The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

The most contemptible parasites are the power-lusters who relentlessly expand the system, argues Ben Bayer in this podcast of his article in New Ideal, the journal of the Ayn Rand Institute, on July 28, 2021.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo, Robert Mayhew and Keith Lockitch discuss the philosophic significance of the anti-intellectual treatment of Ayn Rand in a recent article published in Quillette magazine. Among the topics covered: Quillette’s history of publishing heterodox, intellectually serious articles;The basic incompetence and unoriginality of Quillette’s piece on Ayn Rand;Why Rand appeals to the idealism of youth, and why critics sneer at young people’s interest in her;Why people often claim to have “outgrown” Rand;The meaning of Allan Bloom’s and Steven Pinker’s dismissals of Rand;The value of commenting on articles like this, despite their lack of merit;The widespread acceptance of altruism as a major cause of attacks on Rand. Mentioned in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s essays “Art and Moral Treason” and “Art and Sense of Life” from her book The Romantic Manifesto, “The ‘Inexplicable Personal Alchemy’” from her book Return of the Primitive, and her introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of The Fountainhead. Also mentioned are the books Essays on Ayn Rand’s "We the Living," Essays on Ayn Rand’s "Anthem," Essays on Ayn Rand’s "The Fountainhead" (particularly Ben Bayer’s essay “The Fountainhead and the Spirit of Youth”) and Essays on Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged," all edited by Mayhew. The podcast was recorded on December 16, 2021. 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/aB2I6sYGMqU Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss the recent oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case before the Supreme Court. They analyze what the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would reveal about the Court’s grasp of individual rights and the role of government. Among the topics covered: A brief history of abortion jurisprudence since Roe v. Wade;Ayn Rand’s view of Roe and her support for abortion rights;Why abortion rights are not grounded in a right to privacy;Why activities don’t need to be concretely enumerated to be protected by fundamental rights;Why we need abstract principles to state fundamental legal principles;Why conservative sympathy for the reversal of Lochner v. New York implies a presumption in favor of government power;Whether the potential to feel pain is the basis of rights;How Roe v. Wade tries to balance competing interests, not to protect rights;Why regarding life as sacred from conception is a baseless religious viewpoint;Why it’s arbitrary to regard viability as the limit for justifiable abortion;Whether religion or judicial philosophy motivates Justice Thomas;Whether “individual responsibility” means a woman who chooses to have sex should carry a pregnancy to term;The Supreme Court Justices’ unphilosophical approach. Mentioned in the discussion are Leonard Peikoff’s essay “Abortion Rights Are Pro-Life,” Ben Bayer’s essays “Ayn Rand’s Radical Case for Abortion Rights” and “Science without Philosophy Can’t Resolve Abortion Debate,” and Tom Bowden’s “Justice Holmes and the Empty Constitution.” This podcast was recorded on December 9, 2021. 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/BGwS6CJ0UlE Podcast audio:

In this episode, Aaron Smith reads aloud his article, "Stoicism vs Objectivism: Is Free Will Magic?" In that essay, he argues that a common (but mistaken) conception of causation leads many scientifically minded people to dismiss free will as either nonexistent, deterministic, or akin to magic. Smith's article was originally published in New Ideal, the Ayn Rand Institute's journal, on September 15, 2021.

“Woke” anti-racism is ascendant in our culture. But contrary to the claims of its advocates, it encourages, rather than combats, racism. And it actively harms, rather than helps, the people it claims to care about. What animates it is not a commitment to facts and evidence, but a zealot’s mentality: it is a new religion. John McWhorter makes these provocative claims in his trenchant new book Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. In this episode of the New Ideal podcast, Onkar Ghate and I talk with McWhorter about his analysis of the “woke” phenomenon. Topics we talk about include: How the debate over race issues has changed since the early 2000s;Key similarities between religion and the “woke” phenomenon;What explains the religious fervor over racial issues since the Civil Rights era;Why not all black Americans have the sense of having overcome oppression;Whether defeatism about race is a consensus among black Americans;Why the leaders of the “woke” religion are uninterested in solving real problems;How today’s “anti-racists” oversimplify the influence of historical racism;McWhorter’s proposed solution to the problems of racism;How the appeal of the “woke” religion relies more on “show business” than science;The wisdom of discarding the problematic concept of biological “race.” I’ve learned a lot from reading McWhorter over the years, and I enjoyed the conversation. If you’re curious about his book, I wrote about it in New Ideal recently, and it is well worth reading. Let me also recommend a separate podcast that Onkar and I did on the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day: “Racism, ‘Color Blindness,’ and Tribalism,” a discussion informed by Ayn Rand’s philosophic analysis of racism. In her essay “Racism,” which you can read online, she called it “the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.” The McWhorter interview was recorded on December 1, 2021. Watch or 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/NBmk_90W5gA Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Mike Mazza, Aaron Smith and Sam Weaver address questions about Objectivism submitted by the podcast’s audience. Among the topics covered: How much should Objectivists value physical health, diet, and exercise? The role of philosophical guidance vs. personal choice in valuing health; Whether Ayn Rand's portrayal of the physique of her fictional characters has any philosophical significance; Whether physical attractiveness is a valid goal to pursue; Whether the potential of life-extension technology is relevant to the value of health; Whether enjoyable activities that risk shortening one’s life span are rational. Can values be objective if they depend on human evaluations? Objectivism’s distinctive understanding of the concept “objective”; The relevance of Ayn Rand’s “immortal robot” thought experiment. When is aid to others rational? Rational vs. emotionalistic reasons to help others; The rationality of helping strangers out of good will; How to introspect about one’s motivation helping others. Mentioned in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s essays “What Is Capitalism?” and “The Ethics of Emergencies” from her book The Virtue of Selfishness. This podcast was recorded on December 1, 2021. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts 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/eKEfpDs_EbY Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Ben Bayer discuss Steven Pinker’s latest book, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, and Why It Matters, and whether it makes a solid argument for rationality. Among the topics covered: The Objectivist framework as a context for analyzing Pinker’s book;Strengths of the book;Pinker’s self-refuting “humility” about the scope of rationality;Pinker’s narrow “instrumentalist” definition of rationality;Pinker’s view that rationality cannot evaluate ultimate ends;Pinker’s case for a form of quasi-rational morality;Cognitive biases at work in Pinker’s own case for morality;Pinker’s and Rand’s contrasting conceptions of rationality;Shortcomings in Pinker’s explanation for today’s irrational political tribalism;Rand’s alternative approach to a rational ethics (and affinities to some of Pinker’s views). Mentioned in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s essay “The Objectivist Ethics,” Onkar Ghate’s “Finding Morality Without God” and Ben Bayer’s “Why Scientific Progress in Ethics Is Frozen.” This podcast was recorded on November 17, 2021. 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/lhe1ahaqmwk Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss what it takes to effect real cultural change for people with radical ideas that challenge the status quo. Among the topics covered: Ayn Rand’s radical principles of capitalism, egoism, and reason;How Rand advocated for how to begin to eliminate all antitrust laws;Rand’s proposed steps in the direction of total repeal of anti-abortion laws;Rand’s proposed reforms to blunt the worst effects of the entrenched public education system;Rand’s proposal for the least destructive escape from the unsolvable dilemma of the Vietnam;Rand’s views on how to change minds to make cultural change possible;How the Ayn Rand Institute commented on foreign policy after the 9/11 terrorist attacks;ARI’s commentary during the Covid-19 pandemic;How ARI chose which aspects of government pandemic policy to analyze. Mentioned in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s essays “Antitrust: The Rule of Unreason” and “Tax Credits for Education,” from her book The Voice of Reason; her article “A Suggestion” from The Objectivist; her lecture “The Wreckage of the Consensus”; her essay “What Can One Do?” from her book Philosophy: Who Needs It; and her book The Art of Nonfiction. Also mentioned are Ghate’s white paper, A Pro-Freedom Approach to Infectious Disease, and a podcast episode titled ”How Can We Change People's Minds About Ayn Rand's Controversial Ideas?” This podcast was recorded on November 10, 2021. 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/M8eHcYu0aLE Podcast audio:

In this episode of the New Ideal podcast, Ben Bayer interviews Scott McDonald, an international relations PhD candidate at Tufts University and an expert on Chinese political theory and foreign policy. Among the topics covered: Scott McDonald’s background and current work on the subject of Taiwan;The current state of relations between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC);The pragmatism that led to America’s decision to withdraw diplomatic recognition of Taiwan;The consequences of America’s betrayal of Taiwan for its broader foreign policy;How Taiwan adopted American values in spite of this betrayal;The prospects of war in the Taiwan Strait;The likely consequences of a war between the PRC and Taiwan;The influence of Chinese philosophy on PRC geopolitical decisions;The “social metaphysics” (second-handedness) of Chinese philosophy;The pragmatism and altruism of current American foreign policyAyn Rand’s comments on the values betrayed by American policy on Taiwan. Mentioned in the discussion is Ayn Rand’s essay “The Shanghai Gesture,” a three-part article in the Ayn Rand Letter published in March and April of 1972. In that essay, Rand analyzes Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China as a philosophic defeat. Of particular relevance is the following remark about the importance of U.S.-Taiwan relations: No, this is not an appeal for another senseless, altruistic war, this time to defend Taiwan. Taiwan can take care of itself, if we do not turn deserter. It is not a policeman's gun, but his firmness that keeps peace in a neighborhood and protects it from gangsters. Our token military presence has kept Taiwan peacefully safe for twenty-two years. Our withdrawal could precipitate a war involving the entire Pacific. (Does anyone remember the consequences of the Allies' withdrawal from the Sudetenland and the Ruhr?) And whatever our view of Nationalist China, we do not have the right to bargain its lives away as pawns in secret negotiations for some undisclosed policy of our own. This podcast was recorded on October 15, 2021, and posted to YouTube on November 10, 2021. 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/baqwdOWhjrU Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss Jonah Goldberg’s public rejection of Ayn Rand, and what that shows about the conservative movement. Among the topics covered: Why Goldberg’s comments matter;How Goldberg’s adamant rejection of Ayn Rand betrays his ambivalence about the value of freedom;Why Goldberg says Rand doesn’t belong in the conservative movement;Whittaker Chambers’s dishonest, anti-American article about Atlas Shrugged;Why Ayn Rand’s opposition to religion threatens conservatives;The irrationality of Goldberg’s conservative view that everyone must respect religion;The anti-intellectuality of Goldberg’s reaction to Ayn Rand;How conservative critics of Trump fail to see him as essentially religious;Ayn Rand’s response to a question about similarities with William Buckley. Mentioned in the discussion are the book Essays on Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand’s talk A Nation’s Unity. This podcast was recorded on November 3, 2021. 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/VmIHFi8Jzrs Podcast audio: