New Ideal, from the Ayn Rand Institute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Lm2YpZvyI Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo offers initial commentary on Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel. Among the topics covered: How Iran’s attack on Israel is a consequence of its Islamic and imperial nature; How America’s failure to recognise and confront Iran’s nature emboldens it; Why America and Israel are morally justified in replacing Iran’s evil regime. Mentioned in this podcast are Elan Journo’s book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo’s edited collection of essays Fail...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeuU6AbIDOo Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo give a preview of ARI’s 2024 presidential election coverage and comment on some of the major political issues at stake in the election. Among the topics covered: How ARI uses Objectivism to analyze elections and the wider political culture; What the Trump phenomenon says about the state of our political culture; The unprincipled nature of the political responses to recent domestic and foreign crises; Symptoms of growing political tribalism, such as people’s increasing willingness to protest; How bipa...

https://youtu.be/UmxjJI50gss Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo analyze Argentinian President Javier Milei’s interview at AynRandCon in Buenos Aires. Among the topics covered: How the event fell short of ARI’s goal of illuminating points of agreement and disagreement with Milei; How to evaluate Milei as a President, considering his strange statements about abortion and his mysticism; The contradiction between Milei’s ostensible rejection of collectivism and his administration's position on a military draft; How Milei’s motivation for anarchism is easier to excuse than that of other libertar...

https://youtu.be/Xh0xF5hACkw Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Sam Weaver and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the recent California ethnic studies mandate. They evaluate the ideological nature of the curriculum and its assault on knowledge, the philosophical ideas that made it possible, and why it must be opposed intellectually. Among the topics covered: How ethnic studies emerged from an activist assault on the idea of objective truth; Evidence that the proposed curriculum is non-objective; How lessons on "narratives" encourage prejudice among students; The egalitarian roots of the curriculum and its elevation of the primitive over...

https://youtu.be/L3RBJNhglek Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Elan Journo discuss the recent United Nations “ceasefire” resolution. They argue it is yet another example of the West’s moral reluctance to condemn evil regimes and to provide a principled defense of Israel’s right to self-defense. Among the topics covered: The fact that Hamas seeks to destroy Israel because it is a bastion of civilization; Why the UN resolution is a pro-Hamas document; How the UN’s policy of moral neutrality enables evil regimes; Why the United States is morally complicit in whitewa...

https://youtu.be/UPHqvTkKFcA Podcast audio: In this special episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss the recent announcement of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Apple and analyze the injustice of criminalizing a company for giving customers an experience they want. Among the topics covered: Why the DOJ’s antitrust case against Apple is significant to all American business; How Apple is targeted because of its business success, not its failures; How antitrust is destructive by design and how it stifled Microsoft; Ayn Rand’s analysis of antitrust as the “rule of unrea...

https://youtu.be/07j7MQNdJhQ Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss the state of the immigration debate between Democrats and Republicans. They show how both parties appeal to fear and collectivism in their opposition to immigration, and explain why a proper solution to the border crisis requires policies that favor free economic migration. Among the topics covered: How both Democrats and Republicans are hostile to immigration; How the rights of American citizens are infringed by the immigration system; How Americans, individually, welcome immigrants despite political fearmongering; Biden's unserious focus on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTvoxqlq9x4 Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Nikos Sotirakopoulos examine President Biden’s State of the Union address and what it reveals about the goals of today’s political leadership. They discuss the anti-mind premise driving both political tribes and how it leads to statist policies that destroy wealth and create economic hardship. Among the topics covered: Understanding the values of the current political leadership; Biden’s antipathy to the mind’s role in economic value creation; How contempt for the mind restricts and destroys the pharmaceutical industry...

https://youtu.be/oV-deDzZNH8?si=MbfQzzp1Qa6D4tLC Podcast audio: In this special episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer responds to a PragerU video which argues that moral wisdom requires a “fear of God.” Bayer argues that a fear of God undercuts moral wisdom and is driven by a fear of the intellectual independence that moral wisdom requires. Among the topics covered: The proposal that a fear of God provides the basis for an objective morality; How the fear of God makes objective moral guidance impossible; Why being motivated by fear undercuts our love of moral wisdom and virt...

https://youtu.be/s4xpmys7ejo Podcast audio: In this special episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo comments on Zack Snyder’s recent conversation with Joe Rogan about his admiration for Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and why his film adaptation was rejected by Netflix. Journo discusses why so many creators like Snyder find Rand’s novels so compelling yet she is still considered “taboo,” the philosophical motives behind the hostility towards Rand, and the immense value readers can get from her heroes. Among the topics covered: Snyder's account of how the entertainment industry sees Rand as taboo; Why The Founta...