Samantha WatkinsThis article was originally published in the Ayn Rand Institute’s 2025 Annual Report.
Since its founding, the Ayn Rand Institute has been committed to identifying promising intellectuals and offering them world-class training in understanding and applying Objectivism.
As a result, ARI has been instrumental in supporting the development and careers of intellectuals who have gone on to have an impressive impact — both at ARI and in the wider culture.
Consider Onkar Ghate, who trained in the Objectivist Graduate Center (OGC) when Harry Binswanger, Peter Schwartz and Leonard Peikoff were leading it, and whose ongoing intellectual leadership at ARI, directly supporting the growth of each new generation of Objectivist intellectuals, cannot be overstated. Or consider Yaron Brook, who also studied in the OGC and then was ARI’s executive director for nearly twenty years and is today a world-renowned speaker and host of The Yaron Brook Show. Then there’s Alex Esptein, a past fellow at ARI, who has gone on to write two bestsellers in the field of energy policy, regularly speaks in front of Congress to affect policy change, and advises top business leaders on how to defend themselves against unjust attacks on their companies and industry. And there is Gena Gorlin, an influential therapist and academic in the field of psychology, who has built a thriving audience of entrepreneurs for her newsletter and forthcoming book.
Our aim has always been ambitious: to prepare promising thinkers to deepen their understanding of Ayn Rand’s philosophy so they can apply that knowledge to advocate rational ideas.
But we’ve been asking ourselves an important question: since the world desperately needs more Objectivist intellectuals, what would it take to train not just dozens, but hundreds? What would it take to elevate our already transformative and rigorous training program and radically scale it?
Our answer: an “intellectual incubator,” an ambitious new upgrade to our intellectual training, which combines the longstanding rigor of our training program with the entrepreneurial ethos of Silicon Valley.
Intellectual Incubator: A Startup for Intellectual Careers
At its core, the Intellectual Incubator builds on what ARI has always done best — rigorous, systematic training in Objectivism. For decades, we have refined our methods for teaching students how to think philosophically, how to use Objectivism to analyze cultural events and trends, and how to communicate ideas with clarity and impact. What differentiates the Intellectual Incubator is an enhanced focus on uniting ideas and action.
In the past, our intellectual training has provided years of intensive study before participants attempted to reach a public audience. The Incubator flips that script. Participants are expected to write, speak, and build platforms immediately, learning while doing and receiving expert guidance as they go.
For this reason, the Intellectual Incubator is designed for self-driven, early-career intellectuals who want to have a major impact on the culture. It is built for those who are motivated to chart their own paths rather than follow a prefabricated track, who want training tailored to their specific strengths and challenges, and who are eager to move fast, experiment, and put their ideas into practice from the start. For this reason, participants are encouraged to launch their own writing outlets, blogs, podcasts or events — to engage real audiences and test their ideas in the market.
The Intellectual Incubator is a strategic priority for ARI. Our leadership is investing time, energy and resources into making it the most successful intellectual training pipeline we have ever built, and our goal is to rapidly scale the program. We want the intellectuals we train to multiply their impact: we want each intellectual we train to be able to train five more, who in turn can train five more, and so on.
New Offerings in the Intellectual Incubator
The Incubator is designed to accelerate the growth of the Objectivist movement at an unprecedented rate. To make this possible, we’re leveraging everything we’ve learned over the decades to create an exciting suite of new offerings to support each participant’s intellectual development.
- Participation in ARI’s Atlas Circle Initiative
Members of the Incubator are invited to participate in ARI’s Atlas Circle Initiative. We encourage members to produce written and spoken content defending the morality of business and capitalism, while also offering them opportunities to collaborate and learn from business leaders.
Members are receiving ongoing training from Yaron Brook and other senior intellectuals on how to speak and write persuasively in defense of business. The aim is for participants to iterate quickly, test ideas, receive feedback, refine arguments, and develop the resilience and creativity required of a public intellectual.
- Re-Release of Leonard Peikoff’s Course: Confusion Papers
As a part of the Incubator, ARI is reviving one of its most transformational educational experiences: Leonard Peikoff’s original “Confusion Papers” seminar. Long regarded by Objectivist intellectuals as intellectually transformational, the course is being re-released as a self-paced program for Incubator members, led by Ben Bayer and Alex Silverman.
Members will have the opportunity to complete the original assignments, receive feedback from today’s leading Objectivist teachers, and participate in live discussion sessions devoted to each paper.
- New Skills Workshops
As part of fostering a startup ethos, we expect members to initiate seminars and workshops to help them level up in various skills and in their areas of expertise. Recently, Incubator members launched the Writing Lab, where they and others in the ARI community have the opportunity to submit essays and articles for feedback from our team of Objectivist intellectuals. The Writing Lab offers participants the opportunity to network within the ARI community and to share best practices for building a platform and growing an audience.
Soon, a Speaking Lab will be launched to provide similar opportunities for practice and feedback in giving oral presentations. Also, those pursuing longer-form projects have the opportunity to participate in workshops to discuss and receive feedback on their ongoing work and research.
What Makes This Vision Possible
The Intellectual Incubator is only possible because of the vision and generosity of ARI’s supporters. Over the years, a number of donors have stepped forward to sponsor the careers of our most promising intellectuals, enabling them to focus on their training and intellectual work without compromise. Two such sponsors are Larry Berkelhammer and Ed Thompson, whose commitments have made it possible for Objectivist intellectuals to participate in full-time intellectual training.
We are now inviting others to join them in this work of intellectual philanthropy. A sponsorship can underwrite a full year in the program for a young intellectual, giving him or her the resources to commit entirely to development and work. For those who want to have the deepest impact, a sponsorship can extend to cover multiple years, further equipping early-career intellectuals with the skills, confidence and momentum to make their mark.
Meet the New Generation
Already, the program is attracting promising intellectuals who represent the future of the Objectivist movement. Here are just a few of the new members and their personal missions as part of the Incubator.
Tristan de Liège writes and speaks about issues related to productive work and well-being. “My focus is on how we conceptualize the value of work, and how we should relate to others in the context of work and trade,” he comments. “I’m working to mount philosophic opposition against such misguided policy ideas as universal basic income and accompanying myths, for instance that it’s self-destructive to shape one’s life around productive work.
“I also aim to defend merit-based hiring practices and defuse DEI policies based in irrational, egalitarian philosophy. I’m interested in arguing against the idea that dedicating yourself to your work means or implies sacrificing yourself to duty or embracing suffering and pain. Instead, I want to showcase that work and achievement should be joyful, self-interested and rewarding.”
Ibis Slade writes about issues in American history. “I work as an integrator writing about history and ideas, showing how the American Enlightenment’s vision of man as rational and self-made was carried forward by the ‘Founding Sons’ of the nineteenth century,” Ibis says. “My aim is to connect their cause for individual rights to the deeper values that make such progress possible. In the Incubator, I want to develop this account, sharpening my ability to tell the moral story of human progress.”
Samantha Watkins started her career as a public school teacher before working as a marketing writer for a Montessori startup. At ARI, she writes and speaks on issues in education. “My focus is on how different teaching methods impact a child’s developing character and how freedom would empower parents, teachers and children to pursue the best possible education,” she says.
“As a part of ARI’s Intellectual Incubator, my mission is to leverage Objectivism to radically increase demand in the culture for a rational approach to education — from defining the proper purpose of education, to analyzing the concrete methods that achieve that purpose, to advocating political freedom, which enables innovation.”
A BOLD STEP FORWARD
The Incubator is a bold upgrade to our intellectual training. Our aim is to create a multiplier effect.
Your single sponsorship can help cultivate a new voice for Objectivism and rational ideas. And because the Incubator is designed to scale, with each intellectual trained going on to mentor and multiply their impact, your sponsorship does more than launch one career. It helps to ignite a chain reaction of influence that will ripple outward into academia, education, journalism, business and beyond.
For those who share Ayn Rand’s conviction that ideas shape the world, there is no more leveraged investment than the sponsorship of a promising new intellectual.
The Intellectual Incubator is ARI’s most enterprising investment in the future. Sponsorships are the fuel that enables that investment and helps multiply its dividends.
Image Credit: REDPIXEL.PL / Shutterstock
Itamar Feldman
