The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have become a major force to contend with in U.S. politics, as seen in Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York and in a series of congressional electoral successes. However, while many see the DSA as an idealistic alternative to the status quo, their ideals are deeply rooted in dogmas held on faith, such as their faith in “economic democracy,” in the future promise of socialism, in the evil of Israel, and in the view of capitalism as inherently exploitative.

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Tristan de Liège and Ben Bayer expose the DSA’s agenda as a series of articles of faith, one based especially on a religious approach to morality.

Topics include:

• How democratic socialists conceive of exploitation

• Socialists’ obsession with democracy

• Evading socialism’s failures in the 20th century

• Why democratic socialists defend dictatorships like Iran and Venezuela

• How altruism sustains the belief in socialism

This episode was recorded on October 28, 2026.

Ayn Rand famously held Aristotle in high regard, describing him as a “philosophical Atlas who carries the whole of Western civilization on his shoulders.” Given such a statement, it’s not surprising that there are rich connections to be found between Aristotle’s philosophical system and Rand’s, which she called Objectivism. Scholars of Aristotle and Rand have found deep connections between the two in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics.

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Tristan de Liège, Jim Lennox, and Greg Salmieri explore some of these connections, discussing issues such as the nature of logic, how humans form universal knowledge, and what it is to live a good life.

Topics include:

• Axiomatic concepts and the laws of logic

• The problem of universals

• Scientific knowledge as fixed versus dynamic

• What biology can tell us about ethics

• Nobility and virtue

• Convincing academia to take Objectivism seriously

This episode was recorded on October 19, 2026.

Recently, author and ARI’s VP of Fundraising and Marketing Don Watkins was interviewed on the Texas Talks podcast, where he discussed Ayn Rand’s unique moral admiration for productive work, her new conception of self-interest, and ARI’s work to preserve and spread her philosophy today.

Topics include:

• Why Ayn Rand has an enduring appeal
• The morality and spirituality of wealth creation
• Working, marketing, and fundraising at ARI
• News about the Ayn Rand Center in Austin
• Why we need a new conception of self-interest to defend capitalism
• ARI’s work and programs

Bradley Swail is the host of the Texas Talks podcast, not an employee of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Recently, ARI Senior Fellow Ben Bayer was interviewed on the Texas Talks podcast, where he discussed Ayn Rand’s unique approach to philosophy as a practical means for living, the life-promoting philosophy she developed as a result, and how her idealist-realist heroes dramatize it. Bayer contrasted Rand’s approach and views with the dominant ones in today’s culture, focusing specifically on Stoicism and altruism.

Bradley Swail is the host of the Texas Talks podcast, not an employee of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Topics include:

• The essence of Rand’s philosophy.
• Why today’s philosophers don’t dramatize their philosophies in stories.
• Why Rand’s heroes resonate with so many people.
• How the philosophy in The Fountainhead compares to that in Atlas Shrugged.
• How Objectivism differs from Stoicism.
• Today’s confused oscillation between Judeo-Christian altruism and pragmatism.
• Bayer’s forthcoming book, Breaking Free from Faith-Based Morality.

In her recent book The Mattering Instinct, philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein argues that much of what human beings do is driven by a universal need to matter — to prove to ourselves that we are worthy of consideration. She argues that efforts to fulfill this need are responsible for a wide range of human projects, from the greatest achievements of scientific discovery and artistic creation, to the worst atrocities of murder and genocide.

On this episode of ARI Bookshelf, Greg Salmieri, Ben Bayer, Mike Mazza and Sam Weaver discuss Goldstein’s book. The episode includes discussions of the merits and limitations of Goldstein’s account of mattering and her emphasis on the idea that life involves resisting entropy. They also comment on the book’s brief mention of Ayn Rand and relate her ideas to Goldstein’s.

Topics include:

• Goldstein’s basic account of why people have a need to matter
• Her conception of what constitutes objective mattering
• The absence of businessmen and entrepreneurs from her categories
• The book’s quotation of Ayn Rand in a section about intolerance
• How Goldstein uses the concept of entropy in her account of mattering
• Her apparent unwillingness to radically rethink conventional ideas about morality

This episode was recorded on September 19, 2026.

Recently, Professor Greg Salmieri, an Objectivist philosopher, was interviewed on the Texas Talks podcast, where he discussed Ayn Rand’s ideas and their relation to the ideas of other thinkers, including Aristotle, Marx, and “libertarians.” He also discussed Rand’s influence on his own work and interest in philosophy. Salmieri is a senior fellow at the Civitas Institute and teaches in the philosophy department at the University of Texas at Austin. He often speaks at ARI conferences and teaches courses for ARI’s educational programs.

Bradley Swail is the host of the Texas Talks podcast, not an employee of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Topics include:

• How Salmieri became interested in Ayn Rand
• Rand’s view of “libertarianism”
• Rand’s admiration of Aristotle and her improvements to his philosophy
• What Objectivism as “an ordinary, high-powered philosophy” means
• The Ayn Rand Center and Austin’s intellectual scene
• Rand’s view of religion

For over 40 years, ARI has preserved Rand’s legacy through archival and educational activities. Two years ago, ARI announced it would cement that legacy in actual concrete by building the Ayn Rand Center in Austin, Texas. Earlier this month, the Institute broke ground on the building. The Center will house the Ayn Rand Archives, classrooms, event spaces, studios, public gathering areas, a state-of-the-art immersive educational experience, and the home campus of ARI’s education program, ARU. It will play a vital role in preserving Objectivism and in spreading it to ever-larger audiences. To learn more about the groundbreaking event, the Center’s inspiring vision, and the founders behind it, watch our special Ayn Rand Institute Podcast episode with CEO Tal Tsfany and Senior VP Elan Journo. In addition to the discussion, the episode includes building simulations and video clips from the groundbreaking event, best viewed on YouTube.

Topics include:

• The plan for the Ayn Rand Center and the strategic vision behind it
• The architect and architecture of the Center
• Inspiring anecdotes on the building process and the Center
• Mailchimp founder Ben Chestnut’s donations and vision
• Tal Tsfany’s remarks at the groundbreaking event

Resources:

• Website of the Ayn Rand Center

In this episode, Robertas Bakula and Onkar Ghate commend Disney for making their case on fundamental constitutional grounds rather than settling behind closed doors. Too few of Disney’s defenders ever dare to challenge the FCC's underlying licensing authority or the employment mandates that also violate freedom of association. They warn that Carr is trying to reinvigorate and expand the FCC’s power over speech and argue that no depoliticized FCC is possible. The only real solution is privatizing the spectrum.

Topics Include:

• Disney's lawsuit against the FCC for violating the First Amendment
• How self-censorship works in practice
• Broadcaster’s historical complicity in creating the FCC
• Brendan Carr’s goal to expand the FCC’s power
• Why defenders of free speech do not challenge the FCC and its DEI policies as violating intellectual freedom
• The only way to remove the FCC’s ability to chill speech is to privatize the broadcast spectrum

This episode was recorded on September 16, 2026.

In this video, Elan Journo interviews Brandon Lisi about Ayn Rand's 1947 essay Screen Guide for Americans. The interview explores the historical circumstances that led Rand to write the essay, the deeper philosophical ideas behind her analysis, and the significance of ARI Press’s new authoritative edition. They also discuss Michael Berliner’s new afterword and the archival materials that illuminate Rand’s work in Hollywood, including additional documents now available through the Ayn Rand Archives.

Topics Include:

• What’s new in ARI Press’s authoritative edition of Screen Guide for Americans
• Why Ayn Rand wrote Screen Guide for Americans in 1947
• Communist influence in 1940s Hollywood
• How propaganda can influence a culture without explicit political slogans
• How to access additional archival materials related to the “Screen Guide” online

Resources:

• Ayn Rand, Screen Guide for Americans
• Archival Supplement: Screen Guide for Americans archival supplement

Recorded on August 25, 2026.

9/11 was one of the most consequential events of the 21st century. Yet twenty-five years later, the attacks and their aftermath are still widely misunderstood. In two consecutive talks at our student conference in Austin, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo analyzed America’s failures before and after 9/11, drawing on more than two decades of work on the subject. They show how the self-abasing morality of altruism shaped American policy, leading the US to betray its ideals, appease its enemies, sacrifice its soldiers, and lose its wars. This double lecture is a must-watch for anyone who cares about America and wants to make it secure.

Topics include:

• Introduction by ARI’s CEO, Tal Tsfany
• How 9/11 was experienced and perceived in the immediate aftermath
• The religious, modernity-hating motivation behind 9/11
• America’s emboldening of Islamists in the decades before 9/11
• America’s abject, craven response to the Danish cartoons of Muhammad
• The intellectual rot 9/11 exposed and Objectivism’s potential to change it
• How American altruism crippled its troops’ ability to fight
• How America refused to recognize or defeat its enemies
• The devastating consequences of our altruistic approach to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars
• Q&A

Resources:

• Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo, Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11.

After the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy released its entry on capitalism, critics online slammed it for apparent Marxist bias. However, if there is a scandal here, it is not merely that one entry is lopsided; it is that contemporary academic philosophers are willfully blind to the real-world phenomenon of capitalism, seeing it only through the unquestioned lens of the altruistic morality.

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Robertas Bakula, Ben Bayer, and Onkar Ghate discuss the entry’s Marxist leaning, Ayn Rand’s absence from the entry, and more broadly the failure of academic philosophy to understand the subject. They argue that Ayn Rand’s view of capitalism should have played a more prominent role in the entry, and how Rand succeeded in defining “capitalism” while the entry does not bother trying. They conclude that the entry should give more serious attention not only to Rand, but also Locke, Smith, and economic scholarship more broadly.

Topics include:

• The Stanford Encyclopedia’s cultural impact
• Marxist dominance in academic philosophy
• Academic philosophy’s economic ignorance
• The failure to define capitalism
• Ayn Rand vs. intellectuals
• Ayn Rand’s definition of capitalism
• How to reform the SEP entry

Resources:

• Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
• Ayn Rand, “What Is Capitalism?” in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
• Ayn Rand, “ For the New Intellectual” in For the New Intellectual
• The Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on "Capitalism"

This episode was recorded on August 24, 2026.

September 11, 2001 — and America’s response to it — shaped the 21st century. Confidence in America’s ability to win wars cracked, trust in leadership and experts went down, and, in response, populism, nihilism, and conspiracism raised their ugly heads. From day one, the Ayn Rand Institute’s experts grasped the meaning of the attacks and the significance of a proper response. They called for war with Iran and opposed Bush’s altruistic wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their advice was not followed, but their predictions held.

In this special livestream marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Yaron Brook, Elan Journo, and Onkar Ghate — the Institute’s three leading experts on the attacks — trace what went wrong in its lead-up and aftermath, and how Ayn Rand’s philosophy let them foresee what most people still struggle to understand.

Topics include:

• The events and evasions that led up to 9/11.
• How shocking 9/11 was, given the atmosphere in the 1990s.
• The corrupt failure of intellectuals to warn of and explain 9/11.
• How both the government and academia whitewashed religion and Islam.
• Why and how ARI commented on 9/11 and its aftermath.
• How Objectivism helped ARI’s experts to predict America's failures.
• The disgraceful Western response to the Danish cartoons of Muhammad.
• The rise of populism and nihilism as a result of 9/11.

Resources recommended in the episode:

• Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo, Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11.

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Robertas Bakula and Onkar Ghate discuss the political platform, moral goals, and philosophical motivations driving the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Topics include:

• Radical goals of the DSA
• DSA versus past communism
• Lack of intellectual argument
• Miseducation versus willful ignorance
• Fantasy world of socialism
• Ayn Rand on producer hatred
• Hypocrisy or true goals
• Foreign policy and authoritarian regimes

Resources:

• Ayn Rand’s title essay in For the New Intellectual

This episode was recorded on August 25, 2026.

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Onkar Ghate and Tristan de Liège discuss Zohran Mamdani’s record $323 million culture budget for NYC aimed at supporting the arts, and why government attempts to fund artistic endeavors are unjust and ineffective in creating thriving conditions for artists.

Topics include:

• The Culture Budget’s Purpose
• The “Affordability Crisis”
• The Disdain for the Market
• The Effects of Subsidizing Art
• The Alternative to Subsidies

Resources:

• Ayn Rand, “What is Capitalism” in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
• Ayn Rand, “To Dream the Non-Commercial Dream” in The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought

This episode was recorded on August 5, 2026.

In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Sam Weaver interviews Onkar Ghate about the American system of checks and balances and the rise of a religious mentality in America, topics discussed in his OCON 2026 talk “America at 250: Politics, Religion, Morality.”

Topics Include:

• What checks and balances are
• Erosion since the founding
• Rise of religious mentality

Resources:

• “America at 250: Politics, Religion, Morality” by Onkar Ghate

This episode was recorded on July 30, 2026.

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Itamar Feldman interviews Mike Mazza about his new book of essays, Freedom to Launch, which explains how deregulation in the space industry enabled today’s space renaissance and what the government's role in space exploration should be going forward.

Among the topics covered are:

• Why Freedom to Launch was written
• The space industry’s current state
• Space law and property rights
• Private vs. Commercial space industry
• The government’s historic role in space
• What's next for the space industry?
• Should NASA exist?

Resources recommended in the episode:

• Mike Mazza, Freedom to Launch
• Ayn Rand, “The Property Status of the Airwaves” in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Don Watkins, Onkar Ghate, and Keith Lockitch discuss the Institute's recently announced educational program on Objectivism: ARU Core.

Topics include:

• Making Objectivism your own personal perspective
• Personal vs professional value of philosophy
• Expertise and gaining mastery
• ARU program and benefits

Resources:

• Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
• Ayn Rand, "The Virtue of Selfishness"
• Leonard Peikoff, "Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand"
• Ayn Rand “Through Your Most Grievous Fault” in The Voice of Reason
• Ayn Rand, "The Fountainhead"

This episode was recorded on July 30th, 2026.

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer and Tristan de Liège recent socialist electoral victories, and analyze critical reactions that fail to identify the philosophical essence of the movement.

• Allegations of “extremism”
• What the “extremism” charge hides
• Are socialists “democratic”?
• Socialism and communism
• Socialist and MAGA populism
• Religious communism, godless capitalism

Resources:

• Ayn Rand “Extremism’: or the Art of Smearing,” in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
• Entry on “socialism” in the Ayn Rand Lexicon
• Ben Bayer, “Meet the New Socialism, Same as the Old,” New Ideal, Sept 2, 2019
• Ben Bayer, “ICE Tyranny Is What Democracy Looks Like,” New Ideal, Feb 25, 2026
• “Why Socialists Fear the Republican Party Platform,” ARI Podcast, Jul 25, 2024
• “Trump's Anti-Capitalist Control Over Businesses,” ARI Podcast, Sept 18, 2025

This episode was recorded on July 23, 2026.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e5PLKhXvF0

Podcast audio:

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer and Onkar Ghate discuss whether heritage or creed is what defines American national identity.

The American way and sense of life

Un-American “Heritage Americanism”

Irrelevant Anglo-Protestant “ethnicity”

Superior “Creedal Americanism”

History of “Creedal Americanism”

The eroding American sense of life

Resources:

Ayn Rand, Don’t Let It Go, in Philosophy: Who Needs It

Ayn Rand, “A Nation’s Unity”

Onkar Ghate, “Atlas Shrugged: America’s Second Declaration of Independence”

Ben Bayer, “Our Iran Appeasement Reveals the Need to Declare Moral Independence,” New Ideal, July 1, 2026.

Ben Bayer, “The Revolutionary, Secular Concept of Individual Rights” OCON 2024

This episode was recorded on July 10, 2026.

Image credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6XQv6S2iK0

Podcast audio:

The founding of America was the greatest political achievement of the Enlightenment. Knowing that their experiment would be difficult to preserve, the Founding Fathers designed a unique system of checks and balances to prevent the United States from collapsing into tyranny. An essential element of that design, however, has been forgotten.

In his talk at the 2026 Objectivist Summer Conference (OCON), Dr. Onkar Ghate explains the role of the moral character of the people as a check on the government. Ghate explains why the Founding Fathers appreciated this pivotal role in preventing America from straying away from its ideal of protecting the individual’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Q&A session includes the discussion of:

Why are American people susceptible to pragmatism?

Why are the branches of government ceding their power to other branches?

When is it proper to organize politically?

Are there differences between the legitimacy of the Iraq war and that of Iran war?

This talk was recorded live on June 27in New Orleans as part of the 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.