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Podcasts and More for February 9

Weekly podcastsHere is the latest roundup of the podcasts I try to listen to each week. I am pretty excited this week as one of the shows, Philosophy in Action, answered a question I submitted.

Last Week’s Podcasts and Shows:

Philosophy in Action – Each week Dr. Diana Hsieh and Greg Perkins apply rational principles to questions submitted by their listeners. Most weeks the answers are quite lengthy and in-depth. This weeks questions included:

  • Are egoism and altruism mutually exclusive? This was a very interesting question that went into the difference between what the terms egoism and altruism actually mean, they define who is the proper beneficiary of your actions, and the muddled way in which most people understand them, e.g. that egoism involves predation.
  • Is it immoral or unwise to accept a better job soon after starting a different one? I thought this one was a good application of the virtue of honesty which in brief says you should not seek to gain a value by faking reality. In this case, it is not moral to obtain a job by saying you will stay for 3 years when you have no intention of doing so.
  • Is it moral to advocate for the boycott of businesses?  This is a question I submitted to the queue. They broke it down into three parts: 1) rights and morality, 2) does a boycott violate the rights of a business, and 3) is calling for a boycott immoral. Having it broken down step by step in this way helped clarify my own thinking, which was the point of my asking the question. I liked Paul Hsieh’s comment in the chat during the show about film reviewers.

Don’t Let it Go…Unheard read more

Climate Change and Obamacare: Statist Deceptions

I am currently rereading Alex Epstein’s new book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels and so far, I am through chapter 4, it is fascinating reading. His perspective on climate and fossil fuels is one that I have never heard before. He uses human life and flourishing as the standard of value when determining whether the use of fossil fuels, or any energy source, is moral and should be pursued.

One interesting item, not solely related to the climate change/fossil fuel debate, I noticed last night read more

[Video] Yaron Brook on the Morality of Capitalism

On October 21st Dr. Yaron Brook gave a Livestreamed talk on the Morality of Capitalism from the University of Exeter in Great Britain. As always, Yaron is passionate and informative about capitalism. If you have listened to other talks by him much of the initial talk will be familiar, though still worth watching as the formulations always vary a bit, but the Q&A section is always different because each audience brings different contexts to the conversation.

One particular question (located read more

What Unregulated Capitalism?

My Facebook feed today had a link to an article from last year by The Objective Standard on homicide statistics. The article looked at claims that if the murder rate of blacks was the same as that for whites, then the United States would have a very low murder rate which would rank 147th in the world. After dissecting the numbers the article’s author pointed out the cultural causes for the disparity in murder rates.

The first comment to the article made a claim that in the 1960s many people read more

Updating My Resource Page

I finally had time to do something I have been wanting to do for awhile now, namely reorganize my resource pages. Previously it was just a static page with a few books and websites listed. Now, I have coded the site to allow me to enter all types of resources that I find interesting, and at least somewhat relevant to learning about objectivism, and more easily display them in a variety of ways. I have a huge backlog of such resources, so I will be trying to add some every day until I get them read more

Podcast Roundup – November 4

Here are this week’s episodes from the Objectivism related podcasts I try to listen to.  They are all great sources of information and insight on applying objectivist principles to everyday life.

Philosophy in Action with Dr. Diana Hsieh

  • The speed of free market reforms
  • The role of empathy in morality
  • Rapid fire questions

Yaron Brook on Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 294

  • Should we all be entrepreneurs?
  • Is there any real hope that America will embark on a better path after Obama?
  • Isn’t it the case that people hate Wal-Mart because it engages in cronyism?
  • Sex-offenders
  • Should we encourage encryption technologies to resist government intrusion?
  • Are metropolitan bankruptcies a manifestation of Atlas Shurgged?

I have also been listening to recorded lectures available from the Ayn Rand estore.  This week I have been listening to:

I can’t recommend Eric Daniels lecture series enough.  They read more

Effects of Minimum Wage, 1930s Edition – Quotation of the Day

I have begun reading Burt Folsom’s New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America and it is interesting, as I often find it, how similar earlier times are to today.

One of the first “New Deal” measures pushed through in 1933 was the National Industrial Recovery Act, later shortened to National Recovery Act or NRA.  Among the many provisions of this act was the fixing of wages, not just minimums but all wages, for each industry.  This was unpopular read more

Podcast Roundup – October 28

Here are this week’s episodes from the Objectivism related podcasts I try to listen to.  They are all great sources of information and insight on applying objectivist principles to everyday life.

Philosophy in Action with Dr. Diana Hsieh

  • Revealing a checkered past
  • Racist names of sports teams
  • Property owners prohibiting firearms
  • Explaining Facebook unfriendings

Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 293

  • What is the most important/first/most frequent advice that Ayn Rand gave you?
  • What do you think of people who say they want children but only want boys?
  • How did your parents react when you decided not to complete medical school and did they ever meet Ayn Rand and what were their views on her?
  • If love is based on common values, how can you love a baby who has not developed any values?
  • What does it mean if I can read all Ayn Rand’s non-fiction but have trouble reading Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead?
  • Should I give up my dream of being a novelist because of the difficulty involved because of my circumstances?

I have also been listening to recorded lectures available from the Ayn Rand estore.  This week I have been listening to:

read more