Was Ayn Rand a Jewish Thinker?

Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Harry Binswanger analyze Alexandra Popoff’s new biography, Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success, particularly its portrayal of Rand as a “Jewish thinker.” They address the false attempt to link Rand’s “ethnicity” to her philosophy.

Among the topics covered:

• The determinism of labeling Rand as “influenced” by her ancestry vs. the central role of choice in her thought and life;
• The irrelevant evidence offered for Rand’s “ethnic” identity;
• Spurious evidence of Rand’s reaction to Soviet injustices in her political thinking;
• Why Rand’s novels put plot first and were not merely a vehicle for ideas;
• How The Fountainhead is Rand’s rejection of Nietzsche’s ideas;
• How Popoff’s book fails to engage with Rand’s rejection of the tribalism central to the concept “ethnicity”;
• Why Ayn Rand called herself a Jew in response to Antisemitism;
• How Popoff’s book rehashes the same errors of older flawed biographies.

Mentioned in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essay “What Is Capitalism?” and her lecture “Global Balkanization.”

The podcast was broadcast on September 6, 2024. Watch archived podcasts here.