https://youtu.be/Ff78OyGNA40

Podcast audio:

This sample class by Gena Gorlin is based on the full-length ARU course of the same name. The full course explores the major schools of thought, methods of inquiry, and empirical findings taught in a typical introduction to psychology course. But it explores how to understand and evaluate these theories, methods, and findings from an Objectivist perspective. Students learn how Objectivism can help us consume and get personal value from existing work in psychology, even when it is deeply flawed philosophically. The sample class will feature a selection of topics drawn from the full ARU course.

Recorded live on June 16 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/oMFbMFvDJ50

Podcast audio:

In this talk, Dr. Amesh Adalja details innovative new developments in science that will enhance the lives of individuals. Topics include transplantation of pig hearts and kidneys into humans, cell-based therapies for cancer, genetically modified mosquitoes, new vaccines and vaccine technologies, AI-discovered antibiotics, CRISPR therapeutics, and more.

Recorded live on June 15 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/pWpAiAioZTE

Podcast audio:

In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Robertas Bakula and Mike Mazza explore the themes from Mazza’s upcoming essay, which argues that freedom, not government control, is the true engine of progress in the space industry.

Among the topics covered:

How NASA’s monopoly led to decades of stagnation in space innovation;

How economic freedom has fueled the recent progress in the space industry;

Why NASA’s role as a scientific research agency lies outside the proper scope of government;

How to answer critics who claim that private space ventures are just billionaire “playgrounds”;

The importance of entrepreneurial thinking in driving progress in the space industry.

Mentioned and recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essay “Apollo 11” from her The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought, Mazza’s and Tristan de Liège’s podcast episode “Space: The New Commercial Frontier,” and Mazza’s forthcoming essay, which will appear in New Ideal.

This podcast was recorded on April 21, 2025 and posted on April 23, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/79fT9VIDkVs

Podcast audio:

As Ayn Rand wrote, “The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully—and two hundred years have not been enough for other countries to understand it.” We can see this failure of understanding in the view, advanced by many conservatives and libertarians today, that the concept of individual rights ultimately derives from or is at least consistent with the Judeo-Christian morality.

In this talk, Ben Bayer explores some highlights of the history of the concept to understand why it is essentially a secular innovation, even when thinkers who helped advance it held Christian views. He especially focuses on how Enlightenment views of human nature and knowledge helped untether “rights” discourse from its antecedents in religious thought.

Recorded live on June 17 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/UaRhK2N8m6Y

Podcast audio:

A continuation of Dr. Harry Binswanger’s Saving Math from Plato (OCON 2023): how the Aristotelian, perception-based approach to mathematics refutes or re-interprets wrong ideas advanced by figures such as Russell and Cantor. Topics include number, infinity, limits, and the axiomatic concepts of mathematics. (The lecture assumes no knowledge of mathematics beyond beginning algebra.)

Recorded live on June 16 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/qctS25KQzrs

Podcast audio:

In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Sam Weaver and Ben Bayer discuss the Trump administration's decision to cut federal funding to Columbia University in response to its handling of pro-Hamas protests. They argue that government involvement in universities makes such coercion possible and threatens intellectual freedom.

Among the topics covered:

How to think about the pro-Hamas protests at Columbia;

The nature of Trump’s actions against Columbia;

How federal funding threatens intellectual freedom;

How Trump’s actions violate intellectual freedom;

Why Trump’s measures are uniquely destructive;

How the concept of  “academic freedom” confuses the issue;

How to remove force from educational institutions.

Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “The Establishing of an Establishment” and “Fairness Doctrine for Education,” the article “More University Donors Should Go Galt,” and the podcast episode “DeSantis’s Push to Ideologically Transform Florida Colleges.”

This podcast was recorded on April 8, 2025 and posted on April 16, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/VaNHaT-xlOU

Podcast audio:

The new ARI Bookshelf podcast series gives you a window into ARI’s educational programs by showcasing our faculty as they discuss books of recent interest. This episode discusses Ta-Nehisi Coates's book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Message. Panelists included Elan Journo, Greg Salmieri, Ibis Slade, and Mohamed Ali.

https://youtu.be/RKtLU6ntECU

Podcast audio:

“Socratic Wisdom” — knowing our own ignorance — is the ability to differentiate what we do not know from what we do. This is a key component of objectivity, vital for properly weighing and implementing the knowledge we possess and directing ongoing investigation and inquiry.

In this talk, Jason Rheins discusses the nature and importance of this introspective clarity and how it is achieved. He covers practical methods and specific tips for identifying our ignorance and differentiating it from our knowledge.

Recorded live on June 18 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.

https://youtu.be/vFaDm6eo-mk

Podcast audio:

In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer examine the Trump administration’s recent tariff policy and the legal, economic, and political disruptions they create.

Among the topics covered:

Why tariffs are not a proper foreign policy instrument to deter the threat from China;

Why all justifications for tariffs are arbitrary and collectivistic in nature;

How the obsession with trade deficits reveals outright ignorance of economic principles;

How legal ambiguity has enabled the executive to wield authoritarian power;

How Trump’s whim-driven rule is pushing the country toward authoritarianism;

The economic chaos caused by the tariffs;

What hopes exist for reversing the policy.

Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s articles “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business” and “The Moratorium on Brains.” The podcast was recorded on April 9, 2025 and posted on April 10, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/-c6W8JuZsVo

Podcast audio:

Oppression and authoritarianism have been constant themes in regimes that ruled in the name of Marxism. From the Soviet Union to Cuba and from Yugoslavia to China, individual rights were ignored and violently suppressed. Is such anti-individualism a feature or a bug in Marxism? What about Marx himself? How did he view the individual? Was he the one who planted the seed for the future orgy of anti-individualist violence that has been perpetrated in his name? Nikos Sotirakopoulos tackles these questions in this talk from OCON 2024.

Recorded live on June 15 in Anaheim, CA as part of OCON 2024.