fossil Future in relation to other recent books challenging climate alarmism;Epstein’s account of the widespread ignorance of the benefits of fossil fuels;Epstein’s concept of a knowledge system by which expert knowledge is reached and disseminated (often inaccurately) to the public;How problems in our knowledge system are caused by the acceptance of an “anti-impact” moral standard;The human flourishing framework Epstein endorses as a positive alternative;Objectivism’s influence on Epstein’s perspective on energy and climate;The persuasive power of explicitly naming the moral ideas involved in a debate. Mentioned in this podcast are Epstein’s book Fossil Future, Gregory Salmieri’s lecture “How to Be an Objective Consumer of Science,” Ayn Rand’s essay “The Anatomy of Compromise” from Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Lockitch’s review of Fossil Future, and other articles by Lockitch. The podcast was recorded on June 1, 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/embed/fxzNw2lE6f8 Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Mike Mazza discuss academic philosophers’ dismissals of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, and some of the reasons why academic philosophers often fail to live up to the profession’s scholarly standards when addressing Rand’s ideas. Among the topics covered: The provincial view of philosophy that leads Sidney Hook to dismiss Rand as unsophisticated in his review of her book For the New Intellectual;How Robert Nozick goes wrong in his article “On the Randian Argument” by approaching Rand’s inductive arguments as if they were deductive;James Rachels’s claim, in his widely-used textbook The Elements of Moral Philosophy, that Rand’s argument for egoism is based on a false alternative;Why the ability to understand other philosophers’ fundamentals and enter into their worldview is essential to being a genuine philosopher;Reasons why academic philosophers are extremely dismissive of Rand;Whether it’s valid to classify egoistic theories into categories such as “rational,” “parasitic,” “predatory,” etc.;Ghate’s and Mazza’s experiences with both philosophic and non-philosophic people in academic philosophy. Mentioned in this podcast are Gregory Salmieri’s essay “An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand” from A Companion to Ayn Rand, edited by Salmieri and Allan Gotthelf; Harry Binswanger’s 1977 letter to Nozick; and two essays from the book Foundations of a Free Society, edited by Salmieri and Robert Mayhew: “Ayn Rand’s Theory of Rights” by Fred D. Miller and Adam Mossoff and “Rand (contra Nozick) on Individual Rights and the Emergence and Justification of Government” by Ghate. The podcast was recorded on May 25, 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/embed/fOBVOzRPLtA Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, philosopher Harry Binswanger argues that moral perfection is both possible and desirable. "We hear from all sides that perfection is an 'impossible dream,' an ideal which always exceeds our grasp, and by doing so lures us on to ever greater achievements," Binswanger observes. "Religionists and atheists, liberals and conservatives, whim-worshippers and duty-worshippers — they all agree that 'Nothing is perfect in this world.' It is all perfect nonsense. And it is dangerous nonsense. The idea that perfection is unattainable amounts to an assault on all values, on values as such. 'Perfection,' as the mystics use that term, makes self-esteem impossible." (Originally published in New Ideal, February 23, 2022). Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Sam Weaver interviews Matt Bateman, vice president of pedagogy at Higher Ground Education, about the educator Maria Montessori, creator of the Montessori method. Bateman, an expert in Montessori education, discusses its core principles and how it relates to Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism. Among the topics covered: Montessori’s rise to prominence as an educational thinker;Montessori education versus traditional and progressive education;How Montessori impacted education in America;Montessori’s view of the distinct stages of a child’s development;Why prepared environments help children develop their own minds;How Montessori materials help students understand and self-correct;The importance of freedom in developing independence, self-discipline, and character;The goal of Montessori education;Montessori and Rand on independence and learning from the senses;Montessori’s view of a sequence of content consistent with how children learn;Why Montessori’s pedagogic framework is valuable for elementary school children;How Montessori enables students to work at their own pace and become independent valuers;How Bateman discovered Montessori education, cofounded Higher Ground Education, and began the think tank Montessorium. Mentioned in this podcast are Rand’s essays “Art and Moral Treason” from The Romantic Manifesto and “The Comprachicos” from Return of the Primitive, as well as Bateman’s articles “Culture of Work, Culture of Knowledge” and “Human Achievement and Human Development.” The podcast was recorded on April 11, 2022 and was broadcast on May 18, 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/embed/yxM32D6G218 Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the claim by University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer, that the West, not Putin, is fundamentally to blame for the war in Ukraine. They also examine the philosophic assumptions and consequences of the “realist” theory of international relations, from which Mearsheimer’s conclusion flows. Among the topics covered: The main argument in Mearsheimer’s viral video “Why is Ukraine the West’s Fault;”“Realism” as a theory of international relations;How “realism” ignores morality and the causal role of philosophic ideas, whereas Objectivism treats these as central;Why Mearsheimer is wrong to blame the West rather than Putin for the war in Ukraine;The “realists’” claim that NATO expansion is a threat to Russia;The shortsightedness of thinking that the West should allow Putin take Ukraine to avoid protracted war;The eagerness of some in the West to promote ideas that exculpate Putin;Why “realism” leads to a blinkered, amoral understanding of foreign relations;The failure of America’s “realist” policy toward China, starting with Richard Nixon’s diplomatic overtures;Why it’s in America’s interest to support Ukraine morally, even if not militarily;The similarities between “realism” and pragmatism. Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essay “The Shanghai Gesture,” which is included in the Ayn Rand Letter, and the New Ideal Live episode “Ukraine and the Power of Moral Judgment.” The podcast was recorded on May 11, 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/embed/gSLRLRvgVGs Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss the leak of an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that appears to be the draft of a majority Supreme Court decision in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, and they examine both the draft decision itself and the significance of its release. Among the topics covered: An overview of the case and the leak of the draft opinion;The harmful consequences of the leak on the Court’s ability to rationally deliberate;Why it’s important to comment on the leaked draft despite its harmful effects;The essence of Alito’s argument, and how it compares to typical arguments that the Constitution does not protect abortion rights;Why Alito’s argument is wrong to imply that the Constitution’s enumeration of rights offers no guidance to determining unenumerated rights;Why Alito is wrong to treat tradition as a source of guidance in legal interpretation;How Alito’s dismissal of Supreme Court precedents about personal liberty reveals an  unstated religious viewpoint;How Oliver Wendell Holmes’s Lochner dissent, which argued that the Constitution does not protect a wide-ranging right to liberty, influenced both Roe and Alito’s draft;Why Alito’s argument that most liberties should be subject to the decisions of voters implies opposition to the rule of law;Today’s un-American conception of the rule of law as pertaining only to process, not to a substantive protection of individual rights;Why government has the burden of proof to show that its actions are delegated powers, and citizens should not have to show that it violates their rights;Why the idea that the Constitution constrains only the federal government, not the states, is un-American;Why some rights are enumerated in the Constitution;The consequences of leaving the issue of abortion up to Congress and state legislatures. Mentioned in this podcast are the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry  “Abortion,” the New Ideal Live episode “Roe v. Wade on the Brink,” Bayer’s article “Abortion Should Be Legal Until Birth,” and Tom Bowden’s article “Justice Holmes and the Empty Constitution.” The podcast was recorded on May 4, 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/fjo4jkR_VUw Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Aaron Smith, Mike Mazza and Sam Weaver address questions on Objectivism submitted by the podcast’s audience. Among the topics covered: Can Peter Keating change at the end of The Fountainhead?The character Keating has created for himself by this point in the novel;Whether it can be too late to pursue certain career goals;The difference between adding a new career and a new hobby;The error of thinking that a person has a single “true calling.”Can you explain the “Ship of Theseus” thought experiment? How does it relate to the identity of a person over time?Why this thought experiment is worth discussing;How the identity of material entities like ships differs from that of entities involving processes, like living creatures;How the same person can undergo a change in character.Are some forms of wealth creation immoral?The immorality of trading destructive non-values and pandering to people’s irrationality;Why trading non-values is not a form of wealth creation;How to think about the sale of products that can have unhealthy effects.Should government licensing and regulations exist?Why government may have the right to protect against risks to which people do not consent, but not risks which they voluntarily accept;Laws that violate people’s rights versus laws that protect people’s rights from objective threats;The value of private certifications and standards. Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead, Leonard Peikoff’s podcast answer about Keating, the book Why Businessmen Need Philosophy, edited by Debi Ghate and Richard Ralston, and the book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand. The podcast was recorded on April 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://www.youtube.com/embed/naOy5XlgLcE Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Keith Lockitch discuss the philosophic meaning of environmentalism, ranging from its quasi-religious character to the moral implications of its political-economic program. Among the topics covered: Ayn Rand’s emphasis on how human beings have improved their environment as a result of the Industrial Revolution; Why, contrary to conventional views, we should celebrate the fossil fuel industry for producing the energy that powers modern life; How fossil fuels enable us to deal with climate-related dangers; The environmental movement as part of a long history of opposition to the Enlightenment, capitalism and industry; The anti-individualist, religious perspective behind this opposition, including environmentalism; The anti-life idea that we should minimize our “footprint” on nature; The religious mentality promoted by environmentalism; How the mass hysteria of environmentalism is an expression of our culture’s abandonment of reason; How Alex Epstein’s book Fossil Future develops a more rational understanding of energy and the environment; The response that would be warranted by real catastrophic climate change; The irreplaceable value of life in an industrial civilization, which environmentalism ignores. Mentioned in this podcast are Rand’s article “The Anti-Industrial Revolution,” Lockitch’s work on energy and climate, and Epstein’s book Fossil Future. The podcast was recorded on April 22, 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/181Mr42i_aI Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo interviews Nick Deiuliis, president and CEO of CNX Resources, about the shale revolution. From his insider perspective, Deiuliis describes the transformation in the U.S. energy industry that dramatically increased domestic production of oil and natural gas. Among the topics covered: How Deiuliis became involved in the energy industry;The technological developments (horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing) that created the shale revolution;Why natural gas has a better risk-reward profile than solar and wind energy, as well as coal;How Europe’s anti-fossil fuel policies create a dependence on and embolden countries like Russia and China;Ongoing regulatory and social pressure campaigns that stifle the growth of the natural gas industry;The meaning of Deiuliis’s statement, “To be anti-carbon is to be anti-human.” Deluliis is on Twitter. The podcast was recorded on April 6, 2022 and was broadcast on April 21, 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/CnPOjlPC-mY Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the historical roots of environmentalism, how it became perhaps the most widely-accepted social movement in history within just a few decades, and the ominous significance of its triumph in the battle of ideas. Among the topics covered: Why it is interesting to study the history of environmentalism; The roots of the conservation movement in nineteenth-century romanticism; Why the typical perspective on nature changed from fear to admiration after the Industrial Revolution; The rise of modern environmentalism in the 1960s; How twentieth-century philosophy’s default helped environmentalism gain popular support and political influence; How the misanthropic philosophy of “deep ecology” radicalized the environmental movement; How ecoterrorist groups like Earth First put deep ecology into violent action and received support from mainstream environmentalist groups; The impact of environmentalist doctrines of sustainable development and the precautionary principle; Ayn Rand’s analysis of how the left’s hatred of human ability led it to drop science and technology and adopt a religious view of nature; Whether people will ultimately choose environmentalist ideas or their own well-being; A clue from Atlas Shrugged on how to interpret the positive esthetic response to wilderness after the Industrial Revolution; The environmentalist versus the pro-human response to global warming; How environmentalist tribalism results from the quasi-religious nature of the movement. Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “The Left: Old and New” and “The Anti-Industrial Revolution.” The podcast was recorded on April 20, 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/BLnjJQLfo1E Podcast audio: