In this 1961 talk, Ayn Rand argues that “every ugly, brutal aspect of injustice toward racial or religious minorities is being practiced towards businessmen” under America’s antitrust laws. Rand catalogs the injustices of antitrust, decries the scapegoating of businessmen, analyzes particular cases, rejects antitrust laws as non-objective and calls for their ultimate repeal.

An edited version of this talk is available in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, a book of essays by Rand and others. This presentation is 59 minutes long.

America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business

In this 1974 lecture, Ayn Rand undertakes a multi-layered analysis of inflation,  explaining what inflation is and how it devastates savings and production. At a deeper level, Rand exposes thinking errors that have allowed inflation to destroy economies throughout history. Finally, she places inflation in a larger cultural context, as the inevitable price paid for coercive egalitarian measures that curtail economic production. 

An edited version of this talk is available in Philosophy: Who Needs It, a book of essays by Rand. This lecture is 53 minutes long.

Egalitarianism and Inflation

“On July 16, 1969, one million people, from all over the country, converged on Cape Kennedy, Florida, to witness the launching of Apollo 11 that carried astronauts to the moon. On August 15, 300,000 people, from all over the country, converged on Bethel, New York, near the town of Woodstock, to witness a rock music festival. These two events were news, not philosophical theory. . . . But if one cares to understand the meaning of these two events — to grasp their roots and their consequences — one will understand the power of philosophy.”

Thus begins Ayn Rand’s 1969 Ford Hall Forum lecture analyzing the cultural significance of the Apollo 11 moon mission and the Woodstock rock festival — two newsworthy events from that summer.

Using the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus as symbols of two complex philosophical issues — reason and irrational emotion — Rand argues that Apollo 11 and Woodstock are “perfect, fiction-like dramatizations of these abstract symbols.” Analyzing the mindsets of participants, commentators and spectators based on news stories, interviews, commentary and eye-witness accounts of the two events (Rand was present at the Apollo 11 launch as an invited guest of NASA), she explains the events’ meaning by reference to the deep philosophic principles at work, along with their consequences.

Apollo and Dionysus

Apollo and Dionysus Q&A

By Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand discusses the appalling spectacle of conservatives trying to defend capitalism—while scurrying to evade its actual meaning; also, why conservatives are an impediment to laissez-faire capitalism.

This recording can also be purchased as a downloadable MP3 from the Ayn Rand Institute eStore.

© Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved.

Conservatism: An Obituary

By Ayn Rand

In this sweeping talk on the impact of philosophy throughout history, Ayn Rand explains why mysticism is altruism’s precondition, and why dictatorship is its product. (This is an oral presentation, at Purdue University, of her published article of the same title, found in Philosophy: Who Needs It).

This recording can also be purchased as a downloadable MP3 from the Ayn Rand Institute eStore.

© Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved.

Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World

"Conflicts" of Men's Interests - An explanation of why the interests of rational men do not clash.

The "Conflicts" of Men's Interests

In 1976, Ayn Rand was interviewed for the “Focus on Youth” series, a weekly half-hour radio interview program, produced entirely by Princeton students. During its multi-year run, the show featured interviews with prominent national figures such as Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Mary Tyler Moore, Ralph Nader, Jimmy Stewart, George Bush, Walter Cronkite and Norman Mailer.

A panel of four students asks Rand questions on a spectrum of topics including:

Are we moving back towards capitalism?
Is money an expression of free trade?
Is money a sign of achievement?
Is there a limit on the amount of wealth a person needs?
Who are the top five philosophers of the twentieth century?
Are the views of sex in your novels scandalous?
How do you view pre-marital sex?
What is your view of behavioral psychologists?
Do you think that the men of intelligence in America will “shrug” like in your novel?
What do you think about today’s television and films?
Why do you consider politicians “a sticky puddle of stale syrup?”
Do you think every man has the right to a job?
What can you say that you haven’t said before?

Interview With Ayn Rand

A capsule description of her philosophy, Objectivism.

Introducing Objectivism

The purpose and value of schooling. "Indoctrination" vs. teaching. How to foster independence in children. The futility of coerced racial integration.

Issues In Education

Global Balkanization Q&A

In this 1961 talk, Ayn Rand argues that “every ugly, brutal aspect of injustice toward racial or religious minorities is being practiced towards businessmen” under America’s antitrust laws. Rand catalogs the injustices of antitrust, decries the scapegoating of businessmen, analyzes particular cases, rejects antitrust laws as non-objective and calls for their ultimate repeal.

An edited version of this talk is available in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, a book of essays by Rand and others. This presentation is 54 minutes long.

Global Balkanization

The Objectivist Ethics Q&A

By Ayn Rand

Are values an objective necessity—or merely a dispensable social convention? Ayn Rand s presentation of her revolutionary morality. (This is a shortened version of her published essay.)

This recording can also be purchased as a downloadable MP3 from the Ayn Rand Institute eStore.

© Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved.

The Objectivist Ethics

1965

For several years in the 1960s, Columbia University’s radio station WKCR hosted a program called “Ayn Rand on Campus,” featuring Rand and her associates lecturing and answering questions on a wide array of subjects.

In this recorded interview from December 12, 1965, Rand responds to questions about the ideal political structure of a free society. Topics addressed include the government’s role as protector of individual rights, the relationship between a country’s political and economic systems, the role of a written constitution, voting, the difference between a democracy and a republic, taxes, and non-coercive methods of financing government’s operations.

Here are Ayn Rand’s views on:

Government’s role as protector of every individual’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; The benefits of a constitutional republic and the dangers of unlimited majority rule; Contradictions in the U.S. Constitution relating to slavery, eminent domain, and interstate commerce; Government’s status as the paid servant of sovereign individuals, versus the historical view of government as a ruler granting favors; Possible methods of voluntarily financing government’s operations, in place of coercive taxation; The relevance of age and knowledge in determining a person’s competency for voting; The importance of federalism in delimiting the powers of government officials.

Politics of a Free Society

By Ayn Rand

Miss Rand discusses the fallacy of “psychological egoism”; altruism’s false choice between sadism and masochism; self-esteem and altruism; and the desire for the unearned.

This recording can also be purchased as a downloadable MP3 from the Ayn Rand Institute eStore.

© Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved.

Psychology of Altruism

Philosophy: Who Needs It Q&A

By Ayn Rand

In March 1974, Ayn Rand faced the improbable task of lecturing on the crucial importance of philosophy—to the graduating class of West Point. She succeeded magnificently: she attracted three times the expected attendance, she elicited an enthusiastic ovation, and her lecture was reprinted in a new philosophy textbook published by the U.S. Military Academy. Relive this memorable occasion, and rediscover the irresistible intellectual power of Ayn Rand.

This recording can also be purchased as a downloadable MP3 from the Ayn Rand Institute eStore.

© Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved. Reproduction or linking is prohibited.

Philosophy: Who Needs It

By Ayn Rand

Miss Rand discusses the moral injustice of taxation, the dependence of the incompetent on the competent; her personal struggle as a writer.

This recording can also be purchased as a downloadable MP3 from the Ayn Rand Institute eStore.

© Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved.

Selfishness as a Virtue

In this 1970 lecture, Rand critiques the emerging 'ecology' movement--the forerunner to today's environmentalism--raising crucial and prescient questions about its goals and motives. Rand concludes that its ultimate goal is to undo the remarkable progress achieved by the rise of industrial capitalism and to return mankind to a state of preindustrial privation.

The Anti-Industrial Revolution

The Anti-Industrial Revolution Q&A

By Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand is interviewed by Edwin Newman on such topics as feminism, environmentalism, drug use and Kant’s cultural influence.

This recording can also be purchased as a downloadable MP3 from the Ayn Rand Institute eStore.

© Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved.

Speaking Freely

In this 1967 lecture delivered at Boston’s Ford Hall Forum, Ayn Rand discusses two prominent issues of the day: the Vietnam War and the military draft. Focusing on Vietnam, Rand questions the morality of fighting a war that “does not serve any national interest.” Rand also explains how the military draft violates the rights of those conscripted.

An edited version of this talk is available in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, a collection of essays by Rand and others. This talk is 48 minutes long.

The Wreckage of the Consensus

By Ayn Rand

In March 1974, Ayn Rand faced the improbable task of lecturing on the crucial importance of philosophy—to the graduating class of West Point. She succeeded magnificently: she attracted three times the expected attendance, she elicited an enthusiastic ovation, and her lecture was reprinted in a new philosophy textbook published by the U.S. Military Academy. Relive this memorable occasion, and rediscover the irresistible intellectual power of Ayn Rand.

This recording can also be purchased as a downloadable MP3 from the Ayn Rand Institute eStore.

Excerpt from Philosophy: Who Needs It

In this 1973 talk, Ayn Rand illustrates the role of philosophy in politics and law by analyzing the ideas that led to the Supreme Court’s decisions that year in five “obscenity” cases. Arguing that those decisions “establish[ed] the legal and intellectual base of censorship” in America, Rand warns that the philosophic ideas underlying the decisions are leading to increased government control over every aspect of people’s lives.

An edited version of this talk is available in Philosophy: Who Needs It, a book of essays by Rand. This recording is 59 minutes long.

Censorship: Local and Express

In this 1981 lecture, Ayn Rand laments the growing political influence of the religious right, focusing especially on the incoming Reagan administration’s support for and sponsorship of such movements as the campaign against abortion rights, the advocacy of “creationism” in schools, the veneration of “family,” and the Moral Majority. Observing that American culture “has been growing progressively grayer, duller and more desolately empty,” Rand argues that the nation had entered an “Age of Mediocrity.”

This recording is 44 minutes long.

The Age of Mediocrity

In this 1967 lecture, Ayn Rand argues that capitalism is the only moral social system—the only system which is consistent with man’s nature as a rational being, and therefore the only system that protects his ability to engage in the kinds of productive activities that his life and happiness require.

Rand covers such topics as the nature of man and the role of reason in his life, individual rights and freedom, differing views of “the good” and the social systems that they produce, the purpose and proper functions of government, her definition of “capitalism,” and why only capitalism—a system of voluntary interaction among free people—is the system of human flourishing.

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