The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

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:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss the pervasive influence of altruism on the culture and draw lessons from it about the systemic racism debate. Among the topics covered: Systemic altruism, like systemic racism, as the claim that the ideology permeates the culture, even if is not always accepted explicitly; What altruism is and why it is evil; Examples of altruism’s influence on the culture, including environmentalism, egalitarianism, and the anti-abortion movement; Why most people find it hard to see this influence; The role of social and cultural institutions, such as churches, universities, and the media, in perpetuating altruism; The psychological mechanisms by which altruism spreads and sustains itself; How better people sometimes internalize altruism and how this is often used against them; How this analysis of systemic altruism can shed light on the controversy over whether systemic racism still exists. Mentioned in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s articles “The Missing Link” and “Philosophical Detection,” both available in Philosophy: Who Needs It, and her article “Altruism as Appeasement,” available in The Voice of Reason. This episode was recorded on March 3, 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://youtu.be/uu5pLl496UA Podcast audio:

American popular culture is filled with pieces that gently mock, satirize and ridicule religion, especially Judeo-Christian beliefs. To cite but three instances, Stephen Colbert’s periodic Late Show conversations with God, the character of Ned Flanders on The Simpsons, and the musical The Book of Mormon. At the same time, religion remains a highly respected force in American society, often regarded as an integral thread of American exceptionalism. This respect was on full display in the nation’s response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Here were trained fighters who flew airliners into New York City’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Virginia, and who declared they were doing so in the name of their faith. Yet few American leaders could even entertain the idea that these may have been religiously inspired attacks. The basic reason religion remains such an esteemed aspect of American society is that it is considered important, even indispensable, to morality. The strongest form this idea takes is that morality depends on religion — that without God, the distinction between good and evil loses meaning, and anything goes. In this episode, we read aloud Onkar Ghate's article, “Finding Morality and Happiness Without God.” In that essay, Ghate argues that because reason is how we understand and deal with reality, a proper approach to morality will teach us how to follow reason on principle, without any concession to unexamined feelings or to faith. Ghate’s article was originally published in New Ideal on May 4, 2018.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Nikos Sotirakopoulos and Ziemowit Gowin mark the one-year anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine by discussing European attitudes towards Russia before and after the launch of the all-out campaign. Among the topics covered: How European nations found themselves heavily reliant on Russian gas exports; How European leaders' lack of principled thinking led to a refusal to recognize pre-invasion Russia as an authoritarian state, despite past acts of military aggression; The surprisingly strong and moral reaction of European countries to the invasion; The lessons Europeans have learned from the invasion and the lessons so far unlearned; Why calls for a ceasefire based on a compromise between Russian and Ukrainian “interests” would amount to moral capitulation, a total surrender to Russia’s goals, and encouragement of future aggression. Mentioned in this podcast are “Why John Mearsheimer Gets Ukraine Wrong” by Elan Journo, “A Historian of the Future: Five More Questions for Stephen Kotkin” by The Hoover Institution, and “The Roots of War,” “Altruism as Appeasement,” and “Doesn’t Life Require Compromise?” by Ayn Rand. This episode was recorded on February 24, 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=XHmApTxyvCg Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Sam Weaver discuss Ron DeSantis’ push to ideologically transform Florida colleges, and evaluate its potential to bring about greater freedom in the realm of education. While some of DeSantis’ actions should be evaluated as positive, there are ominous signs that they could also entrench further state control of education. Among the topics covered: The toxic monoculture in American higher education; The need for a separation of education and state; Using the “Fairness Doctrine” to reverse state control in education; Aspects of DeSantis’ proposal that could help introduce ideological diversity; How DeSantis’ proposals could entrench a different kind of ideological monoculture; What arguing for freedom in education requires. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion is Ayn Rand’s essay “Fairness Doctrine for Education” in Philosophy: Who Needs It. The podcast was recorded on February 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. Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Sam Weaver discuss Natalie Wexler’s argument that many American elementary schools have abandoned the responsibility of teaching factual content, and that this rejection of the importance of knowledge is exacerbating the nation’s reading crisis. Among the topics covered: The outrageous failure of American schools to teach students how to read and to kindle in them a love of reading; Natalie Wexler’s argument that this failure is related to the failure of schools to teach basic factual knowledge; Wexler’s view that phonics is necessary but not sufficient for teaching reading, because knowledge is also necessary for understanding meaning; Schools’ bizarre attempt to detach reading skills from the study of content; How this approach destroys students’ motivation to learn; Why government control of education is to blame for the entrenchment of these failed methods; How the establishment has ignored evidence of the bankruptcy of its methods. Mentioned in the discussion are Natalie Wexler’s book The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System – and How to Fix It, Ayn Rand’s essay “The Comprachicos”, Leonard Peikoff’s essay “The American School: Why Johnny Can’t Think”, and a New York Times article about literacy theorist Lucy Calkins. This episode was recorded on February 10, 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://youtu.be/UtDGjiGdwcs Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Aaron Smith interviews Harry Binswanger on Ayn Rand’s distinctive value-centered approach to philosophy — and to living life. As a long-time student of Rand and close friend in her final years, Binswanger shares his recollections of Rand's passionate quest of values, both as presented in her works and ideas and in her personal life. Among the topics covered: Ayn Rand’s integration of fact and value in philosophy and how it contrasts with traditional views; How Rand answered long-standing philosophical questions about the basis and importance of values; Why Rand held that material values have deep spiritual meaning; Why the idea that there are no “blacks” and “whites” in morality is wrong; How Binswanger came to know Ayn Rand and the impact she had on him; The profound self-esteem that comes with achieving values one cares deeply about; How Rand brought a philosophical perspective to every aspect of life; The careful thinking that goes into pursuing what one really wants; Some of Rand’s personal values, both minor and major. Recommended in this episode are Leonard Peikoff’s “My Thirty Years with Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir” and Mary Ann Sures and Charles Sures’ Facets of Ayn Rand. The podcast was recorded on February 2, 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/6kgc8l9kWfU Podcast audio:

Why does the “antiracist” movement mobilize to deplatform or fire anyone who slights or asks the wrong questions about the dominant views of “social justice”? What explains the irrational fervor of the “woke”? John McWhorter, noteworthy Columbia linguistics professor and New York Times columnist, grapples with this question in his recent book, Woke Racism. The book’s subtitle reveals his provocative answer: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. To understand the “woke” movement, he shows, we must take seriously its religious character. In this episode, Ben Bayer reads aloud his article, “The Old Morality of the New Religions.” In that essay, Bayer argues that McWhorter shows how woke “antiracism” is a “new religion,” but he underappreciates how its zealotry is empowered by centuries-old religious morality. Bayer's article was originally published in New Ideal on January 4, 2023.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Nikos Sotirakopoulos and Mike Mazza are joined by Dr. Amesh Adalja to discuss the phenomenon of skepticism towards COVID-19 vaccines. They argue that this skepticism is based on arbitrary claims made in disregard of actual evidence and explain how to assess and respond to such claims. Among the topics covered: Adalja’s analysis of alleged dangers and actual side effects of mRNA vaccines; Why claims made without real evidence are arbitrary, and how to respond to arbitrary claims; Why anti-vaccine attitudes have increased even as vaccines have demonstrably quelled the pandemic; How to assess claims to “evidence” one finds online or in the culture; Why arbitrary claims are usually presented with the pretense of evidence; What might be motivating those spreading false information; Adalja’s response to several common worries about COVID-19 vaccines; How one should think about unknown risks, and why worrying about the unknown amounts to arbitrary speculation; Adalja’s projection of the future with regard to the COVID-19 virus. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion is Onkar Ghate’s “A Pro-Freedom Approach to Infectious Disease.” This episode was recorded on January 24, 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/J-T59N3ppe0 Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Aaron Smith discuss the recent incident at Hamline University, where art history professor Erika López Prater was dismissed for showing her students a fourteenth-century painting of the prophet Mohammed. They analyze the administrators’ charge of “Islamophobia,” the issue of “academic freedom” in terms of which the controversy has been viewed, and how the aversion to teaching allegedly offensive topics is destroying higher education. Among the topics covered: What happened at Hamline; Hamline's dishonest response to public criticism of their actions; The incident as an unfortunate sign of how universities are less willing to teach topics deemed as offensive; How diversity offices, far from helping students navigate controversial topics, cater to irrational worldviews; How the smear of “Islamophobia” destroys the distinction between rational and irrational criticism of Islam; Why religion, being openly irrational, receives a privileged treatment; Why suppressing controversial subjects is a disservice to any active-minded student; How the framing of “academic freedom” ignores that the government’s control of education makes it impossible to solve conflicts between academics and the administration; Government interference in education as a cause of increasing self-censorship. The podcast was recorded on January 20, 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/lmWYcYJuK9A Podcast audio:

Our experts take your questions on arguments for God, whether morality depends on religion, and other issues related to religion.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Nikos Sotirakopoulos and Ziemowit Gowin discuss the political philosophy of Alexander Dugin, a Russian philosopher whose collectivist theory has been influential in empowering the opposition to Western liberalism in Russian culture. Among the topics covered: Dugin’s philosophical influence in Russia; Dugin’s collectivist “Fourth Political Theory” vs. liberalism; The philosophical basis of the Fourth Political Theory; The deadly consequences of Dugin’s political theory; Ayn Rand on Russia’s culture of mysticism; Dugin’s appeal to the political right. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion are Ayn Rand’s August 1967 interview with Johnny Carson and her essay “The Lessons of Vietnam” in The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought, as well as the following of Alexander Dugin’s books: The Fourth Political Theory, Eurasian Mission, The United States and the New World Order, and Political Platonism. The prerecorded podcast was released on January 5, 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=Eu0SbJxgKEE Podcast audio:

On May 7, 1943, as World War II raged across the globe, Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead was published in America. Due to sparse reviews and minimal publicity, sales were initially low. Then an unusual thing happened, paralleling Rand’s description of the gradual success of the novel’s hero, Howard Roark: “It was as if an underground stream flowed through the country and broke out in sudden springs that shot to the surface at random, in unpredictable places.” As word-of-mouth readership spread, Rand’s novel began appearing on best-seller lists more than a year after publication. By May 1945 it was #1 on the Los Angeles Times local best-seller list, and by August it reached #6 on the New York Times national best-seller list, remaining on that list (with few interruptions) until March 1946. In this episode, we read aloud Tom Bowden's article, “The Illustrated Fountainhead: Serializing a Classic Novel.” In that essay, he describes how Ayn Rand welcomed a newspaper syndicate's offer to popularize her best-selling novel in illustrated form. Bowden’s article was originally published in New Ideal on October 12, 2022. Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Don Watkins and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss New Year’s resolutions, what makes them difficult to maintain, and how integrated, contextual thinking can help automatize good habits. Among the topics covered: The unhealthy motivation of the “fresh start effect” vs. healthy motivations for resolutions; Why the fact of automatization makes change both desirable and challenging; Why a clear, first-handed purpose is necessary for sticking with goals; The fatal error of oscillating between “all-or-nothing” perfectionism and “I’ll do it when I feel like it” subjectivism; How to learn from resolution failures; Framing your resolutions as aspirations for the life you want to live and the person you want to be; How setting goals about outcomes, processes, and themes are interrelated; How choosing detailed resolution goals in the context of the possibility of failure helps to strategize for success. Mentioned in the discussion are Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear; How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams, and The Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand. This episode was recorded on December 29, 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=pjE9oAqG5HQ Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss two recent news stories: Elon Musk's controversial management of Twitter and Brittney Griner's return from captivity in Russia. They first analyze what Musk's management and its public reception foretells for the future of freedom of speech in America; they then examine what the Biden administration’s deal to secure Griner’s freedom by releasing Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer, reveals about our foreign policy. Among the topics covered: Why Musk is not a true free speech absolutist; How Musk and his critics falsely view content moderation issues as being about free speech; How Musk's erratic policy changes show that he underestimates the difficulty of implementing content policies; Why it’s wrong to think of the Twitter Files controversy as being about transparency; What Musk’s conduct regarding China reveals about his commitment to free speech; The unsubstantiated claim that Musk embodies Ayn Rand’s egoism; Why the U.S. government should not negotiate with the corrupt, non-objective Russian government to secure the release of Americans who risk traveling there; How the government’s lack of a rational foreign policy towards Russia misleads Western citizens and companies; The fact that many people’s reactions focused on Griner's race or politics rather than asking why she even worked in Russia; How both these stories highlight the need for principled thought about the government's role and its limits. The podcast was recorded on December 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/oUXjq6SWXBI Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Elan Journo discuss the philosophical bankruptcy of effective altruism and the movement’s role in FTX’s financial collapse. Among the topics covered: The connection between FTX’s financial collapse and the effective altruism movement, including CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s goal of “earning to give”; What effective altruism advocates and why its offshoot, “longtermism,” champions some unusual causes; Why some of the common criticisms of effective altruism, such as the idea that it is a cynical ploy or that it is Utopian, miss the mark; The real problem with effective altruism, as shown by some of its major advocates, as its demand for self-effacement and sacrifice; How even secular altruists approach morality like a religion; How effective altruism is a form of debased morality, which empties morality of meaningful guidance relevant to our everyday lives; How a rational morality can be grounded in observable facts, not intuitions. Mentioned in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s article “Moral Inflation,” published in The Ayn Rand Letter, and our episode of New Ideal Live, “Why MacAskill is Wrong about What We Owe the Future.” This episode was recorded on December 16, 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/LeWuJMO5jSg Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Agustina Vergara Cid and Nikos Sotirakopoulos explain how authoritarian states such as Qatar use international sporting events like the World Cup to launder their reputations. They argue that this practice of “sportswashing” and organizations, like FIFA, who enable it, should be condemned for aiding authoritarian states in their bid for moral legitimacy. Among the topics covered: How authoritarian Qatar won the World Cup bid; Qatar’s unprecedented World Cup spending; Qatar’s abysmal treatment of migrant workers, women, the LBGT community and its overall lack of rights and freedom; “Sportswashing” as reputation laundering with a long history; Why the call to keep politics out of sports shields authoritarian nations from criticism; “Sportswashing” as trading on a false moral equivalence; The need to end appeasement of authoritarian states and for fans to condemn “sportswashing”; FIFA’s moral culpability for aiding and abetting authoritarian regimes. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion are the entries on moral judgment in the Ayn Rand Lexicon and Agustina Vergara Cid’s article “Qatar's hosting of the FIFA World Cup is a bigger problem than you think” in the Orange County Register. The podcast was recorded on December 8, 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/Tquo_o8zSlI Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Dr. Amesh Adalja discuss the ethics of infectious disease and evaluate the continued push for stringent paternalistic measures to combat Covid, including the Chinese government’s push for “Zero Covid.” Among the topics covered: Why Covid is now endemic, not a pandemic; How an individualized harm reduction framework can help us navigate a world in which infectious disease is an inescapable fact; The egalitarian moral ideal behind prominent arguments for paternalistic measures such as mask mandates; Why egalitarianism is wrong; The ideas motivating China’s push for “Zero Covid”; The flawed approach towards pandemic preparedness motivated by effective altruism; The roles of vaccines and natural immunity in bringing about widespread immunity to Covid. Mentioned in the discussion are Dr. Adalja’s article “The Pernicious Folly of Pursuing Zero Covid,” his talk “COVID-19, mRNA and the Future of Vaccines,” and Onkar Ghate’s essay “A Pro-Freedom Approach to Infectious Disease.” This episode was recorded on November 30, 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/47WOdN55k4M Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer interviews professor and clinical psychologist Gena Gorlin about the value of gratitude, possible misconceptions about it, and how it’s being understood and implemented in psychology and psychotherapy. Among the topics covered: Gratitude and its role in psychological exercises within the gratitude movement; Whether these kinds of exercises are useful and valuable; How the psychological benefits of gratitude exercises depend on a purposeful orientation towards values; Why it’s important to distinguish the good that comes from others from natural goods, such as a sunny day; Why the difference between gratitude, humility and pride in one’s own achievements is important; Whether there’s a point at which it’s proper to stop expressing gratitude and start feeling angry about what’s bad or unjust in life; The importance of acknowledging and learning from the achievements of others—including business entrepreneurs, which we benefit from; How some entrepreneurs internalize the culture’s unjust attitude towards them and fail to appreciate what’s good in them; Why we need to understand that gratitude is ultimately selfish. Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Also mentioned is Matt Bateman’s essay “A Pedagogy of Gratitude.” The podcast was recorded on November 23, 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/pULLJLqbD4E Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Aaron Smith and Mike Mazza discuss World Philosophy Day to explore what is the nature and value of philosophy. They address how philosophy is commonly perceived (especially within academia) as a useless field and how Ayn Rand's distinctive conception offers a deeper and more practical perspective that matters for life. Among the topics covered: What philosophy is and the kind of questions it addresses; How people operate philosophically even when lacking a systematic outlook; Ayn Rand’s take on philosophy as inescapable and life-impacting; How contrasting philosophical worldviews produce different ways of living; Ayn Rand’s view on the practical guidance that philosophy offers; The problems with Bertrand Russel’s influential view of philosophy; Why academic philosophy has failed to defend the value of its field; How religion makes people unaware of secular philosophical worldviews; Objectivism’s integration of method and content. Recommended in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s book Philosophy: Who Needs It and Onkar Ghate’s article “Let’s Revive Philosophy.” The podcast was recorded on November 16, 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/AdH8Yy0NC5c Podcast audio:

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 [email protected] 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:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Sam Weaver discuss political controversies that have erupted in the last two years around the discussion of controversial issues, like race or gender, in public schools. They analyze the causes of these political battles and what it would take to resolve them. Among the topics covered: The recent history of attempts to control the content of education by both the left and the right;Why right-wing attempts to influence education make headlines and leftist efforts do not;How the focus on controversial topics rather than educational fundamentals reveals a lack of concern for children’s interests;The tribal motivation behind attempts to indoctrinate children with certain views;Why the government monopoly on education leads to pressure group warfare;Why separation of education and state is needed for the same reasons as separation of church and state;Why education would be far more innovative if the government were not involved in it;How to reform education by giving more control to parents and less to government officials;Whether public school districts have objected to ARI’s Free Books for Teachers program. The podcast was recorded on September 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/TzpR_UUdAvk Podcast audio:

No death toll can truly capture the devastation that Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and their ilk inflicted upon the world. Think of the engineered Great Famine in Ukraine (Holodomor), the Holocaust, the Cultural Revolution, the Killing Fields of Cambodia. Though today we recognize these leaders as monsters, we mustn’t forget that in their time Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and others had Western apologists and admirers. But surely the most consequential examples of such monsters today are Xi Jinping and especially Vladimir Putin. This is a reading of an article published in New Ideal on June 29, 2022, by Yaron Brook and Elan Journo. Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Nikos Sotirakopoulos, Elan Journo and Tristan de Liège discuss the phenomenon known as “hustle culture,” an attitude toward work that promotes relentless pursuit of career goals, and which critics say causes people to abandon their personal lives and experience burnout. Among the topics covered: The meaning of the new term “hustle culture”;Ayn Rand’s view of work versus the conventional view;Positive and negative aspects of “hustle culture” according to its defenders;The relation between challenging work and personal values;How to approach work when one’s job is unfulfilling;The need to think of one’s needs and values from a causal perspective and across one’s whole life;How to think about work in relation to one’s other values;Evaluating the advocates and critics of “hustle culture.” Mentioned in this podcast are Rand’s novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. The podcast was recorded on September 15, 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/R29szapduuM Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss America’s failed response to 9/11 and some of its consequences, including the discrediting of American political and intellectual institutions, the proliferation of conspiracy fantasies, and the rise of “populism.” Among the topics covered: Why 9/11 was a turning point in American foreign policy and in the wider culture;How ARI’s analysis of 9/11 and America’s military response differs from mainstream analyses;Government institutions’ evasion of the nature of the Islamic totalitarianism movement that caused 9/11;How this evasion led to the deaths of American troops deployed to help create new Middle Eastern governments that empowered Islamists;How the evasive response to 9/11 discredited political institutions, the media, and the universities in the eyes of many Americans;How the post-9/11 climate of evasion mainstreamed conspiracy fantasies and unjustified skepticism of America’s military capabilities;How the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent bailouts further discredited the government, the media, and the universities;How the “populist” view of “elites” as the enemy was fueled by the financial crisis and the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic;Why the root of the problem is the failure to uphold America’s founding ideals. Mentioned in this podcast are Journo’s article “Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton Paved the Road to 9/11” and the book Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism, edited by Ghate and Journo. The podcast was recorded on September 7, 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/qyuMYzV1Kvk Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Aaron Smith, Dan Schwartz, and Tristan de Liège discuss Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience, a recent book by Nancy Sherman that promotes the philosophy of Stoicism while arguing that a healthy modern Stoicism requires important changes. They discuss major themes of Sherman’s book and how we should evaluate her perspective on Stoic philosophy. Among the topics covered: A brief overview of Stoic philosophy and its history;The Stoic view that emotions are products of our judgments and hence can be harmonized with reason;The Stoic view that emotions like desire, fear, anger, and distress are inherently irrational;What this view of emotions and Sherman’s modified version of it get wrong;Sherman’s take on the Stoic practice of “pre-rehearsing” the loss of one’s values;The metaphysical perspectives behind Stoicism’s emphasis on adversity versus Objectivism’s emphasis on achieving values;How contemporary interest in Stoicism relates to the widespread acceptance of the morality of altruism. Mentioned in this podcast are Smith’s article “The False Promise of Stoicism,” Ayn Rand’s essays “Causality Versus Duty” and “The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made” from her book Philosophy: Who Needs It, and the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on “Emotions.” The podcast was recorded on August 31, 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/pegi4KAKgpg Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the Statement of Principles recently released by leaders of the “National Conservatism” movement outlining the ideas they think are necessary for “recovering and maintaining our freedom, security, and prosperity.” Journo and Sotirakopoulos discuss the “principles” the statement advocates, how they relate to America’s founding principles and the philosophic ideas behind this movement. Among the topics covered: “National Conservatism” as a movement to redefine conservatism to exclude individualism;Why “national conservatives” regard the family and the nation as the units of society and oppose claims to know universal truths;Why “national conservatives” think governments must promote religious ideas;The authoritarian implications of the “national conservative” view that government should promote the family and prevent immorality;The “national conservatives’” un-American view that rights are conditional and originate from group consensus;Why we must oppose both the “woke” religious phenomenon on the left and the religion of the “national conservatives.” Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essay “Conservatism: An Obituary” from the book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Leonard Peikoff’s essay “Religion Versus America” from the book The Voice of Reason, Journo’s articles “Meet the Conservative Authoritarians” and “The Vice of Nationalism,” and the New Ideal Live episode “The Threat of National Conservatism.” The podcast was recorded on August 24, 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/3yr1nHjDpQ8 Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate, Agustina Vergara Cid and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss Iran’s recent attempts — on American soil — to assassinate Masih Alinejad, a journalist and critic of the Iranian regime, and John Bolton, a former U.S. National Security Advisor, as well as the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, whose murder Iran has advocated for over 30 years. They discuss the philosophic nature of the Iranian regime and how decades of failed U.S. policy has emboldened Iran and other enemies. Among the topics covered: The history of Iran’s fatwa against Rushdie;Alinejad’s activism and Iranian agents’ attempts to kidnap and assassinate her;Iran’s attempt to assassinate Bolton following the killing of Qassem Soleimani;How U.S. foreign policy over the last several administrations emboldened Iran and other enemies;The amorality of President Joe Biden’s statement about the attack on Rushdie;America’s long history of appeasing Iran even in the face of acts of war against the U.S.;The power of fundamentalist Islam and the need to convince its adherents that this ideology cannot win;How the U.S. should have responded to Iran’s 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran;Why an alliance of evil regimes would be insignificant if the U.S. stood up for American values;What a proper U.S. response to Islamic totalitarianism would involve;How the intellectuals’ propagation of cultural relativism and hatred for America has led to widespread misunderstanding of regimes like Iran. Mentioned in this podcast are Ghate and Elan Journo’s book Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism and Leonard Peikoff’s essays “End States Who Sponsor Terrorism” and “Religious Terrorism vs. Free Speech.” The podcast was recorded on August 17, 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/AL0eYahBE4Q Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Onkar Ghate discuss the idea held by critics of “cancel culture,” such as John McWhorter and Bari Weiss, that we should not call our political opponents evil. They discuss why we should sometimes regard those who disagree with us as immoral or evil — and treat them accordingly. Among the topics covered: The phenomenon often called “cancel culture” and how critics conceptualize it;Objectivity versus the “principle of charity” endorsed by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt;What’s wrong with McWhorter’s case for not morally judging political opponents who have different value priorities from us;How the idea that values are not the province of reason breeds reluctance to make moral judgments;What’s wrong with Weiss’s idea that political disagreements shouldn’t affect personal relationships;Why Objectivism rejects the view that we can pass moral judgment only on people’s actions, not their ideas;How the Atlas Society’s stance that ideas are not subject to moral judgment has led to their failure to take ideas seriously. Mentioned in this podcast are Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Coddling of the American Mind; John McWhorter’s article “I’m Pro-Choice. But I Don’t Think Pro-Lifers Are Bad People”; Bari Weiss’s article “The New Founders America Needs”; Jonathan Howard’s article “Is Discussing the Consequences of Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Fun?”; Leonard Peikoff’s essay “Fact and Value”; and the New Ideal Live episodes “The Fuel on the Fire of ‘Cancel Culture’” and “Challenging 'Cancel Culture.'” The podcast was recorded on August 10, 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/x5VIfRZpMbI Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Mike Mazza interviews Keith Lockitch about the Ayn Rand University and his upcoming course, Foundations of Physical Science, one of the many new courses being offered by ARU. Among the topics covered: The Ayn Rand University’s vision of providing a foundation for life;How the new ARU courses align with that vision;Whether ARU is aimed at a specific age group;Whether ARU courses will be offered more than once;An overview of Lockitch’s Foundations of Physical Science course;How the course fits with ARU’s broader vision;Why a strong math background is not required for Lockitch’s course;The textbooks and workload students can expect;The value of learning ancient astronomy and techniques of observational astronomy;The importance of astronomy in prehistoric times;How mobile apps are going to be used in the course;A brief description of the course outline and its philosophic framework;What people with a degree in physics or astronomy can gain from the course;Other courses that may be available in ARU in the future. Mentioned in the discussion is Leonard Peikoff’s course History of Philosophy. To register for Lockitch’s Foundations of Physical Science course or any other course at ARU, go to university.aynrand.org to see the course catalog. This episode was recorded on August 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/B8ReglVFX4w Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer, Dan Schwartz and Agustina Vergara Cid address questions on Objectivism submitted by the podcast’s audience about the meaning of the term “objectivity,” the difference between evasion and selective focus, and the strongest objections to Objectivism. Among the topics covered: If objectivity designates a certain relationship between consciousness and existence, how can reality itself be objective?The two meanings of “objectivity”: one epistemological, one metaphysical;Whether Objectivism’s use of the term “objective” to refer to a relationship between mind and reality is idiosyncratic;Can you reach a false conclusion while being objective?Is it evasion to narrow your focus to the good or positive things within a certain context?When and how it’s appropriate to focus on the benefits rather than the downsides of a particular situation;Focus as paying attention to something versus the specifically Objectivist meaning of focus as a state of “purposeful alertness;”How to prioritize one’s attention in light of Objectivism’s view that one should be motivated primarily by values rather than fear.What are the strongest objections to Objectivism?The difference between plausible objections and those that are common or valid;The objection that Ayn Rand’s argument for her ethics justifies maintaining physical survival, but does not justify fulfilling and enjoying one’s life;What this objection misses about the distinctive nature of life as a human being, such as the importance of mental well-being;Whether survival and flourishing are separate goals in cases like choosing to live a longer but less enjoyable life by adopting a healthier diet;The objection raised by many scientifically minded people that Objectivism is wrong to think human beings have free will;The failure of free-will skeptics to take seriously the introspective evidence for free will or to fully recognize the implications of determinism;The objection that claims Rand is a materialist. Mentioned in this podcast are Leonard Peikoff’s book Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on “Objectivity,” Bayer’s blog post “The History of Objectivity in Light of Rand’s Epistemology and Ethics,” Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, Lecture 2 of Peikoff’s course Understanding Objectivism, and Harry Binswanger’s course Free Will. The podcast was recorded on July 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/kihr3tvoq8Q Podcast audio:

In this episode, Agustina Vergara Cid’s article “Ayn Rand’s Radical View of the United Nations” is featured. In that essay, Vergara Cid explains Ayn Rand’s unique opinion of the UN and her arguments against this organization. Rand’s arguments stand in sharp contrast to the commonly held view that the United Nations is a moral organization. Rand also rebuts the viewpoint that the UN is misguided but can be fixed, arguing instead that America's best option is to withdraw from the organization. Vergara Cid’s article was originally published in New Ideal, the Ayn Rand Institute’s journal, on March 25, 2022.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss critical race theory — a theory that claims to address racial injustice in the United States but does so through a collectivist, anti-Enlightenment framework. The episode includes background on critical race theory’s rise to prominence and advice about how we can engage objectively with its ideas. Among the topics covered: Why it’s important to understand critical race theory;Definitions of critical race theory by its proponents and critics;The rise of critical race theory after the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a collectivist way of confronting less obvious forms of racism;The claim that racism is omnipresent and embedded in American society;The collectivist idea that only members of certain groups can understand racism;The view that progress toward racial justice only occurs when it aligns with the interests of white people;The egalitarianism behind the claim that any case of racial inequality is evidence of racism;How more individualistic thinkers enabled critical race theory by failing to adequately discuss racism;Proposals by Republican politicians to ban critical race theory in public schools. Mentioned in this podcast are the New Ideal Live episode “Ayn Rand’s Unique Understanding of Racism,” the upcoming Ayn Rand University class The Road to Critical Race Theory and Tal Tsfany’s talk “Building the Ayn Rand University.” The podcast was recorded on July 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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2kSZVbC2rQ Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss President Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia and meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in spite of Biden’s condemnation of the regime following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The conversation analyzes America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and the philosophic ideas behind U.S. policy in the region. Among the topics covered: What we can learn from recent events about the nature of the Saudi regime;Whether the U.S. and Saudi Arabia can have “common interests” given the regime’s character and actions;The failure of American policymakers to take seriously the facts about Saudi Arabia and to adopt a principled stand;Why the oil shortage does not justify pursuing closer relations with Saudi Arabia;Why we should not ally with Saudi Arabia as a means of opposing Iran;The mentality behind calls to appease and ally with Saudi Arabia;Why the failure to deal properly with Saudi Arabia is ultimately a moral and intellectual failure. Mentioned in this podcast are the expanded edition of the book Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism, edited by Journo and Onkar Ghate; the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on “Foreign Policy”; and Journo’s latest book, What Justice Demands. The podcast was recorded on July 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/QRuVPPTASyo Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, broadcast live from OCON 2022, Onkar Ghate, Gregory Salmieri, Tara Smith and Yaron Brook discuss the tumultuous events of the last few years and how we should evaluate the state of American political culture in light of them. Among the topics covered: The irrationality and tribalism of most Americans’ responses to Covid-19;The increasing popularity of conspiratorial thinking;How 9/11 and subsequent wars contributed to Americans’ loss of trust in institutions;The disappearance of discussion about economic policy from American political culture;The transformation of the Tea Party into the modern Republican base;The fact that America still attracts entrepreneurial people from around the world;Why the “woke” pressure to treat many points of view as off-limits is harmful, and why it might be declining;Whether some basic qualifications should be required for holding political office;Education as an avenue for Objectivists to promote positive cultural change;The absence of positive values in American culture today;How to respond to the social pressure of “woke” culture. Mentioned in this podcast is Ayn Rand’s essay “Selfishness Without a Self” from her book Philosophy: Who Needs It. The podcast was recorded on July 6, 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/feOZ_egPw_8 Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate, Ben Bayer and Yaron Brook discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturns Roe v. Wade and allows for immediate state-level bans on abortion. They cover the philosophic ideas that led to the decision, why defenses of abortion rights failed and the options now available for defenders of abortion rights. Among the topics covered: How the majority opinion empties the right to liberty of its content;Justice Clarence Thomas’s opposition to substantive due process;Why the Ninth Amendment has not been used in Supreme Court rulings on abortion;The incrementalism behind Chief Justice John Roberts’s concurrence;Why Roe v. Wade was a good decision despite its imperfect reasoning;The dissent’s defense of individual liberty against majority will;The dissent’s forceful protest against the unprincipled, anti-individualist majority opinion;Why the dissent is right that the majority is inconsistent with its own reasoning in claiming that abortion is different from other rights;Questions about whether the court typically tailors its reasoning to fit a predecided outcome;The problem with the viability standard and the idea of balancing rights with a “state interest” in the fetus;How the dissent undermines its own case by citing Lochner v. New York as a case that was rightly overturned;How the morality of self-sacrifice contributed to the Dobbs ruling and the dissent’s failure to cite the right to the pursuit of happiness;Why the widespread acceptance of collectivist premises have contributed to the abridgement of abortion rights;Why the concept of “states’ rights” is an expression of collectivism;How the fight over abortion rights will continue at the state and federal level. Mentioned in this podcast are the New Ideal Live episodes “Roe v Wade on the Brink” and “The Supreme Court Abortion Leak vs. the Rule of Law,” Bayer’s book Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct, and Rand’s lecture “Censorship: Local and Express,” also published in her book Philosophy: Who Needs It. The podcast was recorded on June 29, 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/jLMf6f1kJfU Podcast audio: