Episodes

  • Charlie Kirk’s Murder: Who Normalized Political Violence?

    Charlie Kirk’s Murder: Who Normalized Political Violence?
    Sep 15 2025
    Distinguishing speech from force is essential to eradicating violence in America.
    Show More Show Less
    39 mins
  • The Road to Fascism (and Are We on It?)

    The Road to Fascism (and Are We on It?)
    Sep 10 2025
    Rising authoritarian currents in America make truth and reason more urgent than ever.
    Show More Show Less
    58 mins
  • Why Trump’s Antitrust Has No “Monopoly” on Moral Corruption

    Why Trump’s Antitrust Has No “Monopoly” on Moral Corruption
    Sep 8 2025
    Forcing business to bow to non-objective laws violates America’s individualist ideals.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • “Is Atlas Shrugging?” by Ayn Rand

    “Is Atlas Shrugging?” by Ayn Rand
    Sep 8 2025
    In a newly uncovered recording, Ayn Rand explains why Atlas Shrugged is not a prophecy.
    Show More Show Less
    53 mins
  • How NOT to Explain Mamdani’s Socialist Revival

    How NOT to Explain Mamdani’s Socialist Revival
    Aug 28 2025
    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.
    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
  • Immigration Enforcement and the Betrayal of Due Process

    Immigration Enforcement and the Betrayal of Due Process
    Aug 25 2025
    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. (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.
    Show More Show Less
    28 mins
  • The Palestinians’ Most Deadly Weapon Against Israel: Altruism

    The Palestinians’ Most Deadly Weapon Against Israel: Altruism
    Aug 21 2025
    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.
    Show More Show Less
    54 mins
  • Was Ayn Rand Anti-Family?

    Was Ayn Rand Anti-Family?
    Aug 14 2025
    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;● Why parenting doesn't require sacrifice;● 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.
    Show More Show Less
    45 mins