The Atlas Society Presents - Objectively Speaking

Is political violence in America today really an equal-opportunity phenomenon, or does the historical record point overwhelmingly in one direction?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 327th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with author Noah Rothman to talk about his third book, "Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence," in which he sets out to understand left-wing violence in the United States and arrives at a surprising and unflinching conclusion: violence designed to advance political objectives is, in our time, more often a project of the left.

Rothman is...

What does it take to expose one of the world's most disturbing human rights abuses, and what does it reveal about the true nature of the regime committing it?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 326 episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by senior editor at The Epoch Times, Jan Jekielek to talk about his new book "Killed to Order: China's Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America's Biggest Adversary," which distills decades of investigations from reputable sources, combined with Jekielek's own research and firsthand insight, into a compelling case for rethinking...

Who holds the world’s most powerful human rights organizations accountable, and how did groups founded as civil society projects become political powerhouses shaping the UN and international policy toward Israel?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 325th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by Professor Gerald Steinberg, who has spent years investigating NGOs as the founder of NGO Monitor, a research institute that scrutinizes the funding, transparency, and agendas of non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Professor emeritus of political science at Bar-Ilan University, Steinberg examines ho...

Join Atlas Society Senior Scholar Richard Salsman, Ph.D., for the 324th episode of Objectively Speaking, in which he cuts through the confusing labels attached to capitalism, from "crony," "stakeholder," and "state capitalism."

The concept “capitalism” is bandied about these days without clear definition. As such, it’s frequently and arbitrarily hybridized, with examples including “crony capitalism,” “welfare capitalism,” “anarcho-capitalism,” laissez-faire capitalism,” “conscious capitalism,” “common-good capitalism,” “democratic capitalism,” “political capitalism,” “stakeholder capitalism,” “racial capitalism,” and even such brazen oxymorons as “state capitalism” and “totalitarian capitalism.” Rarely does anyone defend the ideal social system: constitutional capitalism. Dr. Salsman explains how the “varieties” approach generates a di...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 323rd episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with author Rob Henderson to talk about his book "Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class," where he vividly recounts growing up in foster care, enlisting in the US Air Force, attending elite universities, and pioneering the concept of “luxury beliefs”—ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class while inflicting costs on the less fortunate.

Rob Henderson is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal, who publishes articl...

What happens when a party insider who raised millions of dollars for Biden and Harris decides to tell the truth about what she saw behind closed doors?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 323rd episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with Lindy Li to talk about her new book, "Unburdened: A Former Democrat Insider's Shocking Account of Political Power, Betrayal, and Party Collapse," which rips back the curtain on a rotten system that rewards failure and punishes honesty.

As a member of the Democratic Party's National Finance Committee, Li raised millions...

As Social Security and Medicare barrel toward insolvency, what can the United States learn from how other countries have restructured their retirement systems—and does Washington have the political will to act?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 321st episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with Romina Boccia to talk about her co-authored book, Reimagining Social Security: Global Lessons for Retirement Policy Changes," which explains what is wrong with Social Security and how major retirement program reforms from Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Sweden could work in the United States.

Romina Bo...

What is actually wrong with data centers? What productive purpose do they serve? And is the campaign against data centers just old-fashioned NIMBYism?

Join Atlas Society Senior Fellow Robert Tracinski, a longtime commentator of how technophobia gets dressed up as public concern, sorts out legitimate complaints from the reflexive hostility to progress—and makes the case for what data centers actually make possible.

What happens when a company trades its brand for a cause—and can the same instinct for building things that work fix America's mental health crisis?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 320th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with returning guest Anson Frericks to talk about his new AI-enabled mental health startup, Radley Care, which he co-founded with a mission to empower adults living with serious mental illness to live amazing lives.

Returning for a second time on Objectively Speaking, Anson Frericks previously joined in 2025 to discuss his book "Last Ca...

Could nuclear power solve our energy future, and could Mars become humanity's next frontier for civilization-building?

Join Atlas Society Senior Scholar Richard Salsman, Ph.D., for the 318th episode of Objectivley Speaking in which he sits down with returning guest Robert Zubrin to talk about his new books "The Case for Nukes: How We Can Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future," which argues that nuclear power is essential to solving the climate crisis while preserving human freedom and prosperity, and "The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red...

When lawsuits become weapons and law schools become factories for bad ideas, what happens to justice and the rule of law itself?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 317th episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with Walter Olson, Senior Fellow at Cato, as part of our mini-series on tort reform to discuss the relationship between civil litigation, accountability, and the proper role of law in a free society.

Walter Olson is a senior fellow at Cato and is known for his writing on law, public policy, and regulation. He is the...

Why do most of us believe the world is getting worse when the data says otherwise, and who are the people actually responsible for the extraordinary progress we've made?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 316th episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with author Alexander Hammond to discuss his book "Heroes of Progress: 65 People Who Changed the World," which profiles the scientists, inventors, and thinkers whose innovations helped save billions of lives, changed public policy for the better, and lifted millions out of poverty—even though most of their names have been forgotten.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 315th episode of Objectively speaking where she sits down with four-time returning guest Timothy Sandefur to talk about his latest book "Proclaiming Liberty: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Declaration of Independence," which revisits the revolutionary year of 1776 through the minds of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two men whose words and ideas gave birth to modern liberty.

Returning for a fourth time on Objectively Speaking, Sandefur is no stranger to The Atlas Society, having joined us previously to discuss his books "Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man," "Freedom’s Furies: Ho...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 314th episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with Amity Shlaes, chair of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, to discuss her book "New Deal Rebels: An Anthology of Critics of the New Deal," which gathers the voices of economists, journalists, and businessmen who warned—in real time—that FDR's policies were deepening and extending the very crisis they claimed to solve.

Shlaes is one of America's foremost historians of the New Deal era. In addition to The Forgotten Man, a #1 New York Times bestseller also adapted as a grap...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 313th episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with returning guest Geoffrey Cain to talk about his new book “Steve Jobs in Exile: The Untold Story of NeXT and the Remaking of an American Visionary,” which draws on previously unpublished materials and new interviews to reveal the untold story of Steve Jobs's “lost decade”—the twelve years of failure, near-bankruptcy, and humiliation at NeXT that forged the discipline and vision behind his legendary return to Apple.

An award-winning investigative journalist, Cain is a returning guest to Objectively Speaking, having pre...

Join Atlas Society Senior Scholar Richard Salsman, Ph.D., for the 312th episode of Objectively Speaking as he unpacks the paradox at the heart of Greenspan's career: how a man shaped by Ayn Rand's philosophy of reason and free markets came to spend two decades running the very institution designed to plan them.

What makes a true founder, and why does America keep needing them to break the cycle of stagnation?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 306th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with returning guest Arther Herman to talk about his latest book, "Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump."

In "Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump," Arthur Herman argues that America has always been driven forward by a distinctive type of leader—the founder—who, through visionary risk-taking and a willingness to build from first principles, has repe...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 310th episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with returning guest Doug Casey to talk about his latest co-authored book, "The Preparation: How To Become Competent, Confident, and Dangerous," which lays out a four-year, sixteen-cycle alternative to a college path that now averages $140,000 and too often delivers ideology, debt, and obsolete credentials.

What if you could trade four stagnant years in lecture halls for four years of adventure, emerging as a debt-free EMT, pilot, welder, web/app builder, rancher, and entrepreneur all in one?

A previous...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 309th episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with returning guest Gad Saad to discuss his book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind, and its blistering critique of maladaptively irrational altruism that has gripped our culture. Building on themes from his earlier work on the spread of destructive ideas, Saad argues that a miscalibrated sense of empathy is driving many of today’s most dangerous cultural and policy failures.

A Lebanese-Canadian Professor of Marketing, Saad is a scholar at the Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of Am...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 308th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by returning guest Batya Ungar-Sargon for a conversation about her latest book, "The Jews and the Left," which examines how one of the most consequential alliances in American political life—between Jews and the progressive movement—has come undone, and what its unraveling reveals about antisemitism on the left.

Returning for a second time on Objectively Speaking, Batya previously joined to discuss her books, "Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women" and "Bad News: How Woke Medi...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 307th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with the Chairman of the Liberty Justice Center, Sara Albrecht, to talk about the organization's recent legal victory over the Trump Administration’s tariffs before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Can the President unilaterally impose sweeping taxes on Americans without Congress's approval—and what does it take to stop him when he tries?

In February 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court answered with a resounding "no," issuing a landmark 6-3 ruling in Trump v. V.O.S. Selections that stru...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 306th episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with by New York Times #1 bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz to discuss the real-world rise of political violence, radicalization, and what he calls the "horseshoe of nihilism": the point where the far left and far right bend toward each other and meet in a shared rejection of meaning, a "No Lives Matter" zone.

What's driving the "horseshoe of nihilism," and why are so many people being pulled toward it? Fresh off his standout appearance at The Atlas Society's Galt's Gulch 2026 student...

What is tort law actually for and when does it stop protecting individual rights and start undermining them?

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 305th episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with the lead author of the American Tort Reform Foundation's annual Judicial Hellholes report, Lauren Sheets Jarrell, as part of our mini-series on tort reform to discuss the relationship between civil litigation, accountability, and the proper role of law in a free society.

In addition to authoring the flagship report that identifies the jurisdictions where civil courts most fail to...

Who are “We the People”? Are we a collective body whose majority will is sovereign, or are we individuals whose inalienable rights government exists to secure?

In Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Liberty and Sovereignty of We the People, Randy Barnett argues that America’s founding charter was designed not as a license for democratic majorities, but as a bulwark protecting the rights of each individual against the encroachments of government—and that the long drift toward a “Democratic Constitution” has eroded the very liberties the Founders enshrined. Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetow...

Join Atlas Society Senior Scholars Stephen Hicks and Richard Salsman for the 303rd episode of Objectively Speaking, where the duo discuss whether today's "post-liberal" New Right is genuinely charting new philosophical territory, or simply repackaging the same critiques of reason, individualism, and capitalism that have long animated the postmodern left. Drawing on recent work by figures like James Orr and Roger Scruton, Hicks and Salsman examine what the New Right actually believes, where it converges with the postmodernism it claims to oppose, and whether both movements ultimately share a pre-modern rejection of Enlightenment values.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 302nd episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by James (Jim) R. Copland to discuss his book "The Unelected: How an Unaccountable Elite is Governing America," which explains how unaccountable agents have taken over much of the U.S. government apparatus.

This episode is part of our mini-series on tort reform to discuss why a combination of historical accident, decisions by judges and law professors, and self-interested advocacy by litigators has built an onerous and expensive legal regime.

A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and...

What if the latest science forced us to rethink human nature from the ground up? Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 301st episode of Objectively Speaking as she is joined by author Jonathan Leaf to discuss his book, "The Primate Myth: Why the Latest Science Leads Us to a New Theory of Human Nature," which examines groundbreaking research in neuroscience and genetics to propose a bold new framework for understanding who we are and why we do what we do.

A playwright, journalist, and cultural critic, Leaf has the rare gift for making big ideas...

What are the most powerful arguments against free speech, and why do they all fall short?

For our 300th episode, The Atlas Society is excited to welcome back one of America’s foremost civil liberties advocates, Nadine Strossen. Co-author of War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail, Strossen examines the flaws in pro-censorship arguments and offers a compelling defense of the right that is central to both individual liberty and our democratic self-government. 

A constitutional law professor and the ACLU’s first female president from 1991 to 2008, Strossen has been named one of Amer...

What is irrational self-interest? What is enlightened self-interest, and why do so many people get it wrong? Using a jaw-dropping real-world story of pardons and political operatives, join Atlas Society Senior Fellow Robert Tracinski for the 299th episode of Objectively Speaking, where he explains why rational, long-term thinking is the true foundation of a free and civilized society and how irrational self-interest doesn’t just fail morally, but practically as well.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 298th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by Ted Frank to discuss how an unchecked plaintiffs' bar uses litigation as a weapon—driving up costs, chilling research and development, and punishing the risk-taking that fuels progress in medicine, technology, and beyond. This episode is part of our mini-series on tort reform to discuss why a combination of historical accident, decisions by judges and law professors, and self-interested advocacy by litigators has built an onerous and expensive legal regime.

Ted Frank is the Director of Litigation and Senior At...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 297th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by author Priscilla West to talk about her book, "The New Face of Woke Education," which exposes Social Emotional Learning (SEL) as a toxic brew of psychology and sustainability aimed to promote collectivist propaganda in modern classrooms.

Priscilla West worked as a refinery engineer, traded jet fuel in the Atlantic basin, and brokered Caribbean oil supply cargoes before shifting gears to full-time motherhood — where the stakes remain high and negotiations far less predictable. With experience that spans boardrooms and bedtime ro...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 296th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she meets with acclaimed ghostwriter and author Joshua Lisec to talk about his book, "Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them)," which argues that communism, socialism, Marxism, and similar radical ideologies are not philosophies but recurring tactics of terror that strip people of life, liberty, and property—and then exposes their playbook to show how those tactics can be confronted and defeated. 

Lisec is a New York Times, USA, and #1 Publishers Weekly bestselling author, a New York Times bes...

Join Atlas Society CEO for the 295th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with returning guest Michael Shermer to talk about his 2024 book "Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational," which presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories―who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them.

Returning to Objectively Speaking, Shermer is no stranger to The Atlas Society, having joined us previously to discuss his book "Giving the Devil His Due," a tour de force in defense of free speech from a scientific humanist perspective. Shermer is th...

What does it truly mean for a nation to act in its rational self-interest on the world stage? Join Atlas Society Senior Scholar Richard Salsman, Ph.D., for a discussion on why America is right to adopt self-interested foreign-military policies, as captured in the phrase “America First.” The U.S. national interest entails preserving liberty and capitalism. Salsman explains how this egoistic principle fueled the launch of the U.S. war with Iran and so far has guided its conduct. But U.S. victory must be swift, definitive, and devoid of the “nation building” which violates the America First principl...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 293rd episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with podcast host and Bitcoin advocate Natalie Brunell to discuss her new book "Bitcoin is for Everyone: Why Our Financial System is Broken and Bitcoin is the Solution." 

A journalist, podcaster, and longtime friend of The Atlas Society, Brunell joins Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman to make the case that Bitcoin’s decentralized, transparent, and rules-based design offers a powerful tool for financial freedom, individual sovereignty, and long-term economic stability. Her book examines how inflation, centralized control, and opaque monetary pol...

‍It was March 2016—only 10 short years ago—when Jennifer Grossman reported for her first day on the job as CEO of The Atlas Society.  

Usually the one asking questions on Objectively Speaking, Grossman will swap seats with longtime friend of The Atlas Society, Naomi Brockwell, President and Founder of the Ludlow Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting privacy in the digital age. Naomi will chat with JAG about her chief accomplishments, challenges, and impact over the first 10 years of growing the organization, and share her vision for the decade to come.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 291st episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with Uyghur rights advocate and political leader Salih Hudayar, Foreign Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, to discuss China’s persecution of the Uyghur people, the fight for East Turkistan’s independence, and efforts in the international community to confront authoritarian repression and defend human rights.

Born in a Uyghur village under Chinese rule, Hudayar was forced to flee with his family at just seven years old to escape persecution. Now serving as Foreign Minister of the East Turk...

All political labels are abused—some more than others. When should a label be abandoned, and when not? In contemporary American political journalism, liberal is one such contested word.

In the 290th episode of Objectively Speaking, Stephen Hicks will discuss its value and prospects.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 289th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by Professor Richard Vedder to talk about his book, "Let Colleges Fail: The Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education," which makes the case that higher education must embrace market discipline—learning from the private sector, ending federal control of student loans, questioning accreditation, and allowing creative destruction to drive innovation, affordability, and genuine educational value.

Vedder is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Economics at Ohio University. His work has appeared in scholarly jo...

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 288th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with the President and CEO of Laitram, LLC, as well as Board Chair for Atlas Society, Jay Lapeyre to discuss the moral foundations of a free society and the values needed to sustain it.

In an age of deep polarization and growing skepticism toward freedom itself, what core values can still unite Americans around a shared moral foundation for a free society? That’s what Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman and President and CEO of Laitram, LLC, Jay Lapeyre sit do...