Patrick Deneen and the Right's War on Freedom

Podcast audio:

In this Ayn Rand Institute Podcast episode, Elan Journo, Nikos Sotirakopoulos, and Tristan De Liège analyze the work of Patrick Deneen, a philosopher known for his critique of classical liberalism. They argue Deneen’s New Right ideology abandons America’s founding values and would replace progress with stagnation driven by tradition and conformity.

Among the topics covered:

How Deneen takes advantage of misunderstandings of liberty;
The indirect strawman attack on individualism;
Why Deneen ignores progress to appease the unambitious;
What would life look like under this new regime;
Why one should be concerned about the New Right movement.

Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “The Divine Right of Stagnation” in The Virtue of Selfishness , “Global Balkanization” in The Voice of Reason, and her essay “The Missing Link” in Philosophy: Who Needs It?. Also mentioned was Rand’s novel The Fountainhead.

This podcast was recorded on August 13, 2025, and posted on October 2, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.

Photo credit: Win McNamee / Staff via Getty Images.