The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer, Agustina Vergara Cid and Don Watkins discuss their initial reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturns Roe v. Wade and lays the groundwork for states to restrict or ban abortion. They outline what ARI has done and plans to do to promote Ayn Rand’s defense of abortion rights. Among the topics covered: Why ARI has been a vocal defender of abortion rights; [0:28]The panelists’ initial reactions to the Dobbs v. Jackson decision; [1:59]Responses to Vergara Cid’s recent column defending abortion; [9:31]Why Roe v. Wade and the political Left have failed to defend abortion rights; [12:17]What ARI has done recently and plans to do to advance the case for abortion rights; [16:57]The importance of keeping in mind the lives of actual women when thinking about abortion. [23:22] Mentioned in this podcast are Bayer’s book Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct and Vergara Cid’s column “The Pursuit of Happiness Includes the Right to Abortion.” The podcast was recorded on June 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/y01zuqcDHUU Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss Ayn Rand’s provocative view of the meaning and importance of moral judgment as articulated in her fiction and in her nonfiction philosophic work. This discussion assumes familiarity with Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, and listeners should note that it includes plot spoilers. Among the topics covered: Why Ayn Rand thought the slogan “judge not, lest ye be judged” is radically wrong;Why moral judgment is necessary for living life;The importance of moral judgment in Rand’s novels;The need for moral judgment in foreign policy;How to be rational when making moral judgments;Cases in which one lacks sufficient information to reach a final judgment;Rand’s view that a person’s ideas are subject to moral judgment;Whether someone can innocently adopt evil ideas;What to do after reaching a negative moral evaluation of one’s own actions;The difference between Objectivist and intrinsicist views of moral judgments;Judging people whose moral character has changed over time. Mentioned in this podcast are Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, her essays “How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?” “The Psychology of Psychologizing” and “The Cult of Moral Grayness,” Leonard Peikoff’s essay “Fact and Value” and his course “Judging, Feeling and Not Being Moralistic.” The podcast was recorded on June 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/JdvsrFwuDQI Podcast audio:

Tribalism is resurging, most obviously in politics. But it is also rampant on college campuses. Tribalism has moved from the fringes of society to the mainstream. We live in what’s becoming a tribal age. But even today’s most clear-eyed critics of tribal loyalties leave us with a muddled conception of tribalism, normalizing the phenomenon, pushing it further into the cultural mainstream. In this essay Elan Journo argues that we have much to gain from Ayn Rand’s philosophic analysis of tribalism. Rand not only penetrates to the essence of the phenomenon of tribalism, she lays out clearly a positive alternative, the ideal of individualism, which is the antidote to tribalism. This essay was originally published in New Ideal on May 29, 2019. Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss the public hearings of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. They analyze the philosophic significance of the attack, the investigation into it, and the cultural reactions. Among the topics covered: The significance of the January 6 terrorist attack;How to evaluate the objectivity of the hearings, given their highly produced character and the partisan makeup of the committee;Evidence that January 6 was a serious attack and should not be downplayed;The significance of the fact that many in the White House knew there was no evidence of election fraud;Whether tribalism will prevent people’s minds from being changed about the attack;Evaluating Donald Trump’s inaction and Mike Pence’s leadership during the attack;The role of arbitrary claims in the lead-up to and aftermath of January 6;Conservative attempts to downplay the attack and characterize the hearings as a “show trial;”What Trump’s continued influence over the Republican Party says about our cultureWhy Trump and his supporters believe they can get away with lying;Why the January 6 attack was not an attempted coup-d’état;The role of military coups in the creation of banana republic dictatorships. Mentioned in this podcast are Trump’s statement delivered on January 6, the recording of Trump’s phone call with Georgia election officials, Rep. Nancy Mace’s video in front of Trump Tower, the New Ideal Live episode “The Storming of the Capitol,” and Ghate’s articles “Why Ayn Rand Would Have Despised a President Trump” and “One Small Step for Dictatorship.” The podcast was recorded on June 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://www.youtube.com/embed/BAn692ODItc Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate, Dan Schwartz and Ben Bayer discuss British philosopher Kathleen Stock’s book Material Girls, in which Stock bravely challenges “gender identity theory,” the influential idea that gender is determined entirely by private feelings. Among the topics covered: The controversy over Stock’s opposition to gender self-identification laws in the UK;The case that an orthodoxy has formed around “gender identity theory;”The value of Stock’s book for different audiences;Stock’s argument that biological sex is real and essentially binary despite borderline cases;Why we need a concept of biological sex;Stock’s critique of the idea that gender identity is a psychological state;Stock’s model of gender identity as a psychological assessment of one’s own sex in relation to that of others;Stock’s view that the ability to change biological sex is a fiction many are immersed in;Similarities between Stock’s view of concepts and Ayn Rand’s;The role of secondhandedness and authoritarianism in the acceptance of “gender identity theory.” Mentioned in this podcast are Stock’s book Material Girls and Rand’s book Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, especially chapter 7, “The Cognitive Role of Concepts.” The podcast was recorded on June 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://www.youtube.com/embed/fbIqLa3I5Ao Podcast audio:

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: