Épisodes

  • When It’s Rational to Blame “Both Sides”

    When It’s Rational to Blame “Both Sides”
    Nov 6 2025
    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
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    1 h et 8 min
  • 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.
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    28 min
  • 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
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    1 h et 15 min
  • 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.
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    1 h et 48 min
  • 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
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    1 h et 2 min
  • Principles of a Proper Foreign Policy

    Principles of a Proper Foreign Policy
    Oct 20 2025
    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
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    58 min
  • The Injustice of the New Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Deal

    The Injustice of the New Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Deal
    Oct 17 2025
    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.
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    34 min
  • Understanding “Woke” Ideology: Books by Yascha Mounk and Chris Rufo

    Understanding “Woke” Ideology: Books by Yascha Mounk and Chris Rufo
    Oct 14 2025
    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.
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    1 h et 42 min