https://youtu.be/Bg9BFE1-49Y Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss Milton Friedman’s impact as a public intellectual and how his advocacy of the free market differed from Ayn Rand’s radical philosophical case for capitalism. Among the topics covered: Why Milton Friedman is an essentially positive influence on free market thought; How Friedman’s moral conventionality reinforced the ideas he tried to oppose; The importance of stating the ideal when advocating for gradual reform; Why questions of morality are at the root of economic issues; How Friedman’s amoralism and pragmatism blinded him to the statists’ motivation; Ayn Rand’s critical evaluation of Friedman; Why the abolitionist movement is a model for moving the world toward freedom. Mentioned in this podcast is Onkar Ghate and Yaron Brook’s course “Cultural Movements: Creating Change” and Ayn Rand’s essay “Tax Credits for Education.” The podcast was recorded on May 2, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O0HkJbbj4E Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss the protests on university campuses against Israel’s war of self-defense and what they say about the state of our culture. Among the topics covered: Why the anti-Israeli campus protests are rightly labelled as being pro-Hamas; How there is a double standard in the public’s response to mass protests in general; How the anti-Israeli protests are motivated by altruism and hatred of Israel’s success; Why the campus protests are a crisis of education rather than of free speech; How the mass occupation of public spaces violate our rights. Mentioned in this podcast is Ayn Rand’s 1968 radio talk “The Student “Rebellion” at Columbia University.” The podcast was recorded on April 24, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/FjsC7I-Qa4A Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Mike Mazza and Aaron Smith discuss Mazza’s recently published article about why academic philosophers tend to get Rand’s ideas wrong so frequently and the parochialism involved in many of their critiques. Among the topics covered: What Mazza aimed to explain in this article; Why responding to academic critics is important; What it means for philosophers to engage in parochialism; How the methods of academic philosophers are poorly suited to understanding Rand; The inductive structure of Rand’s arguments; The multiple factors behind philosophers’ dismissal of Rand’s ideas; Why the parochialism issue is particularly important to identify; Why historians of philosophy tend not to make the mistake of parochialism; How even Objectivists can be parochial and what they should do to avoid it. Mentioned in this podcast are the New Ideal articles “Why Can’t Professional Philosophers Get Rand Right?” by Mazza and “Why Massimo Pigliucci Gets Ayn Rand Wrong” by Smith, plus the book A Companion to Ayn Rand edited by Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri (specifically Chapter 1, “An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand”). The podcast was recorded on April 18, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

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 Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: from George W. Bush to Barrack Obama and Beyond, and Leonard Peikoff’s article “’End States Who Sponsor Terrorism’.” The podcast was recorded on April 13, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

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 bipartisan attacks on tech companies reveal a deeper turn against producers. Mentioned in this podcast is Onkar Ghate’s New Ideal article “One Small Step for Dictatorship." The podcast was recorded on April 11, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

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 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 libertarians; Milei’s troubling rhetoric targeting journalists and dismissal of criticism; What is right and wrong about Milei’s defense of producers; Ayn Rand’s possible influence on Milei’s thinking about the nihilistic motivation of socialism. The podcast was recorded on April 8, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. Note: The original version of this podcast (which still appears on some platforms) relayed statements of facts about some of Milei's personal beliefs and positions that were not born out by the facts. These have been cut from the YouTube version. We regret the error. Also, Milei's position on the draft is not necessarily the same as that discussed by his ministers.

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 science; Why the government monopoly on education causes violations of intellectual freedom. Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “Global Balkanization,” “The Age of Envy,” and “Fairness Doctrine for Education,” as well as the previous podcast episode “Political Battles Over Education.” The podcast was recorded on April 4, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

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 whitewashing Hamas; Trump and Biden’s unprincipled support for Israel; Why defeating Hamas requires the ideological deprogramming of the Palestinian population. Mentioned in this podcast are Journo’s book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Agustina Vergara Cid’s essay  “Ayn Rand’s Radical View of the United Nations,” and Bayer’s “We Ignore the Unconditional Right to Self-Defense at Our Peril.” The podcast was recorded on March 26, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

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 unreason”; Why you should call your legislator if you support businesses like Apple. Mentioned in this podcast are Onkar Ghate’s essay “Drop the Antitrust Case Against  Microsoft” and the New Ideal Live episode “Recent Antitrust Attacks on "Big Tech,” Ayn Rand’s lecture “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business” (also available in essay form in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal) and her essay “Antitrust: The Rule of Unreason,” which can be found in The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought. The podcast was recorded on March 22, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

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 tougher security over free economic migration; Why a concern with individual criminals entering the country is not an argument for restricting legal immigration; The calculated dishonesty of Senator Katie Britt's response to Biden’s State of the Union Address; Why Americans should work hard to protect their own thinking from tribalism. The podcast was recorded on March 21, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

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; “Shrinkflation” as a distraction from the damage caused by anti-profit state policies; Statist policy effects on supply and demand as the cause of rising prices; How to think about “junk” fees and what underlies attacks on them; The true objective of Biden’s “Strike Force” as rule by fear and force; The anti-producer and anti-consumer motivations of Biden’s “Strike Force”; Why Republicans’ only response is to change the subject to the border crisis. Mentioned in this podcast are the interview “Understanding the Roots of the New Inflation: With Rob Tarr,” Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer’s New Ideal Live episode “The Pure Hatred of the New Antitrust,” and Ayn Rand’s lecture “Egalitarianism and Inflation.” The podcast was recorded on March 13, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.