New Ideal, from the Ayn Rand Institute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mzUUDz14Ac Podcast audio: In this special podcast episode, Yaron Brook and Elan Journo interview Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas founding leader who became one of Israel's most valuable intelligence assets. Raised within the movement, Yousef recounts how his experiences led him to break decisively with Hamas and oppose it at great personal risk. The conversation centers on the ideological nature of Hamas, an aspect often evaded by its apologists. Drawing on firsthand experience, Yousef describes a movement rooted in a culture of sexual repression and the subordination of women. He argues that these are foundational aspects of the religious Islamic ideology that suppresses dissent, encourages mass murder, and brutalizes its own people. One of the most striking aspects of the interview is Yousef's account of the conscious moral choice that guided his transformation: the choice to protect human life. In contrasting Hamas with Israel, he identifies a fundamental difference in values between a movement that glorifies death and a society that values human life. Topics include: Yousef's defection from Hamas; The ideology of Palestinian brutality; Indoctrination in Palestinian society; Palestinians' repeated rejections of peace; Risks of working with Israeli intelligence; October 7; Q&A. This podcast was recorded live on February 18, 2025, and is available on The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image credit: Noam Galai / via Getty Images.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmnux6MriXE Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss the recent decision in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump, striking down the President's expansive “Liberation Day” tariffs.   The majority's reasoning The major questions doctrine Statutory interpretation and legislative intent The dissent's plausibility The separation of powers A stopgap against eroding separation of powers Scrutinizing deprivation of economic liberty, property Emergency powers Resources:  Ben Bayer, “Ayn Rand on Free Trade, the 'Essence of Capitalism's Foreign Policy'” Ben Bayer, “The Constitutionally Dubious Law Empowering Trump's ‘Emergency' Tariff Authority” Ben Bayer, “The Lawyers Defending Trump's Tariffs Know They're Un-American. Here's How We Can Tell” This episode was recorded on February 25, 2026.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDKszEjACFA Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer interviews Agustina Vergara Cid and Brandon Lisi about their new article: “'I Chose to Be an American:' Ayn Rand's Immigration Story.” Topics include: Motivation for the article; Why Rand chose America; Obstacles Rand faced; How Rand pushed America to live up to its values; Archival resources consulted; Most surprising facts about Rand's story; Impact of the article. Read the article here: “'I Chose to be an American:' Ayn Rand's Immigration Story.” This episode was recorded on February 23, 2026, and posted on February 24, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89gUQLWQGG0 Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss the role of Trump in today's rise in political violence. Topics include: How Trump's campaign demonized fellow Americans Connection between tribalism and violence Trump's whitewashing of violence Trump's targeted political attacks Trump's comfort with political force and strongmen How “crisis narratives” legitimize the use of force This episode was recorded on February 13, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image credits: Zach D Roberts / NurPhoto via Getty Images; Brent Stirton / News / via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch / Staff / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49b6O7nOtZI Podcast Audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Robertas Bakula and Mike Mazza discuss the opposition to autonomous vehicles. Topics include: Why some people oppose autonomous vehicles; The safety of autonomous vehicles; Economic costs of automobile Accidents; Fear of displacing jobs; The “common man” argument; Divine right of stagnation. Resources: Nathaniel Branden's essay “Divine Right of Stagnation” in The Virtue of Selfishness This episode was recorded on January 12, 2026, and posted on February 12, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image credits: Waymo: Mario Tama / Staff / via Getty Images; Hawley: Chip Somodevilla / Staff / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOtmQv3O7T8 Podcast audio: It is common to think of values as things we “discover” about ourselves — pre-packaged preferences waiting somewhere deep inside. We speak, for example, of “discovering our passion” or of finally realizing “what we were meant to do,” as if these priorities had been there all along. On this view, valuing is automatic: we simply respond to our needs, desires, or emotions. In his 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference talk, titled “Conceiving Values,” Gregory Salmieri offers a different account. Drawing on Ayn Rand's distinctive view, he argues that valuing is not passive or instinctive. It is an active, cognitive achievement — something we must choose, learn, and practice. Values, Salmieri explains, are goals within an ongoing process of self-sustaining action. Other organisms act to preserve themselves, but only human beings can conceptually identify and plan out their values. To concretize this process, Salmieri turns to the work of creators.  An architect does not discover their buildings ready-made in the world; a novelist does not stumble upon finished stories; each must actively conceive a guiding idea and gradually give it concrete form. Likewise, valuing involves choosing long-range commitments that give direction to one's actions and define the course of one's life. Topics covered in Salmieri's talk include: Conventional view of values vs. Objectivism's; Values and life; Conceptual values in human beings; Knowledge and goals in valuing; Q&A. This talk was recorded live on July 5th in Boston, MA, as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference, and is available on The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream.  Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g8n9_LOSwc Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Sam Weaver and Ben Bayer discuss a new policy in Texas A&M University that restricts professors' ability to teach topics related to gender and sexual orientation, which resulted in one professor being prevented from teaching Plato's Symposium. Topics include: Texas A&M's policy; The case of Plato's Symposium; Relation to intellectual freedom; Who should decide in public universities; Motives behind the policy. Resources: Ayn Rand's essay “Fairness Doctrine for Education” in Philosophy: Who Needs It Onkar Ghate and Sam Weaver's article “Trump vs. Harvard: Intellectual Freedom in the Crosshairs” This episode was recorded on January 27, 2026, and posted on February 5, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image credit: Jon Hicks / Stone / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twCDUSXZMWw Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer and Tristan de Liège discuss the confusions involved in the conventional conception of sacrifice. Topics include: Examples of Sacrifice; Investment vs. Sacrifice; Value Hierarchy; How to Rank Values Objectively; ‘Sacrifice' as a package deal; The false appeal of sacrifice. Resources:  Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead Ayn Rand's essay, “The Ethics of Emergencies” The Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on sacrifice This episode was recorded on December 30, 2025, and posted on January 29, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbyYlYiLE7Y Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Onkar Ghate and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss the implications of the killing of Renee Good for the rule of law. Among the topics covered: Topics include: ICE operations resembling military operations; The immediate aftermath of the shooting; The administration's contempt for the rule of law; ICE is not real police; They way ICE conducts arrests; The argument that the Constitution doesn't apply to immigrants; The administration playing to its base's tribalism; The administration's loyalty tests; The shooting of Ashli Babbitt; The future of America. Resources: Synchronized videos of Renee Good's shooting The White House's January 6 timeline   The shooting of Ashli Babbitt   Harry Binswanger's essay “ICE vs. the rule of law, not of men”   Podcast episode: ICE Raids vs. Rule of Law: Interviewing Institute for Justice's Josh Windham   This episode was recorded on January 21, 2026, and posted on January 22, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDnD9GWdLaI Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate examine why Iran's ongoing uprising may be the regime's most serious challenge yet — and why it deserves far more moral support from the free world. Topics include: The nature of the protests; Moral versus military support; Trump versus Obama and Biden; The benefits of a free Iran; The roots of Western silence. Resources: Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism What Justice Demands "The U.S. has Appeased Iran for Decades” This episode was recorded on January 13, 2026, and posted on January 14, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credit: Carlos Jasso / AFP / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTl2m5StrvQ Podcast audio: The crimes of the French Revolution have long been regarded as indicting Enlightenment ideals. Its Reign of Terror has been seen as the product of an overconfident belief in reason, liberty, and human perfectibility. The American Revolution, by contrast, is said to have succeeded only because it was more moderate and traditional. In his 2025 OCON talk, “Enlightenment on Trial: The Real Lessons of the American and French Revolutions,” Don Watkins challenges this narrative. What history shows, Watkins contends, is that Enlightenment ideals in France were largely confined to intellectual elites within a rigid, hierarchical society. French culture was also shaped by powerful anti-Enlightenment currents — notably Rousseau's elevation of passion and the collective over reason and the individual. These ideas later fueled the Terror. By contrast, many American colonists read thinkers such as Locke, Montesquieu, and Franklin and had long practiced self-government, giving Enlightenment ideals real cultural depth. Watkins highlights a further, crucial difference between the two revolutions. The French were fundamentally motivated by hatred towards the ancien régime. French mob violence was widespread and brutal, since it sought, above all else, to eradicate the nobility, the clergy, and every other symbol of the past. Similar unrest was relatively limited and contained in America, where Americans resisted British rule with a positive aim: to establish a government that protected individual rights. Among the topics covered: Narratives about the French Revolution; The rise and fall of the Revolution; Two Revolutions compared; Contrasting motivations. This talk was recorded live on July 5th in Boston, MA, as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference, and is available on The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TpOvna_78 Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Onkar Ghate, Elan Journo and Ben Bayer discuss the recent American attack on Venezuela to capture Nicolas Maduro. Topics include: Invalid “international law” objections; An act of war; Drug, “narcoterrorism” and oil excuses; Nationalistic “spheres of influence”; The altruistic conception of “self-interest”; Contempt for the Constitution; Ayn Rand on the Roots of War. Resources:  Ayn Rand, "The Roots of War" ARI Podcast, "How Drug Boats Could Be Used to Rationalize an Unjust War with Venezuela," December 11  ARI Podcast, “Trump's Anti-Capitalist Control Over Business,” Sept 18, 2025 Onkar Ghate, "Saving the Enlightenment," OCON 2025 This episode was recorded on January 7, 2026, and posted on January 8, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credit: Tomas Ragina / iStock / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shwbIXkaZPs Podcast audio: This talk comparing Newton and Descartes approach to mathematics by David Bakker was recorded live on July 2nd in Boston, MA as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference and is available on the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credits: Newton: GeorgiosArt / iStock / via Getty Images. Descartes: ilbusca / DigitalVision Vectors / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClmXn3-j2t4 Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss a recent essay by Steven Pinker and Marian Tupy (“The Golden Age of Humanity? We're Living In It”) that aims to offer a secular alternative to the recent resurgence in religious culture. Topics include: The Anti-Enlightenment Phenomenon; Pinker and Tupy's secular strengths; A weak critique of Christian morality; Christian morality and antisemitism; Understanding the crisis of meaning; Unphilosophical moral foundations; Alternative, Pro-Enlightenment moral foundation. Resources:  “The Objectivist Ethics,” Ayn Rand “Finding Morality and Happiness Without God,” Onkar Ghate “Debunking the Supernaturalism That Haunts Secular Ethics,” Ben Bayer This episode was recorded on December 16, 2025, and posted on January 2, 2026. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credit: Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt / AFP / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hJO4ofx6VU Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, originally released on December 23, 2024, Ben Bayer and Agustina Vergara Cid explore the true meaning of Christmas by examining the history and philosophical significance of our holiday practices. Among the topics covered: The secular meaning of Christmas; A proper view of Christmas's commercial aspects;   Why some people are antagonistic towards the Christmas spirit;   How the doctrine of original sin undermines Christmas joy. Mentioned in this podcast are Ben Bayer's articles “Give the Gift of a Guilt-Free Christmas” and “The Meaningful Delights of a Worldly Christmas"  and Onkar Ghate's essay “An Atheist's Tribute to Christmas”. This podcast was recorded on December 18, 2024 and released on December 23, 2024. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI3qhwVi1Eg Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Samantha Watkins interviews Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and a senior scholar at the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University, about the alarming trend of anti-vaccine irrationality coming from government leaders. Topics include: The state of vaccine science Hepatitis B vaccine Covid vaccine The cause of conspiracism The real-world impact of conspiracism A healthy culture's approach to vaccine science Resources:  “A Pro-Freedom Approach to Infectious Disease” by Onkar Ghate, in which he shares ARI's view of the role of government with respect to infectious disease This episode was recorded on December 15, 2025, and posted on December 18, 2025. Image Credit: Alex Wong / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBSu1A2_BSg Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer and Elan Journo discuss the recent American attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and scrutinize pretexts for war with Venezuela. Topics include:  “War crimes” and international law; The fake “terrorist” threat; The “war on drugs”;  The Venezuelan military “threat”; Authoritarian presidential power. Resources:  Ayn Rand, “The Roots of War” This episode was recorded on December 9, 2025, and posted on December 11, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credits: Venezuela flag: Kryssia Campos / Moment / via Getty Images; Trump: Chip Somodevilla / via Getty Images

Podcast audio: This talk by Alex Silverman was recorded live on July 2nd in Boston, MA as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference and is available on the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KEOmlA-YRo Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Agustina Vergara Cid interviews Josh Windham, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, about the Trump administration's immigration policy and its violations of constitutional rights. Topics include: The Garcia Venegas case; Arbitrary “mass deportations”; Kavanaugh on permissible profiling; Qualified immunity; DHS' denial of reality; Precedent for current enforcement; American principles betrayed; Standing up to authoritarianism. This episode was recorded on December 2, 2025, and posted on December 4, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image credits: Police: Octavio Jones / AFP / via Getty Images; Constitution: Tetra Images / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgur8cEOpnk Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Nikos Sotirakopoulos and ARI's senior intellectuals make a deep dive into the moral crisis of the conservative movement. Topics include: Moral sanction; “Cancel culture” and free speech; Conservative tribalism; How ARI is different. Resources: Onkar Ghate's lecture On Moral Sanction This episode was recorded on November 19, 2025, and posted on November 22, 2025. Image Credits: Carlson: Leon Neal / via Getty Images; Fuentes: William Edwards / AFP / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uCwg6ADk4s Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Nikos Sotirakopoulos and Onkar Ghate discuss the implications of Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York. As the country takes another step towards authoritarianism and tribalism, is there any hope to put a stop to the downward cultural and political spiral? Topics include: Mamdani's evil; Mamdani and populism; The downward spiral of tribalism; The education system gave us Mamdani; Is there a hope for the future? Resources: Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, How NOT to Explain Mamdani's Socialist Revival This episode was recorded on November 17, 2025, and posted on November 21, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credit: Michael M. Santiago / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgeCG_fGFrk Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer and Robertas Bakula examine the key arguments supporting the President's tariffs before the Supreme Court and expose their un-American hostility to the rule of law.  Topics include: Background on the case; Defying the rule of law; Hostility to objective legal interpretation; Tariffs are not foreign policy powers; The absence of an “intelligible principle”; Striking down unconstitutional laws; Un-American arguments and policies; Likely and desirable outcomes. Resources:  Ayn Rand Lexicon, “Law, objective and non-objective” Ayn Rand, “The Nature of Government” Ben Bayer, “The Constitutionally Dubious Law Empowering Trump's ‘Emergency' Tariff Authority” Ben Bayer, “The President Has No “Foreign Policy” Discretion To Impose Sweeping Global Tariffs” Ben Bayer, “The Lawyers Defending Trump's Tariffs Know They're Un-American. Here's How We Can Tell” This episode was recorded on November 13, 2025, and posted on November 19, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credit: David Talukdar / Moment / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4zPY_XnfS8 Podcast audio: The Enlightenment's commitment to reason, individualism, and the power of knowledge sparked unprecedented progress in human life. Yet, despite this achievement, contemporary Western societies face deepening crises — mounting political violence, the collapse of alliances of free nations, and a growing support for authoritarian movements. What accounts for this reversal? In his talk, “Saving the Enlightenment,” delivered at ARI's 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference, Onkar Ghate diagnoses the problem at its root: our cultural crises are the aftermath of a crucial philosophical gap left by the Enlightenment. Ghate argues that a key feature of our cultural landscape is “a blind rebellion against an orgy of self-sacrifice.” Crises like 9/11, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the widespread embrace of DEI initiatives marked the unfolding of self-sacrificial policies that cost American lives. Many who now condemn their leaders do not realize how those policies reflect the same moral code they still accept. They embrace alternative ideologies (like nationalism) that channel the same code. So they don't know their real target: their rebellion against “elite” demands for self-sacrifice is “blind.” This blindness, Ghate contends, stems from the Enlightenment's failure to articulate a morality of self-interest. While its philosophers championed reason in science and politics, they never provided an alternative to the ethical frameworks that demanded individuals subordinate their welfare to collective duty. Consequently, modern culture lacks a coherent philosophy that sanctions the individual's right to pursue happiness. To secure the Enlightenment's legacy, Ghate urges, requires adopting an ethical system that validates rational self-interest and personal happiness as moral goods — principles that only Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism fully articulates. Objectivism, in his view, provides “the new morality that's necessary to cement the achievements of the Enlightenment.” Among the topics covered: The Enlightenment and its failure The grip of self-sacrifice Self-sacrifice in the 21st century Today's pseudo-selfishness Objectivism completes the Enlightenment This talk was recorded live on July 2nd in Boston, MA, as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference, and is available on The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1sggf9exTQ Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer and Samantha Watkins challenge Zohran Mamdani's plan to phase out NYC's Gifted & Talented program — a move that would hold back advanced students from the education they need to thrive — and replace it with universal free childcare. Topics include: NYC's Gifted & Talented Program Mamdani's Reasons to End G&T  Mamdani's Universal Childcare Proposal The Goal is Punishing Gifted Kids The Reaction to Mamdani's Proposals Education is Not Zero-Sum Resources:  Ayn Rand, “The Age of Envy”, Return of the Primitive Ayn Rand, “The Comprachicos”, Return of the Primitive This episode was recorded on November 5, 2025, and posted on November 13, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credits: [Child]: Catherine Delahaye /DigitalVision / via Getty Images[Mamdani]: Stephanie Keith / Stringer / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnyS0vpTh_k Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer, Tristan de Liege, and Mike Mazza discuss Jeremy Sherman's book, Neither Ghost Nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature of Selves. Topics include: Science and Philosophy; Deacon's Autogen Theory; Other Theories of the Origin and Nature of Life; Implications for Understanding Free Will; Implications for Moral Philosophy. Resources:  Harry Binswanger, The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts This episode was recorded on October 10, 2025, and posted on November 11, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id3kFduLXVg Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer and Onkar Ghate discuss both invalid and valid attempts to blame “both sides” of American politics for various outrages.Topics include: Introduction False moral equivalence “Two sides to every issue” Political violence on both sides Free speech hostility on both sides Altruism encourages tribal warfare Recognizing and resisting tribalism Resources:  Ayn Rand, “Doesn't Life Require Compromise?”, The Virtue of Selfishness Ayn Rand, “The Missing Link,” Philosophy: Who Needs It Ayn Rand, “Global Balkanization,” The Voice of Reason  This episode was recorded on October 28, 2025, and posted on November 6, 2025. Image Credit: PM Images / DigitalVision / via Getty Images

Podcast audio: This talk by Robertas Bakula was recorded live on July 2nd in Boston, MA as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference and is available on the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMJR3ja3s5s Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Tristan de Liège and Gregory Salmieri discuss friendship as a moral and philosophical value and explore the relationship between friendship, egoism, and altruism. Topics include: Friendship in Rand's fiction; Visibility in friendship; Egoism and Friendship;    Valuing Friendship; Altruism and sacrifice; Unconditional love; Compromise and reciprocity. Resources: Tristan de Liège's lecture “How to Value Friendship”  A Companion to Ayn Rand, edited by Gregory Salmieri and Allan Gotthelf. This episode was recorded on October 6, 2025, and posted October 30, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credit: Compassionate Eye Foundation/Steven Errico/DigitalVision via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuyhO8xssYY Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Tristan de Liège, Mike Mazza, Gregory Salmieri and Ben Bayer discuss Kevin Mitchell's book, Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will. Topics include: The locus of free will; Moral responsibility; The relevance of quantum mechanics; Determinism; Aristotle; Randomness and indeterminacy; “Agent causation” vs entity causation; Blank slate. Resources: Harry Binswanger's essay “Volition as Cognitive Self-Regulation.” This episode was recorded on October 9, 2025, and posted on October 24, 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-L271Y9HPA Podcast audio: In this Ayn Rand Institute Podcast episode, Mike Mazza and Samantha Watkins analyze objections to new embryo screening technology. Orchid's new technology Moral status of embryos Genetic tradeoffs The “Eugenics” smear Views toward the disabled Losing our humanity Resources: Ayn Rand's essay, “The Anti-Industrial Revolution” in The Return of the Primitive;   Ayn Rand's essay, “Of Living Death” in The Voice of Reason; Ben Bayer's essay, “The Absurdity at the Heart of the Alabama IVF Controversy”;   Ben Bayer's book, “Why the Right to Abortion is Sacrosanct”. This podcast was recorded on September 17, 2025, and posted on October 23, 2025. Image Credit: mihailomilovanovic / E+ / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zg_ANzngT0 Podcast audio: The American attack on Iran's nuclear facilities was met with intense public debate about the proper course of U.S. foreign policy. The Objectivist philosophy offers a distinctive framework for thinking about such issues. In his 2025 OCON talk, “Principles of a Proper Foreign Policy,” Peter Schwartz, an Objectivist intellectual and former chairman of ARI's board, argues that a nation's foreign policy should be guided by the principle of individual rights and aimed at protecting the nation's freedom. Schwartz explains why this approach requires the consistent application of moral judgment. He criticizes the dominant diplomatic approach, which forbids pronouncing moral judgment and has led to decades of disastrous consequences as a result. Among the topics covered: Individual rights as the guiding principle of a nation's foreign policy; Why justice and moral judgment are crucial for a proper foreign policy; Why Trump's foreign policy is against America's interests; How to address threats from Iran and elsewhere; Why diplomacy has failed, and why a principled policy of self-interest is urgently needed; Miscellaneous questions about foreign policy:How close we are to World War 3;Whether appeasement works sometimes;How people can sympathize with Hamas and Iran; Whether individuals should be allowed to trade with hostile countries. This talk was recorded live on July 2nd in Boston, MA, as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference, and is available on The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here. Image Credit: Vadim_Nefedov / via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi8sRxe21qo Podcast audio: In this Ayn Rand Institute Podcast episode, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss the recent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Overall evaluation of the deal; Evading Hamas's evil goals; The injustice of the deal; Altruism enables the injustice; Enemies of freedom must be defeated. This podcast was recorded on October 15, 2025, and posted October 20, 2025. Image credit: Suzanne Plunkett / Pool / via Getty Images.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZCJXTdch2E Podcast audio: In this episode of ARI Bookshelf, Sam Weaver, Ben Bayer, Nikos Sotirakopoulos and Ibis Slade critically examine America's Cultural Revolution by Christopher Rufo and The Identity Trap by Yascha Mounk. Among the topics covered: Nature of “woke” ideology; “Domino” view of ideological influence; Influence of right-wing ideas; Rufo's authoritarianism; Mounk's egalitarianism and collectivism; Books' perspectives on real injustices; Merits of Mounk's book; Weakness of Rufo's critiques; Rufo's un-American tribalism; Influence of postmodern epistemology; Why “woke” ideology isn't Marxism Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand's essay “The Left: Old and New”, Rand's book Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, and Leonard Peikoff's book The DIM Hypothesis. This episode was recorded on October 3, 2025, and posted on October 10, 2025.

This talk by Steven Warden was recorded live on July 3rd in Boston, MA as part of the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference and is available on the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast stream. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V6c-9O3UHk Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Tristan de Liège and Ben Bayer discuss the widespread claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Among the topics covered: Decoupling from the confusion of “international law” Validating the concept of “genocide”; The invalid collectivist elements of the concept; The absurd UN definition of “genocide”; Why the valid concept does not apply to Israel; Sidebar on the issue of just and unjust war; The genocidal intent of Hamas Recommended in this podcast is Elan Journo's book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Ben Bayer's essay "We Ignore the Unconditional Right to Self-Defense at Our Peril", and the podcast with Elan Journo and Nikos Sotirakopolous, "Did Israel Steal Palestinian Land?" The podcast was recorded on October 3, 2025, and posted on October 7, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

The Post-Liberal Right threatens to roll back American liberty.

The Enlightenment, not Christianity, is the key to the West.

The recognition of a Palestinian state betrays good and rewards evil.

Intimidating broadcasters with the “public interest” standard is a worse abridgement of free speech than censorship.

Business leaders need to stand up for themselves before it's too late.

Distinguishing speech from force is essential to eradicating violence in America.

Rising authoritarian currents in America make truth and reason more urgent than ever.

Forcing business to bow to non-objective laws violates America's individualist ideals.

In a newly uncovered recording, Ayn Rand explains why Atlas Shrugged is not a prophecy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6vA9ensrzw Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Nikos Sotirakopoulos critique a recent Wall Street Journal article that tries to explain Zohran Mamdani's rise and the persistence of socialism in American politics. Among the topics covered: Why socialism is not an innate impulse or the product of ignorance of history; Why idealism alone does not explain socialism's popularity; How miseducation about capitalism contributes to the endurance of socialism; Why you can't fight woke ideology while upholding Christianity's altruistic ethic; How to defeat socialism. Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, her article “Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World,” the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on Socialism, and Bayer's articles “The Dishonesty of ‘Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried'” and “The Old Morality of the New Religions.” The podcast was recorded on August 25, 2025 and posted on August 28, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkOadbwUP5s Podcast audio: America is a country that prizes freedom and the rule of law. Yet every day, we hear news of ICE raids on construction sites, Venezuelans shipped to foreign prisons without hearings, and sports tattoos treated as proof of criminality. As Agustina Vergara Cid warns in “Immigration Enforcement and the Betrayal of Due Process,” Americans have been turning a blind eye to this lawless, even authoritarian treatment. Delivered at the 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference, her talk is now available online. While the Trump administration's immigration crackdown has made the headlines recently, Vergara Cid shows that the same lawlessness has spanned decades. The Obama administration, notorious for its record deportations, simply carried forward policies Congress had long codified. Trump's crackdowns threaten to further erode due process, which Vergara Cid identifies as the crucial legal safeguard which “stands between you and authoritarianism.” Today's victims are peaceful immigrants; tomorrow, the target could be any American who dares to challenge the state. Among the topics covered: The immigration crackdown's flagrant violation of due process; Why everyone should care about due process; How our authoritarian immigration system became normalized; How, despite the bleak reality, America still welcomes immigrants; Q&A: How to speak up in defense of a free immigration system. (Since recording, the men sent to El Salvador's CECOT were released to Venezuela in a prisoner swap on July 18, 2025, after four months of imprisonment. Several now allege torture, and at least one alleges sexual assault.) This podcast was recorded live on July 5th in Boston, MA as part of OCON 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wig7ja6GLlU Podcast audio In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Elan Journo, Nikos Sotirakopoulos, and Tristan De Liège explore how altruism clouds moral clarity about the Israel-Hamas war, undermining Israel's righteous cause and whitewashing Hamas' evil.  Among the topics covered: How the media coverage of the war has become egregiously deferential to Hamas and Hezbollah; How altruism corrupts journalism by distorting moral judgment; Why media deception deliberately aims to manipulate emotions; The nature of Hamas's totalitarian ideology; Why genocide claims flout serious thinking about innocents in war; How altruism cripples Israel's moral confidence in its cause. Recommended in this podcast is Elan Journo's book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. This podcast was recorded on August 13, 2025 and posted on August 21, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwT-unSQu_8 Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Samantha Watkins and Ben Bayer tackle the common criticism that Ayn Rand is "anti-family" and analyze its philosophical roots. They examine claims that Rand's novels omit discussions of having children and explore what her actual views on parenting reveal about living a rational, selfish life. Among the topics covered: ● Debunking the notion that Rand ignores children and parenting;● Rand's Actual View on Children and Parenting;● How choosing to be a parent can be a rational value;● Understanding investment versus genuine sacrifice in parenting;● Why fertility crisis concerns don't justify treating individuals as means to societal ends. Recommended in this podcast are Gregory Salmieri's lecture "Reproduction and the Objectivist Ethics" and Ben Bayer's article "The Fountainhead and the Spirit of Youth." This podcast was recorded July 30, 2025 and posted on August 14, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky3VGO4AI-g Podcast audio: In this episode of The ARI Bookshelf, Tristan de Liège, Ben Bayer, Don Watkins, and Robertas Bakula discuss What Went Wrong with Capitalism by Ruchir Sharma. The book examines the history of government bailouts, Federal Reserve policy, and the growing reach of the regulatory state. Contrary to popular belief, Sharma argues, government intervention in America didn't shrink after Reagan — it kept growing. He also offers proposals for reversing these trends. The discussion covered: How Sharma refutes the myth that America has moved towards free markets in the last fifty years; How the government and the Federal Reserve created distortions and downturns; How the regulatory state expanded and decreased productivity; Why the book's treatment of inequality is self-defeating; How the book's views on capital misallocation and antitrust are contradictory; How the book lacks sufficient philosophical perspective. The video was recorded on July 17, 2025 and posted on August 8, 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm7PICSLkhc Podcast audio: In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Agustina Vergara Cid take a wide-ranging look at abortion bans since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, examining their destructive effects on the lives and freedoms of women and medical professionals. Among the topics covered: Ayn Rand's distinctive defense of abortion rights; How abortion bans have impaired women's lives; How anti-abortion laws impose arbitrary constraints against sound medical judgment; The unfortunate rise of pregnancy-related prosecutions; How abortion restrictions jeopardize doctors' freedom and careers; Why signs of resistance show abortion bans can be reversed; Evidence that the anti-abortion movement is motivated by a dark anti-sex agenda. Recommended in this podcast are the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on Abortion, Bayer's book “Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct,” and his article “The Dark Form of Control Even Anti-Abortion ‘Moderates' Want.” The podcast was recorded on July 28, 2025 and posted on August 9, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33MpmtvMKs0 Podcast audio: In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Marek Michulka and Onkar Ghate examine the Trump administration's actions against CBS — including a billion-dollar lawsuit and FCC investigation — and argue that the FCC's regulatory power is incompatible with free speech.  Among the topics covered: How Trump's actions against CBS are targeting them for their content; How censorship in a free country relies on self-censorship; Why many critics of Trump's actions miss the essential issue; How antitrust is being used to force editorial rooms to cater to the whims of bureaucrats; Why the realm of ideas can't be separated from the realm of production and trade; How elite universities' “public interest” rhetoric opened the door to government control; What the future holds. Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand's essay “Have Gun, Will Nudge,” her talk “Censorship: Local and Express,” and her novel, especially Part II Chapter 5.  This podcast was recorded on June 11, 2025 and posted on July 31, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.