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Episode 130 - September 20, 2010



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00:44: Did you say that philosophy cannot make everything better? If so, why study it?

03:08: What was Ayn Rand‚'s stance on George Orwell‚'s famous novel 1984?

06:22: Is it normal to associate real people with Ayn Rand‚'s characters?

07:46: Should a person love their spouse more than their own children, or the other way around?

10:48: If sex is an act of ultimate appreciation of value, and beauty is harmony (a great value), then can you have sex with a woman who is beautiful, but whom you do not necessarily even know?

12:48: What is the difference between Objectivism, sanity, and reason? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 131 - September 27, 2010



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00:44: Does responding to a sad song on a happy occasion go against Objectivism? Or looking at the painting The Scream, by Edvard Munch?

04:00: If the definition of self-sacrifice is to give away everything, but a value is a thing that you act to gain or keep, how can you both give away and keep something at the same time?

05:16: How can you support Israel, a nation whose essence is founded on a religion?

06:24: SPOILER ALERT: Discusses the last event of The Fountainhead. At the end of The Fountainhead, is Roark counting on the rational judgment of the jury? Is a person always justified in believing that some rational remnant remains among men so as to stake one‚'s life on it?

08:18: In response to your claim that thinking is all that is needed to save the world, Nazi scientists used reason and thinking to almost develop the atomic bomb before the United States. What is your response to this?

09:40: [Followup to previous question: You say we should go by reason first and then emotion, think and then feel and act accordingly, but without emotion what will you base your reason on?]

11:48: I don‚'t feel comfortable in my own skin and this leads to low self-esteem. I want to be found desirable. What should I do? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 132 - October 04, 2010



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00:44: Is loneliness ever experienced by a rational egoist?

04:22: What would an Objectivist do in regard to a yappy dog keeping neighbors awake, assuming that the owner is indifferent and ignores all requests and complaints?

06:22: What is the purpose of profanity in sex?

09:10: Can two Objectivists disagree about a particular point without one of them being cast out of Objectivist society?

10:58: What was the name of Ayn Rand‚'s cat? Did she talk to it?

12:04: How do you keep up with current events? What do you read? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 133 - October 11, 2010



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01:10: I love working with children and have considered becoming a preschool teacher, but my friends and classmates say that this occupation would be disproportionate to my intelligence. Should I aim higher?

03:10: You said in OPAR that it is moral for a doctor to lie to a patient if the patient‚'s capability to obtain health diminishes if he is told the truth. Does this mean that there could be other situations where it is justified to lie to a person with a temporary incapacity for the truth?

06:00: What would Objectivism advise with regard to dealing with guilt and pity for a spouse who regularly uses threats of harming herself or suicide whenever the topic of divorce is suggested. I care for my wife‚'s welfare, but can no longer love her romantically?

08:42: Why are girls attracted to bad boys?

10:26: Were Ayn Rand‚'s instant emotional responses to events consistent with her philosophy?

13:16: Is it rational to take steroids to improve one‚'s appearance and physical ability if one values strength and physical appearance as in Greek sculpture?

14:58: Was Ayn Rand angry about the theft of her work by the Italian producers of the movie We the Living? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 134 - October 18, 2010



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01:10: In Atlas Shrugged, Dagny mentions to Hank while traveling that she hates people who hate signs. I support the right of businesses to put up signs, but why should I have to like them?

03:16: Why haven‚'t you written more books on Objectivism?

05:12: Do you believe that thousands of years from now man might look back at our time and say men back then lacked so much understanding due to their dependence on reason?

06:30: If Roark lived in the universe of Atlas Shrugged, would he continue to pursue his goals or join Galt‚'s strike?

08:48: Ayn Rand gives none of her characters small children or pets. Did she ever say why?

11:30: Miss Rand said racism is the worst species of collectivism. What quality gives it that rank?

13:06: [What facts of reality, including facts of consciousness, gave rise to the concept of god or deity?] Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 135 - October 25, 2010



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01:10: If injustice rules a society, is it proper to be a vigilante?

03:48: If a political party, such as Communism, advocates a program of force, can it properly be outlawed?

08:08: What should Eddie Willer‚'s sex life be? He is a rational man without the ambition or drive needed to rise very far. If he matches up with a woman of similar values is that enough?

10:44: Am I being irrational when I refuse to eat veal because the animal was treated horribly before it died?

13:20: If you could put your life‚'s greatest achievement in one short sentence, what would it be? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 136 - November 01, 2010



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01:10: Do Tea Party protests help Capitalism or hurt it through their lack of principle?

03:45: At the beginning of The Fountainhead Guy Francon seems to be a second-hander. In your opinion is he a redeemed character by the end of the book?

05:45: Please expand on your comment, "I would not trust today‚'s society even with my corpse"?

06:42: What is the difference between one‚'s "central purpose" and his "highest value"?

08:16: You say that religion is the biggest threat in America, and you also say that you never expected this in the 80′s. When did you change your mind and why?

10:18: SPOILER ALERT: Did the passengers riding though the tunnel in Atlas Shrugged deserve what they

12:10: Is it wrong to use pornographic videos ? the non-violent, consensual variety ? ? to help with masturbation? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 137 - November 08, 2010



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01:10: Can you list off as many objective truths as possible?

02:26: A friend and I agreed on a financial transaction after listing the relevant factors. Years later he discovered that both of us had forgotten a relevant factor, and he is right about that. He was actually owed more money from me and now he wants it. Do I have to pay it?

05:24: If you have concluded that America will be a dictatorship in not too long of a time, why did you choose to have a child who will presumably have to deal with this disaster?

07:28: How would you handle a situation in which your daughter wants to marry a man who is not right for her?

09:24: [Followup question: Does her husband have to be Jewish?]

10:22: Do you regularly listen to any talk radio or watch any of the opinion shows such as FOX, CNN, or MSNBC, and if so which shows?

12:08: [is having children a form of slavery, because after all the child doesn't choose to be born?] Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 138 - November 15, 2010



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01:10: SPOILER ALERT: Why did Ayn Rand leave Eddie Willers as she did at the end of the novel?

03:10: Is it moral for me as a parent to break ties with my adult child who refuses to behave respectfully and ultimately maintains an opposite philosophy to my own, resulting in ongoing, extreme conflict?

05:20: Is it immoral to enjoy watching boxing?

07:56: What should an Objectivist make of the French banning of burqas?

11:04: What is the rational way to deal with negative, age-caused physical changes in one‚'s capacity for performing and enjoying sex?

11:54: Do you think there would be a net loss to humanity if someone in lieu of toilet paper were to use a Jackson Pollock painting?

12:44: I am a young adult, age 14, and lately I've been feeling depressed because I don‚'t know what I want to do with my life. Is there a reason I feel this only at night? How can I find what I want to do and change my life to fit that? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 139 - November 22, 2010



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01:08: If it was not for your fateful encounter with Ayn Rand, what beliefs do you think you would hold today and what profession would you have?

03:36: Does free will include the ability to change one‚'s self-image?

06:00: Why is it right for you to record these podcasts and give them away for free? If you do it, as you say, in the pursuit of your own enjoyment, why would you enjoy answering the questions of strangers?

08:12: Is mental capacity primarily determined by volition? Did Aristotle, Newton, or Rand have bigger brains than their contemporaries, or rather did they choose to use their minds more consistently?

11:28: I want a career in music, specifically song writing, but I can‚'t say why this is better for me than other fields. Am I being irrational, i.e., going only by my emotion? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 140 - November 29, 2010


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Given the desperate state of the United States today and the future we seem to be heading toward, do we still have anything to be thankful for?

Duration: 19:39 Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 141 - December 06, 2010



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01:08: Our town has had an influx of gourmet food trucks. Local restaurants have pressured the police to monitor and essentially harass the food trucks to keep them from parking anywhere near the restaurants. The restaurants‚' property taxes lead to higher costs and difficulty competing. How can the food trucks and restaurants peacefully coexist?

03:32: Is it ever proper to penalize a man for honest disagreement with your ideas?

07:40: What era or decade did you live through as your most favorite and why?

07:26: Do you think that Objectivist philosophy will become lost as the younger generations become less willing to read due to our love for technology?

11:54: What is the proper stance to take on pity? Should one be opposed to it in all instances or are there situations where it is a proper emotion Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 142 - December 13, 2010



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00:54: Do you think it is wrong to work for an employer who does not share your values in life?

04:50: Is it proper for a doctor to perform a sex change operation for a patient?

07:26: What is your opinion on asexuality?

10:52: Why do you like the TV show Cake Boss? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 143 - December 20, 2010



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01:08: Suppose a scientist is able to synthesize in a lab setting a human being with the faculty of reason. Would that scientist have full ownership over the entity for the rest of its life?

03:20: Do religionists have a right to influence the government?

07:42: Will your book The DIM Hypothesis revolutionize the world?

09:34: I am an Objectivist, but I still have relapses of whim-worship that have caused me great sadness. Most times I am unconscious of it happening. Do you have any words of advice?

12:34: Do you disagree with Ayn Rand on pornography? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 144 - December 27, 2010



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01:08: Is it wrong to compromise one‚'s beliefs in order to keep a romantic partner who wants to break up?

02:48: If the State in its administration of justice can subpoena witnesses, why not allow conscription of soldiers to maintain domestic tranquility against a hostile foreign power?

06:04: I have friends that share my atheism and friends who are devoutly religious. Both share my great value: the pursuit of moral perfection. Is this consistent with Objectivism?

08:02: Is it possible fully to understand Objectivism, yet still be unable to live by it?

09:58: Who would you like to fill your shoes when you are gone? Do you think it is necessary to have someone like you for Objectivism in these times?

13:08: Are Robert Stadler and Gail Wynand similar in their mistaken basic premises? Whose guilt is greater? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 145 - January 03, 2011



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01:10: Is the TSA at airports overstepping its bounds?

05:44: Would an Objectivist flirt?

07:04: Isn't it true that we should follow our heart whenever it tells us to do something, because our mind determines what our heart feels, so whatever our heart feels must be moral?

08:34: All doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, committing them to never refuse medical treatment to a person in need. Can doctors morally ignore criminals and those that deliberately inflict injury upon themselves, and therefore discard the Hippocratic Oath?

10:02: Are you a happy person?

11:38: Who in your opinion was the greatest philosopher in the history of philosophy?

13:10: Why did Ayn Rand call Objectivism "a philosophy for living on earth" and not "the philosophy for living on earth"?

14:06: When Dagny and John Galt stop at Francisco‚'s house in the Valley while Francisco was away, why is the door locked? Wouldn't locks be unnecessary among men who took Galt‚'s oath as a precondition of living in the Valley? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 146 - January 10, 2011



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01:10: How was Ayn Rand able to depict so convincingly the inner life of evil people such as Jim Taggart? How was she able to understand the mental state of the chronically out of focus and evasive?

07:50: Why don‚'t you charge something, like $20, to have a question answered by you?

09:58: If saving the culture is so important why does the Ayn Rand bookstore not offer its material for free?

13:00: My last name is rather unique. Is it rational to worry about it being last to history if I marry and take my husband‚'s name? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 147 - January 17, 2011



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01:10: Is it inappropriate to approach celebrities for autographs or pictures? How would Ayn Rand have reacted to such a request?

03:26: I understand that Ayn Rand wrote her fiction in long hand. Would she have used a word processor to write if she were alive when the technology existed?

06:18: Ayn Rand said that a man without a purpose is the most depraved kind of man. But what about a man with a nefarious purpose, like Immanuel Kant? Isn't he worse?

08:06: Why is it that the works and philosophy of Ayn Rand have appeared at the forefront of the media recently? Why is it that now rather than previously more books and even video games are being created as responses to Objectivism?

10:00: Would you rather read a book with a positive sense of life which is bad politically, or vice versa?

12:12: If some imaginary development show us that it is impossible to save the United States from totalitarianism, what would you do? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 148 - January 24, 2011



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01:10: Is it fair for me to blame my family for my ugliness which they knew their child would have to inherit?

05:56: Why is Roark, in The Fountainhead, able to ignore his true love for Dominique? How could he be indifferent to her for so long? Wouldn't the rational man want to have her by his side through the many years of his struggle?

08:22: In Atlas Shrugged, do you think that Francisco d‚'Anconia was sexually abstinent while he waited to be reunited with Dagny? If so was this a moral choice?

11:00: Ayn Rand said that we live in a benevolent universe. If that is true how do you explain suffering, negatives, bad things such as torture or even death? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 149 - January 31, 2011



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01:08: Do the acts you will directly result from what you view as important?

02:58: If we tell our soldiers to focus on doing the work they love, which is how Roark lives, wouldn't winning a war become irrelevant because all that would matter to them is whether they love their jobs?

05:32: Is it moral to pay bribes? Bribery is so rife in my country it‚'s not possible even to get a professional license without paying a bribe.

08:30: Can raising my own children properly be my central purpose? I am a primary school teacher and take pride in my work; however I know that my own children are being short-changed in their lives.

10:54: Is it moral for a woman to have a child on her own through in vitro fertilization using donor sperm if one knows that fertility doesn't last forever, one is reaching the age, no potential lover is known and yet the experience of motherhood and having a family is her most important value?

12:10: Do you think you could develop a friendship with Ellsworth Toohey if you were marooned on an uninhabited island with him? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 150 - February 07, 2011



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01:08: Would an Objectivist‚'s child be taught to share the last piece of cake with his brother?

02:46: Ayn Rand said that the Classical civilization did not have any real respect for the individual, that it was Christianity that introduced the sanctity of the individual. Do you disagree?

06:24: I noticed that your writing, as well as Ayn Rand‚'s, does not employ politically correct gender inclusive language. Why do you not conform to this convention?

09:42: If an Objectivist wins $100,000,000 in the lottery what should he do with the money?

11:54: What kind of computer games do you like and why?

13:06: Is it moral for an Objectivist to fall in love with someone online? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 151 - February 14, 2011



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01:08: In past decades you seemed to believe that getting Objectivist philosophy into colleges was the top priority. But In your DIM course you seem to be suggesting that the most important thing is to develop a wide variety of Objectivist products in other cultural areas, such as literature, physics and education. Is this a dramatic shift in your thinking?

04:34: Is there a character in Ayn Rand‚'s work to whom you have most related personally?

06:20: You said that since value judgments are the basis of emotion one cannot say that a negative emotion is right or wrong, but only that the underlying evaluation is so. What about envy?

09:08: If you berate someone for something you honestly think they did wrong, but later on you realize they didn't actually do anything wrong, should you apologize, even if this would make you feel anxious?

12:34: What is an Objectivist take on euthanasia? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 152 - February 21, 2011



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01:08: If birth control were never invented would sex still be seen as one of the greatest values of the human experience, to be celebrated regularly?

03:48: You have said in a recent podcast that one of the most enjoyable decades of your life was the 50's, the OPAR years, when you still had the drive of youth combined with the maturity of age, but you've also said that the DIM book is your best. How can the best not be the most enjoyable?

07:24: Do you want to live forever? [Life, values and immortality.]

10:10: One of my teachers gave me an A in a course when I knew I should have received a high B. I feel I hadn‚'t earned that A. Should I feel guilty about this grade?

13:44: Should I tell my friends to read The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged first? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 153 - February 28, 2011



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01:08: Socrates was a brilliant and rational man. Why would he decide to suffer for a crime he did not commit when he had the choice to escape?

02:40: If reason is man‚'s means of survival, but despite valiant efforts I cannot understand certain subjects, such as higher math or physics, doesn't that mean that my reason is limited and to some extent impotent?

05:18: Is it moral for an artist to want to reach the widest audience possible?

09:02: In regard to the recent Arizona shooting, why do people on the news blame everyone but the guy with the gun?

12:46: I often hear and read the term "rational egoism," but isn't that term redundant? Is there such a thing as irrational egoism? Edited by Forum Publisher
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Episode 154 - March 07, 2011



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01:08: Are all religions equally destructive? No matter how they start will they all go from no child left behind to no child‚'s behind left?

02:04: You say, "To save the world is the simplest thing in the world. All one has to do is think." Why shouldn't you say, all one has to do is think with a good method?

03:32: Would it be moral to steal the 2012 presidential election if that would give us individual rights?

05:04: What role should certain specific governments play in Objectivist government?

07:56: I have a friend who answers, "No, I listen to Peikoff on Monday, " when asked, "Do you go to church on Sunday." So do you think shifting the podcast release day from Monday to Sunday could decrease church attendance?

09:08: If sex is so crucial, would life be worth living if one‚'s sex has permanently disappeared?

12:40: When I produce at my job, don‚'t I have to start with philosophy every morning? As of now, when I wake up, I think, "While perceiving what is I must choose to conceptualize it to the highest abstraction and then produce the best for my life even by harmonious cooperation with rational men and I must follow this sentence with methodological precision." Is there a better way to start my day? Edited by Forum Publisher
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