In its lawsuit against the FCC, Disney, the parent company of ABC alleges that Chairman Brendan Carr violated the First Amendment by using unprecedented early license renewals for all ABC-owned stations in retaliation for content decisions President Trump disliked. The FCC responds that early renewal is a tool to get Disney to cooperate in the FCC’s equal-employment/DEI investigation. But Disney argues that numerous threats by President Trump and Carr to revoke licenses in response to content decisions prove that investigations are pretextual. The real harm here is the self-censorship of broadcasters: a threat left hanging forces every editorial decision to be weighed against the possibility of losing the license.

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

Resources:

• Ayn Rand, “Choose Your Issues,” The Objectivist Newsletter, 1962

• Ayn Rand, “Have Gun, Will Nudge,” The Objectivist Newsletter, 1962

• Ayn Rand, “Vast Quicksands,” The Objectivist Newsletter, 1963

• Ayn Rand, “The Property Status of Airwaves,” The Objectivist Newsletter, 1964

• Ayn Rand Institute Podcast episode “Trump vs. CBS: How Government Pressures Companies to Self-Censor”, Jul 31, 2025

• Ayn Rand Institute Podcast episode, Trump vs. Kimmel: The Tribal Weaponization of the FCC against Free Speech, Sep. 25, 2025

Image credit: Potjanan Surirug / iStock / via Getty Images.

In 1947, Ayn Rand published Screen Guide for Americans. Her analysis of how collectivist ideas can penetrate American art and culture remains as relevant today as when she published it seventy-nine years ago. Rand wrote the original twelve-page guide while she was working as a contract screenwriter in Hollywood. At the time, she was actively engaged in efforts to oppose communist influence in the motion-picture industry. The guide was, in part, a response to those Americans (and especially American filmmakers) who believed that ideological and philosophical issues were irrelevant to their work.

Rand believed that because the defenders of Americanism had abdicated the realm of ideas, that this vacuum was filled by collectivist intellectuals. They did not necessarily spread their ideas onscreen through explicit political slogans, but built-in moral assumptions, such as portraying the pursuit of wealth as evil.

In this discussion, Elan Journo and Brandon Lisi explore 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.

A previous version of this article stated that Screen Guide for Americans was published in 1946 and was seven pages long. The correct year is 1947, and the original pamphlet was 12 pages long. The seven-page count referred to a condensed version published in Plain Talk magazine. We regret these errors and apologize for the oversight.

Thumbnail image: Bettmann via Getty Images

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.

Among the topics covered are:

• 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.

The livestream was recorded on September 11, 2026 at the Ayn Rand Con event for students in Austin, Texas.

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.

Image credit: Getty AI via Getty Images

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.

Among the topics covered are:

• 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.

Livestream recorded on September 2, 2026.

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.

Image credit: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images News / via Getty Images

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Itamar Feldman interviewed Mike Mazza about his new book of essays, Freedom to Launch, which explains how deregulation of the space industry enabled today’s space renaissance and what the government’s role in space 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, 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, Don Watkins, Onkar Ghate, and Keith Lockitch discuss the Institute’s recently announced educational program on Objectivism: ARU Core.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Yet, given how far it has drifted from its founding political ideals, is America still worth celebrating?

In his opening address at the 2026 Objectivist Summer Conference, “America at 250: What Do We Have to Celebrate?” Gregory Salmieri argues that the answer is yes. America’s founding made possible a distinctive way of life centered on independent judgment and productive achievement, one that endures and continues to benefit Americans today.

Drawing on history, Salmieri traces the emergence of this way of life and argues that Ayn Rand’s conception of the producer best captures the ideal implicit in it. He maintains that America is still “the country of the producer,” citing advances in artificial intelligence, energy, spaceflight, and supersonic flight. However, Salmieri stresses, the culture behind these achievements remains more felt than understood, leaving the country vulnerable. Celebrating America, he concludes, requires understanding and living up to the principles that made this way of life possible.

Among the topics covered:

• America’s crisis of national self-esteem

• The Enlightenment roots of America’s founding principles

• The producer as the ideal implicit in the American way of life

• The continuing vitality and vulnerability of America’s culture of production

• Americanism as an achievement rather than a birthright

This talk was recorded live on June 26 in New Orleans as part of the 2026 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.

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

Topics include:

• 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.

Image credit: AI via Getty Images

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Robertas Bakula interviews Dr. Onkar Ghate, the author of the new book The Moral Idealism of Ayn Rand, peeking into the themes explored in the essay collection, including the literary essence and profound moral idealism found within Ayn Rand’s fiction.

• Fiction vs. Philosophical Propaganda

• The Moral Ideals in Dramatic Fiction

• Superhuman Character Misconceptions

• Admiration vs. Compassion

• Metaphysical Irrelevance of evil

• The Death Premise

• Dramatization of Moral Principles

Resources:

• Onkar Ghate, The Moral Idealism of Ayn Rand

• Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

• Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

• Ayn Rand, We the Living

• Ayn Rand, Anthem

• Ayn Rand, “The Metaphysical versus the Man-Made”

• Ayn Rand, “The Age of Envy”

• Leonard Peikoff, “My 30 Years with Ayn Rand”

This episode was recorded on July 15, 2026.

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

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:

1. Why are American people susceptible to pragmatism?

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

3. When is it proper to organize politically?

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

This talk was recorded live on June 27 in 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.

The 2026 Objectivist Summer Conference was a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. To conclude the conference, Yaron Brook, ARI board chairman, spoke about what makes America uniquely worth celebrating — the fact that it is “the Nation of the Producer.”

Brook begins by surveying the state of the world prior to the American Revolution — the backbreaking labor, the incurable diseases, and the unbearably cold winters. He then explains how the Declaration of Independence unleashed the people responsible for today’s magnificent world of abundance.

Who is responsible for electricity, smartphones, and worldwide travel? Brook answers: “The responsibility lies with the amazing, unbelievably productive geniuses that have lived — and still live — amongst us.” He identifies by name — and toasts — the many titans of industry who helped create the modern, industrial, technological world.

Watch Brook’s detailed, moving survey and his celebration of the producers, his full talk is here.

In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Robertas Bakula and Mike Mazza discuss two major developments in the AI industry: Bernie Sanders’ proposal for an AI wealth fund and the White House’s order to block access to Anthropic’s newest models.

Topics include:

• The Anthropic Ban

• Fear-Mongering About Security

• Fear-Mongering About Jobless Future

• Is there “Collective Knowledge”?

• Lack of Concern with Individual Rights

Resources: 

• Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, “Marketing AI without Empowering Resentment”

• Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, “Fear of Progress: The Quest to End Autonomous Driving”

This episode was recorded on June 16, 2026.

Image credits: Circuit: Tatiana Sviridova / Moment / via Gettuy Images
ChatGPT:  Silas Stein / picture alliance / via Getty Images
Cladue: Samuel Boivin / NurPhoto / via Getty Images
Trump: Jim Watson / AFP / via Getty Images
Sanders: Frederic J. Brown / AFP / via Getty Images

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Ben Bayer and Connor O’Leary discuss Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical about AI.

Topics include:

• Valid questions, backwards approach

• Concerning near-universal acclaim

• Dependence on religious morality

• Faith-based moral concepts

• Appealing to fear and resentment

• Hostility to human intelligence

• We need a rational morality

Resources: 

• Ayn Rand, “Requiem for Man,” Capitalism the Unknown Ideal

• Anthropic vs. Trump: The Moral Responsibility of Tech Companies, Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, March 12, 2026

• Marketing AI Without Empowering Resentment, Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, April 23, 2026

• Ben Bayer, How to Build a Secular Morality, New Ideal, June 10, 2026 (just came out yesterday)

This episode was recorded on June 5, 2026.

Image credits: Pope: Carlos Alvarez / Contributor / via Getty Images; Circuit: haydenbird / E+ / via Getty Images

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Elan Journo talks with Ben Bayer, Robertas Bakula, Alex Silverman, Audra Hilse, Sam Weaver, and Keith Lockitch about their upcoming talks at OCON 2026 in New Orleans.

Speakers include:

• Bayer: Ayn Rand on progress    

• Bakula: antitrust is anti-production    

• Silverman: metaphysics of productiveness

• Hilse: publishing We the Living

• Weaver: Milton’s Paradise Lost      

• Lockitch: Descartes and Newton on the rainbow    

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Robertas Bakula and Onkar Ghate discuss Jeff Bezos' recent high-profile CNBC interview with Andrew Sorkin on wealth, attacks on billionaires, and government waste.

Topics include:

• Bezos’ Admirable Mind

• Trend of Villainizing Businessmen

• The Zero-Sum Fallacy

• The Incompetence of Government

• Collectivist Defense of Profit

• Inequality is not a bug

• The Role of Intellectuals

Resources: 

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

This episode was recorded on May 28, 2026.

Image credit: Michael M. Santiago / staff / via Getty Images