Episodios

  • Trump’s Un-American, Unconstitutional Tariff Scheme

    Trump’s Un-American, Unconstitutional Tariff Scheme
    Nov 19 2025
    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
    Más Menos
    1 h y 17 m
  • Saving the Enlightenment

    Saving the Enlightenment
    Nov 18 2025
    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.
    Más Menos
    1 h y 26 m
  • Mamdani’s Socialist War on Gifted Kids

    Mamdani’s Socialist War on Gifted Kids
    Nov 13 2025
    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
    Más Menos
    50 m
  • The Origin of Life, Agency & Purpose: Terrence Deacon’s Theory

    The Origin of Life, Agency & Purpose: Terrence Deacon’s Theory
    Nov 11 2025
    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.
    Más Menos
    1 h y 20 m
  • Do Nobel Prize-Winning Economists Get Why Nations Fail?

    Do Nobel Prize-Winning Economists Get Why Nations Fail?
    Nov 3 2025
    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.
    Más Menos
    28 m
  • How Friendship Can Be Selfish

    How Friendship Can Be Selfish
    Oct 30 2025
    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
    Más Menos
    1 h y 15 m
  • Integrating Science and Free Will

    Integrating Science and Free Will
    Oct 24 2025
    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.
    Más Menos
    1 h y 48 m
  • Defending Embryo Screening from Irrational Opposition

    Defending Embryo Screening from Irrational Opposition
    Oct 23 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
    Más Menos
    1 h y 2 m